Y10- 2025/2026

[CouldNotStayAway]

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

I hope everyone had a nice half term and the DCs went back happily. It’s a bit quiet on this thread, but hopefully no news is good news!

DD had parents’ evening (online) just before half term and all seemed to be fine. She is capable academically and at a grammar school, but although she does her homework diligently and revises a bit for tests, she hasn’t shown any inclination to do any extra. I was hoping her teachers would tell her that if she wanted top grades she should start getting into good habits, but there was nothing like that. Maybe they think she works hard at home already – or perhaps I’m just being paranoid after looking at the Y11 thread on Mumsnet!

The only exciting thing to come out of parents’ evening was the enthusiasm of DD’s English teacher who said she has a talent for creative writing and asked her whether she has entered any competitions! This has inspired her to find a suitable one to enter, and she’s planning her story. We will see whether she goes through with it, but she does love writing so I think she will. It’s a shame that good careers involving writing are so rare, in this world of AI!

@Lisamummy22girls – what an honour for your DD – is that from January, or not starting until September?

@AnnieAverage – did you see every teacher? I definitely would have done – particularly the teachers your DD doesn’t want you to see, LOL! What did you decide in the end?

@brackengirl – how did parents’ evening go, particularly English?

@CouldNotStayAway @Eccle80 @TickingAlongNicely @purplejeanie @Fluffycloudsfloatinginthesky @jeansgenie and anyone else I’ve missed – hope your DCs are happy and doing well!

It’s great she’s enthusiastic about creative writing, hope you can find something for her.

We don’t look to have a parents evening until June, which seems like it’s out of step with everyone else. We had a report before Christmas but just in terms of current likely grades, no actual written input to understand how he’s actually getting on. I’m trying to encourage him to get some support from his older brother with science and maths, but getting him to engage is easier said than done!

Hi all
all ticking along nicely here…

we had parents evening just before half term and Im very proud to say she is smashing it - on track for some great grades - so fingers crossed she keeps on this path

She is loving her role on the school council

we have mocks in June so that will he the first big revision test - school organise a timetable which the kids are expected to keep to so thats gonna be interesting, she struggles with revision and techniques so ill be interested to see how she gets on

@LetItGoToRuin Thanks for resurrecting the thread!
Seems ages ago that we had parent's evening. DD's English teacher obviously knows her stuff but is very old school in her approach. DD seems to have got to know her more though and is able to deal with her marking "finally some decent analysis" rather than getting upset about it and she's quite determined to do well so we'll see.
We've spent since Christmas in a blur of school production and local theatre production culminating in what felt like a million hours at the theatre in half term but both DD's were amazing and it was lovely to see them perform.
DD1 has applied to be a prefect next year and DD2 has to pick options for September so it still feels like there is a lot on, but hopefully a bit more time to fit homework in and actually have some spare time!

We have parents eve in mid-March, we get absolutely no feedback on how they are doing apart from that. No reports or anything, just a numeric score for their attitude to learning. I'm so glad there is no 6th form there and dc have to go somewhere else.
Work experience is all sorted, that's not till May but for a shy and quiet dc it's going to be hard work even though the location is lovely.

Got back mid term report based on last tests. Again he blanked in English and History, so no marks there. Maths he seems to have gone suddenly downhill this year (from getting 50-60% marks to 30) and I think needs to be moved back from set 1 to set 2. But he's doing OK in science, drama and psychology, which is good. I was nervous about psychology as a choice as honestly I'd just have gone for the easiest last option possible and psychology is on the difficult end, plus I had no idea how he'd take to it, it was really led by DH. But the answer seems to be fairly well. I think they're not only doing essay questions yet, though.

Nice to hear everyone's updates! DC2 is chugging along. Maths is a real struggle at the moment. She yo-yos between the top and middle sets. She's currently back in top set after doing really well in the middle one last year, and I thing she'd be better back where she was, even though it's a bit of a dent to the ego.

We've finally sorted some work experience for her - she was interested in catering and hospitality, but after so many knockbacks (mainly non responses which pisses me off a tiny bit) we said she'd have to widen the net and she's got a spot at a conservatoire. They do have a large and busy cafe so perhaps she can ask to spend a little time with catering while she's there!

