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.

Hullo everyone, I think I was on the old Year 9 thread for a bit and then dropped off. DS and his mates are going for hair-cuts and pencil case shopping tomorrow in preparation for school next week 😊. He goes back on Weds. His sister, who has just sat GCSEs, starts at her new 6th form on Tuesday so won’t have them both at the same school anymore. Hope everyone’s DCs have good start to their Year 10. We may go to a couple of 6th form open evenings this term - spread them out a bit.

Hi everyone, I have been reading this thread with interest, schools are so different across the country (or how ever far spread we are). I have a DD going into year 10 and b/g twins going into year 7 but in separate schools, so just spent the evening ironing names into 2 complete sets of secondary uniform! My yr10 is still in the uniform I bought her when she started! But then she was homeschooling quite a bit in yr7 due to Covid and they didn’t have to wear their uniform for that.
My DDs school set for all core subjects and sets 1 & 2 are all expected to get top grades. It’s an 8 form entry with a good academic record so it’s only the very lowest sets that do the foundation only. Quite a lot do triple science too, and all do one MFL - they set for that too! My DD has her timetable already and thrilled to discover she’s been moved up a set for MFL - she’s in set 2 with her closer friends now - there has been a lot of msging going on today and yesterday to determine who is in which class/set who the teachers are etc
Although DD is NT, her younger brother is AuDHD so am interested to hear how the yr 10s who are ND get on - my DS spent all of yr 6 saying he hated school and didn’t want to go and I spent a lot of my time e-mailing his teacher and advocating for him and for reasonable adjustments. The school supported him really well, he aced his SATS with greater depth in all and 100% in all the maths papers - but I’m worried that a new large secondary with no familiar faces (all his friends are going to the local school that he didn’t get into on distance ☹️ ) he’s going to struggle.

Welcome @SuperSue77. Are your dcs schools single sex? So will your girl DT be in the same school as your older dd?

I'm sure that DTS (is that the right acronym for a twin son in a boy/girl pair??) will be ok. I expect the school will do lots of settling in exercises with them all. Is the SEN coordinator well on board? You may have to do a bit of pushing in the first term.

Well done on your dd going up a set in MFL. Which one is she doing? My dd loves languages as is doing Spanish and German for MFL and also Latin and Classical Greek. Her language classes are all mixed ability though. Apart from Greek as that's an off-timetable class that was invitation only.

I have a ds (same school) just about to go into the upper sixth. He HATED MFL. Our school obliges them to take one. He took Spanish and got a 4 at GCSE. it's a real outlier with all his 8s and 9s. Such a shame.

Thanks @QueenMabby Yes my DTD (that abbreviation works for me!) is going to the same all girls school as her old sister and DTS didn’t get into the all boys school so is going to a co-ed a bit further away. We looked into private options for him as we wanted a smaller, more nurturing setting but unfortunately all the local ones we applied to turned him down. One said they felt he needed full time 1-2-1 (which they couldn’t provide) despite his year 6 teacher ringing them and explaining that he has never had 1-2-1 and is currently in a class of 30 with just her in the classroom! But the school he’s going to has a focus on ”pupil’s well-being” so hoping it will be great for him. The SENCO is great and I have already met with him and Head of Year to discuss what he’ll need. They were really welcoming and said “how excited they are” to have him join them, which was so lovely after all the knock backs from the private schools and the failed appeal at the more local school. People have told me “things happen for a reason” so I’m embracing that and going to be “that parent” who contacts the school when required. I know secondary is different to primary, but I’m determined that this will work out for him!
My elder DD is doing French and DTD will do this also. DTS gets to try French, Spanish and German in year 7 but will then have to choose just one for year 8. Amazing that your DD gets to do so many languages! I was useless at them and much more aligned with maths and science, which I sense is the way my kids are heading too. English was not my strong point either!

DS is starting year 10 today. He is mostly happy to be dropping French, Art and Drama! We went through his new timetable yesterday and it's a lot of science (triple science) and PE! He's doing GCSE PE and also have to do the normal PE lessons. Double music lessons too, and he is a bit apprehensive about it as none of his friends are doing music and apparently there are 12 of them and almost all girls!
I don't know whether his school sets for anything apart from maths, there is only one accelerated set which DS is in, he says he will be doing further maths, but I'm not sure as I'd have thought only a few students will do further maths and if everyone in top set is doing further maths, then that's about 60 of them! I guess we will hear about it more in the coming weeks.
DS needs to be more self motivated, as he will just do nothing if he can get away with it. Any ideas how to motivate a reluctant teen??

@DataColour -am not sure on the motivation question! Will let you know when I work that out myself!

I’d be a millionaire if I knew how to motivate a teen. The days of sticker charts have well passed sadly!

haha thanks anyway!

My DD has just turned 13 and in year 9 now, youngest in her class. She is stubborn, won't do anything she doesn't like doing (like RE revision or homework!) - but she is much more motivated than DS. I don't want to say it's a boy/girl thing, but it's such a cliche in our house!

First day back today. Ds stayed awake until midnight last night as he hadn't got his timetable. Apparently it came through at midnight last year. But it didn't arrive and wasn't online this morn before school. So hopefully he will get it today. There is bound to be some sort of disappointment when he gets home, wrong set, wrong teacher etc.

