Ex-Peterborough teacher’s advice for parents of GCSE pupils as school closures expected due to coronavirus

Emily Hughes from https://www.parentguidetogcse.com/ has written the following column on why parents should not be too worried about closures, and practical advice on how to support their child.

With all that’s going on at the moment, you’re probably worrying about what’ll happen if they close your child’s school, particularly if they’re due to sit exams this year.

Here’s why you don’t need to worry:

Past papers are an easy fix

One of the better ways to revise is to test yourself. The more familiar your child is with past papers, the easier they generally find the real thing.

While most exam boards only have a couple of years of *this* version of GCSE, you’ll find that for most subjects the older papers are just as useful. They’re free to download and you can get the mark schemes too.

Head to gcseguide.co.uk/papers for all of them in one place.

Teachers will still be teaching

Even if your child’s teacher is ‘technologically challenged’, there are teachers up and down the country that will be setting up online lessons and resources in the case of school closures.

Schools are also busy putting measures in place so that students will have work to complete, just in case.

It’s all online somewhere

There are a host of online education providers, and many of them are making their content freely available to support students in this situation. We’ll pull together useful links in our Facebook group so you can find support for every subject online.

Practical things you can do to prepare:

. Stock up on notepads/printer paper.

. Get them to bring their books home, along with any other revision materials that they have at school. They may not have a chance to pop in and pick things up in the event of a school closure!

. Have a revision timetable drawn up to help them structure their time. (We have a free revision plan generator on our site that’ll build one for you in under five minutes).

. Stock up on wine/chocolate/valium/earplugs/box sets. However much you love your kids, once cabin fever sets in it’s going to be a looooooong couple of weeks...

Finally, regardless of how well prepared their school is, there isn’t a child on the planet who won’t try the old ‘I’ve run out of things to do…’ trick to get out of working.

That’s why ParentGuidetoGCSE.com have teamed up with YourFavouriteTeacher.com to help you make sure that if your child’s school does close, they won’t be disadvantaged.

We’ve put together a Core GCSE Revision Pack (suitable for Y10/11), with exercises (and answers) that link to YFT videos. That way, they can still be supported in their learning and stay on top of English, maths and science.

It could also be a great opportunity for them to develop some life skills, like cooking or DIY - what jobs do you need doing around the house…?