Y10 GCSE - dd writing English essay till 1.30am...

[swedishmum]

... then she was up at 6 this morning to proofread. She didn't leave it till the last minute, she just likes to do everything well. Are your year 10s getting so overloaded? Or is my dd just a perfectionist?

ds is doing one now. Has to be handed in tomorrow - he's left it 'till the last minute (though to be fair he was away over the weekend). I'll let you know when he finishes it.

Your DD sounds like mine (now in Yr13). She often stays up for hours perfecting essays - now she is perfeting her UCAS application!

Forgot to post - he spent about an hour on it, so not the perfectionist type (for English at least, he does spend longer on other things sometimes if they interest him).

She's in an a group - apparently (according to Y10 gossip!) they have to get at least 2 marks over a mark to stay in the group. Sounds like pressure to me. Will see how it pans out... She's bright but had practically no useful ENGLISH TEACHING AT PRIMARY LEVEL SO VERY LOW SELF ESTEEM. Whoops - shouting not intended. Sorry!!

aarrgghh, must ask DS1 if he's done a piece of his English - he couldn't write it out last week because he badly damaged his thumb.

There is no way DS1 would be up until 1.30am completing homework though - he'd have fallen asleep hours before.

The only time I ever stayed up that late during GCSEs was when I started the work at 10:30pm the day before it was due. If you're sure it wasn't left until the last minute, I think you need to have words with her and possibly her teachers.

My DD also in year 10 so I feel your pain. It's only English that they have to do course work at home though I don't understand
why, well yes I do come to think of it you cannot commit plagratism (sp) in English because it is your own work.

Yes I've given suggestions to DD when she has been overtired on the PC after midnight. She got an A* for that one but it was mainly her own work. I would much prefer every piece of coursework to be done in the classroom.

My DD preferred to do coursework at home where it is quiet. In the classroom, even top sets, it is noisy and some kids are disruptive (well at her Comp they are anyway).

Just wait until the mock exams & revision starts - then you have to switch off the lights for them & force them away from the books.

I'm surprised she had to work so long on it in one sitting. Most of the English teachers I know, myself included, would break a coursework essay up into smaller "chunks" each to be done by a certain date.

For example, my Year 10 group have to do four paragraphs tonight, with specific topics, which will form part of their Media essay. Last week they did an extended introduction for their homework. If I made them do it all at once a) 60% of them wouldn't do it (even the A* pupils); 30% would do it but not to their full potential; 10% would do it and then lose it! This way, they work in sections drafting it and then typing it up.

If she really has having to do the whole thing, with such a tight deadline, I think you'd be right to check things out with the teacher.

If she really IS, not "has" -

Sorry: the English teacher didn't proof-read her post!

My Y10 boy seems to be coping fine. He has been lazy/forgetful in the past, but everything seems to have clicked now. He hasn't worked outrageous hours though.

Seriously, wait til Year 11. It's bloody ridiculous . The standard answer to 'Are you doing anything this weekend/evening/lunchtime?' is 'I'm in Year 11. We don't have social lives.'

Bloody hell, I want to work where your kids go to school! Only two people in my Year 11 class of 29 EVER hand in homework, if I gave them a lesson in which to do coursework, on average they'd do three lines, and even when I've gont through it ad nauseum with them, they STILL whine at me, "but I don't know what to dooooooooooo..." Oh yes, and they're in the second set, so they're not dinnies.

Where are all these children who stay up late at night writing essays? Are they the Stepford children?