If your child is about to embark on their ‘GCSE journey’, there are probably dozens of questions spinning around your mind. Aside from the obvious one (which is ‘where has all the time gone? It seems like only yesterday they were at primary school!’), you may well be wondering what their GCSE journey will look like, how to encourage good study skills from the outset, and what you can do to support your child in their studies. This blog aims to provide a short introduction to what to expect during the GCSE years – and what you might be able to do to help!

It’s been a strange few years!

You will have not escaped the fact that the global pandemic we have been living with has affected schooling in all sorts of ways. At GCSE level, for the 2020 and 2021 exam groups, the number of topics the pupils were assessed on was reduced and teachers were asked for a ‘best fit’ grade based on a pool of evidence (practice exams, portfolios of work etc etc). By the time your child starts their GCSEs, it is hoped that the worst will be behind us – and the school will have planned to teach a full GCSE course.

GCSEs changed before the pandemic

In the years before the pandemic, GCSEs changed. New courses were created that included much less coursework (or controlled assessment) than before, with only some of the more practical subjects like dance, art and drama retaining this element of assessment. Most exams now take place at the end of a two-year course, removing the module system that was previously in place for some subjects. In many subjects there have been changes to the content students are expected to study, and they are generally required to answer more essay-style questions than ever before. A new 9 to 1 grading system was also introduced, replacing the A* – G grades.

However, whilst your child might well think that GCSEs are ‘far too hard now’ and that they’re ‘never gonna be able to do them’, it’s important that you reassure them that although GCSEs have changed, they are still there to do the same job as they’ve always done – that is, to assess how well they have got to grips with a particular subject. If your child is a good geographer or historian, who has worked hard in class and at home, listened to advice from teachers, attended school regularly and tried their best, then they will be rewarded with the grade they deserve.

GCSEs still assess the same skills, knowledge and understanding that they have always done. They might get students to do things slightly differently, but the good scientists and linguists, for example, will still be rewarded with good grades! Panic over!

How schools ‘set up’ for GCSEs

Many schools have a three-year Key Stage 3 (usually years 7-9), which leaves two years for GCSEs at Key Stage 4 (years 10-11). Other schools reverse this and go with a two-year Key Stage 3 and a three-year Key Stage 4. There are rules that state that a school must do one or the other – but your school should be able to rationalise the choice it has made.

However, no matter how your child’s school is set up, the chances are that for some of your child’s new GCSE subjects, they will have more lessons in that particular subject per week than ever before. This is because there is space in their timetable as a result of them ‘dropping’ some subjects. For example, your child may have had one or two history lessons and one or two geography lessons per week in Key Stage 3. However, they may have chosen to do GCSE geography and dropped history – so they will probably now have three (and some cases four) GCSE geography lessons per week – and no history.

And, if we keep with the geography example, the course leader for georgraphy (usually titled ‘Head of Geography’) will tend to have free reign to choose whichever exam specification (course of study) they like. They will split the course topics up into units and write a ‘scheme of learning’ to get the students through it, lesson by lesson.

Some geography departments I know, for example, study the human geography element of the course for two of the four lessons and the physical geography element for the other two. This might result in several different exercise books for the same subject – and this is something that you might be able to help with! Just being aware of which books they need to take on particular days and creating a space for them to keep their books handy will reduce stress levels no end when they are scrabbling around searching for their school books at 8am.

Furthermore, I would certainly make sure you know which examination board and specification your child is studying for each of their subjects (get your child to ask their teacher). There are several main government-approved examination boards that provide GCSE courses and exams for students. Each subject at your child’s school will have chosen one of these courses to follow. Make sure you know if your child follows the AQA history course or the Edexcel one, for example. Knowing this means that throughout your child’s time studying GCSEs, you can go onto the exam board website and download all sorts of free resources to help support your child’s learning, including specimen and past exam papers, mark schemes and example answers.

Encouraging good study skills

Your child may feel really overwhelmed when they start their GCSEs, which is totally understandable. Here are some things you can do to help take some of the sting out of the ‘stressing’ they will inevitably do:

Getting homework done on time

They will very probably get homework (although some schools now follow a ‘no homework’ policy). Those that set homework (most do) will publish a homework timetable, which has been designed to be manageable. Make sure you have access to that timetable and act quickly if your child isn’t sure what to do.

