Workload of GCSEs - how much time roughly

[Morsien]

Wondering if anyone can help us here.
DD is 15, in Y11, she’s doing her GCSEs in English Lang&Lit, Maths, Triple Science, History, French, Music & PE.
For A-Levels she wants to Maths, English Lit, French & Economics or PE (they start with 4 and then drop one if it’s too much).

The issue is DD does 2 sports and both come with so much training, she has tennis which she trains for 3 mornings a week 6.30-7.30, 2 nights a week 7-9, Sundays 3 hours. Then Track & Field/Athletics/Cross country which is 1.5 hours 2 times a week 7.30-9.
She also has a hour long piano lesson every week and tries to fit in practice daily.
Then we have competitions, at least one Saturday a month competing in Athletics (not including the inevitable school based competitions which end up on Saturdays). Then tennis again about once a month competing.

DD is unlikely to be pro in either sport, she’s good and has competed regionally in both (nationally in athletics but that’s through school). She has no idea what she wants to do going forward, she’s more focused on wanting to go to Loughborough than what she’d actually study. Her best subjects are PE, Maths and French (Predicted 9s) English, Music and Science are predicted 7/8s and History 6.

So I’m just wondering, what is the work load really going to be like in the next few months, right now she spends maybe 6/7 hours a week outside school on homework and studying. School have said this should be 15 hours but I’m not sure DD can actually fit in 15 hours without dropping a training session which she refuses to do. She doesn’t do any school work after school on Friday as she goes out with her friends (movie, friends house, house party etc.)
She also is working towards her Grade 7 in piano so she really ought to be practicing that everyday.

Can any teachers or parents of older kids help me out her?
Also DD claims she doesn’t really need to study for PE and Music, is that true?

A lot depends on what grades she is currently working at and what grades she wants.

In a way it's a how long is a piece of string question.

If she's getting good grades in her mocks and is doing revision as part of homework and in class then the workload isn't too high.

If she wants much better grades than she is getting then she needs to do a lot more work.

She hasn’t done her mocks yet so I guess that will tell all.
DD thinks she can fit in 10 hours a week, I hope that’s enough!

Not a teacher , but I have a son in the same year. This sounds like a lot in extra curricular activities and pressure your daughter is facing.

Her grades are good and if she wants to continue with tennis, athletics and music I would accept that she can't revise 2 hrs per day on her GCSEs as well .

Personally I would be dropping at least one of those activities if not two.

She absolutely refuses to drop either. She claims she’s not tired, she can manage it fine and the sports are her fun time.
I could force her to stop (in that I could stop paying for them) but she would be very upset about this.
DD has said she can do 30 minutes studying in the morning before school, then about 2 hours after school before activities. Not sure this leaves any time for fun.
It’s so hard to keep the momentum when she’s unlikely to go pro from my side when her actual future is needing attention.

Y11 child here with quite a lot, but not as much, extra curricula stuff as yours.
He's just dropped one instrument, and we've pushed him to 30 mins revision per subject per week (ontop of homework, which is pretty minimal). Thats 5 hours a week.... Currently waiting mock results - the 2 he's told us about are grade 9s!
We've let everything run, and told him academic struggles will result in us cutting the extras.
I'm more worried about 6th firm work loads, tbh.

My daughter's school said 45 mins at home per subject per week in y10, but she needed more time than that

I've had 3 go through GCSE/A level and currently have a yr12.

It's too much. No child should be having to fit work in before school. Delay the grade 7 piano until after GCSE's or yr12.

2 hours a night roughly, more the term before the exams.

The piano isn’t what’s taking up all her time though.
DD has been doing work before school for years so this won’t change anyway.
It’s the sports that are mega time intensive.
She won’t give up her piano or sports.

Is she doing PE as a GCSE or just PE.

My Yr11 is only doing PE so has no exam at the end of year or study, but his friend is doing PE as a GCSE subject and has lot of theory in this subject.

As a parent who has had 2 children go through GCSE's I would say just because she predicted 8/9's if she wants them then she is going to have to work for them.

See what she gets in her mocks. If the grades are high, she might be able to carry on at this level of extra curricular activities.
If not, she will need to find time from somewhere to study more.
It's only a few months. My DD paused a couple of her commitments for a while.
I suspect it's not true that PE and music requires little study. She might find them relatively easier though.

PE is a GCSE

Is she currently on track for those predicted grades? Has she been revising for each topic as it completes, and creating revision notes and on top of all material to date?
If she is, and she accepts that the sport essentially is her "leisure" time, then I think this is possible.

Ideally you should work at GCSEs as you go along, which means that there isn't a huge burden of work in Year 11. The only exception to this is coursework heavy subjects e.g. Art and DT which take way more time. It looks like PE is her only coursework subject but not one where I know what is involved, but worth checking this.

My DD adopted this approach and seemed to manage (Art excepted :) ) on about an hour a night of homework and a chunk of time on a Sunday - which looks like it would fit into your daughter's schedule. I'd caveat that you'd want to be reducing it by around Easter, but I suspect that would be "normal" for others doing her sports as well.

