Year 10 - 2023/2024 Support Thread

[QueenMabby]

Hi all

A new thread for those needing support (or just wanting to chat or rant!) with teens heading into their GCSE years.

She got a distinction! She was very happy.

Ds2 went to his 6th form visit today.

I haven been fighting HoY then Deputy Head for over a week and it's become heated, re a detention he and 10 others got during exam week being late to a class when the classroom changed for yr 11 exams.

@Oblomov24 that sounds stressful. DD1 says kids kept walking into her classroom during the Alevel mocks because everything got changed round - it was hard to get it right so a detention seems unfair.

DD2 is all done with exams and results, including a g6 singing taken on Monday. Woodwind assessment all done too. Just an opera and symphony concert to go and it seems almost no lessons. She's delighted to be missing sports day for opera rehearsals, as sport is very much NOT her thing. There seems to have been very little consistency in how grades were given after exams - some apparently are 'working at' grades and others are more like predictions. I guess we will have to see what the report says, as hopefully is more consistent.

@Oblomov24 - that's frustrating. Some schools seem to dole out detentions like sweets but there never seems to be any consistency. I hope you prevail!

@minisnowballs - my dd would also be v glad to miss sports day. Unavoidable at her place though unfortunately. She had a choir trip out today to a local abbey so spent the afternoon blissfully cool!

Tomorrow she has "Greek Masterchef" where her Greek GCSE class all cook foods with only ingredients around in Ancient Greece. Tricky as she can't take any nuts! Cue lots of dried fruits, pomegranate and olives!

Congrats to the distinction @QueenMabby
@Oblomov24 If ten kids are late bc they went to the wrong class, it’s an admin error & not really detention worthy. Does the HOY think they did it on purpose?

Quite Donna. It just feels a bit heavy handed, escalated far too quickly.

I've had a right fight on my hands. I'm tempted to make a complaint re the whole way it's been handled, but I can't be bothered.

Endless notifications, then loads of emails sent by me, then Hoy finally phone call. All over many being late, and a detention threatened for 10 pupils, after school the week after, the first day of exam week, when they all should've been at home revising.

although I do admit he then dawdled strung it out a bit! But HoY then insisted there was also a disturbance but ds wasn't there at that point. when I asked for proof hoy got all flustered and then started being threatening. Then Deputy Head took over, but in an underhand way instead of dealing with me threatened Ds that's if he didn't do the detention he'd be exclusion, miss the 6th form visit, parents have to come in for a re-entry meeting, so ds immediately unsurprisingly agreed to do the detention. I'm just a bit hacked off with it all.

Flipping heck @Oblomov24 does sound rather extreme - expulsion? No 6th form entry? Wow! BUT if DS has complied then it’s probs best to drop it. No doubt there’ll be other battles. And maybe he’s feeling a tadge guilty for dawdling.

I’m now on the 6th form hunt as our 6th form doesn’t offer sociology, which she’s adamant about studying & Tbf I think she’d enjoy. The local state school offers her subjects but gets incredibly poor results in one of them (not sociology) and I’ve heard a lot of reports that the teaching of that subject is appalling. No idea if the school are doing anything about it. The other schools that offer all her subjects are either two trains and a 20 min walk; one train and a 45 min walk; or need me to drive her back and forth. The local school is a 15/20 min bus ride away / she’d have to do 8.25 - 4pm as they’re the only bus times. But that’s ok. But there’s the poor results of one of her subjects. Sigh!! No indies seem to offer sociology at ALL!!

@notdonna, impressive you are looking already though that sounds tricky, especially if you're otherwise happy with the school. No chance it might suddenly start offering sociology, or she might switch to geography/psychology/ something else? I wonder why indies don't offer it?

DD2 vacillates hugely over A-Levels - definitely music as it's compulsory for her but then she talks about everything from maths to classical civ. Currently she's flitting between sports day and opera rehearsals though. Not sure she's been to a lesson all week!

@QueenMabby Greek masterchef sounds amazing. Perhaps a whole deer?

That is a shame Donna, ds1 ended up doing sociology and psychology because of timetabling and enjoyed both very much. And I enjoyed testing him on quotes , Berger & so-and-so ....

I need to start looking now at what’s available & which school exist as relatively new to the area. The schools do open eves in October & need to apply by November so I can just imagine it creeping up on me if I’m not organised. It’ll be just our luck to hear of the ideal school after November.

DD and I are going to two sixth form open evenings next week and they are working on their "personal statments" at school already. Most schools here don't have sixth forms so generally people go to a separate sixth form college. A very different system to where I grew up where basically everyone stayed at their school for sixth form.

Congrats on the distinction @QueenMabby and to those who have had year10 results already, not had those here yet.

We're probably going to stay put for sixth form. Dd loves her school and all her music stuff there and the school gets good a-level results.

She's thinking about Maths, Further Maths, Chemistry and Biology but doesn't want to do medicine so she's a bit wary of school trying to push her down the medics pathway with that combination.

She has her eye on something bio-chemistry related (or Nat Sci if she wants a wider field of study). She'd probably really suit the IB but school doesn't offer it and I don't think she'd want to move for it.

I am so glad you lot are here - I hadn't even thought about discussing sixth form with DD2, and of course I must. Feels like she's only just got settled where she is though.

As I have one halfway through I will say that sixth form goes really fast - blink and you miss it, this week she was writing a UCAS statement! She is glad she stayed put, in an area where about half of them do - but I know not everyone has that choice.

