Tell me about good GCSEs without use of tutors

[AtomHeartMotherOfGod]

Both children are at a private school but neither me nor DH know much about them. I was grammar, he just worked bloody hard and had clever DPs.

Year 10 parents have been asking for tutor recommendations for GCSEs and I'm wondering how naive I'm being about their use for these exams. DCs do pretty well, but if the reality of private school results is that actually they are heavily backed by tutors then I don't want them to be disadvantaged.

Please tell me what your reality has been, and anything that you did for your children (yourself, or via tutors) that really helped them. Many thanks!

@RampantIvy But all the indications from OP are that her DC isn't struggling and may well be finding things easy. She's just spooked by the other parents seeming to be a bit extra in the whole tutoring thing.
I'm afraid my DC did find GCSEs easy, and didn't really break a sweat for A levels either. They say (ten years or more on) that it was just a matter of turning up and tuning in and doing the work. Nothing extra. Even in their bog standard comp I don't think they were alone in that, so I'm not claiming they were exceptional.
And they also managed part time jobs and to do a lot of outside school music (and computer gaming and partying)
There is a lot of hysteria about tutoring, particularly in certain parts of the country. When we lived in SW London it was madness - like an arms race! Fortunately we stepped away from that..

@faffadoodledo I think you need to accept that you do have exceptionally bright DC. Most children don't find GCSEs exceptionally easy. DD did achieve well with mostly A and A* at GCSE, As at A level and a first class STEM degree, but she worked her socks off for them. Did your DC sit their GCSEs before 2017 when they were reformed BTW?

I agree about the hysteria about tutors. We are in Yorkshire and most DC go to the nearest state comprehensive. Luckily for us DD's school was the best in the LA with good and supportive teachers (except for her GCSE maths teacher). The maths tutor took the time to explain new concepts to DD and she jumped up from a B to an A* in a matter of weeks.

@RampantIvy they sat them in 2012 and 2014. They had very little (or possibly no) coursework. Their subjects were very exam heavy.

Their school was definitely not the best in the area, and went into special measures the year after my youngest went to university.

Another one here thinking it sounds bonkers to go private AND tutor.

Dc were are state schools and didn't use tutors at all.
We helped them (well one didn't want help) with revision in the run up to gcses - basically went through revision guides, used bbc resources for eng lit.
The school ran revision sessions which they went to.
Youtube had some great teachers providing help with certain subjects. DC found that useful.

You are getting caught up in a competitive frenzy.

My Dc went to a state comprehensive, were reasonably conscientious and quite bright and got really good GCSEs. And A levels. And degrees. And now have top jobs in research.

The schools teach the syllabus for the exams. That is literally their job.

If your Dc has a particular issue with something that is important to progress to Uni etc, such as English or Maths and needs help to grasp the principles than sure get a tutor.

The GCSEs are much more content heavy now. DD sat hers the last year they were A - E graded. The 1 - 9 GCSEs are more difficult. I accept that DD's GCSEs were easier than those sat from 2017 onwards. She practiced past papers for maths and the sciences then whistled through the exams.

I feel that passing these exams is as much about exam technique, being familiar with the mark schemes (biology A level has a very specific mark scheme that trips a lot of people up) as well as knowledge.

We never used tutors and they went to an ordinary state school. Their exam results were comparable with a good private school.

Apologies for the bold. I can't reformat this in an update.

"The maths tutor took the time to explain new concepts to DD and she jumped up from a B to an A* in a matter of weeks"

Ah, now, you've reminded me that DS was in the middle set for maths and therefore was never taught how to do "the A-star questions". So we taught him whatever it was, and he duly got an A*.

I guess it's worth keeping an eye on whether your child is covering the whole syllabus. But a competent private school will presumably be doing that anyway.

They cannot be much more difficult as the 7/9 grades awarded are stellar. They are just different. Not all DCs got a hatful of A stars previously and possibly the grade boundaries are different and more lenient now.m? It’s not as if untutored dc fail at A level or uni. It’s important to have a balanced life.

