Year 11 GCSE Exam Support Thread

DD2 is halfway through her mocks now. The ones that she was dreading have turned out OK but she had a bit of a bad time with her favourite/best subject (Graphics).

We are planning a weekend at the seaside over Easter to celebrate DD1's 21st birthday Otherwise it's nose to the grindstone until May in my dreams

We've got about a week between DS1 arriving home from a trip to South Africa and A levels coming out where all 4 of us will be in one place at the same time, so might try and book a few days in Norfolk.
We will not be going anywhere when A level results are due in case we have a catastrophe on our hands and he's in clearing!

We're going away 4 days over the Easter weekend, but otherwise we want/need to be around for school revision sessions and also rehearsing for Drama performance exam straight after Easter break.

We're not going away till summer (but we've got a good holiday and DD's summer camp booked). DD is on the page of working during the hols, with maybe the odd day off. The school is running some revision sessions in the Easter hols, she's planning to do some of those.

Yesterday she did the Arkwright engineering scholarship exam - rather a different sort of thing as nothing particular to learn, had to come up with 3 designs for a squirrel-proof birdfeeder and a more detailed one for an ice-cream dispenser. However she learned one thing applicable to exams in general - fearing dehydration she drank too much beforehand so was crossing her legs throughout.

DS will be going in to school over Feb half term (see previous post about generally bad results in the mocks throughout his year) and I think there is a revision program over Easter, which we have to pay for, but he will be doing.

So, basically no, we won't be going anywhere, unless it's over the Easter weekend.

I do plan to have a really nice summer after exams and before results come out because once the results are out I may be weeping

Are any of you guys planning on going away on holiday before May this year?

We did have plans for Feb half term which have come to nothing - not really bothered as still trying to financially settle down after christmas. But what about Easter? Its a long break - but when they get back its only two weeks of school before it all kicks off ... it would be lovely to have something nice to look forward to ... but its also valuable study time ...

thoughts?

I am a teacher, but I don't remember ever having to show them! Perhaps I did - my memory isn't up to much these days

Yes, sorry about your DM SugarPlum.

GCSE maths and english are required for teaching, aren't they, so I guess that would be the sort of case where they might be wanted. But presumably so long as you had the grades in the relevant subjects they wouldn't care if there was a bad grade in an irrelevant one on there too?

Lynette - the school should be supporting him, not just suggesting he cops out. It sounds like you understand well how he might be feeling - did you ever find strategies that helped you that you can share with him?

Sorry about your mother, SugarPlum .

I had to show all my certificates when becoming an early years teacher.

Tilly I think it was about proving we were who we said we were and we were honest people not lying about stuff. (Though thinking further, it is possible they just asked for the degree certificates.). Anyway my parents had to dig a load of stuff out of their filing cabinets so we could show them!

T&T, that is absolutely bonkers! How can your GCSE grades matter when you are adopting?!

I had to show my certificates when we adopted!

I also get the feeling that these days sometimes you are asked to state all GCSE results so you can't 'forget' about fails. (Though that might only be for university entry??? does anyone know??).

I have never had to show my certificates to anyone, AFAICR

Just to clarify - DS would still take English, but not English Literature. DS was told a low mark wouldn't look good on his certificate.

I'm not sure anyone ever checked my certificates, and if they did, by then he would have A'levels anyway. Hopefully.

Lynette, I'm on your and your DS's behalf. He really needs to take English, can't imagine what the school are thinking.

DS2 got his results, mainly As and Bs with a couple of Cs. He has said he'll do more revision before the actual exams. I hope so as one of his Cs was in one of his A level subjects.

Really sorry to hear this Lynette, really tough for both of you right now Is there not a counsellor the school could refer him to rather than suggest he doesn't sit it ? amazingly unhelpful of the teacher.

DD very emotional today, she overheard me talking to my Brother about Mum's heart failure and Dementia after a massive downturn this week. I had to be honest and say to her I don't know what is going to happen as I honestly don't right now.

Lynette, your poor DS. What on earth do the school think they are doing suggesting he doesn't take English? They should be looking for ways to support him

DD is getting more and more stressed - a week to go before her mocks.

Thanks for the link Littleham.

I know DS responds very badly to pressure, and I think school are trying to get the kids to revise, which is having the opposite effect on DS.

I know during my A'levels I didn't panic, I had no nerves, I just felt numb. I froze and wrote very little with disasterous results. I think the same thing happened with DS.

Hopefully realising he should still be able to get into 6th form, even if he takes subjects he wasn't planning on, will calm him down. It's certainly been a relief to me!

Lynette - I hope the head teacher is furious with the teachers too! Try and find out why he wrote nothing and find out if the teachers are suggesting he doesn't take it to benefit the school or your DS.

Well, ds had a mini breakdown over the mocks....when he said he didn't write anything in English Lit, he really didn't ; his result was unclassified (he was predicted a B, his target was an A and he got an A in last summers exam) his English teacher has now suggested to him he doesn't take the exam (after asking if he would like to do English A'level at parents evening!). As parents we think he should still sit the exam....

The HT is furious with the whole year as generally results have been poor. He has threatened to exclude any Y11 for any tiny little thing (according to DS) and is considering not giving study leave after Easter, but nothing has been announced yet.

Meanwhile DS discovered his grades, while poor for him would be good enough to get into 6th form with out doing anything, so is one happy chappy.

Another set of mocks over with now wait to see how they gone . He's just totally exhausted , rest over weekend