It sounds complicated when there's a choice of 6th form. Most of those who want to take A levels at our school stay on to 6th form at the same school. Those not wanting A levels go to one of the colleges further afield. We have 2 agricultural colleges, both about 45 mins away in different directions as well. We have the problem of transport here as they can only get a school bus place to the nearest school. There aren't public buses. The train station is 10 mins drive, there are trains to the nearest city. I am glad we've not had to have to sort out train journeys. I'm not sure what others do if an A level isn't offered. Ds2 had decided on the 4 A levels he wanted to take, then the letter arrived, all the A level subjects were in columns, they have to pick a subject from each column. His 4 choices were in the first 2 columns only. So he had to pick 2 new subjects. I think it was similar for ds1 too but only for the 4th subject. So he had to pick a new one.

I know ds3 is starting to think what subjects he wants to take for A level. So I hope he doesn't have the same problem. I think he might want all 3 sciences. That shouldn't be a problem. No idea on his 4th choice though. He wouldn't even consider changing to a different 6th form though. He'd want to stay with his friends.

I think it's interesting that so many places do 4 A-levels. Is that becoming the norm?

We have four "slots" at our place but only three are for A-levels. The fourth is for EPQ, volunteering, there's a medics course, a law course, a few other things. FM goes into the fourth slot as although it is a separate a-level it's more of an add on in terms of content. Four actual A-levels is rare and has to have dispensation.

DD1 started with 4 at our local comp- but she had to have a grade point average over 7 to be allowed (usually only four allowed if it's the maths/further maths combo and hers were three arts, one science). She quickly dropped one but is doing an EPQ instead. Dd2's school expects most students to start with 4 and drop one BUT not the music specialists, who usually do three. Most of DD1's friends dropped their fourth.

No sixth form at DS’s school so there are a few options all of which are a right pain logistically to get to!
He has open days at two colleges organised through school and another coming to present before the end of term.
He doesn’t know at all what he want to do and at the open days he set up taster sessions for subjects like law and economics which he has no experience of so that makes sense.
to get an idea of them It’s frustrating that maths is by far and away his best subject but he is adamant he doesn’t want to do it at a level-I know the leap is huge but hey ho….
In fairness DD did three subjects she hadn’t done at GCSE-which was a leap of faith and that turned out ok.

For ds1 he took up 4 A levels in year 12 with AS levels at the end of the year. Then after AS they drop one subject. They get ucas points for AS so that can be useful. Ds2 didn't take AS because he was a Covid cohort and hadn't taken GCSEs so the school dropped AS. He still started on 4 though, then dropped one for year 13. I have no idea whether they do AS's now.

Most schools do EPQ in year 12 but our school does it year 13. So ds1 didn't bother as he wanted to concentrate on his other subjects, plus he was doing core maths so had extra lessons. Ds2 did an EPQ but he was trying to finish writing it up and revise at the same time. So he felt he rushed it and didn't do as well as he could have. But it wasn't included in university offers. So it didn't matter. It would make more sense to do it in year 12 and maybe only 3 A levels. But I can see that starting with 4 might be helpful too. Ds1 hated geography at A level. It was his best AS grade too. But he dropped it as he didn't like it. Whereas ds2 dropped the subject he felt was not getting the best grades in.

Our school does EPQ in year 12. It's submitted too which means the pupils have the result in hand to apply to Uni. DS is holding a contextual offer for his first choice course due to having an A in the EPQ when he applied.

@QueenMabby yes that makes sense to do it that way. I don't know why they wait until year 13 at our school. Unless it's just ds2 who left it to year 13. He leaves everything to the last minute. I'll find out when it's ds3's turn.

So many schools do the EPQ / core maths in Yr 13 which does seem daft.
They get ucas points for AS so that can be useful. I thought that had all changed for England once they became linear? Are you in Wales /Scotland @icanbewhatiwant ?

Our school start with 4, but drop to 3 by Christmas. Ours do EPQ in year 12.

I too kinda wonder what the point of EPQ's are, because many unis don't use / aknowledge them.

Likewise I'd recommend only doing 3 A'level's. Because that's all that matters for all Uni applications - your grades for your best 3 A'levels. So do 3.5, ie an AS, or 4, an extra A'level, but only if you are so bright you can cope easily, and only if it never compromises the top grades your'll achieve for the 3 grades that matter for Uni applications.

@Oblomov24 - I think this is why generally in our school only FM is permitted in slot 4.

DS did EPQ and found many universities that gave a slightly reduced offer if you had an A or A star at EPQ. The course that he's hoping to get into has a standard offer of A star, A, A but his offer is AAA or A star AB due to his EPQ result.

A couple of unis who don't take it into account when offering (like York) said that they do take it into account on results day so if you've just missed your grades they are more likely to still take you if you have the good EPQ result. This is DS's experience anyway (stem subject - mostly RG Unis).

However for dd if she takes FM then she won't be able to do the EPQ as her slot 4 will be full already.

From memory our A levels options evening is just after mocks in January with choices in by the end of March. It is pretty flexible though and changes are often made after GCSE results are in.

@NotDonna I'm in east anglia.

The other local school, just over the border were doing 4 A levels when my friends Ds was there. He got 2 A* and 2 A's. He needed 3 A stars for his firm choice uni. So he had to go with the insurance. If the school had them taking 3 A levels then he may have had the A star required. I expect it was a case of only those capable were taking 4.

See @icanbewhatiwant
That's my point exactly. What a shame that clearly one of the brightest of all candidates misses out?