Year 10 2024/2025 - come and join!

[36and3]

A thread for those with kids beginning their GCSE course next month.

Dd is my oldest so this process is a first for me. Her options are: triple science, Spanish, history and food/nutrition.

We've spent the summer organising her room. We've bought revision guides and files etc for every subject and she's excited to get started!

Would anyone like to join me for the ride?!

Hi, DD1 is starting year 10 next week too and is quite looking forward to it. We've had a great holiday but I think she is missing seeing her friends every day and she is keen to find out which teachers she has and which friends are in her classes. She knows which maths teacher she has and is pleased but that's it.

She is doing Spanish, geography, triple science, drama and health and social care BTEC as her options. There is a geography trip to Sicily which looks eye wateringly expensive so I'd better prepare myself incase she gets a place!

She's pretty good at revising etc but is a worrier and tends to think she could/should have done better. Plus she does lots of dance and local theatre shows so she often doesn't have a lot of free time. I'm just hoping year 10 doesn't get too stressful!

DD has just remembered that she had a reading task to do and has declared that she isn't doing it so that's a good start to Y10. No timetable yet. Checking every day.

DS has English to do. He finally did it today, but it was suspiciously good and it turns out that got Chat GPT to do it for him. FFS. A Chat has been had. He'll be doing his homework at the dining table under my direct supervision from now on.

@RealHousewivesOfTaunton i read that, it made me laugh, you’re a good sport in your responses! A good friend has two kids with very different interests and has had some lovely short breaks with one or the other dc (one massively into history & classical civ, one loves her city breaks and the theatre) - I’m a bit envious as my two are a bit too similar to do separate trips. I say go for it! No idea what the trip options for DS might be yet, but he got to do two trips to France last year (one language, one history) so I think he’s done quite well regardless.

Look up Thomas Frank on YouTube. Various videos on revision techniques

Classic Mumsnet responses (will you be wailing "but I took you to Borneo" when he fails Geography😂😂)

In my kids school, the year 11's are going to Iceland in Oct (my DS included). They have offered a trip to the USA to the year 10s doing history. Cost is 2K and based on that DD is not going as it's far too expensive for us, and it's only for 4/5 days. She's not that bothered. The Iceland trip for DS is costing £900ish and that is fine, but 2K!

DD is waiting for an autism diagnosis, so life is not easy with her and school work. She has very fixed ideas about what she will do and won't do for homework/revision etc. Her books are very messy, I dare not look through them anymore as it gives me a headache. She has done some maths this week as she likes that and as she's joining the top set in year 10 so she is keen to do well from the beginning. She has always been good in maths but as her homework and books are very messy, they didn't move her up. She made a bit more of an effort in year 9 to keep things tidier, she's been finally moved up.

@RealHousewivesOfTaunton that's equally hilarious and frustrating!

I will save it up specially for results day, together with my pearls and twin-set.

@DataColour I just chucked all DS' books from Year 9. They were screwed up, dog-eared and generally unfit for any sort of revision.

I will also be getting rid of all her books, apart from RE as it's compulsory GCSE in her school and they start it in year 9.
So far, I've held on to all of my DS's book from the year above, mainly for DD's benefit and reference, as he's got much tidier and legible writing and everything's actually stuck on!

Oh well done your DS! What a great big brother.

I was a proper girly swot who loved homework and exams. DS' blasé attitude is a frustrating mystery to me. I've booked theatre tickets to An Inspector Calls but am half thinking it's a waste of time as he regularly falls asleep once the snacks are finished. DH is taking him to an immersive Christmas Carol "experience" which includes a Victorian Christmas dinner to keep him awake.

I’m slightly frustrated that DS isn’t doing A Christmas Carol, as he knows it back to front, he played Tiny Tim in a theatre production a few years back! But he’s doing Animal Farm and Jekyll & Hyde. At least my older DS also did J&H so will have his notes and essay plans to draw from. They go to different schools and often have different exam boards, so not so straightforward to pass on info!

A Christmas Carol and inspector calls here - both are touring locally so will get us booked in!

My DS is doing A Christmas Carol and played Scrooge in the Y8 play at prep school, so he should have that pretty nailed. I too would be annoyed if they decided to swap out that one!

Hi 👋 my son is starting year 10. He has ASD and I'm so anxious. He (we) aren't prepared at all and he struggles a lot with homework etc so coursework is gonna be a nightmare! I'll need as many tips as possible 🙂

@36and3 same choices here. But done zero !

Joining. I have DTs starting year 10.

Is anyone going back today? DS has a final day in bed before going back tomorrow.

DS starting tomorrow too, has instructions to collect blazer from the dry cleaners and finish art homework today as I’m back at work. I’d say chances of him managing this are 50/50..

That's ambitious. I'm WFH today but haven't seen DS yet. I assume he's not worked up sufficient appetite to emerge for a fridge raid.

I'm surprised, but DS did collect his blazer and do his homework! I got home and he asked when school was starting, seemed surprised it was tomorrow despite me telling him that yesterday.. Will be good to get back in routine.

DD was back just for a couple of hours this afternoon.

She's happy with her timetable and teachers. Her Maths teacher, who was fantastic, retired so she has a new teacher to the school so interested to see what he's like. She's fab at maths naturally but she'd had this teacher since Y7 and he had a unique way of teaching and it all just really worked so hoping the new one works just as well.

She said it was very much GCSEs, exams over and over all afternoon 🙄

We had our new Y7s and 12s in today and I'm in bed already exhausting day.

Good luck to all going back tomorrow.

First day back today, managed to get him out of the house only 5 min late (looking like a zombie). Hopefully he will make it on time (he walks but not good at hurrying). Drama department have got in touch to say musical rehearsals start after school today so hitting the ground running here!
Good luck to anyone else whose kids are back today.

I got DS out of bed and off to school in good time this morning. He wasn't particularly enthusiastic but he was awake, so long may that continue!

Can I join the fun? I'm bracing myself for something of a roller coaster in the next two years.

Mine's been back a week (boarding school) and it's been a mixed bag - mostly pleased with her teachers, less pleased that the awful, calculating bully in her house is still there. DD gives her a wide berth but she definitely sours the atmosphere. (We have been repeatedly told she is on last chances...but there she was on the first night...).

DD is very academic and loves learning new things, so she works hard in lessons, but dashes off homework and refuses to do revision...this has not held her back yet but I feel that at some point, probably quite soon, that's going to bite her on the bum.

She is mildly dyslexic and has managed to ditch just about every 'wordy' subject there is - history, RS, languages, drama, classics - all gone. But, she is of course still stuck with English lang and lit and she detests them. I foresee tears.

I'd love to join in too! My eldest DD started in Year 10 yesterday. Her choices were Drama, Art, Geography and RS. Her first day was a whole day of intro to GCSEs and tips on studying, which sounded good but I think she was disappointed not to get stuck in and meet her new teachers. Let's see how today goes, fingers crossed! She doesnt have the RS or Chemistry teachers she was hoping for so I really hope the new ones are just as good (or better).