Year 11 GCSE Exam Support Thread 2

Reading this makes my legs go slightly weak as DD planning to do Photography and Art for A Level along with Media BTEC. She is doing GCSE photography but not art at the moment though her close friends are, so she should be aware of the workload,

DD's friend did Art and Music, poor girl! DD doesn't like the music teacher so she didn't do music - she's single handedly destroyed her love of music as she kept pushing DD to perform

Yes, they have to love doing Art if they want to take it! DD finds it relaxing, thankfully, although I'm not sure the actual exam will be that relaxing

Oh good god no, do anything but art!

Art! Yes, DD has spent ages on it. My DSis phoned me a while back about options choices - "Should DS do art because it's not much work is it?"

Oh god, art. What a massive time eater. DS1's work is excellent but he produces it very very slowly and on top of everythinge else it is a bit of a killer. DS2 is hugely glad he isn't taking it!

Joining late. A social life is a minefield here, I have been trying to arrange a family day out but DD is having none of it. She's back at school next week and has had one family day out and two days where she has been out with friends. Last night she was like a bear with a sore head because she needed to relax and hasn't been; she arranged to go and see her friend today and took her revision notes
I'm hoping she will agree to go out tomorrow but I'm not holding my breath :(

Checking in - been a while ... We're 31 days off the first exam (biology on 12th May). DS has been a star this holiday - really cracked on doing 6 hours a day (3x2hour slots) with all evenings off. I think he's feeling pretty good and that's the best we can hope for.

We've adopted a policy of making decisions about socialising requests in terms of 'how to avoid a boiling pit of seething resentment'! Its turned into a bit of a family joke now, but with good side effects - he knows where we're coming from, and we try to accommodate his social diary as sensitively as possible ... if the work is done - there's no reason to say no ...

Awww dingit, poor thing. Thankfully DD's art teacher is very on top of them and she is currently up to date! 3 days of exams in a couple of weeks though, gulp.

Hope the toe is getting better aunt P!

DD says they had a good revision session today and did P2. Phew! She says they (friend is sleeping over tonight) are going in tomorrow to do Eng Lit!

Dd has spent all day today on Art. That subject takes so much time! She does need an A though, to do graphic design next year.
To make it worse, her hayfever and bad air quality ( SE london) has made her asthma bad end she is now curled up on the sofa feeling rubbish

I agree the beach was a good call today errol and fortunately after a trip to a&e he homes with toe strapped for the night and some pain killers. Fortunately not broken just a cracking bruise coming up.

Oh, shame about the toe but going to the beach sounds like a good call this afternoon.

DD survived her Arkwright day - she's absolutely knackered though, a day of talking and interacting mainly with strangers (interview, group robot-building and tour of the university) is quite stressful for a shy-ish teen. Whether she gets the scholarship or not it was a good experience for her.

Well quite impressed with DS 2 days in school for physics and geography. Physics he stayed all day Geography today he said he finished his coursework did some new revision sheets they'd been given then left at lunchtime to go the beach with all his mates, no one stayed for the afternoon session of geography and teacher said they'd done well!!! He now sat with his foot wrapped in ice as hes hurt his toe playing footy on the beach and his big toe is all swollen and out of place, but he walked home and is the world's worse wuss for pain so am refraining from a trip to A&E until after I've had my tea. Great way to spend this sunny evening I don't think

DofE will be brilliant to put on UCAS and again shows a lot of effort and commitment.

Re the job, ds wanted to go on a rather expensive school trip so I told him that if he got a job and paid half, I would pay the other half (thinking that would be the end of it) but bugger me if he didn't go out and get himself a job!

Anyway, the trip was cancelled because, unsurprisingly, not enough people signed up but he kept the job as he likes the money and he likes the people he works with. He's now saving for a scooter/moped when he turns 16 this summer.

DD doesn't have a 3 week block clear anyway. Having just read a bit about it, sounds like she's doing similar things anyway with DofE and a summer camp. Might be something to bear in mind for next year perhaps.

fairnuff - what do you mean 'all hes got is his job'? I'm somewhat in awe of kids this age who do any sort of work. I find it somewhat hard to imagine DD doing so. spoilt child maybe

Yes, they came to DS school to sell it IYSWIM.

I think they're bloody daft to run it through results day though!

Ds heard about it through school. Some representatives came to do a talk. He might do it, he was considering it but is not sure that he would really gain very much from it.

It would be good to have something to put on the UCAS form though. At the moment all he's got is his job which he's had for nearly a year so that shows commitment, work ethic, reliability, etc. Oh and he did volunteer work a few years ago.

He's not involved in sports or anything so he might end up doing the NCS. They were offering free driving lessons as an incentive last time I looked.

No... we hadn't heard of it. Is this something schools are supposed to push or what?

DS is certainly considering it.

He spoke to the loacl provider (to his school) this morning and text me to say they've scheduled the relevant weeks so they take up his birthday, our family holiday and results day...so that's a no!

Apparently the provider to the area where we have a house and live part of the week has better dates. So we can discuss the possibility when I get home.

Is anyone else's DC doing NCS this summer? I'm not sure the uptake is as great as they'd like, ds got a phone call yesterday offering to put him into a prize draw for an ipad if he got a friend to come along on his.

I was a bit yesterday. I'd agreed to friend's round 1.30 to 5 I thought. 7.30pm they vanished so yesterday no revision happened. Bit my tongue and am hoping she will crack on with it today.

Can't believe how fast the holidays are going. Has this moment of panic when I realised that as of 15 May that is the end of the routine of school until September and it suddenly felt like a long time of not having the house to myself. I work from home so no escape to work. My office is in the garden though so might spend a bit of time sorting it to hide in during the summer.

Sounds intriguing Errol but glad it works.

Quite George