Starting Year 11-GCSE2021 (title edited by MNHQ)

@Titsywoo yes, DS has just spent 4 hours on homework today and still has 10 tasks on Hegarty left plus 3 lots of seneca due. He's a lazy bugger as well so is struggling with longer days at school plus homework every night.

He's just submitted his first college application. He's applying to 6 colleges because he has no idea what to do. Only managed the one submission so far as he really likes the History A Level offered there. He doesn't like History at the 5 others so no idea what he's applying for at those 🤷‍♀️

DS has just finished the exams that were postponed from the summer but his mocks aren't until January.

However we have bigger problems as he & DD have both been under the weather and I didn't think too much of it until DD was called to say she's a close contact of someone who's just tested positive.

DD also has mocks in Nov. I don’t get why they’re doing them so early this time?

She thinks that revision H’s something she can do in October half-term. Hmm.

Ds is currently in exams postponed from the Summer and his mocks are in January.

Really felt for him last week and this week...came home and said those exams weren't good! He is worried they will count if they cancel the exams next year. I told him not to worry and they really cant count since they haven't been in school for 6 months!

Take these exams as experience and learn from it but it is hard for them when it seems so full on.

I cant wait till exams are over late next week.

Anyone else finding the homework is really piling up? Not sure if it is normal for year 11 or if they are using it as extra work to catch them up but DD has loads. God knows when she will find time to do any revision for mocks or get her art coursework done!

DS has been given the dates of his mocks today 30/11-10/12, it’ll be here before we know it

Dd1 is having lots and lots of tests at the moment. She had 5 today! Some seem to have gone ok. Others Shd is much less sure about. She worked hard in the summer holidays for these so I hope she isn’t disillusioned if she doesn’t do so well. I just think it is good to gain an understanding of how to revise and a sense of the bits of each subject she finds tricky ....

DD1 school didn't have time to get to any assesments for Y11 before they all got sent home due to postive test result in her year.

They started the Y7 and sixth form back first but not Y11s then there was a week and few days and then home for 14 days.

DD1 had been quite postive talking to the teachers and hearing the exam board changes all seemed doable - when she was first sent home there was talk of lessons and follwoing timetables - and that's been hit and miss.

DS has first diagnostic test on Wednesday. For some reason, the emails from school are going into my spam box, so I found the timetable this morning. DS has Science on Wednesday (the topics covered during lockdown). He has a revision booklet, the first section is on Ecology. I asked him to define ecology, his response ... Erm! Somehow I don't think his tests are going to go well :(

Oh no ISBN111 that is not good on the schools’s part, she should have been informed about that. My DS is kicking off with biology tomorrow, so he’s spent all weekend studying for all that’s on thy is week.

Toobuktim I sympathise. My dd’s are allowed back to school now as their primary aged brother got a negative test result. Dd1 just found out about a physics exam today. It’s one of her favourite subjects, so she really cares. But seems to have done next to no preparation. 😟

My DS has his assessments starting next week, I keep on veering on my feelings about this. On one hand he is starting to lay the groundwork for the possibility that the exams may be cancelled next year, but on the other hand he is going to be spending the next school year sitting lots of tests as if it were the GCSEs themselves. The stress of that over such a long period of time can’t be great.

TPT
your post has just come through, point taken will start ending GCSEs thread on seperate thread and leave this, will still post here to try to get through situation we all have to deal with as is. Thanks all.

With you NotDonna, yes, as far as I can tell there is evidence to suggest that some young people do better with exams. Especially those they call 'disadvantaged' which I guess we fall into that category, though that is not how we call ourselves!

Bluebell, yes, I know what you mean about wellbeing and so sorry your DS is in this situation. If any help I think that turning up has its merits by itself and totally agree about the balance of sport.

School here is doing a four week intensive 'Spinning' class for them once a week which is not expensive and it is really helping. I have noticed all sorts of mental health issues in DD's peer group due to the pandemic, so yes, keeping an eye on that is a priority here.

I'm generally better at posting early in the mornings but will check in with this thread later in the day. Glad that I sent the article to the head thanks for identifying it people, will see what happens.

