Gcses 2019 support thread 5

I love it Fos! She looks amazing!! I hope she has a fabulous time!

Oh Fos - she looks fabulous!

Well she’s there with her friends and they were all happy as they went in! The rally car was ready so she was in her element to arrive in that!
Hope the picture loads - complete with her Victory Rolls!

10 days till prom here! DD1 has her 6th form ball Froday - thank goodness it isn't going to be incredibly hot because her dress is velvet. We do have a backup dress, but this one is the favourite. Will post a pic of DD2 when the time comes.

No required reading for 6th form here, no clothing issues either as the school is non-uniform. They 'suggest' business dress, but in practice you only need to wear that if you aspire to be a prefect or head boy/girl. DD2 isn't interested, has server her prefect time in Yr 11 and is now ready for blue hair and wearing what the hell she wants.

Funnily enough she is also planning a book cull. We brought back a lot of books from my mum's house. Some are valuable and will be sold as they need a proper owner who will treasure them and climate control them. Others however are collections of poetry - Tennyson, Keats, Byron, Coleridge - and the works of Oscar Wilde, and DD2 wants these. She reads Jane Austen for fun so will definitely read them. She's not doing English Lit A level.

We did also find a decent edition of Tess of the D'Urbervilles and teased DD1 mercilessly as it was her least favourite A level set book...

steppemum hope he has a great time. My experience of ds and lifts yesterday is that they are all dishonest and in the end the 30 or so of them just randomly got into cars and everyone ended up with a nice group for the journey.

my mum lives near after party, she's on holiday, so just texted her and got the ok to go and sit and cuddle her cat and watch her tv while ds at after party.

I feel sorry for him, as his close friendship group seems ot be breaking up and they are all being flaky about where and when. Not sure what is behind it, but don't want him to miss out. One close friend is also a footballer, so going with his football crowd, and that has thrown the balance out I think
Might end up with just him, or a few in the car!

Good luck steppemum! I quite like the pick ups as they are always in high spirits ( or spirits) and the stories in the car are often v funny!

Long list of economic books here as well as having to start reading the economist.
But haven’t had anything for any other subjects. Worried the maths will go by the wayside over summer so plan to try and keep that up!

@steppemum Oh Yes ! Your ds will owe you big time for such a personalised chauffeur service.

glee - she looks beautiful!
ours is tonight, ds has promised I can take a pic. (then I will be out so may have to upload tomorrow)

prom is miles away.
after party is miles away but closer, but no way of getting from prom ot after party (at someone's house in a field)

ds struggling ot get friends organised as to who is doing lift with whom to where, so I have promised to come to prom, put up him and how ever many friends he wants in car and drop them at the party, then sleep/read in car for 2 hours, then go and pick him up!

I reckon there is a whole summer of retuyrn favours from that one

Lots and lots of reading for DD.

Her four English teachers have come up with 10 books each, as "supplemental" reading, we have about 10 of the 40, so she can read those . She also has to read Handmaids Tale and Frankenstein, as two of her set books.

For Class Civ, she is currently reading Song of Achilles, a nice intro, but then she has to read Virgil's Aeneid, and Homers Odyssey, as well as another load of suggested supplementals.

Nothing yet from History.....

In their final assembly they were also encouraged to read round their subjects, start thinking about and researching university and courses, and do things to supplement their personal statements.

She thought she would be bored this summer, apparently not .

Personally, I would just like her to relax. We are of the mind that you only get a couple of really laid back summers in your adult lives, and this is one of them. We are encouraging her to kick back and enjoy, lay around in the sun, and soak up some vitamin D (with a book in hand if at all possible).

