Year 11 support thread - keep on keeping on!

We have a lovely swimming pool in our town. Ds was in it at 10.35 this morning!

We still have two to go (chemistry & physics) but I can definitely feel the stress and shackles loosening. Dd is in town with friends for the afternoon. I have no idea how she will do come August, it could be terrible or very pleasantly surprised - revision and performance has been very mixed (& I mean that kindly), sometimes I have despaired at what she doesn't know. Low point when she hadn't realised there were two english language exams til I pointed it out but other times when I felt she was trying really hard, and pleased that one way or another she was keeping a check on the stress induced hysteria.

I totally agree with your comment tho Fleur: "I felt this thread helped me keep my worries to myself (and the internet) rather than release them at home." So thank you everyone. Looking forward to whatever the next phase brings and

No all shall have prizes at our comp either. Boards listing effort and achievement rankings displayed in dining hall, very exclusive annual prizegiving. DD1 might get a subject GSCE prize or two, DD2 on track for English subject prize but has been absurdly high performing this year. Disdain for comps without evidence is pretty patronising.

All over here! No more uniform in this household - I will wash it but some bits are destined for the rag bag as they've been held together by safety pins recently! the blazer pockets need emptying of those 'very useful and cannot ever be thrown away' bits of paper.
Prom in a fortnight and festival day at sixth form college to look forward to.
For those still going - it's not long now!

DD1 has finished too!! Happy overall with her exams, some better than others but she hopes her lowest grade will be 5 in English ( her worst subject)
Now.. the summer she has been looking forward is starting!! Prom, 6th form morning, friend visiting from Spain, 5 weeks in Spain (with parties every weekend) and Reading Festival end of August!!

It is OVER at last. That was so, so, so painful. DS has just been to the barbers and shaved off his hair, which he is not allowed to do at school. He says he feels liberated. He is now going into town with his girl 'friend'. Roll on NCS.

I hope we are going to have a starting Year 12 thread. I don't know what I will do without my virtual friends.

DS replied that "physics was ok, decent" whatever that means.

I don't know what school some dcs go to but my dc goes to a school that has stressful end of the year exams, that are constantly assessed, that are not all prize winners (in fact DS never got a prize in his 5 years there) but only the ones shining and competition is highly regarded between pupils in all aspects (they even have a house music competition besides sports and academic competitions). Maybe some parents are not in touch with the school as much as others are therefore don't know what the current system is or maybe DSs school is an anomaly.

Anyhow, GCSEs finished in this household, DS on his way home to change and go out and celebrate.

Ladies (and gentlemen if there were any) it's been a pleasure even if stressful at times, I felt this thread helped me keep my worries to myself (and the internet) rather than release them at home.

Good luck to all the dcs taking more exams next week and see you all in August with hopefully great results to share!

Wine o'clock tonight (or now if you're not at work like I am)

Our comp-schooled 16 year olds grew up in a 'all shall have prizes' culture
I dont recognise this statement either.

DD home after Physics higher paper 2(?) not sure of exam board etc this morning. She said it was really hard as did all of her cohort. Eek! She got an A* in her mock, will be interesting to see how the final outcome measures against mock results. 3 more next week and she is absolutely exhausted and losing motivation to revise(she started in January) anymore.

DS is finished and has gone to Five Guys with his mates. Textual communication revealed the following about the IGCSE triple Physics: "Yeah it was a nice paper as well."

AQA Physics over. One paper nicer than the other but reasonably happy.

Hurrah - GCSE's over in this house. dd has just gone in for Further Maths A Level.

Our comp-schooled 16 year olds grew up in a 'all shall have prizes' culture

No this is not always true. Lots of the students failed in the old exams in our school. Although I agree the constant re-takes were a pain.

ds has never had a prize once in the whole time he has been at comp. The prizes go to the struggling about to be expelled kids to make them behave better.

OCR Gateway biology 'fine' for ds this morning. A few of the questions he had revised last night so knew them and was so chuffed! Up till 11.30pm last night and awake at 6am cramming for this one

Still got C 4,5 & 6 (Monday) and P 4,5 & 6 (Weds) which although means ds can't celebrate with a lot of his friends this evening, he is actually pleased about. DS is more the 'do it at the last minute' kind of child and has not been working hard for 2 years. Only since the beginning of the Easter holidays has he been taking it seriously at all. So to have these extra few days where he will basically be teaching himself the syllabus (not quite that extreme, but almost!!) will be good for him.

He has a plan and he is going to stick to it (I hope!)

Congratulations to all those who have finished today - let the parties commence!!!

(Oh, and where there is an annual prizegiving that is every bit as exclusive and unapologetically elitist [in terms of effort and excellence needed to attain a prize] as those in my old highly academic girls' boarding school)

Bert, I agree. My comp-schooled DCs have grown up in a school culture where marks and effort grades are publicly displayed and frequently discussed, where tests are commonplace and visible, where high targets are set and marked against and where ranking (and setting) are transparent.

I do wonder whether some posters have been in a comprehensive school within the last 5 years, or whether most are posting about the schools they attended in their youth and have not visited since?

"Our comp-schooled 16 year olds grew up in a 'all shall have prizes' culture, where tests were hidden and disguised, rank was never publicly discussed"
I heitate to respond as I would like to to this statement, considering the nature of the thread, so all I will say is that your characterisation is not something that I recognise. On another thread, I would have used a single, more expressive word.

Edexcel Physics - OK, DS thinks he lost marks in the calculations of some answers (his Maths difficulties surfacing again) but on the whole is happy with how it went. DT this afternoon and we are done!

Bananas and Brazil nuts have radiation? 😱

We were talking about cherry stones containing cyanide yesterday. Really interesting stuff they learn.

EdExel p2 Physics -

DS - "Went very well".

3 more science papers to go here- Mon/Wed/Fri.
🎉 to the people who are finished.

Edexcel P2 'nasty'.

AQA physics was good. History next week. Hope the DCs who have finished today have fun!

from dd: P3 was really good (as good as C3), P2 was harder but not impossible. But it is done & she has done with GCSEs