Parents of GCSE 2025

[Mum2LazyBoy]

Is anyone up for a thread to follow the highs and lows of supporting our dc through the coming gcse season.
As user name suggests I have a DS who really isn’t getting his head down enough. He does tend to spend a lot of time gaming and school don’t seem to be setting much work.
Interested to hear how others are getting on.

We don't get study leave - they all have to be in all day every day till the end of exams.

Part of me is very relieved as now I don't have to try and supervise DD revising!

Yeah I have mixed feelings about it. I mean DS’ ‘study leave’ is just the last two weeks of the exams. It would be good to have more time for his own revision, but I’m not sure how he would manage. I wonder what they do while exams are on because normal timetable would be out the window…

No study leave at DS school. He's at a mixed comp and there are plenty of people there who have no place to study at home and no one to stop them from treating study leave as extended holiday. It was better for my DS1 to be in school as he would have struggled to focus at home, DS2 could do better at home but as he is far from the knowledgeable place I expected him to be in at this stage, I think he will do better at school.
School's results improved quite dramatically after the cancelling of study leave a few years ago.

We haven't had the letter from school yet but I expect they will only make school optional after the final compulsory science exam.
(Also, study leave messes with attendance figures, big issue as well for many schools)

Our school did a "normal" timetable with taught lessons if there was an exam in the subject coming up and free revision if there was not. I think there were also sessions on the mornings of exams - so if business was in the afternoon, all those doing business could attend revision. (I'm not exactly sure how other year groups were taught during this time!)
It worked well - although DS said there were a lot of distractions.

How interesting. DS also at inner city comp with lots of dtsadvantage & think rationale is same. Some ship out to grammars and they seem to break early. DS said he would rather be in school with his friends so that is good.

DC school does timetable lessons - and they do revision for that exam in those lessons till it happens then they can do their own revison for other subjects.

They tend to lose more and more pupils over the weeks as they just go home after exams so lessons get quieter for remainder and then may half term happens and afterwards there usually an announcement they can go in just for exams left.

I’m guessing since a level lessons have finished and y10 go on work experience there is some flexibility of teachers. I also suspect (hope) y11 are the priority for those few weeks.

No a level study leave at my school either. And year 10 have done work experience.

A quick 'proud mum' post if you don't mind indulging me! Ds is not a 'grade 9' student and has to work really hard for his results, with a lot of prep and guiding he's been doing that. His school require 44 points in top 8 to stay on for a'levels and he's come home today with 49 points in his mocks. I'm so proud of him. And moreover it's made him see the benefit of the revision timetable we've put in place and using the resources (lots of which I've found in here!)

Fantastic - congrats

I haven't read the whole thread but will join and lurk here. I'm on a year 11 support thread with a range of DCs - I don't remember feeling that everyone is expecting all 9s. My DS's grades etc seem to be picking up a little but I'm not sure how much revision he's doing, and he's planning to do a college course in music performance, rather than A levels, at this point.

No study leave at DS school too. Like you all I am secretly relieved as I know he will get much better structured revision at school. They are setting a new timetable after first week in May to take into account the exam timetable with revision sessions just before the next exam.

I hope everyone is well - first exam for us will be over 6 weeks today.

I wonder if anyone can advise if it's possible to buy exam papers printed out anywhere. I am looking for more niche subjects, PE, computing and there doesn't seem to be much choice.
Printing out whole exam paper and mark schemes seems unworkable as I don't have a printer that can print in booklet form.

Have you asked the school? They won't necessarily give paper copies but can link you to online papers.

I can find papers online, I just can't print them out.
DS would work better with a booklet rather than loose sheets.
I might just buy a couple of practice workbooks. I know they do the past papers as practice in school.

I've just taken the hit in ink and printer paper - they are on boards website as pdf so print them off as A4 sheets - then shoved them in polly pockets for each paper - and another for mark scheme and answers - and put those in folders and they work though them.

Though if there are work books for their boards often also get those - as some subjects only have a few years exam papers.

You could try asking department heads - as Science in DC school - DD2 does triple - but the entire department produce printed out booklets for revision for each topic based on past paper questions. They are the only department to do that - some teachers will give out printed past papers but most don't.

Your child is in a similar situation to my son. He excels in mathematics and science but struggled with English in his most recent mock exam. Although English is not my first language (unlike my son’s), I believed it would be beneficial for both of us to study together like I did with my older child. My older child has severe autism and dyslexia, and he attended a special needs school. However, by teaching him in the same way I have been teaching my younger child, he was able to pass the Functional Skills English Level 2 (equivalent to a GCSE Grade 4) in just three months.

We’ve been working through all the English textbooks as a team, creating flashcards, and practicing extensively with past exam papers. As a result, he has significantly improved his understanding of language techniques and the correct use of punctuation.

He has also become faster at writing longer texts, as I encouraged him to focus on depth in his writing. This approach involves asking plenty of "why" or "how" questions and providing factual evidence to support his points.
We only started studying together two weeks ago, so I’m hopeful he will continue to improve. At the end of each day, I feel exhausted, but it’s been completely worth it. My son, who didn’t always appreciate my efforts before, has started showing gratitude for the time and support I’ve given him. I wish your child all the best !

Just wondering if any of you have any tips for getting to grips with English poetry please? It’s iGCSE edexcel (if that makes a difference) she’s looked at Mrs Rumsey’s annotations online (suggested by teacher) but still doesn’t understand and is really struggling to memorise. We are both very literal so find this kind of thing tough. The stand in teacher is now on indefinite sick leave so probs won’t get advice on return as main teacher on maternity. Any guidance much appreciated!

One big plus from a glance at the spec is that you are provided with the poems if you choose to do the first question. The second one is more like the AQA GCSE qu where you choose a text to compare with one you are given.

She needs to know terms for language, form and structure and be able to pick them out – so maybe practice with some of the poems. Perhaps the ones she understands best – pick an example of a metaphor, a simile, etc. Is there a theme to the anthology poetry selection (doesn't look like it to me)?

Then I think one good way at this stage is to find as many past paper or past paper style questions as you can and try to answer them – even just making bullet points of notes of relevant points (eg the sample question on the website talks about powerful images in two specific poems – so try and find as many as you can and note how they are presented). She should have some decent notes or backup from her school on how to do this and examples to follow?

@clary Ive forwarded your reply to DD and she’s said thank you very much! ☺️

Eng lit is not my main subject but glad to help; I have supported enough students that I know a bit and really at this stage it is about practice and confidence. Worth remembering that as long as you can argue the point in a valid way, there is no wrong answer.

Ahhh that’s what’s throwing her because for some of the poems the teacher has interpreted a line one way but Mrs Rumsey says something different (for example). It’s definitely a confidence thing.

How’s everyone’s DC getting on?

Thanks for asking. DD has her French speaking exam tomorrow. She says she ready 😎

We are plodding along, Ds did very little revision over the Easter break. He is honest about not being able to make himself do it but doesn’t take well to any encouragement or questions about when he plans to start.
He is out today and will just get back in time to watch Liverpool possibly clinch the season. I doubt he is then going to work in the evening.
I am hoping he scrapes the grades to get into sixth form and feels so bad about not doing as well as he could he knuckles down for A levels. There will be much more on the line with university places being so competitive.