Gcse 2018 (10) The one with half term

Good morning everyone.
One to read:
www.theguardian.com/books/2018/may/29/teenagers-brains-not-ready-for-gcses-says-neuroscientist

@hmcAsWas - my DS's EdPsych report sounds very similar!
Top 3% in terms of underlying ability but very slow processing speed and verbal memory/retention and below average writing speed. The 25% extra time has made the world of difference.

Nettleskeins I thought it was so counterintuitive for DS2 to use a scribe. No, he couldn't write fast enough, very dyspraxic, but making him talk to someone! The horror! I was hoping he'd use a laptop and get extra time but the school thought differently. He didn't use a scribe in lessons and homework was always on the computer so it was a steep learning curve to use a scribe effectively. I hope your DS has had some practice. DS2's spelling and punctuation are actually pretty good so he lost credits for SPAG in the exams by using a scribe.

ds2 has ASD and is scribed as his writing and punctuation/spelling are so atrocious. Ironically it has helped him enormously in his communication skills as he now has to master large tracts of analysis verbally. He says he does get the chance to review what he has dictated and sometimes changes sentences or points he has made to make them "read" better. His writing has also improved since he now uses it functionally all the time in a low stress situation (note taking, filling worksheets, classwork) and no-one criticises it. I would hope that next year he won't need to be scribed and can type his essays out if he does A levels. I think they go on developing and improving, it is just that GSCEs are such an axe coming down which can cut you off from the next stage, if there are impairments to your exam performance like your actual writing!

Hi sticker no luck for tickets and dgd upset. We tried our best. I had booked hotel ready which was £175 with breakfast then travel costs would have been £150 then spending g money and money for food plus ticket money. All told not far off £1000 we can't do anymore than that and we would have been really strapped to do that. Money talks all the time. We feel we have let dgd down very much

Thank you, Peggy but don't worry. DS2 is now 18 and managed to scrape a C in his English 2 years ago. The one subject he didn't use the scribe for was maths and he got an A for that! My DS3 is taking GCSEs this year and is a very quirky boy who is quite slow at writing but he has no SEN.

Gutted! Dd got to front of queue and while she was filling out firm you have to do was informed all tickets from £64-£200 sold out. Unfortunately she could not afford higher price be cause you have to add on fees hotel etc. Money talks again

Ellen
I’m sorry your DS hasn’t got extra time. Using a scribe is different as you say and arguably more stressful if you have ASD as you have the extra interaction going on and have to deal with all that extra sensory/social information.

Definitely some strange clampdown on extra time rather than other support. Michael Gove. I blame you.

Her school sounds slap dash and indifferent
Yes

The Progress 8 measure will do something to stop schools just trying to get passes for their students

Let’s hope so.

Thank you so much for listening to my ranting. It’s not just the grades it’s the self esteem and mental health.

I’m burnt out after 3 bright dyslexic/ADHD/ASD DCs going through nice state comps. DC4 is in y7 at local independent. School rang asking if they could screen for dyslexia. He has extra time already. They have end of year exams, a revision timetable (to fill in), practice papers to do over half term.

I never expected to be in this position and I know we are lucky to have option.

Thanks again. Back to gcse physics with DD. She has P1, B1 and history Russia and History USA to go.

I don't think it's the bottom 15% on speed get extra time, it's more like a standardised score of 85 on a normal distribution where 100 is average. That would be a much smaller % than 15%! More like 3%. The tests they have to go through were pretty thorough at DS2's school. Hence, his writing and typing were much too slow so he qualified for a scribe, but didn't qualify for extra time as his processing was above the cut off. This is a child with ASD who has needed 1:1 support full time since age 4.

I commented on the grammar school thread that lots of DC at the selective school I work at seem to manage to get extra time but I was very surprised my DS didn't qualify. I do wonder if it depends on who performs the test and what vested interest they may have. But that might be sour grapes. Using a scribe is quite a difficult skill to have to suddenly acquire, especially in an essay type subject like English. Getting his thoughts out verbally has always been a very difficult task for my DS2 as his communication is pretty monosyllabic, much more so than your average teen!