No teacher takes pleasure in a child doing homework badly (or not at all). The homework is given to enhance learning, so if your child is unsure, simply write a short note asking for the teacher to explain the homework again.

Creating the right environment

Creating a study space is a really positive thing to do – away from all distractions if possible. I know this is very difficult in some families – but a small, quiet area where your child can take ownership of their learning should bear fruit in the future. Then, make sure your child has everything they need – notebooks, revision books, pens, paper, post-it notes, index cards, and so on.

You could buy folders that allow them to divide and organise their work into sections, so their work is easy to access.

Preparing for tests

Each department in your child’s school will have an assessment policy relating to how they want to track their students’ progress. It might (and probably will) involve smaller tests at regular intervals (one test every half term is common) and a larger ‘exam hall exam’ at the end of the year.

It is important that you try to keep these tests and exams in perspective. Until your child gets to the end of the course, in the summer term of Year 11, these tests and exams are simply a way of the teacher seeing if what they have taught has sunk in. They are as much a test of the teaching strategy used by the teacher as they are of students. They indicate to the teacher what they need to go through again – as well as what students need to pay particular attention to themselves.

When it comes to sitting down and doing some revision, though, here are a few top tips you might like to share:

• Help your child create an overview of what they need to revise and break each subject down into manageable chunks. This is where knowledge of the exam board specification will help.
• Set definite start and finish times for revision sessions and have a clear goal for each session.
• Get your child to ask your teachers for practice questions or past papers.
• Get them to practise making plans and answering questions under timed conditions.
• During breaks, have your child do something completely different – for example, they could listen to music, have a chocolate biscuit, or make a cup of tea.
• Ensure they make their revision active. Don’t allow them to just read notes – make flash cards or mind maps, or use the post-it notes you bought when setting up a study space. Then make sure they ‘apply’ what they’ve learned – in other words, get them to do something with their knowledge (such as a practice exam question).

Further support

As well as knowing what exam board specification your child is studying for each subject, it might be worth investing in some of the approved resources that may well be used by the school. For example, if your child does history, there is every chance that the school history department will use one of the exam-board-approved textbooks. This might be a worthwhile purchase as it allows you to follow what they are doing in class, and even means you could set little recall tests for your child – nothing overly complicated, but a message that home is ‘on it’ as much as school!

It might also be worth thinking about your family’s ‘away day trips’ a little more carefully. Trips to art galleries, river valleys, coastal zones, science museums and heritage sites such as castles, battlefields and cathedrals might brighten up some of the topics in school. My daughter, for example, is studying GCSE goegraphy and was recently doing a unit on river processes. When we took the dogs out for a long walk a few weeks ago, it was well worth driving a few extra miles so we could take in the river processes at work in Carding Mill Valley in the Shropshire Hills. Indeed, my older daughter studied GCSE history and did a long unit on Medicine in Britain. When we went to Edinburgh on a family holiday, we made sure we visited James Simpson’s house on Queen Street and went to the National Museum of Scotland to see Alexander Fleming’s Nobel Prize for Medicine. The art, design and fashion galleries were also of specific interest to her as a GCSE design and technology student!

Finally (and I think this is perhaps one of the key elements of parental support) it’s important not to stress too much about the transition to GCSE! In the same way that primary schools aim to form the bedrock of knowledge, skills and understanding that students will need as they progress to secondary school, the secondary school will have been preparing your child for their ‘GCSE journey’ throughout Key Stage 3. And, of course, if you do have any concerns about your child’s progress, attitude or effort, be sure to use parents’ evenings as an opportunity to develop a positive relationship with the teaching staff – they absolutely want your child to do as well as you do!

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If your child was born between 1 September 2017 and 31 August 2018, you will need to apply for a place at primary school by the middle of January 2022.

If this applies to you, you might find yourself asking two questions:

1. Wow, primary school already, where did the time go?
2. Now, where is my child going to go to primary school?

NB: This post was first published in November 2017 and last updated in October 2021. Dates will vary slightly in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. If you are in Wales or Scotland, visit your local council website for further details. For those in Northern Ireland, .

