New Batch of Year 13 parents this way!

Oof, well first week navigated. DS1 had highest marks in his IT class, he was 3 points off a B in the exam and B in the coursework so he's going to resit next year - how that isn't a B overall I don't know? - (none of ours are linear so everything counts to next year). Like Fantasy half the class has left so there are only two of them now so hopefully some excellent teaching.

Getting panicky about UCAS application now. He's a major procrastinator and the SEN don't help At All.

On a more positive note, DD heard yesterday that one of her friends (not close but they've known each other since playgroup) was just 3 UMS off full marks in Maths. This girl really struggled with maths in primary, so it really goes to show that they all progress at different rates. I'm so pleased for her! After so many tales of disaster since results day, it is just lovely to hear a good story.

It counts towards my son's year. He can resit the papers he needs to, and is dropping the subject he got a C in. But his mates did really badly. He isn't impressed by the teaching as well, and decided he needed to study himself on the side if he wanted to do well. Thank goodness for the internet.
The only subject everyone did as well as they expected was computer science. Physics was dire, maths bad.

The subject in which DS had his surprise C was dire across the class. The head of department has seen a couple of the scripts and the marking (he saya) was harsh.

Schools can only choose not to do AS where the subjects have been reformed, not all A levels are linear yet. For some pupils bombing their AS level matters because it still counts towards their final grade.

I was talking to a teacher at dd1s school who said that some subjects had the worst results ever this time. Lots of disheartened students in those subjects. Music and Physics were mentioned

That was interesting, thank you all. His timetable is awful this year- split site and he has some odd combinations.
I've really let the driving thing slip. Been busy and got distracted. Must try harder!

Well dd is the last one in her R.S class as the other girl has left
Dd is very worried but it will be tailored teaching I guess

Were AS harder this year? Asked up thread.

I think that more was expected when examiners marked but then exam boards/ofqual published a week before that they were going to award same percentage of grades as last year. So some A grade border marks were quite low.

Also Maths had a problem as paper was leaked for one board and it seems to have given surprise results when board tried to
calculate /factor this in.

As are notoriously difficult as jump is high first year. Many schools do no tdo them now.

Five AS - because she was stubborn and her brother did. Further Maths is offered as an additional semi-twilight subject at her school.

I was worried she would try and do 4 A2 as her brother did, and it worked really, really well for him but Physics/Maths/Further Maths plus Geology has much more crossover than Maths/Further Maths plus History and Eng Lit,

She's dropping French and Further Maths.

5 AS is a bit of a stretch. Why 5? DD struggled with 4. She was on her knees with exhaustion by the end of term.

Well DD went back yesterday and seems ok.

She has finally made her peace with dropping French, helped partly by talking to the the uni people at Exeter open day.

Bit frustrated by the fact she spent a lot of time over the summer reading Candide, which was unnecessary. Then found out yesterday she want allowed to do the history topic she'd chosen for her coursework, which she'd been working on over the summer. And she also changed her mind about her English Lit coursework, so that work was wasted too!

On the other hand going from 5 AS to 3 A2 makes her timetable look a bit emptier.

She hasn't been officially given predictions yet, but informally it's looking ok.

I don't know how DD's cohort have fared on average though, just that there are a lot of bright students.

welcome pickle

A lot of DD's friends had disappointing results in AS or internal exams. There seems to be a considerable number starting again with different courses.

"I saw some schools in the local press even saying what university some (named) DC were going to, and what they would be studying."

DD's school does that. They put on the website which students achieve all A*/As. A couple of years ago 4 students went to Oxbridge, which for this school is a lot. One is going this year.

Re General Studies, if it is a 4th A level and won't impact on her grades of the other A levels she could carry on with it.

It would be a waste of time for DD because she wants to go down the medical route and no university will accept General Studies. In fact no university is interested in more than 3 subjects.

I am not a prolific FB user, but my FB feed has been exceptionally quiet on AS results, which I can only presume means that the results have not been worth bragging about.

DD has just text me to say that she has been asked to carry on with General Studies this year. I have told her not to bother as I didn't think Universities were interested.

Thanks Lonicera. DDs school is a comp too, and the sixth form just asks for Cs I think to get in, which is fairly standard I think for a sixth form that doesn't really offer BTECs properly (I think people wanting to do them do lessons at a nearby college, but most just go to the college anyway). The school generally does really, really well and the sixth form is very new, so possibly still finding its feet a bit.

I don't think school would publish a list names of DC achieving As like that - they don't officially even publish the end of year prizes or anything (I only know there were some because they were on a power point I saw for end of term arrangements). I know that the school results page named a couple of DC who had exceptional A level results, but actually don't know if they were the only ones iyswim or just ones that were happy to be named. I know DD would hate for people outside of family or teachers to know her results, however good. I saw some schools in the local press even saying what university some (named) DC were going to, and what they would be studying. Funnily enough I remember seeing another school's A Level press release last results day naming one boy, his results and what he was going to study. He is no longer named on the website, and I wondered if he or his parents had asked for it to be removed (others are still there).

Anyhoo. I have work to do, so will definitely try to stop thinking about it all now. I think I just want to know that DD is going to be OK, and only time will tell. I should also give her credit for being more robust than I think she is. She's already being circumspect about lots of her friends results (X said she'd work harder but didn't, Y was really anxious, and didn't cope with the exams, Z was doing the subjects her parents wanted, not what she was actually good at etc.) so I'm sure it will all be fine!

Must stop worrying!!!

DD was a little sad yesterday when she said that school had put a list of people who had scored 4 As at AS. Apparently they have an exceptionally bright cohort this year - the school achieved an 82% GCSE pass rate last year including English and maths, and it is just a comprehensive, but a rather good one.

So, I can't comment on whether the AS exams were tougher than usual. DD found year 12 very tough though.

Does anyone know if this was a particularly challenging year for AS? Logic says since they are graded normatively (I think) that the grades should be broadly similar year on year. However DD came home yesterday with news of even more friends who have done much, much worse than expected. These are children with a stack of A* and A at GCSE, who have Bs, Cs and worse at AS. I know that DDs sixth form went way, way over PAN with their intake (and don't think they'll make that mistake again, they really didn't have physical space apart from anything else) and wonder if the school has had a really bad year, or if it is normal. I've seen graphs of how GCSE should roughly translate to A Level, and it doesn't correlate with DDs friends experience at all.

That all said, I suppose all schools have an occasional rogue poor year, but I can't see that DDs year should have been that. Interestingly school haven't published the AS results, though the A, and GCSE results were published immediately. Of DDs 8 closest friends, I think only one other got the sort of grades they expected. Fortunately for her friends, I think they all come from supportive families, and some of them have money for tutoring etc. I can't help but think though that whilst a school with regularly poor results may mean that DC get contextual offers from uni, one who was part of a blip year just won't.

I must stop ruminating.

Well done to DC with those driving theory tests. We have one coming.

Well done to those good predictions too!
Back to school today, as HG she had to welcome new students and made them laugh apparently with in house jokes. So proud her confidence is improving. Know once we are in exam season she might be a nervous wreck again.

Sending sympathy for those whose DCs were scuppered by the weird scoring on the HPT. I've been driving for nearly 20 years and consider myself a safe driver. I did a practice HPT on DS1's laptop and scored 26/75

DS1 had a v.positive first day in Y13.

He found out that he can resit the AS paper in which he got an E, without having to resit the paper in which he got an A.

He also played some rugby today, something he hadn't been able to do for the last three seasons due to health issues.

There was also something about the redesigned canteen and sixth form centre, but I was exhausted after a long day at work and was only half-listening by that point.