At the end of their second maths GCSE there was an announcement that anyone doing maths/FM at A level or AS should go to a specific room after the exam. They were then all issued with school printed booklets of maths problems/exercises to do over the summer! DS was not best pleased on the day but he's calmed down now!
They have orientation day on Friday so I am expecting a list of books/articles/web links to be forthcoming for him to be looking at over the long summer break. In some ways it'll be helpful. He only finished a week ago and I'm fed up with him being on the PS4 already!!

catontherun it transpired from the familiarisation day yesterday that the dreaded sixth form have apparently sent out similar lists to those already in their Year 11. They said they would be sending them out to those hopefully coming for sixth form (grades depending) from outside. Can't tell you exactly what is on such list until we actually get it, but there does appear to be a similar expectation. At existing school, the maths teacher (who is fabulous) sent around an email suggesting that those going on to A level maths drop in and pick up the maths textbooks for next year and that they would also get some pointers of what to do to keep their maths refreshed. Jokesy low key about it. Given the school, I don't think they could make it compulsory, but the maths teacher is determined they will fly high, whether they are ambitious or not, Of course DS is hoping not to be there (although the maths teacher is one reason that gives him pause)

6th form taster sessions/induction day yesterday. It's becoming apparent that it's going to cost substantially more to clothe DC for 6th form than I first thought. Shoes in particular, as just one pair of school shoes worn day in day out will need to be replaced by possibly 3 pairs to go with different "office wear" outfits.

DC's weekly allowance bank transfer will build up over the next 10 weeks as almost no bus fares/occasional lunches to pay for so I'm thinking of saying they need to contribute half although I know they were hoping to use it for increased leisure activities.

They have been promised a major 'phone upgrade as a reward for effort but I've already budgeted for that.

Apparently books like these are being recommended to prevent too much slippage over the 10 weeks until term starts and to make sure they can hit the ground running in September (DC attend a pushy academic school). Just when I thought spending on such books was over until A' Level exam time !

www.amazon.co.uk/Head-Start-level-Chemistry-Level/dp/1782942807/ref=sr_1_1?s=gateway&keywords=head+start+to+a+level+chemistry+cgp&hvdev=c&hvadid=80882856199274&hvqmt=e&hvbmt=be&tag=mumsnetforu03-21&qid=1561543355&sr=8-1

Anyone else's school pushing these sort of books/low level self study over the summer ?

For my DS it was the Beast Quest books, followed by (he would hate me to mention it) the Rainbow Fairies. For ages, even after we had got him to read, and he would devour the latest in whatever series he was reading, he wouldn't try anything new, which is why Beast Quest and the Rainbow Fairies were such a godsend, as they kept bringing out more and more books, and once it was tried and tested series he was OK, he felt confident with the format, even if it seemed to me that they were completely formulaic and boring. Then we had the challenge of introducing more and diverse reading, but still tended towards books that had series, as it was always getting him on to the first of a series that was the big stumbling block, and once one was acceptable, the rest followed. the TJ books were great as they were about football. Rangers Apprentice and Young Samurai were also key developmental stages. Amazing that this is the boy who is now experimenting with real literature (one group of his friends that he knows from out of school have been recommending books like The Colour Purple and Catch 22, and he asked me for Animal Farm and Lord of the Flies) and is now seriously reading medical books such as Gene and Do No Harm, not to mention This is Going to Hurt and When Breath becomes Air. It was such a battle in those days, which is why I have so many of these books. Getting him to go to a library was adding an extra burden on the process (we did go, and DD always found a lot to take home, but he often struggled), so I would scour charity shops for books to try. The first Young Samarai came that way, and I then ended up getting the rest on ebay. Very hard for me to give them away.

Good luck Fos 💐

That dress is so elegant - and her hair looks beautiful - must have taken ages!
Big day for us today - just setting off for nails!

lamduffy - yes I do mean donate, probably the local charity shop, although I will check with some friends who have DC younger than mine if they want them. But even that I am reluctant to do at this stage. I have kept a whole bunch of the "key" proper children's books too. The ones they loved and really worked. DS in particular, was (wouldn't think it now) initially a very reluctant reader, took quite a lot of work to get him switched onto books. We experimented very widely to try and get him enthusiastic about it.

Glee your dd looks fab pleased she had good time.

Ds home after the 10 hour party marathon and seems to have had a great time (and remarkably sober).

Glee - stunning, beautiful hair! Great to hear it all went well in the end lovely to end he year on a high note!
Kitty- hope DS survives without a hangover, sounds like he’s had a blast
Myrtle - great Dd enjoying it- what is she doing??