Ds has decided to go for a run in the mornings, he has spent most of the summer in his bedroom. Then 2 days ago he went for a run. Same this morn at 6.30am before getting ready for school. As he was awake until midnight he will be tired today. I don't think this morning run phase will last very long.

Ds is home. The day went ok, thankfully. He has quite a few teachers I've not heard of, he is ds3 so we've had quite a few of the teachers over the years. He is in set 1 for science, so it's triple science at GCSE. Also set 1 for maths and English. He thinks he's in set 2 for French, he's annoyed as he was one of the highest scorers in end of year French tests. He wants to be in top set. I've told him there's obviously a reason. So he's going to ask. I have no idea why he does so well at school, certainly doesn't get it from me, nor dh.

DD also back from first day. Similar stories of good teachers, bad teachers, good seat, bad seat, friends, no friends in class etc etc. Scathing of her school’s new timetabling, they now have a two week timetable. Doesn’t think she’s in the right set for English (she’s been put in top and the teacher told them they’re aiming for 8s & 9s). On and on and on 😂. A good first day, I think!!

Glad first days have all be mostly positive.

Dd was very nervous about going back but after two days she remembered just how much she loves school so she's been absolutely hyper this week! It'll calm down in a week or so but it's so lovely seeing her so enthused.

I'm currently sat in my car waiting to ferry her from an after school club that she's leaving early to an outside school sports club that she's going to be late for. Fortunately the clash is only for this week!

DD has had a good start to year 10, she is very enthusiastic about Art GCSE! A good thing she is as I have just ordered the suggested supplies and spent quite a bit! Also she seems pleased with most of her teachers, not completely sure about new form teacher yet but hopefully he will be good. Actually he's the fourth form teacher her class has had as last year they had a couple of different ones sharing I think. She also has a new head of year but hopefully we won't need to be in contact with them!

Form tutors are a bit of a minefield aren't they @IThinkIMadeItWorse? Dd has had the same one since year 7 but she's not great. Not very clued up on technology and not very organised so dd missed loads of information last year as she misses form most days due to music commitments. Fortunately this year dd says they have a form notice board in their room so she can look at stuff for herself!

DS's form tutor on the other hand was great. Really on the ball (on the very few occasions we needed to email). He's had a new one in sixth form that he's not so keen on.

Ds2 had a good first day. He's got the same HoY as last year which is a shame because even I didn't like him.

DS had a good first day too-said all his teachers were “decent”-high praise indeed!

Dropped DD in her boarding house yesterday - so a very different first day involving a lot of lunch, tea and external speakers. Now I guess we just have to trust them. Her house parent seems nice and she doesn't actually have any lessons until this afternoon. I got a phone call last night after we got home 'because everyone else was phoning their parents so I thought I ought to'! Not sure we'll be getting them that regularly..

🤣🤣 oh @minisnowballs that's priceless!

Went to Year 10 Parent Information evening. I find them all sickly positive and just too eager and cheery.

@Oblomov23 the teachers or the other parents?!
I will miss ours as am in town till late ish and was debating whether to bother sending DH.

Ours is not for a couple of weeks yet. We'll go even though I'm expecting it to be basically the same as DS's a few years ago. His was on zoom though if I remember rightly.

We have Prizegiving tonight. Dd is getting a prize for academic achievement. That's great, but i ask you - would you sit for three hours for a book token???? 🤣

Our parents information evening is in about 3 weeks. Last year I didn't go to either of them (when the DCs were in year 8 and 9, same school), as I thought I'd heard it all before and had plans already. Sent DH, who didn't come back with any info whatsoever (fell asleep he said), and it turned out that they had changed the way they do the assessments and went from one per term to just twice a year. The school didn't bother sending out this info to parents either. Not great communication from the school....or from DH!

@QueenMabby well done to your DD! that's great! I presume she'd still get her book token, even if she didn't attend? And it depends on much the token is for!

DS is struggling a bit with tiredness since staring school. He's doing GCSE PE and core PE and he does cricket twice a week and running once a week plus running competitions which started last weekend and will be regular cross country comps till end of season which is March. Plus he walks to school an hour a day, cycles at the weekend. So it's all a bit much recently. I've started giving him a multivitamin, but wonder whether there is anything else I can give him - will have to do some research.

@SB1971

No the teachers, way ott, too cheery, everything is fantastic, great, just too cheery, too enthusiastic. 💤
It's compulsory, you have to sign your name. I'm not going again! Boring. I learnt nothing. HoY will send slides of it anyway. He already sends a weekly overly-cheery email aswell.

I've not heard of a parent's information evening. So our school obviously don't have them.

I am amazed that Ds went to find the head of languages to ask if the classes are set for French. She said they aren't. He was going to ask to be moved into top set, he's in the same French group as last year, claims it's really boring and he finishes work first before everyone else, last years teacher brought him extra work each time. He isn't the sort to ask things usually, so when he said he'd asked I was surprised. Apart from the French group, Ds seems pleased with how lessons are going at school. So that's good. He's had so many tests already. I think we have parents evening quite early into year 10.

@Oblomov23 you’ve made laugh! They’re probably overcompensating for how much they’d much rather be somewhere else on an evening after school churning out the same stuff. I’m blown away that it’s compulsory! Surely loads of parents can’t make them.