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Secondary education

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Original poster

GCSE preparations...how necessary is this...?

36 replies

GypsyMoth · 03/02/2010 10:26

DD due to take GCSE's this summer....am very supportive,trying to help with revision,gentle nagging tc etc

however,2 things....
first.....revision books....school seem to be flogging them,more than just making them acvailable,but STRESSING how usefull they are etc. recent parent/teacher consultation evening they were all on display to buy/order and all the teachers were mentoning them. how important are these??

second....group text and letter home about parents evening for maths and english revision information evening. i cant really make it. its 6pm,am a lone parent with younger children to sort out. how important is this evening??

i remember NONE of this kind of thing when i sat my exams. short of actually going in and doing the exams for them,is this amount of involvement necessary....feel like the worst mum in the world for not jumping at the chance to more or less force revision at this stage.

anyone got any views?

OP posts:
webwiz · 03/02/2010 10:41

Well my DC's school does push the child/school/home triangle as being the key to success (makes life difficult when its the child that doesn't hold up their corner!) so these sorts of evenings are very common.

I found revision information evenings of limited use (6pm what are they thinking of!) but I went anyway just in case they were telling me something I didn't know. DCs school also went through the same stuff with the kids as well in PSHE - mind maps, past papers for maths, etc etc and telling the parents meant that kids couldn't swear blind that the best way to revise was with music blaring out and your facebook page up on the laptop.

I think we were offered some revision guides that the school could get cheaper than the shops but how useful they are depends on your child - DD1 loves a revision guide but DD2 hates them.

sdr · 03/02/2010 10:43

My DD is the same age as yours. She finds the revision books useful and they seem to be a bit cheaper through the school. However some children find websites work better for them.

As for the revision evening for parents - you're not sitting the exams. And I think we can all work out support for our DC's. I'd just call the school, explain you can't go and ask them to post out the notes.

Our latest is they are insisting on some after school French lessons, apparently they are compulsory. However they are on the same day/time as DD's physics/maths tutoring (out of school). She is doing well in French but borderline failing maths & physics. I know which is the priority, but try explaining that to the French teacher.

I don't remember this much pressure!

Original poster
GypsyMoth · 03/02/2010 12:17

well as DD is the eldest of my 5 dc,it will be interesting to see how the schools promote this over the next 12 years1

i have a form here for some revision guides,i'll see which dd thinks will be of best use. she does use web sites so will continue,i hope!

dont think i'll attend the prep evening. have just been to loads of school related evenings,but cant do this one,maybe they should post out/email notes and guidance to parents rather than more pressure this way

thanks for advice!

OP posts:
mnistooaddictive · 03/02/2010 13:01

This increased preparation is one reason why exam results have gone up. REvision guides are useful but I agree that it works out very expensive and a lot of pressure is put on students to buy them. Don't feel you have to.
I would ask for noted from preparation evening and not worry about it.

pagwatch · 03/02/2010 13:05

My son got 6a*s and 4As and we never got revision books. He did test papers the school provided and didthat old fashioned, going through his books thing.
We did help him with revision thoough as in helping him set up a schedule from easter onwards and getting him to stick to it

pagwatch · 03/02/2010 13:08

( sorry. I only posted his results so it didn't read like 'we did no revision and he did fine with his F in geography'. It was for context but I realise it looks a bit pleased with itself )

Original poster
GypsyMoth · 03/02/2010 13:10

pagwatch,thats encouraging to hear.

to be honest,i'd buy anything the school recommmended to get my dd good grades. she's not the brightest naturally,but her enthusiasm is good. she will struggle to get the grades for uni as well as good enough grades for 6th form study. teachers say with a bit more work she should gain enough...such a responsibility!

however,i bought all the SATS revision books...why on earth did i do that?! they were barely looked at,wont make that mistake again!

OP posts:
Tinuviel · 04/02/2010 13:33

"Our latest is they are insisting on some after school French lessons, apparently they are compulsory."

SDR, if it's a state school and the sessions are after school, they are not compulsory. They just say that to try and get pupils to go. It really bugs me when teachers lie to pupils/parents (and I am a teacher, so am allowed to say that!!) Something similar happened to a friend recently.

If it's a private school or an academy, the situation may be different.

JGBMum · 04/02/2010 18:06

Tiffany - ask the school if they can post or email the parents eve information out to you. Our school werer happy to do this when I explained that we couln't get to a meeting.

scaryteacher · 04/02/2010 22:40

I taught GCSE RE for 5 years. The exam board we used had revision guides written by the chief examiner and they were fab. They had everything in them you needed to revise from and get a C. They also had exemplars of how not to answer questions, and how to do it, including mark schemes and showing how the mark schemes are applied. For students who didn't want to revise they were invaluable; and as they weren't thick books, those who were less able weren't put off by them.

