Anyone joining me on this trip?
Can’t believe I’m here again so quickly (DD sat hers this summer). This time its DS and likely to be a more nail biting! His latest proclamation on the subject was that as his tactic of 4 hours revision per subject for the summer exams wasn’t too disastrous , he thought 8 hours per subject for the real GCSEs should be about right!
I feel a bit sorry for him, DD worked incredibly hard and did well. I think he feels intimidated, and disinclined to work that hard. He’s only just turned 15, here’s hoping maturity hurries up...

I'll be joining you.
Dd is our elder child so this is our first time. Ages very focused and I predict that our main role will be talking her down from intermittent stress-y moments. There's a huge focus on managing stress and looking after their mental health at school - which is great but has the unfortunate side effect of making my fairly calm child feel that she shouldn't be feeling calm!

I’ll be joining you too. This is our first time too. My son has been given a lot of work and guidance from his school. Let’s hope he follows the advice and puts in the work.

Salsa

I am in too, DD is first to do GCSEs so it is all new to us.

My DD has been back at school for just over a week and has been absolutely snowed under with work. Hasn't even had time to watch X Factor!! Her friends at other schools have also found the change from y10 to y11 a bit of a shock in terms of work.

I think dd noticed more of a ramping up of work from y9 to y10 and hasn't commented so far this year (although she leaves today for a 3 day school trip so will have plenty of catching up to do, no doubt).
She had no work set over the summer except to plan the English Language speaking assessment which they did earlier this week. I think she feels quite positive that that's one thing out of the way!

Can I join too ?? First time round for us too. Dd has been back at school 5 days and has already said the teachers are stressing her out !

They were given their homework timetable on Monday, and every class will set homework every day .... she plays sport outside of school so bang goes any chance of a social life for her or family life for us.

Crackerjax - it's not when it's set, it's when is due in the next day that is the problem ...

It's usual to have homework every night.

She might need to negotiate as DS did when he was playing matches for the school ... and work was expected in the next day.

DS is not reporting any increase in workload or stress at school, which doesn’t mean there isn’t any . He has already managed to lose his DT folder for a week (I found it earlier by chance)... and breathe!
He has three new science teachers and the sets for sciences have been re-jigged. By all accounts they were all on the same lesson at the end of last term (super human lesson planning if that’s right). I think its a good thing as there was a fair bit of messing around in his set last summer, by all accounts. No re-jigging of sets in any other subject.

I'm here too, Dd1 - eldest of 3 has just started year 11 so our first to sit GCSEs next summer. She has some health issues currently so we have weekly hospital appts - quite stressful trying to minimise the impact on her work but the school are being helpful.

Great to have a support thread - thanks for starting fairyelephant