DD 15 year 10 going into year 11 schoolwork

[Splattherat]

DD has just finished year 10 and will be going into year 11 in Sept. Her school hasn’t been brilliant and didn’t organise anything virtual until the end of June (DD attended a few of these but they were poorly attended) and not lessons seemed to be mainly the teachers making small talk about have you all been into Primark and meeting up with friends which DD hates and felt it was a waste of time. So then she refused to attend after this.

She has been very quiet and withdrawn during lock down but assured us she was keeping up with her school work we asked regularly and have always spoken about how important it is to work hard and do the best you can at school etc.

Then her grandfather died during lockdown (they weren’t massively close but I was upset), at the same time next door started building an extension and I think she fell off the wagon with her school work.
Its difficult to know how far behind she is with it but whatever she’s done she clearly hasn’t sent everything back to the teachers so they think she has done very little (this was confirmed two days before the end of term). DH and I have been working from home and have asked her many times how she’s doing, if she needs any help with any schoolwork etc. But each time we have been met with obstruction ranging from moodiness, nastiness, swearing and tears. DD has dyslexia (and isn’t massively academic but usually keeps up with her school work). How can I best help her get back on track in the holidays without world war 3 breaking out so she doesn’t start year 11 on the back foot?

would she work through some of the oak academy lessons? they explain each subject in detail (so she could find things she is unsure about), and then complete the worksheet that goes with the subject
classroom.thenational.academy/year-groups/year-10

Thanks for the link. I think I would prefer she does her school work. I don’t think anything is too difficult for her she’s just fed up working on her own in her bedroom (and getting messages from other kids that they aren’t bothering with school work, whats the point as corona could go on for years etc).

My main worry is if she is so behind come September and they have another lock down then school can only grade her on what she’s done or what they have proof that she’s done. So the academy work would be be good as a refresher but wouldn’t replace her schoolwork.

If her schoolwork wasn’t being done virtually I would remove her technology until she had made some acceptable progress with her schoolwork but as it is she is getting up late, lounging around in a dressing gown all or most of the day, lying about in her bed or on her bed. I have no idea where she is at as I don’t have access to her school email address. I don’t want to be the gestapo or anything but I am really worried for her future and seem unable to get through to her about how important to the best she can at school for her future.

I think that in order to get her to do some work, you'll need to get tough.

I would sit down with her and explain your worries and what you plan to do about it, ie get her to do her work. Maybe agree on an hour a day of work to start with and see how that goes. I would take away tech for a day if she doesn't do it, start again the day after. Just stay calm and reasonable with her.

Just to add, my year 10 told me he'd done all his work, and he has done most of it, however, he has done absolutely none for one of his options and I have no idea how he will catch it up, so if he decides to drop it, if you can even do that, I will let him. He doesn't need loads of gcse's in order to do A levels. I also didn't worry about PE or Life Skills while he was off. Are there any subjects your DD could let slide while she catches up the important ones?

My soon to be Year 10 ds is academic but still needs lots of encouragement and support to start working. It's so difficult for them working at home for months on end. His school was good, setting online lessons as normal. Towards the end of term, his head of year said to just concentrate on the core subjects and the subjects my ds is taking for his options. The subject areas he won't be revisiting (art, geography, French and Spanish) we weren't too worried about. My ds has completed majority of his work and plans to tie up some ends over the summer. Would your daughter focus on just working in the core subjects? It could be just thinking about or seeing the amount outstanding that is overwhelming her and then she panics and gets upset. Maybe if she concentrated on core subjects for the time being it will feel.moew manageable?

Thanks unfortunately she uses her tech for her schoolwork so I can’t take it off her and as I have no access to her school emails I have no idea of exactly what she still has to do so I wouldn’t know whether she’d done it or what progress she is making as its all online. She was doing ok for the first month of lockdown but then got very disillusioned with it and went very downhill. She’s been telling me she’s been doing her school work for ages but clearly she has either done it but the school hasn’t got it or she hasn’t done it. Her options are Geography, French and Photography (she is likely to take geography in 6th form if she can achieve a high enough grade in it and English and Maths) and Photography is the only subject has done really well in and is up to date with so she could possibly not focus on her French. We have had umpteen chats with her about the importance of her schoolwork and GCSE’s but to no avail.

