Life-changing exams at 16?
Whose stupid idea was that?!?
Exams, revision, coursework & raging hormones. Ugh.
So your child is about to sit their GCSEs, and you’re not quite sure they’re ready yet.
(Let’s face it, you’re not quite sure you’re ready yet – when did they get so grown up??)
What is it that’s worrying you the most about the next few months?
Is your child more ‘stress’ than ‘study’?
More ‘party’ than ‘proactive’?
More ‘put-it-off’ than ‘bring-it-on’?
Every GCSE parents evening, I’d hear the same thing from 99% of the parents.
“Y11’s so important! What can we do to help?
I’d do my best to give the ‘Here’s how to pass GCSE maths’ speech in the 2 minutes we had left, and they’d probably get a similar speech from every subject that evening.
That’s a LOT of information in one go.
How much of that do you think you’d remember the next day?
In an ideal world, they’d give you a handout with all the information on it, but let’s face it – schools are underfunded, and that’s a lot of paper.
It’s frustrating because GCSEs are very different to the exams we sat way back when.
(For starters, anyone else remember having to actually go to the library to research something? Using the one little computer they had there and putting in an Encarta disk? No Google for us!)
So what would help this year?
• You want to help them feel confident, not overwhelmed.
• You want to help them make the most of their revision time for the whole year.
• You want to help them start NOW, so that it’s not a giant stress-filled last-minute rush.
• You want to avoid spending all year arguing / nagging because it’ll make you both crazy.
• You want to make sure they’ve put in the right amount of revision time for every subject, not just their favourites.
• You want to make sure you know when a deadline is coming up, so you can make sure they’re ready for it.
• You want them to aim high, and do everything they need to so that they can study the right things at post-16, so that they can get the job / university course they want to at 18.
• You want to help them set up study skills for life, so that whatever post-16 education throws at them, they’ll be able to handle it.
That’s a lot of pressure!
You’re busy enough already juggling work and family (and occasionally attempting to have a life of your own).
You‘d love to have the time to spend a couple of weeks on Google, searching up exam schedules, course details, revision techniques etc, but realistically it’s not gonna happen.
To be honest, you’d still be worried you’d missed something important because you don’t know what you don’t know.
Watching your child struggle with anything is tough, but it’s SO much worse when you feel like there’s nothing you can do to help.
Lucky for you, there’s us.
We know how busy you are,
because we’re busy parents too.
We’ve not only been there, done it, and got the t-shirt, we did it with twins
We know you don’t have hours to spend sitting with them.
We know all about revision techniques, exam strategies, mocks, coursework, and the joys of persuading a teenager that revising is more important than ‘just one more game’ of Fortnite.
Introducing the Parent Guide to GCSE
-a support programme for parents,
so that you can all have a better year.
Imagine watching your child’s face light up when they open their envelope to find their dream results.
You can help them get there.
With the Parent Guide to GCSE,
we break down what you need to know into small, simple chunks each week.
You’ll get all the information you need, when you need it.
- Revision tips and advice, so you can be sure your child is revising effectively, and in a way that suits them, so they’re fully prepared for the exam content.
- Exam technique advice, so they’ll be able to squeeze every mark they can out of each exam.
- A comprehensive overview of each subject, complete with recommended revision resources, so you can be sure they haven’t missed anything.
- Delivered in bite-sized chunks in a weekly email, so you can get all the information you need, when you need it, without getting information-overload.
- Access to all the help videos and information in our members area.
PLUS, invest in the premium package and you’ll learn everything you should know about:
- How to help your child build great study skills for life.
- How to improve your child’s attitude towards exams, including tips for motivation and for stress-reduction
- Preparing for Post-16 choices
- CV building tips (that look great on university applications)
Definitely worth signing up. The weekly emails are really useful.
Alison, member since Aug 2019
Membership is now available
I’m already getting my 15 year old involved with the emails so she knows where I’m coming from, and she’s asking me every Sunday if the email has come in!
Kayte, member since Aug 2019
FAQs
Here’s what others have asked:
Isn’t this the school’s job?
Schools generally do a fantastic job of making sure your teenager knows everything they need to know in order to pass their exams. That said, teenagers aren’t always the best at communicating (or remembering), so it often doesn’t filter through to parents. While you can entrust a lot of this to schools, your child spends around 50% of their possible learning time at home, so they need someone to help keep them on track there too.
Isn’t a lot of this stuff on the internet anyway?
You can find quite a bit of it, if you have the time to search, and you know what to search for. Trouble is, there’s a lot of bad advice out there, as well as a lot of old advice. We do the filtering-out-the-rubbish bit, so you don’t have to.
If it helps, think of us as a time-saving subscription box. You’ll have seen the meal-prep kit adverts – instead of going shopping, deciding what to cook, searching for recipes, and checking whether you have all the ingredients (and then measuring them), you just get them to send you a box with all the right stuff in, including instructions. No wasted time or effort, and no brain power required (because let’s face it, your day has been challenging enough already).
We do that, but instead of dinner, we ‘prep’ your knowledge about what to talk to your child about to keep them on track!
Am I going to have to find the time for this?
Other than reading the emails, and watching any videos you are interested in, it’s really up to you how long you spend getting involved. The aim is to make our tips things you could discuss over the dinner table with your child, since we know you’re all busy!
You launched at the start of the school year – does that mean I’ve missed stuff if I join later?
There’s a catch-up system in place – don’t worry. We’ll make sure you get all of the weekly emails, even the ones that have already gone out earlier in the year.
What if I decide I want a refund?
You can cancel the monthly plan at any time, and we won’t take any more payments cipro pris. If you’ve paid in advance and want to cancel, we’ll refund based on how many months are left until the end of June.
Why shouldn’t I just get a private tutor if I’m worried about my child’s results?
Private tutors are a great way to improve a specific grade. If it’s just one subject you’re concerned about, then that’s the way to go. We however, provide you as a parent with the tools you need to help your child improve all their grades, by improving their study skills overall. We’ll also help you to make this a less stressful year for the whole family, by making your interactions with your child more support, less ‘nag’.
I’m in Wales – will this still work for me?
GCSEs in Wales are graded differently, but we will be including WJEC (the Welsh exam board)-specific information in the programme too.
I’m in Ireland – will this still work for me?
We’re not including CCEA in our exam boards this year, as it’s a little too differently set up (they still allow for students to take exams in January, rather than all at the end of the course. If your child’s exams are mostly with CCEA, we won’t be very helpful to you. We’re sorry.
I have a specific question – how can I get in touch?
Drop us an email at support@parentguidetogcse.com