Help Needed - GCSEs

[webwoman05]

DS1 14 has just started his GCSE courses and is struggling and getting very upset. He has a statement so he gets help but he is really finding it tough. I am trying to reassure him and boost his self esteem but he is very emotional as he is getting very low marks in tests. He has always struggled and is getting very fearful for his future. What else can I do to help him?

I used to see this all the time when I was a senco. One of the things we used to do was rduce the subject load by one in consutation with child, subject teacher and head of subject. The time was used to support the child in learning support for part of the time and allocate some time to private study.

One very improtant thing is to teach the child how to organise his work; how to organise his thoughts and possibly (but not yet) buy study guides in his subjects.

I explain to my students that they need to start revising now and by doing this they will lern as they go along and have created files to look back at. He should use mind maps, power points, diagrams, labelled pictures to help learning.

Finally have you thought of getting a tutor? You need someone with special needs experience rather than single subject experrience. If you pm me I will send you samples of the kind of thing he can do with your help.

Thanks so much for responding. He is doing ASDAN and foundation learning rather than 4 GCSEs so he does get some extra help.We are just in the process of getting a tutor too. I will PM you shortly.

Do you know where his difficulties are? I would discuss this with the Senco and let them know how distressed he is.
Out of school, I'd put your energy into building him up with activities he enjoys and is good at.

Meloncoley2: He doesn't really have a label or diagnosis as such but he has severe processing issues and trouble with writing. He is in the bottom set for everything. Have spoken to SENCO and they do have some measures in place eg homework club etc, getting the TA to write in his diary what the H/W task is as he often can't read his own writing! He thankfully has a great bunch of friends and is very active out of school with playing footie with his friends, going to the gym etc. The enormity of doing GCSEs just seem to have compounded his fears that he struggles with just about everything however hard he tries. Since talking to the SENCO recently he does seem slightly less stressed which is good. Let's see what this weekend brings....

webwoman can't really help with the strategies, as we still have it all to come (ds1 is 13, Y9 and has ASD with slow processing), but I can relate to the anxiety your ds is feeling re the GCSEs.

You mentioned the TA recording his homework for him and that's the one strategy we've insisted on since he started secondary, as ds's writing is illegible. Can your ds type? Mine uses a laptop in class and will be allowed to for his exams too, as it's his normal method of doing his work. It might be worth considering.

As for the anxiety. Ds started panicking about GCSE's last year. We took the pressure off completely and told him that all we want is for him to go to school every day, do his best and whatever his results are, we will find a way to make things work for him (as in to get into the field of work he's interested in). We told him that nothing is worth getting that anxious about and actually, GCSE's aren't the be all and end all, they are just one route forward. We then explained that it might take a little longer and require a longer route to get there, but that doesn't matter and we will be here to support him every step of the way. (It helped that I'd been doing a bit of reading around about college courses, apprenticeships etc online, so could tell him about some different options. There's actually a lot more available out there than I knew about, so it was worth doing a bit of research to set my mind at rest as much as ds'.)

He's a lot happier about it, at the moment at least and his grades have actually gone up since we took the pressure off. Not sure what will happen when he moves into Y10, but we will just keep up the same dialogue about just going to school, doing his best and seeing what happens, then we'll work it all out from there.

I get so irate with how hard children are pushed regarding exams these days, the pressure on them is unbelievable and so unnecessary, when, in reality, there are lots of different routes towards working and having a rewarding career.

I hope your ds is feeling a bit better about it all by now.