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

Sticker - one of the teachers at Dds school went to school with & is very good friends with Darcy & she goes in to teach a masterclass once or twice a year.

Infamous maybe but not famous.

I studied music & drama & always wanted to teach but I ended up working for a concert hall/music venue.

After Dd was born we moved back home & dh (whose career as a classical early music singer was curtailed by a combination of stage fright & wanting to be with his new baby) re-trained as a music teacher.

For several years we ran kids performing arts classes together then dh started to become more interested in the technical side of vocal coaching including working with singers who had vocal injuries. He trained in a niche area then got a job with a Greater London based Dance college as a vocal coach. He worked for several institutions & in private practice & I sold our business as it wasn’t making enough to live on & I now work in an office.

Can someone who speaks maths explain the difference between the c£30 Classwizz that we were told to get by school and the £65+ wizzier ones that some of you have bought for your DC please? On the basis that DS could well need all the help he can get I would be very happy to shell out the extra if it would make a difference

AH Here is the question i have been wanting to ask you for months: Were/Are you famous?!

Lovely photo Alexander - so graceful!
DS said he had a surprise psychology test today and no calculator (which they were supposed to have)but he managed without!

I started whinging about calculator costs at the start of term. DD is in love with her Casio Fx9860GII which cost £65 through college.

Meanwhile I'm disappointed that AH isn't Darcy Bissell in real life!

Ouch Ellen hope your back feels better soon & you got a seat at the concert.

Yes the picture is of Dd. I have another lovely one taken on a school trip to The Hague but I was at work & dudnt have the software to blur her face.

Me & dh have zero dance ability although we both did music & I did drama in the past.

Their prices are certainly competitive.

Has anyone used www.calculatorsdirect.co.uk/? Are they legit?

DS's school still hasn't said which calculator they want. TBH I wish they'd just say so I could swallow the expense and put it behind me!

I can't remember who started the calculator discussion on here. We've ordered DS2 the fxCG50. £85 through school (rather than £113 through Amazon). Some of his friends are getting the Classwiz instead, but DS2 is keen on Maths and we're happy to pay for a graphical calculator.

Lovely photo Alexander

Commiserations on the back injury Ellen, I’ve done that a couple of times and it’s no fun at all. Hope it soon rights itself.

No predictions here until the end of Y12 and at this point I have no idea what sort of grades DS will be looking at. There’s a parents evening next week and grades at half term but I think they’ll only tell us what sort of start he’s made.

Took DD back to uni today. Thankfully she’s taken a lot less stuff than she did in first year (just as well as DH couldn’t come with us). It all has to be packed up and transported at the beginning and end of each term, so I think she’s decided that travelling a bit lighter is the way to go! She’s got a great room this year so was chuffed when she saw it.

Admirable poise and grace in that photo - I am sure that takes tonnes of dedication.

Ha ha not sure there’s a house music event anywhere without a bit of greatest showman. Had DSs last week. Great fun - hope you enjoy it tonight Ellen.

alex love the photo! Silly question but that's your DD, right? sometimes people just nice thematic pics so I wasn't sure...

No gin this time?

DS3 gets his first grade card at the end of half term. It'll be interesting whether it includes targets and/or predictions. He hasn't actually done any assessments yet apart from one in computing, which he says was 34/40 but no grade given. His school doesn't do ALIS.

We're going to school tonight for the house music performances. DS3 is accompanying his house choir on his flute. They're singing 'This Is Me' from The Greatest Showman.

I'm hoping there will be enough chairs for the audience. It's free with no tickets. I bent over awkwardly this morning at work and have done my back in. Moving is painful (as is staying still) and I feel like I'm walking like Julie Walter's Mrs Overall!

Just the coffee in your mug Sticker ;)

Enjoying your WBD post. Your DD looks very poised. Even if I had the physical ability, I would never be focused enough to do the things she can do. We're you a talented dancer yourself in a former life or have your DC sprung this all on you by surprise?

Currently catching up on World Coffee Day from yesterday with a Costa whilst waiting for DD's train.

I've no idea what DS wants to do at university. I'm strongly recommending that he avoids pure maths (trying to ensure he avoids my trauma!), but otherwise, I just suspect it he will do something around maths/ engineering/ physics.
Also, i have no idea which A level grades he's likely to get.
So, until he has a better idea, it makes narrowing a university search a bit useless.

DS is still saying he wants to go into the workplace rather than uni but wondering whether we need to look at some in case he changes his mind. I guess there is plenty of time yet - maybe have a look after Christmas and arrange some visits in the spring of year 12 so at least he s had a look even if he doesn’t follow it up. By then we may have a better idea of where he s heading academically - no idea at the moment as he s always been playing catch up until his spurt for gcse s

Re University choices - ds has used similar methods - first decided on course, then looked up top performing uni's, discounted London as we live close and too expensive, discounted those with poor student satisfaction, looekd at course content again and made a list. We do need to look again though, just to make sure he has a wide enough choice.

We don't have target grades yet but he has a Maths AS already and the Maths dept are encouraging him to aim high.

Peggy DS was falling into the trap of perfectionism a couple of years ago and there's no sign of it now.

The thing that got him past it was making the work more challenging so it was less about finessing the easy stuff and thinking 99% marks equated to failure.

i guess that's not applicable now?

@AlexanderHamilton - lovely photo

@PeggyIsInTheNarrative - I am working on the basis that she is doing background research which will stand her in good stead for later during the course. English isn't too much of a problem, it's gov and politics and history that are time consuming (plus she feels the need to debate it when she isn't reading about it).
On a positive note she's pulling off As at the moment which is a good sign since they claim to be marking them as though they were actual A Level essays.

We really need to see her target grades before visiting Unis so the sooner we see them the better (you were all correct it's the target that's going to be given not the predicted).

That’s lovely Alex. MUN is great too.

bpisok DD struggling with perfectionism too. It's really hard to help.

Any tips anyone for helping?

That's a lovely picture Alex. I hope you all enjoy her birthday. Will she be home?

I have been thinking about how long it has taken for your DH to get a firm diagnosis when it was on your list of possibles for months.