That's really interesting @TheTurn0fTheScrew - I think set 1 just moves too fast for kids who are wrote good but not super secure in maths. DS was near top of set 2 for first 3 years but I don't think he can manage in 1. We have a school catch up tomorrow and want to bring up setting for maths.

DS also had assessment for access arrangements for exams because of his ADHD so hopefully he will get some extra support from that before GCSEs.

@LetItGoToRuin your dd sounds like ds; he’s at a grammar school too, does homework and little revision for exams, and seems to be nicely getting through it all. Sounds like she’s a brilliant writer, hope that goes well!

ds was slightly annoyed with the maths challenge (he did get kangaroo) but maths is his thing, so not getting higher definitely knocked him.

@Lisamummy22girlsthats great to hear re:grades! And that’s your dd is enjoying the school council. DS has mocks in June too; he really does need to do some work for those (hopefully). He also has his first gcse this year; so let’s hope he does the work!

@RunningKatieyour post reminds me DS still hasn’t sorted work experience! I’ve left it up to him, I think this will be a ‘life lesson’ in not leaving things last minute.

@Echobellyits good to hear psychology is working, hopefully things will pickup again for you ds.
is it more nerves (apologies if you’ve mentioned this before); as he sounds capable and was therefore placed in set 1. Hope it all works out for him

hope everyone else dc are doing well too!

@LetItGoToRuin@CouldNotStayAwayour children sound a bit similar. My son is in a very selective school. He’s doing fine but could be doing better! Similarly doesn’t revise much. Making me very nervous about summer mocks. Revision seems to very much depend upon me sitting with him and cajoling him and I don’t have lots of time due to work and other DC. He does seem a bit more motivated though than at beginning of year 10, so I hope that continues. He’s doing music which he’s struggling with and the teacher isn’t great. No mention of work experience yet, I’m guessing that will be something for next year.

DS told me that he doesn't like psychology that much, but he really likes the teacher. And he likes his science teachers too. So that seems to be having a big impact on his achievement.

Yes an inspirational teacher makes all the difference

Parents evening - I booked to see every teacher but dd got quite hysterical about me meeting her art teacher so I decided to cancel that one last minute. Dd has fallen behind and is very unhappy despite me repeatedly reassuring her that it doesn’t matter in the slightest what grade she gets in art since she is doing 10 other GCSE’s brilliantly. She could draw stick men and doodles for all I care!

But she has got very wound up and didn’t catch up at half term break so she has got in trouble with the teacher. I have told dd not to worry; just do something quick and dirty to get approximately back on track.

But dd currently hates me, the world, and art GCSE in particular and absolutely refusing to talk to me about it which isn’t helping.

The crazy thing is she is very talented but it’s such a lot of coursework and she’s smashing our predicted 9s in Maths and the three sciences and 8s in everything else. I will try again tomorrow to point out she only needs to “audit” art gcse - strategically she’d be better to let that one be a low grade and that another couple of 9s where she is capable without much stretch - better to have a clutch of fabulous grades and a 4 in art than a very pretty grade 7 art portfolio and a spread of 8s.

It is so hard to make her listen since of course she knows everything and I’m just an idiot mother!

Great idea for a thread! I can see me needing this 😂DS is taking triple science, computer science, geography and business. I'm a bit worried as they seem quite writing heavy subjects and think he would have been better with music or photography instead of business. No idea why he chose it but it's done now.

He has his heart set on doing computer science at uni as he's a passionate coder but he is being assessed for adhd/add and has some kind of processing disorder. He's had extra time since year 6 and they've done the assessment again for GCSEs and said he didn't meet the threshold for it. We think it's because it's done on the pc and he's a very fast typer. They're going to do it again manually to make sure he gets it but it's been so stressful.

He's predicted 6-8 but recent school report was all over the place mostly 6s, a 2 and a 3 and an 8 in computer science. His attitude to learning has taken a big nose dive since year 9. Parents' evening was lots of "he needs to concentrate more, stop fidgeting and fiddling, needs to focus, stop distracting others" etc. Really frustrating.

We've put systems in place to help him stay on top of things and create routines/habits and he has improved. He said he was sick of hearing the word "lists" but now he's making his own for everything. It seems to have given him a kick up the bum and he is doing homework and revision daily without being nagged!

