For those of you with kids doing GCSEs this year...

[evergreen]

You can lead a horse to water etc... I ask daily if any revision is being done, dd knows what she needs do to following mock results, the ball is in her court I can’t do it for her, she is however doing every extra lesson at lunch and after school and if dd feels this is enough only time will tell

[amy56]

I’m so thankful for this thread!🙂

We are a year behind most of you (my son is in Year 10) and has prelim exams all next week.

I’ve been hearing from other parents for weeks about how they are making their children revise for these prelims, and as a result, I’ve felt pressured into making a timetable for my son to revise throughout these last couple of weeks.

It’s been a real battle, as DS feels that these prelims are a waste of time, as he will also have some again next year - and I must admit that secretly I agree with him! (Since when do these schools do more than one lot of prelims? - when I was at school (granted a long time ago!), we had mocks a few months before the real thing, but these days my son’s school seems to always be testing them!).

I’ve been stuck between trying not to put too much pressure on him as it’s so early, and then worrying he is falling behind as he isn’t doing what everyone else ‘appears’ to be doing!

He literally never studies and I genuinely don’t think he knows how to! He literally sits staring at books and won’t write notes as he says he only learns by reading! I’m going to buy him flash cards for each subject, as he doesn’t want to write them out himself from his books, as he says that’s a waste of time!

I’ve found this thread so reassuring, as looking at this it sounds as though we’ve got twelve months plus before we really need to start worrying! So thank you and good luck to all of our children!👍

[kathrynmc]

My daughter started her revision plan in January when they went back after Christmas. Her dad was off Monday-Wednesday, so the first couple of days she didn’t do any as they went out. She did a few hours yesterday and has spent about 4 hours today.

Her school is still giving homework so some evenings consist of homework and only a small amount of revision.

She did quite well in her mocks but wants to do better

[clochette]

I have to say I am quite impressed with the amount of revision DD has done this week - I have to say it's about time, though! I seem to have been nagging for weeks and I know she did very little for her mocks before Christmas. However, we got the most important thing out of the way in Monday ie Prom dress shopping and that seems to have motivated her.

Good luck to everybody - not long to go now!

[Mrs Red C]

Thanks for this thread, an interesting read! Dd is year 10 at the moment so I'll check out the revising website.

Her teachers think she's on track but her school's GCSE results last summer were poor with the new system. Hopefully the teachers will improve with the current year 11s and thus improve the year 10s... fingers crossed!

Revision seems like walking a tightrope, got to keep the balance with all the pressures.

[smithlane]

Well I’m in Vegas and my DD is in the Forest of Dean with my parents so I’ve escaped the moaning so far this week😉
She has apparently been doing about an hour every day and my sister has been helping her with a revision timetable. I find she actually does some revision everyday and has been for a while but I’m not sure how much she’s taking in as every time I go in the room she’s watching/listening to something on her iPad! I get my head snapped off if I say anything. Will have to get her downstairs where I can keep an eye on her though. The school have set mandatory revision sessions everyday after school starting Monday for every subject done on a 2 weekly timetable and if you don’t attend with a valid reason you don’t get invited to prom. Saturday revision will start soon too so hoping all this extra will help her knuckle down!

[sarah4dogs]

DS16 has just started this half term. He hasn’t done any all year and homework is supposed to be revising but he just sees it as “no homework”. So now he is doing 4 hours a day. He’s breaking it up by doing 10am - 12pm 2-3 and then an hour after tea (his choice!).

God knows how effective he is being. His mocks were good. He could do better but isn’t bothered enough to push himself!

[JLH]

My son hasn’t done any , he has been doing extra revision classes every day since after Christmas , his mocks were ok which has made him think he can get away with doing very little sadly . My older two did more revision at Easter rather than feb so hoping he does the same .

[Alwaysdisley]

I don’t have kids but thought I’d wade in as a teacher of GCSE. No it’s not to early to start, I am hoping that my students are revising now and that they are doing this more than once a week for my subject. From experience I know the students that do little and often are the most successful, going to booster sessions at school is great but should not be seen as an alternative for their own revision. Only my opinion of course.
Good luck to all the Year 11’s our there!

[Jagmate]

My ds started 'revising' before xmas for his mocks and didn't do too badly but boy, did it take some nagging on our parts! Exhausting! He's at a selective grammar school so therefore their requirements for staying on for sixth form are higher than at other local schools. He's desperate to stay on so he does have that as an incentive and after parent consultation last week, he was quite boosted by his teachers saying what they thought he was capable of with a bit more effort. He has been working with a private English and Maths tutor throughout Years 10 and 11 as we felt that those core subjects are too important to rely solely on school (his maths tutors daughter is actually now a maths teacher at his school which is useful!). I think the penny is definitely dropping for him now over the amount of work/effort he needs to put in and we've firmly put the ball in his court in terms of letting him know that he needs to want to do well for himself. On a normal day, he does any homework then does half an hour per subject for 3 subjects of revision. He has Saturdays off, does two hours on a Sunday morning and has the rest of the day off. Obviously this will all increase as we get towards Easter. His plan for this half term is to do some Corbett maths each day, then one each chemistry/physics/biology question. We've then decided that we're going to watch the Laurence Olivier version of Romeo and Juliet as well as Baz Luhrmann's and we're going to try to really help him get some greater depth understanding of his other English Lit texts. Whilst he's going through another 'really determined' phase, we're embracing it and trying to support him whilst he is and keeping fingers crossed that it will last for the next couple of months. He's off on air cadet camp this weekend which I think will be really good for him in terms of downtime, hanging out with his mates in the fresh air and mud, and also clearing his head a bit.