If you’re lucky enough to live in an area where you have a choice of primary schools, now is the time to think about choosing where you’d like your child to go. As a prospective parent, there are lots of factors to consider and lots of sources of information to help you make your decision.

What are you looking for in a school?

Before we get started, it is useful to think carefully about the things that are important to you as a parent. These will vary from family to family and might include:

• Atmosphere and ethos: Does the school feel friendly? Are children valued and cared for? What is behaviour like at the school?
• Academic standards: How do children do academically at the school? Does the school have high expectations for all children? Do all children make good progress?
• A rich curriculum: Does the school invest time and money in the wider curriculum? How does the school’s Early Years curriculum work? What is music teaching like at the school? How much emphasis does the school give to sport and healthy living? Are drama and the arts taught throughout the school?
• School site: Does the school have plenty of outside space? Is it well-used? What are the classrooms like?
• Location: Is the school near to home? What will the journey to school be like and how will you get there each morning?
• Before and After-school provision: Will you need to use a breakfast club or after-school club? If so, what does the school offer and how much does it cost?
• Friends: Is there one school where your child’s friends are planning to go? Is this important or are you happy that they will make new friends in Reception?

Just like with house-hunting, it is worth drawing up a list of the things that are most important to you when choosing a school. This could be done in three columns:

• Things that are must-haves.
• Things that would be nice.
• Things that aren’t important to you.

And just like house-hunting, it is likely that you’ll need to make trade-offs between different factors. If you are lucky enough to find the perfect school that ticks all the boxes, you’re doing very well indeed.

Sources of information

The easiest way to find out about schools in your area is to search by postcode on the government website:

• ±õ²ÔÌýEngland, use the Department for Education’s  service. This will give you a list of both state and private schools near you. You then have the option to search by school type, Ofsted rating, religious character and pupil gender. You’ll probably also talk to friends and other local parents, perhaps at nursery or playgroup. The DfE site allows you search by school name too, so you can look at the schools that are recommended.
• ±õ²ÔÌýScotland, use this .
• ±õ²ÔÌýWales, you can find out about your local school at .
• ±õ²ÔÌýNorthern Ireland, use the government’s pages on .

Choosing the school

There are lots of sources of information to help you make your choice, but unfortunately none of them offers a cast-iron way of deciding which school is right for you and your child. However, it can be useful to think about:

1. National test results

Each year, children in Year 2 (7-years-old) and Year 6 (11-years-old) sit assessments in reading, writing, mathematics and grammar, punctuation and spelling. The results of these tests are shared on the school’s website and the DfE site. The reported headline figures tell you how many children reached a particular standard in English and mathematics in a particular year (87% at the expected standard, for example).

The DfE site also offers an overview of the progress that children make between KS1 and KS2 in reading, writing and maths. As with the other sources of information, national test results offer one source of information, but they are not a perfect measure. The last couple of years have seen a change to the National Curriculum and the assessments that children sit and some schools have adapted to this more quickly than others. They also assess a small area of the National Curriculum, and don’t tell a parent anything about the rest of the curriculum, including science, the humanities, music, the arts, or sports and games.

2. Ofsted rating

There are four possible gradings from Ofsted, the body that inspects schools across England. The highest rating is ‘Outstanding’, then there is ‘Good’. The final two are ‘Requires Improvement’ and ‘Inadequate’.

Ofsted ratings can be useful in making decision, but they shouldn’t be thought of as a definitive verdict. It is worth remembering that they are based on Ofsted’s decision, not yours. Likewise an Outstanding school might have a very different ethos and set of priorities to you. A school that Ofsted decides is ‘Good’ might be perfect for you and your child.

It is also important to check when the inspection was carried out. ‘Outstanding’ schools are no longer inspected, meaning that the report might be anything up to ten years old. Obviously things can change a lot in that time. Equally, a school that ‘Requires Improvement’ may have improved significantly since its last inspection and might now offer the perfect education for your child. Ofsted reports are a useful starting point, but that is all they should be.

3. Reputation

It is very possible that you will know people who have a view about the schools near to you – perhaps parents with children there already or other parents who are looking at local schools too. While these are useful, it’s worth remembering that everyone is looking for something slightly different in a school.

