GCSE '18s (20) - half term beckons!

DD target grades are all As, current grades after 2 assessments are Chemistry B, History B and Biology C. However the second Biology assessment everyone underperformed as the questions were all applied learning so I guess the teacher was assessing their skills on that. No one got higher than a C, according to DD so I'm not worried.

It's so exciting seeing her thrive with an almost all new group of friend at college; she bloomin' loves it and I think it will be a fab prep for Uni vs the bubble of a very lovely, but small school.

Having dinner in Leamington Spa pre Warwick open day tomorrow.

No half term report here! But we do have parents evening end of November so assume we may get one shortly before then.

maybe there will be others on the trip she can share transport with

The two from her school sounds like it. She will have to give a presentation at school afterwards.

I’m just a little worried about dates as Ds is also performing in three different shows in November. When Dd went to Holland on the Model United Nations we had to get her to Liverpool airport at crazy o’clock in the morning.

DD went to Poland this time last year. Their trip included a trip to the concentration camps, the salt mine, a walking tour of Krakow and an authentic meal in a Jewish restaurant. She had already been to a concentration camp in Berlin, but I think the whole emotion of the trip will stay with her for a long, long time.

Hi Alex, that definitely sounds like Holocaust Education Trust. They select two from each school, and run trips in batches by Region (DD2 had to write a speal as to why she should be chosen). and they are fantastic trips. There are pre trip and post trip seminars with talks from survivors and MPs but if DD is standing in she will have missed those but it won't matter at all. They are accompanied by religious leaders and survivors and it was incredibly well run and organised. If they want to they can follow up with a project at school and take their involvement further but DD had so much on she just went on the trip and left it at that - but it was one of the best things she has done and was instrumental in her uni degree choice - as well as being good for PS and interview discussion topic.. And we paid something like £60 for the whole thing I think. Only down side was we had to get her to the airport at something like 5am and pick up at midnight !!

You can google the organisation if it is them - DD loved it as everyone on the trip was as interested as she was whereas sometimes on school trips half of the group just want to get to macdonalds !! It was exhausting too - so wear comfortable shoes - DD2 went at 5am the morning after doing gold Dof E which wasn't the best plan.

Of course it may be something else entirely.

@LimitIsUp - yep his anal glands. Luckily the photographer had headed upstairs and I could deal with the issue.

So looking forward to half term! I think we've all earned it.

So, got target grades and current progress for DS3, no predicted grades. Too early to be giving those! Interestingly enough the target grades are all quite low. Based on his GCSE results I guess as he's new to the school so they don't have much info on him. In fact they will just know his grade not his actual marks so quite a coarse set of data.

He is exceeding his targets already for maths and FM but they are very low targets considering he got a grade 9. Targets are B and C but I would have hoped A*/A and A/B.

His target for chem is B which seems fair considering he got a 7 for GCSE and his target is C for computing, again fair. He's meeting targets for both of these but hasn't actually done a test for either yet so it's just based on homework and class work. Finger in the air!

On this basis it's still too early to be looking at universities for him IMO.

Half term started for me yesterday but DS3 has broken up now. He's at his not so DF's this weekend. DS2 no longer seeing his F regularly so is with me. Long story, but in short ExH is a selfish twat.

Ds doesn’t break up until next week but Dd is Home tomorrow.

Just phoned her to try & get passport sorted (her old one wasn’t where it should be) trying to explain the process over the phone was like pulling teeth.

Turns out this is a very select trip funded by some charity & only two students are chosen each year. One has had to drop out as it clashes with a Btec assessment.

Half term is here yay !!!! And it feels exactly like that Whistl.

Good grade card scores from DS too, although some spiky test and homework marks. He assures me he understands the topics and the huge range is usual for him so I won't worry yet. As least there are some high ones in among them !!

Hope your DC enjoy the break, be it active or restful,

'Released his glands' ewww - do you mean his anal glands? Bet the photographer and Estate Agent were alarmed

Bluebelle - ha ha, I shall be similar - no doubt watching it from behind a cushion

Excellent move from your ds EllenJane

@whistl - no where in particular yet but some lovely possibilities. Can't get too excited until we sell ours and know exactly what the budget is. I think there are bargains to be had at the moment. We live in a really nice area but are thinking of moving to a slightly less nice area for a bigger house and garden us parking (unusual in London)!