I mark for the exam board, and I've just ordered the revision guides for the new specifications as they are my quick reference guides if I need to check an answer from a candidate.

scaryteacher · 04/02/2010 22:41

Amazon ladies, Amazon - can be much cheaper as well for the revision books.

violetqueen · 05/02/2010 06:49

Tinuviel - well Academies are state schools .
And lots of them insist on revision classes with threats of Saturday detentions ,and promises of bikes and cameras if kids get 100% attendance at them.
Makes me so cross - kids have other things in their lives outside school ,but apparently that's only ok if a school organised activity.
( I'll step away from the keyboard now! )

tatt · 05/02/2010 07:09

have you had mocks yet and how has your child done in them? I have great trouble getting my children to revise but they do well without it. They are tested and tested at school and there is some evidence that repeat tests help to remember what they have learnt.

Mine were prepared to use the bbc bitesize website, although I think that's more games than revision. The CGP guides are more child friendly than most cgp

mumeeee · 05/02/2010 22:08

my girls all used revidison books and found them very usefu. We didn't have parents revision information evbenings but there was a ciopy of how to revise sent to the parents.

SimonDanes · 24/03/2010 13:40

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

iamdisappointedinyou · 24/03/2010 14:26

There are two sides to every story.

I am with envy at those of you who are complaining about their school applying too much support pressure.

Original poster
GypsyMoth · 24/03/2010 14:40

aww...iamdisapointedinyou...whats happened with your school??

i have namechanged...i was the op....thanks for the advice simondanes,its getting ever closer. dd has had her dance practical this week,and alot of the other stuff is out of the way. just the exams....

OP posts:
MmeBlueberry · 25/03/2010 07:19

I think that anything you can do for your child will be helpful.

Revision guides are good - they aren't particularly expensive.

I haven't heard of parents' evenings for revision but I can see how they would be useful. Some kids find revision really hard going and, if they are on study leave, it can be difficult to organise their time. If you know what to do to support them in their revision, then that can only be a good thing.

Goblinchild · 25/03/2010 08:05

The advantage of revision guides is that they keep the student focused on exactly what they should be revising, and the correct language. My Aspie loves physical geography, but can stray off the point to lecture and elaborate. fascinating to discuss with him, not much use if the aim was to learn specifically about one area.

juuule · 25/03/2010 08:27

"8 hours' revision a day, 5 days a week." during the Easter holiday

optimisticmumma · 25/03/2010 08:46

My DS1 did GCSEs last year. He did very well (context, not ..youknow...!)
He had CGP revision guides which he used a lot.
There's NO WAY he did 8 hours a day, 5 days a week in the Easter holiday.
We tried to get him to do 2 hours first thing and then get out and have a life!!
It does depend on how easy they find academic work though.

Does no -one remember going to their rooms for hours and really feeling they were putting the time in but actualy doing nothing??

My advice to my son was to be really efficient when he was revising and make it count.

Get the school to send the info or get another parent to give you a roundup of what was said!

HTH

optimisticmumma · 25/03/2010 09:07

Just wanted to add that a lot of this is probably due to the pressure schools are under to get the kids up to 5 A* - Cs each.
Also, agree with Mme Blueberry about organising study leave. I seem to remember that my son's school organised optional study lessons with the teacher (esp for maths) during study leave - definitely take the school up on these if they're offered.
With the level of coursework the push right now is to get that done especially if your Ds is doing art otherwise the tendency is to keep going at it and it does eat into revision time...

optimisticmumma · 25/03/2010 09:08

Sorry OP I meant DD.

Original poster
GypsyMoth · 25/03/2010 12:07

we have progress here...just been in to clean dd room,only to find 'twilight' posters are down,and some revision timetables have appeared in place.

she seems to know what she's doing,have purchased all revision guides bar one,which teacher will obtain in next few days.

so on track....sister is away with school for some of easter hols,so going to suggest alot of revision is done then,whilst she has room to herself. also explained to younger kids....i have 5! that dd will ned some peace and quiet over hols.

anything else i can do??

OP posts:
JGBMum · 25/03/2010 15:43

It's worth going online to the revision boards and taking copies of old papers and the exam marks - but beware, it is a lot of paper so choose carefully.
Or even better, get DD to check what past papers are available at school and then you will hopefully only need an extra few.