We got a tutor when dd1 mocks in one subject were way down as were others in the class. Something had gone wrong over lock down and the subject hadn’t clicked even with the bright ones. Mock exam grade was 4 she got an 8 in the gcse so money on the tutor was well spent. 8s and 9s in everything else. State school though not private.

On every other thread about GCSEs teachers always post about how much more content heavy they are since 2016. I'd be inclined to believe a teacher TBH.

When DD was at school she took 10 GCSEs. Her old school now offer 9 as standard, so there must be something in it.

I mean you can only go with what was in front of your DC @RampantIvy
Under the old system mine got all A stars at GCSE and A level. I think there was an element of competition between them tbh. But I have no way of knowing whether they'd have done so well under the new system. They obv hit the ceiling under the old one tho.

@RampantIvy More content doesn’t equal more difficult. If they were, top grades would plummet. They haven’t. They are just different. Are you saying dc who took the former GCSEs could not access A levels and in turn could not access elite university degrees? Not sure this is borne out at all. The former GCSEs served a purpose and many teachers disliked the Gove reforms. How quickly they forget.

Many parents will not admit to having private tutors - online tutoring easier to keep discrete. Have overheard a parent
From a tutors side - majority private school.

Have overheard parents saying how DC did it all by themselves - oh no they didn't

Ok, you win @TizerorFizz as you always like to be right.

My daughter was at a comp and got straight 9's no tutoring.

I would say the key to them was a very structured approach to revision. She did plenty but didn't work herself to the bone but what she did was very productive.

As a note the grades were a surprise - she was predicted a mix of 8/9 and one 7.

Bright children will get good grades if they apply themselves. If they were that easy all children would get those grades, but not all children are that bright. Lots even fail to achieve a grade 4.

So let's not pretend that getting a raft of 9s is as easy as it had been for the DC of the posters on this thread.

So did you think all A stars was easy then?

@RampantIvy More content doesn’t equal more difficult. If they were, top grades would plummet.

You mean fewer top grades would be awarded? No, they can just set the grade boundaries to get the number of top grades they think appropriate.

@AllProperTeaIsTheft Yes. That’s what I said earlier. The brightest tend to get the highest grades without tutoring as long as teaching is good and dc are prepared to knuckle down. I truly sympathize when dc are not well taught and need gaps closed. However prolonged tutoring is hardly a childhood.

I think keeping an eye out, supporting them with revision and asking questions, checking they are aware of the syllabus, and checking that they are learning exam technique, should absolutely be sufficient. But I can understand you would be wary if there could be an environment of tutoring. Keep your expectations up, talk with the teachers as appropriate, and be more hands on at home if things start to seem off in any subjects.

My children both had all the support they needed at their schools to get straight 9s. The only tutoring they ever had was a bit of help with French for 13+ so that it didn't let them down at scholarship assessments. Both switched to German at the first opportunity (and one took it through to A level) - they got on with that language much better.

I grew up in a different country albeit with some of the same private vs state school issues. My sister's school unfortunately was one where a large majority were being heavily tutored. She had a poor maths teacher in her upper years who didn't seem to realise that most of her class were taught every topic ahead of class, and therefore got away without teaching anything (and tried to mark my non-tutored sister down). When it came to a head a few months before my sister's school leaving exams my mother sat her down and said right, your sister will be tutoring you now, like it or not (I was already tutoring while at uni, and still living at home, so was happy to do it). She topped her class in (the equivalent of further) maths where her teacher thought she should have been doing a lower level.

My oldest 2 did GCSEs - both 9 9s and a couple of 8s or 7s. I had no idea anyone was tutoring until Y12 when another parent asked me if I knew a further maths tutor. ‘But they’ve only been doing the A Level course for 3 weeks, why does she need a tutor?’ I said. At this point the parent explained about a quarter of the year group had been tutored all the way through GCSE at this grammar school.

which means 3/4 children were not. So I don’t think it’s the norm.