Year 11 GCSE support thread 6 - exams and proms

I'm pretty sure that any decent teacher who knows their students could make an educated guess at which ones are likely to do well. Out of DD's friends there is one (we'll call him Fred) who would be top of my list to call to come in early for press photos if I had to speculate. I'll let you know if I was right tomorrow.

Too! My poor brain

No Leeds, I saw it to!
I know it happened in previous years. So how do the teachers know? Or do they just guess? Waiting to here from brainiest boy, if he is called in! ( been friends with dd since nursery)

I thought people on this thread last year said that their DC had been asked to go in early. They were very worried about why that could be, and it turned out it was because they had done well, and were needed for press photos.
Maybe I imagined it!! They certainly don't do this at DD's school.

Oh that's interesting, thanks Witch
I knew teachers were going in to school today for some kind of results
I wonder if they're good at guessing who got what (which set of results matches which student)? Does it mention subjects for example?
Not that it really makes a difference to us. We still have to wait!

dingit A friend of mine is a head teacher and they are not allowed to look at the results until the students have got them. They get a summary of the results with no names on them so they know that somebody has 35 A* grades for example but not who it is. He's not told me specifically this year but he's mentioned it in the past.

dingit, you are being ridiculous! Where did you get that idea from?!
As a fellow jetlag sufferer, I feel your pain!

Hi dingit, good to see some fellow skulkers over here
I think you are over worrying there though

• Maybe if school were to phone anyone they'd just do it in the morning

I'm too scared to go on there, it does make it too real.
I'm tying myself up in knots here. I've got it into my head that the school phone the most successful students ( dd should be one if her predictions are right) to go in early tomorrow for photos. So far no call, so I think she's not done well. Someone tell me I'm being ridiculous please?
I thought I'd knocked my jet lag on the head last night, but dd woke me at 1am to tell me she couldn't sleep, so then I couldn't either so tiredness isn't helping

Yes, it does all seem a bit real on the other thread! As DD has gone off for the day, I am pretending nothing is happening tomorrow

Thanks HSM, I do have a foot in that camp now too
But as you say all looking slightly crazy over there today with checking of grade boundaries and such like
I might just stay slightly more chilled over here too
I need that to settle my nerves

Hi Horse and any others still malinguering on this lovely thread
I didn't sleep well last night but think that's also feeling nervous about a family party at the weekend - so it felt I had quite a lot on my mind
I think it will be better - all being well - after these results are in
DD might let me drop her off but then she wants to go in with friends and go to the park with them afterwards
She might give me a call to pick her up a couple of hours later!
Still after all this waiting what's another few hours hey?!

Horse, over here!

Hello all, everyone ready for tomorrow?! This time last week I was beside myself with nerves waiting for DS1's A levels - this week I'm the opposite

I'm not sure what results DS will get, but he applies himself much more than DS1, so hopefully he's done OK, fingers crossed

Good Luck everyone!!

Horse, yes that happened to a relative I think quite a few schools do this.

Juggling, I think that is true of DD's first choice school as if they know the pupils, they should have a fair idea of whether it was "just" a bad paper or whether they really couldn't cope with the A level.

DD's school ask for more from new entrants than existing pupils Errol. DD will need 7 at A-C with B's in those she wants to do for A level. We're hoping she should get that fairly comfortably - we're hoping for (and predicted) some mix of A's and B's. Though DD isn't overly confident about some of them! Those where she finished the paper may go better than others

I assumed that if they have criteria for new entrants, they have to apply the same to existing pupils (state schools anyway). Dd has no backup plan, but ( despite it getting the best results in the county) the criteria aren't as onerous as some of yours have got to contend with - 5 Bs, at least a C in English, and then in the subjects to be taken As in some cases (inc maths, sciences),B in others.

DS's school (grammar) sling out the kids who don't do well enough at AS level too, tobee

tobee it sounds awful. DD's offer is unconditional but I can't see as it's made any difference to how hard she has worked, she's done her best. It was practically a week before her first GCSE anyway so the timing wasn't conducive to making her work harder or not really.

*his friends' schools, I mean.

DS school has a point scheme and so do some of his friends. I thought it was because he's at private school but some grammars do too. They want to turf out people and get in new people who will get better results at A level to look good, I presume, but since they gave him a place at year 7 through an exam, doesn't that actually make them look bad? What pisses me off is that they handed out unconditional offers to kids who get the points at mock time ( to make them work harder). But they did a low-ish point so most got a place, only about 16 of them didn't and so feel like losers. DS, who SEN, missed by 1 point. Apparently, one nearby grammar throws people out if they don't get good enough AS marks. How disruptive is that?

tobee that's tough if they stick to that policy. I thought most schools let current pupils automatically stay on in 6th form? DD's offer wasn't conditional so it didn't occur to me that some were.