If she's not been keeping up as she goes along or her grades have slipped to a point where she won't be meeting entry criteria for A Levels, then none of that applies.

I’d be asking for her to drop History. It will free up 2/3 hours in school for her to study and remove some of the homework/revision. Both my DDs dropped a subject and it made a huge difference.

Don't forget she'll get study leave from school in the run up to the exams. I was really surprised by how many weeks off my DD had for both mocks and the real exams. I think it differs by school. Worth asking.

They also have loads of revision sessions in school time. Most subjects are finished well ahead of the exams.

I think it is a lot but it’s not unmanageable.
You say no time for fun – but then her sports are her fun.

My DD and DS2 both got great grades in their GCSEs and both continued many activities. DD had a paper round every morning so that took her an hour; she also did dance, Guides, music lesson and Saturday morning music club as well as various drama activities. DS2 v sporty did multiple sports with training and matches like your DD, tho tbh not as much as her tennis. Also his paper round was only on a Sunday haha. But what I am trying to say is, it’s possible and in fact desirable to keep up activities even in exam year. DD tho was more dedicated to revision and did drop athletics in year 11. DS2 was more last-minute so not such an issue (he’s very smart and quick where DD has to work hard).

I would suggest scaling back the tennis in the evening for the next six months if that’s possible – can she then pick it up again? But otherwise I think it’s OK.

How long for revision – who can say? See my DC above, very different approaches. An hour spent on actual revision of key topics is better than three spent staring aimlessly at books. I agree with redsky - if she has been revising, making notes, learning French vocab as she goes along the workload now will be much less. Suggestion to drop a subject is a bit left-field – most schools won’t allow that unless a DC is really struggling (your DD clearly is not) and they would have to find someone to supervise her as well.

Wrt specific subjects – DD did music tho a different spec and admits she did very little revision as she was doing so many theory exams anyway she had covered it. Does your DD do theory? I assume so if she is G7. DD aced the exam but fell down on composition. The exam spec is different now tho and DD says you have to study specific works to talk about them so she probs needs to revise those?

DS2 did PE and I am sure he did do some work haha but maybe there is a heavy biology overlap so it’s not so pressurised.

Her A levels are interesting – good choices but what does she want to do at Lboro? DS2 is there doing STEM and I am a big fan of the uni (posts passim) but it no longer offers MFL and maths without FM wouldn’t be great for maths there. English is a good degree there tho so that might be the way. Or sports science of course but she would need to be sure about A level PE (sounds like she isn’t) and would need to be looking at AstarAA.

Sorry for essay! HTH

Interesting you say dropping a subject is leftfield. Just shows how different every school is. It’s very common at DD1’s school for high performing athletes. She dropped from 10 to 9 subjects and it massively helped her. She wasn’t a struggling student at all and came away with mainly grade 9s, but one less subject reduced the stress levels considerably.

Ten hours a week is good. Ramp it up closer to the exams.
My DD worked hard. But even with A levels she tried to do as much as she could in school (they had an 8.50-4.40 day). From Easter (March) on everything else went out the window and it was full on.

Thats interesting. It would be almost impossible to police at any school I have worked at. We very occasionally did it if a student was really struggling with a subject like MFL.

But the issue is where do they go and what do they do? What happened at your DD’s school?

She went to the library and did her homework/revision. DD2 is at a different school and she goes to what they call a “study support class” where she also does her homework.

Is that a state school? Impressive offer if so. Library was used as a classroom at the school I worked at. Then pretty much closed as the librarian was made redundant so no one would have been able to supervise.

DS1 took fewer GCSEs bc of LD, but that was from year 9, a specific option offered by the school to weaker students and timetables as supervised time in learning support.

One in private and one in state. Very similar schools though.

When is she sitting her piano grade? I’d be trying to get that out of the way and then pausing lessons until after exams. I did this for my instrument during exam years and just set aside 45 minutes a week to play for enjoyment and to keep up.

I think it’s manageable if she’s enjoying it and is the sort of person who thrives on being back to back but she needs to be willing to be flexible and open - would she tell you if she was struggling? Would she accept dropping a tennis session from March to June for extra revision time?

How often are parents evenings and mocks so you can keep an eye on things?

In all honestly experience of completing priorities, balancing things and working hard aren’t a negative. I work at a university and there is a visible difference in how students with experiences like your daughters manage, bs students who were told by parents, or decided, that they could do nothing but study. The second ones don’t do as well and I do worry for them in adult life!

My DC did a lot of extracurricular too but I insisted they toned it down by spring term of Year 11 so they could focus on their GCSEs. I would want her to get higher than a 6 in history if she is going do want to do English Lit and Economics A level as it is a useful subject for essays and rigorous analysis (History that is). It is one of the harder GCSEs. If she puts in the hours now she can up her grade especially is she is as able as she sounds. I would also aim for Grade 7 piano in Year 12 or I would do 4 pieces and the performance exam in the summer holidays after GCSEs if you can still get a teacher. So she can then do Grade 8 in the summer of Year 12. After that it is simply too busy in Year 13, in my opinion.