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?!

Another lesson with the English teacher she doesn’t like today. I’m hoping things get better because she said she wasn’t looking forward to English tomorrow because of Miss. Up until this teacher she had always intended doing an English degree.

That’s frustrating @OpalSquid . Does she know why she doesn’t like her?
No English theatre trips through school planned here but DS is going to see Hamilton with the Drama department. Not sure how relevant to the plays they are studying it is but he hasn’t seen it and hopefully he’ll enjoy it. Should probably find something that’s an actual play (not a musical) to take him to though. Only problem is finding something his brother will also sit through.

Slightly late to this thread but would love to join - I have DS2 starting Y10 this year. His school is v academic, and I suspect there will be a certain amount of pressure to achieve top grades. But DS has already said that 'doesn't think there should be too much homework this year' (I fear that may be woefully optimistic!) and he seems fairly chilled about it all. For now anyway.

DS's options are Latin, Greek, German, Computer Science and DT, in addition to English x 2, sciences x 3, maths and further maths. He'll take maths and Latin at the end of Y10 and and then the rest in Y11. Bracing myself for a challenging couple of years!

I've got tickets to see David Tennant's Macbeth next month, it should really bring it to life for her

Fantastic! I got tickets for the Ralf Finnes (sp?) production before Tennent was announced and it was hugely disappointing, didn’t help ds much at all!

We had a warning about behaviour on the bus, bringing energy drinks to school and incomplete maths homework today. Not the best start. He has prep after school twice a week, today he spent that time chatting and now he’s having to do homework this evening. He honestly seems to be trying to make life harder for himself.

I looked at the Fiennes one but passed on the grounds that DS wasn't studying it for another year and he hated modern interpretations of Romeo & Juliet. The David Tennant one looks brilliant. It's a shame the tickets were silly prices by the time I looked. The Globe is doing an October workshop on Macbeth - hopefully they do it again next year too once DS knows something about the story. Back when I was doing GCSEs my parents took to me to see Sean Bean as Macbeth with the witches on roller skates. I really enjoyed it but DS is... less studious.

I'm working away this week and haven't had any late notifications from school, so pleased about that. We got DS a new bike over the summer and he seems to be using it to maximise his lie-in time in the mornings. He's started having a look at his PE and Business Studies revision guides, hooray! I thought the whole stack might gather dust for 18 months. I've also managed to book him into a climbing course for his GCSE practical. DD's doing it too, just for fun, so that should be good. DS climbs like a monkey!

First full week done. Dd says she feels really confident she's chosen the right options which is great.

She does a competitive sport out of school and training this year for her age group has ramped up to 6 x a week, including 2 x 5am. I'm going to meet with the coach and ask that she scales back as with the workload it's just not sustainable.

DD seems to be happy about her teachers and subjects. The thing she seems most pleased about is that they get to choose what they do in PE because she isn't studying it for GCSE. She is actually enjoying it far more than she has ever done.

How are people finding the quantity of homework so far? DS has typically had a fairly heavy homework load in KS3, but very little has been set so far. Thinking about it, he’s dropped some very homework-heavy subjects like Art and DT.

He gets a few study periods because he’s chosen to do the full RS GCSE and the others do a half GCSE on top of their options. But its hard for him to plan what to do during these - his school is mobile-free during the school day but most of the homework is set on the school app. The supervising teacher just says ‘get on with some work’. He has a study period tomorrow morning and no homework outstanding. So I’m not sure what to suggest to him!

DS hasn't had much homework so far. DD has had more in year 7!

Does yours have a revision guide, text book or set English text he could get on with working through or reading in his study periods?

I’ve resorted to printing off some practice questions on the Physics Maths tutor website for the one science topic he’s fully completed (in y9), so he can hopefully do some revision. Need to think about how we best plan for it going forward. Monday morning is such an awkward time for it, would be great if it as Friday afternoon so he could clear homework before the weekend!

We have had tons of homework - a good couple of hours each night and 3 hours yesterday, too much really.
Interestingly they say the homework policy hasn’t changed yet DS (now in first year university) didn’t receive anywhere near this much in fact most weeks nothing at all - now you might say he was just pretending he didn’t get any but they give detention for non completion of homework and he only ever got 3. Hmmm

DD has had a lot of homework, particularly sciences.

She spent 5 hours on an Art piece yesterday that is just a practice. She knew how much work Art would be but she's such a perfectionist I can see this taking up so much of her time. But she seems very happy so far.

She's finding Computer Science a bit boring as they are really going over some real basics and it's one of her strongest subjects and she's loving the medicine in History!

Hello, I'm late arriving but my DS has just started y10.