Also, schools change as the head teacher or staff change. Another person’s ideal school might not be right for you and your child and vice versa.

This is also true of information on websites or online parents’ forums. Posts will share an individual’s opinion or experience and that might be very different to other parents whose children attend the school.

4. The school’s website

A school’s website can provide plenty of information about the school – both assessment results and Ofsted reports and details about the curriculum and extra-curricular activities.

Perhaps the most interesting parts, however, are things like copies of the newsletter for parents or the diary that lists events and clubs at school. These give a valuable window into life at the school and how the school communicates with parents.

5. Visits to the school

Once you’ve considered the other sources of information available, this might be the most useful thing to do. Attending an open morning or visiting the school is the most important thing you can do. This is your chance to see what the school is like in reality, meet the head teacher or other senior staff and perhaps ask some questions.

Applying to the school

Once you’ve made your choices, the next step is to fill out the application form. This can be found on the website for your local authority. Even if you are applying for schools that are not under LA control, such as academies and free schools, or if you are applying to schools in other LAs, you still add them to the form from the area where you live.

The most important thing to do is to look carefully at the entry requirements for each school you’ve chosen. For some schools, including faith schools, places are awarded based on specific criteria and it is important to check that you meet these criteria. Unfortunately, choosing a school doesn’t necessarily guarantee your child a place there.

If all of the information that is available seems overwhelming, try not to worry. It might sound a bit woolly compared with all of the numbers and data available to you, but most the important thing is to visit and get a feel for the school. By all means listen to the opinions of others, but ultimately you know your child best.

Good luck!

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The phonics screening check is used by teachers to assess children’s phonics skills learned through Reception and Year 1. It usually takes place in the summer term of Year 1, but due to school closures, the check didn’t take place this summer. Instead, Year 2 children will be doing it over the next half-term, in November and December.

What does the phonics screening check involve?

There are two sections in this 40-word check. Your child will read up to four words per page for their teacher and they will probably do the check in one sitting of about 5–10 minutes. Although the check is compulsory, it isn’t a formal test and is usually carried out by the class teacher, one-to-one, in a relaxed environment. The check also includes some nonsense words that are phonically decodable but are not real words. These check children’s decoding skills, making sure they cannot guess the word.

You can find more information on our phonics screening check page.

How can I help my child’s reading at home?

Sharing books together

Reading phonetically decodable books at home is very useful for developing children’s phonic skills.

• Before your child starts reading, look at the cover and title together. Encourage them to think about what the book might be about to get them engaged and in the right frame of mind to read.
• Talk about the book as you read, recapping and asking questions as you go to check your child’s understanding of what they’re reading.
• Point to the words as your child reads, encouraging them to try every word to the very end (children learning to read often neglect suffixes).
• If they’re struggling with a word, help to break it down into individual sounds, then blend the sounds together. Breaking words down into syllables can also help. With longer or compound words, support children to identify elements of the word they might know or find easier to decode, for instance, rain/ing, kind/est, foot/ball. Cover up part of the word and encourage children to read it in smaller chunks.
• If your child is still struggling, it’s OK to tell them the word.
• Finally, don’t forget that praise is really motivating for children as they read.

Make practice fun!

Here are some quick, fun games you can play at home using the focus phonemes in your child’s reading books. These will all help to increase confidence reading and blending sounds.

• Write down all the phonemes on separate pieces of paper and get your child to practise reading them quickly, one after the other. Mix up the order to make sure your child isn’t reciting them!
• Stick up different phonemes around a room and ask your child to hop to one phoneme, skip to one and jump to another as you call them out.
• Get your child to write as many words which include the focus phonemes as they can in 30 seconds. Make it easier or harder by giving them more or less time.
• Choose six phonemes and give each one a number. Roll a dice and ask your child to say the phoneme that the dice lands on.

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• The Year 1 phonics screening check: frequently asked questions.
• Free eBook library: free eBooks from 51ºÚÁÏÍø.
• Phonics activities: free phonics activity sheets and online activities.
• : tips and games to help you support your child’s learning at home.
• Oxford Reading Tree and Levels: learn about Oxford Levels, used in schools around the world, and find the right level for your child.

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