Are we ready for a GCSE’s 2019 thread?

My dd has got mocks in November and Feb/March. These after school sessions are also causing stress as each subject wants her to go to theirs but they clash. Art is also causing us stress. Dd has IBS and it's having a massive flare up at minute.

We have mocks in November and February - the February ones tend to be a bit lower key though. DD2 has mock A levels in November too so I am planning a major treat for the last weekend in that month.

Meanwhile DD2 is attending extra sessions - and is really annoyed that Chemistry (which she could use a boost with) is on at the same time as French (which she is in extension for because she's in the top 5% of students in her year). She wants the 8-9 in French, but she also wants the 7 in Chemistry. I've told her to negotiate if she can do alternating weeks.

We have end of year exams for all subjects every year, so theoretically they're familiar with exam formats and timings etc.

So we had end of yr 10 exams in June, next will be "proper" GCSE mocks in January. I'm glad they don't have 2 sets of mocks this year, it's likely they'll not finish some of the syllabus (last year's cohort hadn't finished biology or French by May) so I'd rather the time be spent covering the subjects than more testing.

DD has 2 sets of mocks. I can also see a positive - if they only did mocks in the Spring, it's very late to change anything. If they only did mocks in November, they haven't finished revision. So long as they don't pile a heap of pressure on them for both.

Flatmouse you may have a point about it being good practice for timing the papers and generally getting them up to speed. A good positive way to look at it 😊

I'm pleased she is having multiple "mocks". The quotations are because I'm pretty sure they're not past papers in all subjects -certainly not the full load! At secondary school DD has had tests but no proper end of year exams. These give exam practise. In the end on Y10 mocks (their first set of mocks) DD biggest issue was time. Knowing how long to spend on questions, how fast she had to work etc.

Oh and we had first mocks in the last summer term. The next lot are December.

@Soursprout I talked to a senior teacher at my DD's school and he has told her Form Tutor to "withdraw" her from assemblies which will only lead to stress. Maybe talk to a HOY about your DD's stress and try to get something similar?

Mine only has one set of mocks, in December (well sometimes the very last subjects are in early January). The earliest subjects are the subjects that are scheduled for earliest in May and then they follow in order, which is why one of those DS sat last year was in Jan, because at 18th June, it was one of the last. Last year the snow messed up some as well.

As far as I know, dd just has one set of mocks in January, unless they change things this year.

I hate the idea of the mock results day, think it would have been counter productive for all of mine.

Another thought- sorry if this has already been asked upthread. How many of yours are having 2 sets of mocks in Nov/ Feb? Is this a new thing? My dd is having this like Flatmouse’s child. Why is this necessary???

I completely get why they do it too As soursprout said the teachers are under horrendous pressure. I work in primary education as a Y6 teacher and am constantly questioned about progress of the kids and how SATs results impact how the school is rated and Ofsted. Etc. It gets down to Senior leaders saying things like ‘ We are only on 76.5% for writing and we need 77.8%. It’s all data driven and no one cares a fig about the impact on kids. One reason why I’m thinking of quitting....

I remember when DS did GCSEs they did a mock results day. The idea was to encourage the kids to work hard so the opening of envelopes will be happy and exciting.
I emailed the school explaining how they massively missed the mark with their plan. All of DS "mock" results were well under the level he was at that time achieving!

Really hoping they don't do similar for DD. There seem to be a lot of revision sessions. English is compulsory, as is maths unless you're in the top set. School have not yet published when November and February mocks are, so DD is attempting to add some revision to her week without really knowing where she is aiming.

Oh ffs, I don't know why schools pull this sort of crap. The ones who don't need it get upset, the ones who do need it still don't care. No one ever felt encouraged or inspired by getting moaned at.

Really feel for your dd. Hope she can realise that it's not aimed at her as you said. Sounds like she's already doing her best and thinking carefully about the year ahead x

Thanks marmite
It's a sad state of affairs isn't it
How are you doing anyway? Hope you're taking care of yourself

Chocolate I am so pleased that she is enjoying her job. Great news.

My DD2 has anxiety but would not be severe enough for Camhs so we do our best with different techniques for dealing with it. CAMHS really need a financial boost or there should be another service for all of these anxious teens.

srilanka CAMHS wouldn't see my daughter even after she took an overdose! "Not serious enough" apparently. God knows what they consider serious enough. Anyway, she's just phoned me to say what a fantastic day she's had at work

For your story !!!

Chocolate. - yes I know. We have gone down private route after I pushed the lady from CAMHS to give me prediction of time until we could access therapy- a year! Still waiting 3 weeks after paying £350 for a private consultation with a psychiatrist.
Thank you god your story, it gives me hope.

srilanka My eldest had horrendous anxiety and depression problems in Y10 and Y11. If you don't mind me asking, are you waiting for a CAMHS referral? If so, I don't know whether you saw the Panorama programme about the issues with CAMHS? I hope the services in your area are better than they are where we are - we had to go private. The good news is that although she didn't do anywhere near as well as her predictions, she did well enough to get to college, did BTECs so that she didn't have to do any more exams and got Distinction Stars in all of them. She's now doing a job that she loves. I hope telling you this may help you/her. Life isn't perfect and she still suffers from anxiety, but she's in a much better place than she was in Y11.