Anyway, boys are with their dad this weekend. DS3 has a music revision session at school today. IME teachers do not get paid for any after school or holiday sessions they put on, and I'm extremely grateful to them for giving up their own time for these. I do understand that they need to meet targets for their performance management but I still think it's above and beyond.

My DD was trying to get tickets for her friend, but no luck. We’re evil parents because we’ve said she can’t go to the o2, as it’s too far and too expensive. So her and friends have emailed bts asking them to come to Manchester.

Sticker I'll check on that. Another parent told me 40 minutes, maybe I have that wrong. I have some experience with the bus company, not impressed - they stopped the school bus.

Not very long at all by train though, but he would walk for 20 mins from station to college and about 25 mins from our house to station. Bus stop is just 5 minutes down the road.

hmc small world! Or not maybe as Sticker says very large catchment with several large nearby towns.

Peggy can relate to your posts about extra time; as I mentioned in the A level thread, my ds1 was not getting extra time in Gsces at all, until I pressurised the school in Year 12 (he has dyspraxia but as his handwriting was not noticeably slower than most students this didn't translate into a "difficulty", although he had considerably difficulty writing for long periods and difficulty organising his thoughts etc) Ds2 has always had extra time due to his EHCP.

The Progress 8 measure will do something to stop schools just trying to get passes for their students, although in some cases passes are a really important achievement and can mean the difference between a college course or not (I'm thinking the benchmark 5 Cs of old, now translated into 4s and 5's) Ds2's starting point was I think artificially lowered so his predicted grades (with a scribe)now will give a major boost to his school's Progress 8, and that is as it should be.

Well! Think dd at top of queue for tickets...fingers crossed!
Hello teenmum nice to see you! Yes loads of posts which is great but hard to keep up! I have learned so much on this thread and such nice people too!
I will be glad when exams are over to get back to some sort of normality. And its been so sudden to see dgd grown up in such a short period of time during the exam season.

Wow - so many posts ...@peggy - sorry you have had such a fight to get your DD suitable exam concessions.
Sost - glad interview went well...

Dd also seems to be having a mini splurge on Maths and felt the first paper didn't go too well...She is at her DF's now - past paper results for paper2 were looking good..I have asked her to speak to DF about some questions she struggles with because he has A Level Maths but not sure whether she will.

Interestingly DD described herself has lazy last night .. another coaster through Yr10 and she;s probably just realising that the exams are important in the context of her decision to go down the medicine route...however it was nice to see some self motivation she's now hoping to get an A in Physics (first mention of an A ).

In terms of any advice - I totally agree with everyone else about ensuring that your DC's understand each topic as they go along. I also think really understanding the subjects that they have chosen is important ...I pressed the school to do a public exam for an ICT related subject...they chose to go down the route of Computer Science and the two are totally different and within a few weeks DD was demoralized by how the content was mainly theory.

DD has revised consistently this week although I could see it wasn't going to be easy combining revision for 2 exams of a weak subject (History) with revision for Maths and English which are more important exams.

Dd and dgd busy watching the stick man on both seated and standing queue on ticket site for bts. I hope that dd manages to get tickets even if it will take all day! They are currently halfway up both queues. dgd never asks for anything but lots of dropped hi ts about the group and reward for GCSEs dropped. I will be so gutted if she cannot get them either through demand for tickets or price of tickets remaining.

HMc you did the right thing with the independent assessment. I didn't get one done because school had been helpful with older DC. Then the extra time regs changed so it is harder to get extra time.

82% of kids can write faster than her.

By the time i found out what the plan was (no plan), we had 2 weeks to go

Thing is, because of my job, I should and do know about processing speed. I had got a bit used to my kids' spld and didn't spot the impact of the new regs.

DD is off to college in September to do a BTEC diploma. I think linear A levels would do us both in. Colleges and unis are great with spld in our experience.

If DS gets the sixth form place he has a conditional offer for, it's going to cost us upwards of£2000 a year for a train season ticket (that's after the student discount). Tbh I don't dare find out the exact number. It might be more like £2500 for half an hour each way.