Y10- 2025/2026

[CouldNotStayAway]

Hi all! Thought I’d start a new thread for the upcoming new academic year!

It’s almost the end of term! How does everyone feel Y10 has gone?

DD seems to have had a good year, with solid friendships and no dramas. Academically she seems to be doing well (report pending!) but the ‘end of year’ exams (in May) were a useful wake-up call in terms of how much revision to do for each subject, and how best to do it.

She’s losing four teachers at the end of this year which is not ideal mid-way through the GCSE course, though in each case she knows who the replacement(s) will be and she thinks it should be fine.

Is anyone’s DC planning on doing any studying over the summer holidays? Just after her end-of-year exams, DD regretted not keeping all the maths and science units previously studied ticking over and expressed an intention to work through them all in the holidays. I fear those good intentions may not translate into positive action! I will gently encourage but the drive must come from her really.

I was going to ask the same question about revision as my son is really resisting. He also has a ton of coursework to do for DT and even that is an argument. I’ll keep pushing to do a little each day. Unfortunately the DT is on the computer and he keeps procrastinating (moving to other websites).

Glad it’s all gone well for her! Having so many teachers change is a bit frustrating, but hopefully the new ones will be good.

DS isn’t super academic, but I’m really pleased with how his first set of mocks have gone, with all his grades being between 4 and 7, particularly science where he got 6-5 having previous had 4s as his most likely grade, and he’d struggled in year 9 with a teacher he didn’t really learn anything from. Despite a few things going on a couple of months ago that could have really thrown him, he seems to have found some motivation to try and achieve his best next year. He’s intending to work on his DT NEA over the summer, and in my ideal world he’d keep up a little bit of work, especially maths where he didn’t do quite as well as he should have done, but I am a realist!

My DD has had a good year 10.. had most of her mocks back and are all 7-9s (6 in Biology)

She is pretty resistant with revision too.. I just cant see her say in her room doing hours of revision as well as homework on the new content..

she is so lucky to have the brains she has but doesn't seek to have the work ethic so will ok well but could do very well

My DD is also talking about making revision materials for the sciences - she talks a good talk - I just hope she does it

Year 10 has flown by, but mocks in Feb sort of seem a long time ago. ( they did yr 11 mocks then year 10 mocks straight after).
We are in Wales so one maths paper, one English paper and 3 science papers (one for each) have already been taken. We get results day 2 years in a row!
The next maths exam is in November and we have had a message to say there will be maths work online over the summer. They are encouraged to do it to reinforce what they have learnt so far, in the topics for the next exam.
Some other subjects have asked them to finish things that have bern started over the summer too.
Scary to think by thus time next year, hlthry will have finished GCSEs.

DD has also had a good year 10- better really than expected as for the first time ever she seems to have a group of friends where she feels one of the group rather than an outsider in a group which has done wonders for her mental health. Academic wise she continues to do really well, she scored all 7-9 in her mocks, passed her music exam with distinction and won the headteacher's academic award, she has worked really hard though (is a perfectionist who is very hard on herself) so does deserve it. I think with Y11 she needs to keep outside interests and hopefully friendships going as otherwise I could see her burning out before the exams get here or getting completely demoralised by one bad result- it feels quite a fine line between academic success and metal wellbeing sometimes.

Can’t believe how fast y10 has flown by!

mocks went well, work experience was ‘fun’ according to DS. He’s talked about trying to do some work over a few weeks during the holidays. I think the gcse astronomy was a bit of a wake up call as to how things can change when it comes to the actual exam (found one paper a lot harder compared to past papers he’d used).

Hope everyone has a lovely summer break!

Our children seem quite similar! My son got all 7s and 8s in mocks apart from one 4 in music (!) and whenever he works hard he does well, but is resistant to working and tend to do the minimum . He did take the mocks seriously but tends to only work under pressure and leaves things to the last minute and doesn’t do enough. Hence I can’t imagine him revising over the summer.

I agree! Ill be amazed if she revises

Mocks weren't great, but the ones he took were OK all things considered.

Obviously no marks for English Lang and Lit as he couldn't sit either. On the other hand, quite encouraged he got 4s in maths and history, even though he wobbled in the exams he says, but he'd not managed to write anything in history other history tests this year, so that's really encouraging. And basically he will pass maths and that's all he needs to do. But I think he can get a 5 or maybe even a 6 in the real thing.

Got a 6 in psychology, which is a pretty great so we want to tell him, however he revised psychology, do that for everything else. 44 in science which means he only goes in for Foundation, which is a bit of a shame as I thought maybe he could make a 6, but this caps it at 55. OTOH, I feel pretty confident he can get 55 with an easier exam and it might be better than doing Higher and maybe only getting 44. Only a 3 in drama written exam, but I think he wasn't really sure what to expect from it and it was his first drama paper.

He only needs 5 grade 4s for the Btech he really wants to do, but I'm hopeful he can manage 5 subjects at 5 or more, if you imagine him going 1 grade up for each, which is respectable. I'm just resigned that he may have to retake Eng Lang with his Btech.

ive not posted on this thread for a while but my daughter has made it to the end of Y10 still in school which is an achievement after a Y9 which had so many suspensions and detentions I thought she would be in a PRU by now.

it hasn’t been smooth sailing but it’s a lot better - she takes her medication most of the time and the teachers have also learn to recognise when she hasn’t.

the MH lead that started supporting us end of Y9 has been amazing - she was the first person that actually saw the ADHD that I was convinced she had even when the other teachers thought she was naughty.

She is also pretty sure she has ASD (as was suggested by the ADHD) assessor so she is doing a new referral for that to CAMHS and I am not having to battle and fight for it to be done.

Mock results weren’t too bad - 57% in the higher maths paper which compared to the 14% she got not that long ago is amazing.

it just makes me sad that she didn’t get the support earlier to have got all of this resolved before the GCSE years. I truly think if the MH lead had been involved sooner we would have.

@Echobelly that does sound like really encouraging results, and hopefully more than on track for what he needs. Do they make a decision already on higher vs foundation? At DS’s school they said the final decision wouldn’t be until closer to the time.

@Fluffycloudsfloatinginthesky well done to her on getting through year 10, and it’s great she finally has some support.