Good luck with the house sale, Sandy. Have you found somewhere you'd like to move to yet?

Ellen that's brilliant - well done to him!

EllenJanesthickerknickers
That's lovely that he is giving back in the same outreach programme.

Well DS1's grades have come through and they're really good - most pleasing is all ones for effort. He deserves his trip away and am going to make a post school fuss of him at Starbucks after the orthodontist.

DDog is not liking house move. He's barked at the Estate Agent this morning and was so overcome with rage at the photographer that he released his glands. Ugh! But after two days of extreme cleaning my house has never looked so clean and tidy.

Does anyone feel like they will only just have got used to having their DC in the sixth form when they'll be in the last couple of months before A levels and then it will all be over?

I just can't believe how fast this half-term has gone.

DS3 is volunteering at a maths masterclass season at our local uni which is run by university lecturers and civil servants from our town's very techie government dept. It's aimed at Y9 and they usually get around 3 pupils from each local school, invitation only, about 18 in total. 8 Saturday mornings of around 3 hours each. DS3 did the course himself 3 years ago and is now being a helper. Good PS material for a wannabe maths teacher.

DS3's new sixth form is a bit of a mixture. Admission criteria wasn't that demanding, especially for their internal students so the classes aren't that high achieving. E.g. Only needed a 6 for chemistry and computing and 7 for maths and FM.

But they all do 4 subjects and an EPQ and they don't have free lessons, just supervised study periods. They are all doing 4 AS levels in the summer before they can drop a subject.

However DS doesn't seem particularly overloaded with homework. Most of it is being done during the study periods at school.

Grade cards are due later today. Early days, though and to be taken with a pinch of salt.

Hope so too BlueBelle, I think you also mentioned (but may be confused with others), you were booking tasters and 'super curricular' stuff which should help keep him motivated.

Oratory I really hope your right but I have known previous DC at the school who got all A*/A's only not to achieve as you would expect at A level and I think I can now see why. DD was never in this category and so the school worked well for her, fingers crossed DS's independant learning is enough

Bluebelle your DC will go far - achieving success independently and staying motivated will stand him in good stead for the next stage

Just like we had for GCSE's its incredible how different schools approach things in different ways. In some cases (as in Blue Belle's it is forced by matching approach to student population) but in others I guess its just SMT choices or how things evolved over time - or that some schools are developing new approaches and others continue in same way as before. Clearly different approaches suit different students and there is probably no one best way of doing things but sadly a lot of DC don't get to choose.

We are planning a lazy half term too Limits. DS won't want to do anything and he has such a busy time at school I am happy to let him chill (with hopefully some work and learning lines for the play !!)

Limit enjoy The Haunting of Hill House I have just started watching it, even though I don't like horror, DH thinks I'm slightly mad as although I'm enjoying it I'm also constantly checking the time to see how much longer before it ends and I can relax again

It is interesting hearing about all your DC's experiences at their various instituitons, it has become apparent to me the reason DS's school doesn't get great results average is a C, as unlike many on here he doesn't have a heavy workload even though he's doing 4 A levels, all homework can be done at school and he hasn't found the work to suddenly be a lot more challenging, I think this is because they just aren't challenged in the same way as others and the pace is a lot gentler probably due to the wide ability range in the class which can be anything from a grade 6 to 9. Fortunately he has taken it upon himself to go through the text books and make his own notes.

Wow that's some trip Sandy - your lucky ds!

ohn I too am a bit slow with acronyms, anagrams and other word trickery so please pm me and tell me who you are

Nothing exciting planned for dd's half term - and no trips announced for her subjects as yet. I think she will spend it mostly sleeping! Tomorrow the dc and I (dh is in Vietnam) plan a Netflix binge of 'The Haunting of Hill House', with pizza and pick n mix (that constitutes a highlight of our half term!)