@Spud90thst seems great that he’s become more organised. Bet it’ll helps Wish my son would revise without nagging (even with nagging )! I got a call from his geography teacher today saying he’d done badly in yesterday’s test -he can’t seem to grasp the 8 markers. He’s going to be really upset because he enjoys geography but hates revising ..and I'm worried that it’ll make him all down and negative and anti school.

How’s everyone doing? Mocks after Easter?

It didn't last very long unfortunately 😅I think he is struggling with the increase in demands and I'm worried about burn out. He has finally been diagnosed with inattentive ADHD last week though! I started the process when he started year 7 so it's been a long wait but he can start trying medication next month so hopefully that will help.

Yes, he struggles with the 8 markers too and both his geography and english teacher said there were times when he wrote absolutely nothing. 😩 His business coursework has been marked at a 3 so he has to work on that over Easter as it's being sent off when they go back.

@Spud90i can’t believe how long it takes to get a diagnosis. I guess the good thing is, now you know how to help and what should work, and I hope it is smooth sailing for you all from this point on :)

@purplejeanieyep mocks straight after holidays. once mocks are over DS will need to focus on the upcoming gcse he has this year. Can’t believe we are nearing the end of year 10! He’s also finally managed to sort work experience out, so that’s a relief!

We don't have mocks until summer 2 but she's had lots of assessments in the past two weeks. It's now clear that physics is her weakest science but she's done pretty well overall I think and found out on Friday that she's a prefect in her favourite subject next year and her drama devising group is exactly who she would have picked if she could so thankfully a fairly cheerful start to the holidays!

@Spud90really sorry things are tougher, but hope the medication helps. It’s taken ages but at least now before GCSEs, things should improve.

We also have mocks directly after Easter and I’m dreading the struggle of trying to get my DS to revise. He’s very capable but unmotivated so will use any excuse not to do it and I’ll have to be constantly monitoring ! I’ve said we will go away for the weekend for the final weekend if he works hard, so I hope that helps

@CouldNotStayAwaytough to have mocks and then real GCSEs directly after! I guess it helps to have the practice directly before.

@Spud90it has helped my daughter a bit but it’s not the magic solution I had been hoping for. That said she is probably autistic as well and the mediation won’t solve that……

DDs mocks at the end of June

think its quite formal for us with a revision timetable and proper exam conditions

Mocks for us were in Feb, but there are more tests in science after Easter in preparation for the exams in June.

They are doing some of the actual exams at the end of year 10, which seems scarily close.

There is an English paper in May, a maths paper and the first 3 of the double science papers also in June.

We have known about the English for a long time, were told about the maths earlier this year, but the science was only mentioned in class about 2 weeks ago, and the parents were only told about a week ago.

Maths and English content for each paper has been covered. Maths is now recapping. English is moving on, but I think they will recap a little too. I think they have covered the majority of the science content and will finish the rest shortly. At least it gets a few out of the way so a few less to fit in next year.

All together there I think there will be 18 written exams, plus a variety of non exam assessments, oral and practicals. We didn't have nearly that many when I did GCSEs, but the exams we sat were longer than now.

No mention of work experience stall- i don't think they do it.

Wow, so your school sits all of the main GCSEs maths, English and science in year 10. That's really unusual.

What's their reasoning for that? Doesn't it leave rather a light timetable for year 11? They are effectively 6 subjects down (assuming they sit English Lit in year 10 or perhaps it's just Language).

Lindy2 - we are in Wales and some of the gcses were revised from Sept 2025, others are from 2026 and some 2027.

Maths and numeracy are a double award and there are 3 exams.

English is a double award (not separate lang and lit). 3 modules have exams, three are non exam assessment (i think 2 nea for each module).

Double Science is 2 papers per subject and a practical module.

They are doing 1 maths paper, 1 English paper, and the first 3 science papers (one for each science).

Not sure if they will do another maths or English in November yet, but even if they do there will still be a maths paper, English paper and 3 science at the end of year 11. Welsh is also compulsory and will have 2 written papers at the end of year 11, with 2 speaking/listening assessments in year 11 too. Plus the subjects taken as options.