His options are Spanish, Music BTEC and Geography. He has compulsory RE and is taking 10 in total. We had a bit of a crisis prior to the start of term around options as he couldn't take his preferred options of triple science and music due to a timetable clash. In the end he swapped the third science for Spanish and that seems to be working well so far. He really likes his teacher and he's in a class of 8 so all positives.

DS is really smart but has a significant DCD (Dyspraxia) diagnosis which increasingly affects his executive function so we're really looking for ways to promote revision in a way he can get along with.

He does a lot of extracurriculars, he's basically a massive joiner, but we've had a difficult conversation about him giving up martial arts. He's at the stage of it where he needs to commit to training at least four times a week which is impossible with everything else he has going on. He's decided to join the local gym instead as he won't be tied to class times with that. He's also an Explorer Scout, Cubs young leader, as well as just about every extracurricular offered in school, the non-sporty ones anyway!

He is planning to pursue a career in either conservation or music production so he's always on the look out for opportunities to develop those interests.

Does anyone have any y10 open evenings / taster days scheduled for college or is it still a bit early?

Mine is getting loads of homework - it's really stepped up from Yr9 where she could basically leave it till the weekend. Now she's getting lots that need to be handed in the day after or in a couple of days. And the art sounds familiar @UncomfortableSilence, she must have spent at least 4 hours doing it this weekend.

@MakeTeaNotWar I'd think it's a bit early unless your dc know what they want to do for A levels? DD1 has a sixth form at her school so will probably stay unless she wants to do something they don't offer, like drama or psychology.
I think you need to have an idea of their predicted grades too to know which to aim for. There are some academic ones near us that would need 7s to apply.

Hi @MyBestFriendKenny .

Another here who has had very little homework. Younger brother (yr8) very disgusted to discover he had twice as much at the weekend! Sure he should be doing some sort of independent study but no chance he will volunteer details of that. Plus they tend to keep their books in school so he rarely even has an exercise book that I can check.

Thanks @Walkingbkwrm, that sounds like my DS too. His brand new y7 sister has had more homework than him so far!

When I asked local college when dd was in y10 they said October open evening for year 11 and summer ones for year 10. This worked well, by summer we had a better idea of target grades. I guess if you have a very wide choice it maybe worth starting a look now. The 6th form attached to ds indie school is inviting year 10 this term, but we have 2 large and very good state 6th form colleges locally and will be deciding between those (hopefully still a chance ds will miss grades and be looking at technical or agricultural college instead).

Swimming? I'm glad tbh my DD stepped down from elite sports

Homework coming in more rapidly now. DD also loving the medicine part of History.. she's asked for some stationery to start preparing notes. Hoping it lasts

Interesting the different order they do things. DS1 will be doing history of medicine too but according to the file from school not until y11 - the last bit of the course. Wish mine wanted to do notes!
Much sympathy @wewon - I cannot imagine getting a teenager to a pool for 5am. Hope they are flexible- some friends have had trouble with this :(.

Joining as my daughter just started Year 10.

She's had a rubbish time so far this year, but hopefully it will improve at some point. She is really enjoying Maths and the triple Sciences at the moment. Her teachers for the core subjects seem fine.

Her options are Russian language, PE, Art, Food Tech along with triple Science and the required Maths and English. A bit worried she dropped both History and Geography as everyone seems to take it. Would that limit her 6th Form options?

How much revision are your kids doing as I'm really worried she's not doing much apart from the set school work. She only has tutors for Russian as that is done outside of school. Hoping that we don't need tutors for other subjects and that the study guides plus us at home will do, but maybe I'm being naive?

No revision done yet here as no exams are upcoming. It's still very early on in the year. At DD's school they do end of topic tests, but that'll take a month or so to manifest and she'll probably do some revision then. She's not that studious apart from wanting to do well in maths as she got moved up to the top set in that and wants to stay there.
I might get her to do some Seneca learning on the sciences as they've been good for my DS recently in year 11 but they take a long time to go through each topic, but seems quite thorough and I regret not starting DS on it earlier.
No tutors here but between DH and I we can help with science and maths, but perhaps some help in the future with English might be needed as DD is not so hot on that.
@XelaM hope things improve for your DD. What is it that she is struggling with?

Just joining this thread.

Ds has just started year 10 and I'm feeling very under prepared compared to some of you.

Ds is doing science X3, maths , further maths, geography, computer science, business studies and English X2.

Ds seems to be getting circa 2hrs homework a night. A couple of mini tests this week (just learning science definitions).
His maths is now beyond our capabilities but so far he's top of the top set (they are sat in rank order) and we've not had to help.

No actual revision yet. I don't think he's learnt enough yet to actually need to revise anything?