Don't worry love, in past epidemics / wars kids have had disrupted education and no online learning but still turned into good hardworking people, nurses, doctors, electricians etc. Don't worry my love, all will be ok x💐

I would demand email access, as well as access to any virtual learning platform the school use.

I'm guessing that part of the issue is she is now probably completely overwhelmed by what she hasn't done and doesn't really know where to start sorting things out.

Go through her emails and see if you can work out roughly what needs to be done and set up some sort of schedule. I think she will possibly need a bit more supervision to get back into the habit of working.

I would also recommend getting some revision guides and accompanying work books. I have found the cgp ones very good, but you need to make sure you get ones for the correct exam board and syllabus.

@Splattherat, in reality what is your DD going to work on over the next 5 weeks? In her eyes everyone is now on summer holidays and schools aren't setting any online work at the moment.
I have a DD of the same age and a number of my friends are also parents of students going into yr 11 in September. They are all in the same boat, having missed face to face teaching and chunks of the curriculum over the last few months. I feel confident that a couple of things will happen. Schools will prioritise teaching and ' catching up ' for yr 11, exam boards will tweek the exams and /or move the grade boundaries.
We have no option but to respond to what happens with Covid. Part of that is to keep things in perspective for our DC so that their mental health isn't impacted. Your DD may already feel an additional level of pressure because of her dyslexia.
I was a teacher for many years and I know that staff have been and will be stepping up to the challenge of getting our DC back on track.

A little bit every day of her backlog of work. If she starts year 11 behind it will be hard to catch up. If she starts year 11 behind AND we go into a winter lockdown, she has no chance.

Why would she be behind at her school? Doesn’t sound particularly academic given their approach to lockdown?

Thanks all and Onesmallstep67. I have a friend who works at the school and she said the teachers have said that come Sept they will be so busy that they won’t have time to go over any school work not done/missed out during lockdown.
Yes, she is overwhelmed but just closes down and refuses to give us access. She responds better to DH and he went up to her room calmly with the intention of going through everything she hadn’t done with her and helping her figure out a plan but she got extremely shouty and sweary with him.

That sounds tough OP and I can completely understand that you want her to at least be engaged with school work by the beginning of Y11.

I think starting with 'everything that she hasn't done' sounds overwhelming for your, dh and her tbh. I would suggest that you start with one subject (let her choose), go through what she hasn't done then together come up with a plan for how she can get this subject finished.

You or dh may need to micro-manage her a bit to start with, but hopefully completing one subject will motivate her to feel able to tackle others. She'll choose one that she likes and doesn't feel too far behind with, so it should be achievable even if it takes her a while go get into a rhythm.

Then suggest you take the same approach with the core subjects etc.

My dd is going into Y8 and has done the vast majority of the work set, but I did implement taking her phone off her until 4pm a few times when she got behind.

@Atadaddicted

Why would she be behind at her school? Doesn’t sound particularly academic given their approach to lockdown?

Because she hasnt done the work set.

Thanks will that approach Monday. She reckons she has done 75% of the work but I have my doubts.

Could you take it methodically- one subject at a time?

Ask her to write down the outstanding work she has to do for each subject and then write up a to do list. Sell it to her as an amnesty- no blame, just solutions.

It’s really hard to get motivated after losing focus , Could you get her excited about college etc by focusing on that and life after year eleven?

At 15 you can't just take their word for it if they not into school work.
They just want to do the same as their friends.
Our school done Google classroom and I checked every week to see work was sent in.
My dd done only the set work which where English Maths and Science but as long as she done these and handed them in school where happy.
She also done alot off art
They think they are doing it for school and trying to convince a 15yo they are learning for themselves is hard work

Thanks all. Yes that was the plan to catch up with one subject (of her choosing) at time but the maths department have set quite a large amount of additional maths work to be done over the summer for everyone in addition to the work she is already behind in.