Think I'm just putting my practical head on again which is my way of coping. Off to tidy the kitchen...will check in later

I think a discussion on ending GCSEs would be better placed in a separate thread @greengreengrass14 . It is a bit of a moot point for our y11s, but may be interesting for a much wider secondary audience.

The old GCSEs were massively open to abuse imo. So dependent on the amount of help from parents / tutors, let alone teachers being 'flexible' with the rules.

I agree but lets hope this will help our children who need the support the most.

My ds has exams this week and he is no way ready. I really feel for him but am just glad he is keeping up with his sports on Saturday for his release.

Hopefully this will help the school to identify gaps in their learning

I’ve posted it in ‘staff room’ but I’m thinking it maybe just speculation. I’m not sure how much a group can influence Ofqual etc.
I don’t know what I’d prefer. DD2 yr11 has always done ok & there’ll be lots of evidence, so should get good CAGs. But I think she’d do best in exams.
DD1 (yr13) is doing well but will do better nearer the time. She’s also taking a subject that did dreadfully a few years ago. So if they do the historical data thing she’d get a dire grade. She’s also in a super smart cohort so if they rank then she could score poorly in another of her subjects. I think she could do much better with exams. But having said all that a couple of her GCSEs were surprises and especially frustrating when missed a grade by 1 mark in two subjects. So, I don’t know which is best from a personal point of view.
CAGs; continual assessment etc should be fairer for everyone but the chaos last year is worrying.

The Observer says a coalition of private and state schools elsewhere in the UK is expected to launch a campaign to end GCSEs - and a growing number of schools are already looking at alternatives to the summer exams"

I'd be in support of that as I really feel DS would better with assesments throughout the school year. Hopefully it would put an end to slacking off all year and cramming for exams at the last minute.

I have emailed the link to the head teacher of our school as personally I feel the current system is not working. It is quite a long article and so it is taking me time to get my head around it but I thought it was important to flag it up with the head and say 'Rethinking Assessments' seems right in these circumstances.

Found the link, just googled 'coalition to end GCSE's and found this, haven't read it yet but thought I would post. Is it worth a seperate thread or is it okay to talk about it on this one? I am not that skilled at knowing how long a thread can be. Can someone advise.

Off to read this now
www.theguardian.com/education/2020/sep/20/private-and-state-schools-bid-to-kill-off-gcses

@NotDonna

It’s a 2 yearly thing that they do every other year, got cancelled this year so they have rearranged for next summer apparently.

Hello again,
Yes, I'm with the approach of 'just doing enough' and trying to stay organised and be thankful for things that I have managed to organise, although often enough as you can imagine I sit there early morning with no one to talk to and think 'how on earth are we going to do this...'
but then I snap out of it, grab my notebook and make a list of things to do, open the windows and be grateful for things like DD is getting a big sleep today...

Just wanted to offer something, school here did an online presentation this week which intended to allay parents worries and help dealing with uncertainty. Unfortunately it didn't make a good impression on me probably it is so difficult doing such things by Zoom without the human contact. I know we've had to get used to it and i am learning but I am no longer young (though young in my head) and it takes me ages.

Long and the short of it is I've asked for another meeting and collecting questions and issues on a notepad until then.

One of them somehow being prepared for DD possibly not being well on the day of exams and from a parents point of view what to do.

Whether Covid or normal flu etc (in which case they may not be able to go in_

Hopiing to clarify this this week and pass it on to this thread, at the moment to me it is clear as mud. Though that might be my stressed brain. There has been some talk in teh press about a second set of papers?

Also, try to check the news only once a day in morning as it is too scary otherwise, but wanted to pass on this from a national newspaper don't know if it is true...but I'm really rather hoping that GCSE exams will be scrapped altogether as it seems really not wise to put kids and parents under this kind of stress in the current circumstances, here is the quote:

The Observer says a coalition of private and state schools elsewhere in the UK is expected to launch a campaign to end GCSEs - and a growing number of schools are already looking at alternatives to the summer exams"

looked at the observer but couldn't find any info on this coalition, I would like to support it. Or sign a petition if there is one. Anyone found anything?

Thank you everyone for being here, it is difficult to stay calm amidst all this I find.

A trip to France? Mmmm... I think there maybe another disappointed year group there. All our trips have been cancelled.