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?!

@XelaM I don't think that will affect her A levels as she has a good spread anyway. A friend's daughter dropped history but was told she could still do it for A level even if she didn't do it for GCSE, which seems odd but I guess there are lots of new subjects at A level that people haven't done GCSEs in.

No revision here and don't anticipate any this side of half term.

Mine's a bit bored by history at the moment as they've started with the end of WW1 and the Weimar Republic which they already did last year in both History and German. It doesn't help that she has double history 3 days in a row this week.

We’ve had tears tonight. In English the teachers asked her how labour costs are related to the themes in An Inspector Calls. DD didn’t know what labour costs means so said “I’m sorry miss I don’t know what that phrase means” and the teacher told her to dig deeper, she got upset because it wasn’t that she couldn’t link it to the themes it was that she didn’t know the phrase. As soon as I told her she said “oh it links to capitalism, I hate English now”

@DataColour I hope things improve for your DD. What is it that she is struggling with?

Thank you. She's really unhappy at school at the moment due to friendship issues. Bad timing as I feel like we're stuck given it's Year 10 and a change of school now would be risky. 😥

History and Geography aren’t needed at gcse, they are such broad subjects that the a level and GCSE don’t really overlap and you can develop the skills (essay writing, analysis) during the a-level and if course some of it will be in English. I have a degree in Geography and never did it at gcse. It’s not like languages or maths where you’re building on past knowledge.

I saw DS planner today for the first time, 2 requests in it for him to bring a pencil case. He tells me his calculator (the 2nd one we’ve bought) is definitely in maths class. His organisation skills are just nonexistent.

I did history at university without a GCSE or an A level. My A levels included English Lit and RE which are similar skills I suppose and demonstrated historical knowledge in interview.
I always loved history but couldn’t stand to be in the same room as the history teacher- he was one of those creepy teachers you got a bad vibe from and always tried to be a bit too friendly with the girls but everyone ignored it because it was the 90s.

Grim @OpalSquid thank God some things have improved. We had a Maths teacher like that. He got done about 15 years after we left 🤢. I have lots of friends who got Es and Ds in their Maths A levels as he was just so awful.

It's such a shame when a teacher has a negative impact. They can make our break a child's outcomes.

I'd love to join.

Ds1 has started Year 10 this year. He has ASD and found the first few weeks really tough. To the point where I keep expecting the school to call and tell me to collect him (which is what happened almost every week in Years 7 and 8).

I'm not sure he will get through these 2 years tbh. I agree with others, the school has been laying on the 'very important 2 years' speeches very very hard and every morning before school he is in hysterics and in tears. It's awful.

Our school also does compulsory Duke of Edinburgh for Years 10 and 11. Is that common? Ds can barely cope with school as it is, that on top is pretty rough for him I think. We are planning to not argue about it until we have to, but I would think it would be a reasonable adjustment to take him out if we need.

I think compulsory DfE sounds like a crazy idea! I think asking to drop that as a reasonable adjustment is reasonable. I can’t imagine how that works? Is it a comp?

I have never heard of DofE being compulsory. I don't understand why a school would choose to do this. Is it even enforceable ?

i know I agree! It's an Indpendent.

But I have a friend whose child is in a different Independent and they have either compulsory Cadets or DofE which is why I wondered if it was common.

We are hanging fire on it until Christmas in case he loves it (very very unlikely) then will see if we need to have a conversation with the school. I seriously doubt he can manage a full GCSE workload as it is tbh.

It may be to do with UCAS points. I was talking to a friend who's child is just applying and she was saying how crazy the system is.

Apparently st Andrews now wants around 200 points for some courses and you get 54 for each A, so 3 A isn't enough. And a 4th A level can't count towards it. So you need extra curriculars to bump up your points.

That makes sense.

Arguing with DS about homework. He thinks it is highly unusual that I show any interest in it and want to talk through it when it’s done. I assume others do this too?

I sit with the Dcs while they do homework. They like the company, we bounce ideas off each other and its when I sort through my various life admin tasks- and pay bills online, sort out online shopping etc. I really enjoy it tbh.

So you are deffo not unusual in wanting to be involved! You could tell your DS @Pastlast that other parents actually physically monitor it and he should thanks his lucky stars!

I talk to DD about homework too.

I usually talk through DS2’s homework with him before he does it but don’t check it after. Sometimes he will ask me to have a look midway. Some (most) homework I have to help DS1 with though that’s a bit different as he has a TA in school so I’m like the at home TA.
I’d hold your ground @Pastlast !

@Pastlast I don't ever get involved with dd's homework but I'm lucky in that she's very diligent and always does it on time and to a good standard. I do, however, test her for tests etc.

Dd2 (10) is a different story altogether!!

Am I too late to join? My DS is starting Y10, frustratingly he struggles with Maths and Science but works to a global grade A and is more of a History, English and Drama person. Has been going to a private maths tutor for the past year, still hates everything about the subject and seems to lack confidence in the basics but I’m hoping the extra time will help. We have signed up for DofE as he does enough extra curricular to cover it already (swimming, cadets and performing arts) and he is keen to go into policing so I’m hoping he can either stay local -ish for university as we have an excellent course nearby (Wales) or join up early and do the in-house degree on the job.

We have daily homework discussions, if we didn’t I don’t think much would get done. His teachers are good at emailing me if he’s overlooked a particular assignment as well, I think it’s starting to dawn on him that he can’t avoid it anymore..

Definitely not too late @CheeryUser. The more the merrier!

DS did DofE last year but it was entirely optional. I didn't know that UCAS points now come from outside activities too. It feels very early to be thinking about it but I clearly need to do some research. I'm not even sure if DS passed actually. He did all the elements but seemed to be pretty hit and miss at recording them

Has anyone's school started thinking about work experience yet? We just got the dates through and luckily there's a long time to sort out a placement. DS wants to do work experience with an investment bank. I know absolutely naff all about that world but he's doing a virtual work experience day first to have something on his CV other than "very interested in becoming a billionaire".

Have to say I’m a big fan of that CV so far@RealHousewivesOfTaunton 🤣

We haven’t had dates for work experience yet, hopefully will be getting them early enough to organise something worthwhile.

I’ve seen a few things pop up online about virtual work experience which look really interesting although the ones I’ve noticed have been geared towards science-based careers which are no good for us.

Dd wants to be a doctor so is already set on maths, biology and chemistry alevels. She did two days of work experience this summer at a London medical school which was fab, so will do that again next summer. No official dates of work experience from school as yet though.

Wow compulsory DofE! Really surprised at that, more surprised that extra curriculars are being used for UCAS points? Not sure about all schools but DofE at DDs school was over £500 for Bronze, straight away there's a divide there if a family can't afford it.

DD is completely independent with her homework and has always been on top of it so we've been very lucky there, we do still always discuss what she has and if she's coping ok with it all. She's been in London with friends all day so she has quite a lot to do tomorrow as she's had so much set this week, she's been working every evening but still has a fair amount to go.

We haven't heard about work experience yet, I used to work in Investment Banking and the problem is a lot of these companies don't have the insurance for under 16s. I would start emailing all the main ones and see if they even take on as I would expect it's highly sought after. DD wants to work in Tech/AI at the moment! DD1 did virtual work experience with BA as it was during COVID so couldn't obviously go in. We are lucky in that DDs school has a very proactive careers department and they are constantly posting opportunities on the Google Classroom so hopefully something will come up.

We had a Y10 info evening this week at school. Revision techniques, lots of info, and the results of the pupil survey they did on the girls in terms of their phone usage, sleep etc all very interesting!