Are we ready for a GCSE’s 2019 thread?

Well, that's two out of three back to school. Kettle on!

DD1 is taking it all in her stride, but we'll see how things go as the term goes on.
DD2 is starting Year 9 and chose her GCSE options last year. She seemed a bit nervous this morning, but I've put that down to classes being mixed about and being unsure of who is her classes.

Still have the youngest DD off today. I think we may be off to the cinema so a chill out day is on the cards.

Dd is about to go into year 11. She has done two GCSEs already and I helped her revise quite a bit. I have decided, now she is older, to stand back a bit and let her know if she now cannot revise and work herself, it will not be worth her going to Uni. It is a bit scary; hoping that she gets the massage she has to work if she wants the grades. However, if she does not then the academic life is not for her.

Dd's mocks are before Christmas. She has said she did not want to work over the 6 week holidays as she wanted a break and so I said it was her choice and fine. Has anyone else had dc who have not revised over the holidays, with mocks not long away?

Soursprout Dd still needs a lot of sleep; bed around 10, alarm at 7:15, Sometimes she stays up later, but can only do this for one night and has to catch up on sleep the following night.

Thanks ladies :)

My ds doesn't seem to need tons of sleep but I think he did enough as a baby
Slept through from the day he was born so now it's payback for me!

On school nights I've said Xbox off at 10pm and then either music on in background normally a DVD and I've not taken his phone off him YET but depending how he is I will review.

He's brilliant though at getting up for school so I can't complain. Dd (7) sleeps like a baby and is a nightmare to wake.

Good luck to all of your dc's.

We have new rules this year again - bedtimes no longer imposed - this was the case last year but it wasn't official. They do so much school work on their phones and computers that it really doesn't work to put limits on them. But I will keep the lines of communication open on over use of snap chat.

Dd is weak on science, dh had offered to tutor her last year but both failed to commit to enough sessions to make a difference. I can't help because we'd end up falling out...so was thinking of Tassomai but it's an expensive for what I feel is a flawed solution.

Morning all! First day back for Ds too. We have some strict rules in place from today regarding phone/Xbox use and bedtimes. Wish me luck

Morning all! Signing in. First morning of school for DD2, year 11. DD1 off to uni in two weeks. Feels like I have just got off one rollercoaster and straight onto the next.

Morning all :)

So ds went back to school yesterday and he is not happy at all.
He said he would probably be moved up a set for English after getting a 4 in the English literature GCSE ( took it y10 ) but he's been moved down and one of his friends who got a grade 3 has been moved up!

He thinks it's a mistake. I'm phoning the school this morning as the last thing I need is for him to be demotivated.

Signing in!

Can I just say that this line it seems a shame to get all Peoples Front of Judea and the Judean Peoples' Front from thread one is one of the best things I've ever read on MN

DD is by no means aiming for 9s. She is my second, so I do have some experience of getting them through these exams.

Confuzz fingers crossed for your kids granddad tomorrow. My thoughts are with you and your family.

One of my sons starts secondary tomorrow, the rest of the crew is back on wednesday. We sorted uniforms and backpacks today and our plan for dinner is full of my kids favourite meals this week.

My 2 are back to school tomorrow, dd is keen to get stuck in (she's gutted theatre training doesn't start till next week!) ds is a whole other kettle of fish, he's been a nightmare for meltdowns over the past few days, and will be until he's back in the routine of school again...

To make matters worse their grandad (exfil) has a major op tomorrow which apparently has a low chance of survival. I haven't told them it's tomorrow or how low his chances are, I won't unless I have to, already working out the logistics for getting them to a potential funeral in Ayrshire (we live in Leeds) it would mean them losing my dad in December and now their other grandad, so keeping everything crossed he can hang on a bit longer....

Spursprout that's a good idea re the kitchen trays. Currently there's work all over my dining table.

Cantkeepawayforever. My daughter sounds very similar to yours. She also takes painstaking care on every piece even though each piece only has to be half completed to show technique. She's had a meltdown tonight that she's not done enough work I think she's done loads and annotations but what do I know! It's hard isn't it. Hope everyone's kids have a good first week back.

Part of DD's issue is that as a perfectionist she works slowly, but the major part is that she cannot stay after school due to extra-curricular commitments (school sports teams + dance).

*Bimkom I think the boards are roughly the same as we are AQA and it sounds like ours. There are also sketchbooks and annotations for those as well as for the study sheets. As you say at least it's more or less finished with by the time the other exams start in May which is good.

I also was very nervous about DS2 choosing art, as I had heard horror stories about it taking over one's life (and this was before the new GCSEs). It is also the subject that I can help him with least! But DS2 was adamant that he wanted to do it, and so far it has been OKish. He has spent most lunchtimes and breaks and any free period he has had in the artroom - his original idea was to do art at school, and the other subjects at home, but that hasn't exactly worked out and this holidays there has been quite a lot of art at home (which was a bit tricky, as art is not exactly something you can do on a small desk or the kitchen table, when other people keep needing it). I can see though that it is a good thing to do when one just can't settle down to other work.
What board are other DC taking? He is taking Edexcel, I discovered recently (having thought he was taking AQA), shows how completely not on top of the Art I am. I wonder what the differences are. He apparently gets told some topic (beginning ofJanuary), and then has a certain period to produce some work on it (I think about 6-8 weeks), then there is also a couple of days exam, but I gather it is all over by the time the other subjects starts their exams in May. With other subjects I feel reasonably confident reading the specifications (even biology, which I dropped in favour of physics and chemistry as soon as I could), but with art I am clueless.