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Secondary education

Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

Original poster

Starting Year 11-GCSE2021 (title edited by MNHQ)

991 replies

indy69 · 01/08/2019 05:57

Good morning Mums,

My DD will start her GCSE journey this September. MN always has such good advice that I thought we could have a new thread to support each other. My DD has 4 options apart from English, Science AQA and Maths Edexcel. She has Art and History - Edexcel, and Psychology and Economics - AQA. It wpuld be lovely to know what your DC are doing and we could share resources here. I look forward to meeting you all on this thread. We have 4 weeks to go to start of term and a ton of homework to finish. My DD is feeling too lazy to do anything at the moment, but I guess they have earned the break. I will start reminding her next week about the work. Thanks

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ineedaholidaynow · 12/09/2020 21:51

Yes @blametheparents

blametheparents · 12/09/2020 21:41

Can I just ask - if a school bubble is sent home for 14 days does that mean none of those students (could be 180 in my DD’s case if the whole year is sent home) can go out of the house for 14 days?

MentalLockdown · 12/09/2020 19:35

DD is so pleased to be back at school. Lots of small (out if 20) type tests to establish where everyone is. DD is getting roughly 15 others 5 or 6 no one is hitting 100%. I really feel for the teachers having to less plan around state school, mixed ability, mixed lock down engagement, that is a crazy professional nightmare.

Blubell46 · 12/09/2020 18:51

Oh no hellypad that is not good...especially since they have just started... a bit of normality and now not in a further 2 weeks.

Hope dd is not too disheartened.

Toobuktim · 12/09/2020 18:39

Oh no hellypad, that’s not good. Does your school have a good online homeschooling process in place?

hellypad · 12/09/2020 18:12

I've been meaning to join for a while, I have DD1 in year 11, she is doing combined science, history, German, business studies, textiles alongside English and maths, unfortunately for us they have had a confirmed covid case and the whole year group is now home for 2 weeksSadGreat start

AsPerMyLastEmail · 12/09/2020 16:05

Thanks bluebell for answering my Q Smile

I’ve managed to have a good chat with DD about it today. She’s doing AQA and they’ve dropped Inspector Calls as they’ve done the poetry section. She’s happy with that as otherwise it would all be texts. I’m pleased she’s happy as she doesn’t like poetry that much. They’ve been prepared they may not do exams.

She’s very stressed though about Covid and school. She wishes the govt would either have another lockdown now or allow everything, and she knows they should probably do lockdown. It is as a PP said, so much uncertainty for them all Sad

Toobuktim · 12/09/2020 11:46

Disheartening really, so much disruption for them.

noblecause · 12/09/2020 08:40

Yes it really is only a matter of time. DS has been really happy to be back at school and the structure/routines really suit him. I really hope they don't get sent home too soon.

Toobuktim · 12/09/2020 08:10

Things have been going well for my ds, he’s got all except one of his teachers from last year, so he’s pleased about that. His English teacher is only different due to maternity leave.
I was feeling quite positive about this school year until last night when I heard of 4 local high schools with 7 year groups sent home due to covid. It’s only a matter of time, isn’t it

Blubell46 · 11/09/2020 22:23

For goodness sake, I hope they make the final decision soon!!

Ds has exams this month, so it will be good for his school to assess where they all are and fill in the gaps.

blametheparents · 11/09/2020 20:51

@Historygeek05 - Noooooo!!!!

ineedaholidaynow · 11/09/2020 20:20

If they drop poetry how is that helping students who have studied it and now have 2 new texts to read, compared to students who haven’t studied poetry yet

TeenPlusTwenties · 11/09/2020 19:54

ineed Because of the unseen poetry which makes up 20% of the marks normally I think.
Though why they cant do Paper 1 Shakespeare & unseen, and then Paper 2 perm any 2 from 3 I don't understand.

ineedaholidaynow · 11/09/2020 19:23

Why can’t they just follow the consultation and say Shakespeare is compulsory and choose 2 others

TeenPlusTwenties · 11/09/2020 18:42

Unbelievable. I despair.

Historygeek05 · 11/09/2020 18:40

AQA have just updated their website saying that they are now reviewing the changes for English Lit announced yesterday. You really couldn’t make it up!

Blubell46 · 11/09/2020 18:07

Hi aspermylastemail,

My ds school sent us an email

ineedaholidaynow · 11/09/2020 18:00

DS was told yesterday. They hadn’t started an Inspector Calls, so it works out for him as he is doing AQA

usedtobeboss3 · 11/09/2020 17:45

That's frustrating - DS has done both Jekyll and Hyde and An Inspector Calls, so one of those is now wasted... And he now has his work cut out to do the poetry and Shakespeare this year, which will both now effectively be worth proportionally more!

AsPerMyLastEmail · 11/09/2020 17:37

I’m quite confused - are the boards doing 2 different things?

Are your DC’s schools telling you this info as parents directly or is it coming via your DCs?
We’ve had NO communication from the school about what’s been included. I don’t even know what board DD’s school uses!

Oh well, first week over and it was a great one. So that’s good.

ineedaholidaynow · 11/09/2020 16:45

Well the BBC got it wrong when they announced that poetry had been dropped. It does seem strange to have 2 different approaches from the exam boards

UncomfortableSilence · 11/09/2020 16:05

Oh no how do I break that one to DD Grin She will not be happy!

TeenPlusTwenties · 11/09/2020 14:50

Thanks for that link. At least it means the ridiculous length of the papers is reduced. Also it's nice to know where we stand.

Hellohah · 11/09/2020 14:49

Somehow feels this has suddenly become more difficult... A WHOLE PAPER ON POETRY.

DS is going to be overjoyed 😂😂