Starting Year 11-GCSE2021 (title edited by MNHQ)

indy Thanks. Looks like I might have to drag myself into the 21stC - I don't currently 'do' apps (or data of any kind on my phone).

Have been coaxing DD through tiny amounts of geography, English and RE revision this half term. Those subjects not my forte! Trying to work out how to help make helpful revision cards for Eng Lit. Do you organise quotes by character and events and themes?
On the plus side, we've just remade a food tech dish that went wrong at school, and it looks much better than last time, so DD is pleased.

I'm not sure how DS is doing his Further Maths. When his sister was at the same school she did Maths GCSE in Y10 and FM in Y11. Now we've been told that DS will do them both at the end of Y11.

It's top set only which do FM.

Half-term. Yay!

Thanks @PettsWoodParadise... DS's school won't do accelerated maths, he is at a pretty poorly performing school, and last year when they said they'd be doing Further Maths, they said it would only be available for up to 10 kids. They only have one top set, with 35 kids and on a recent presentation evening that set is for grades range of 6-9. I think they did it as an additonal after school lesson last year. Heard nothing but I did assume they'd do it over 2 years and would have started already. Have a meeting at school on Monday for a maths trip, so might corner a teacher and ask.

Hellohah at DD’s school the FM group are doing an accelerated programme of regular maths at the moment to leave time in Y11 to do FM, there isn’t any extra lessons timetabled. DD currently isn’t planning on doing the FM mind you! It just seems to be the path for the set she is in.

Quick question, have all your DC doing Further Maths started now?

Teen she went from 4 to 5. She had a very difficult yr9 with low level bullying, but she doesn’t help herself by doing the minimum work she can get away with for maths. She is capable of hard work, she spent a couple of hours last night learning English lit quotes.

Petts at DD's school FM was taught alongside core maths in Yr10 and was an additional end of Yr10 mock/ exam for top set maths DC.
Some schools may teach FM as an additional lesson -or as extra curricular- in which case it wouldn't be compulsory for DC's to cover FM syllabus in timetabled core maths lessons.

Overnow and ProggyMat thanks - the school don’t tend to make anything compulsory- they are unusually quite laid back and all about choice but I will perhaps send an email to the head of maths to enquire further.

At DS school in previous years only the top set have done FM at GCSEs. But when I asked DS maths teacher about it last year they said they weren't sure whether they would continue with this. DS has moved up to set 1 this year. He has said they are moving at a faster pace than previous years but no mention of FM so far. We don't have parents evening till next term so will ask then.

Petts I would check with school as at my DD's (Yr11) school FM is compulsory for top set.
Her set have finished the core maths syllabus and are currently working through FM.

Thanks Teen. Sounds like she has plenty of time to decide and I will support her in turning down the extra exam if she still feels that is what she wants to do. The dates and timelines you give are all really helpful.

e.g. For this academic year, AQA's entry date is 21st Feb with an amendments date of 20th April.

Petts Re FM, I don't know much about it as my DD's aren't at that level. I personally would have thought it pointless doing FM unless heading for 8/9 in GCSE maths and thinking about maths A level.

Final exam entries aren't done until March/April of y11.

Thanks Teen, it isn’t just setting the tier of maths - DD is at a grammar and all girls do the higher level, it is a separate extra exam for Further Maths that is being proposed and that is a fair amount of extra revision and exam time too, a whole extra equivalent GCSE more or less. I personally think she should just concentrate on the main maths exam, especially as she is not proposing on doing Maths A level, but schools these days seem to promote STEM at expense of arts subjects and whilst it may be trying to redress the balance - for some it just isn’t always the right path for them.

Good Where is your DD with her maths? Top set to set 2 is OK, but if she is at risk of not passing then intervention from somewhere earlier rather than later would probably help.
(I've been doing 10mins a day (on a timer) before school with DD2 and it is definitely helping to keep things ticking over. She has always been reluctant to have me help before but the timer seems to make it acceptable to her!)

April 2021 sounds about right.
You certainly don't have to fix tier of maths/science until around that time as I remember discussing it with DD1 after her mocks.

We're thinking re holidays in y11 too. I think we won't do any full week holidays over half terms but might do some last minute short breaks. With DD1 we did 4 days in Jersey over Easter which worked well but I wouldn't have wanted to be away for longer.

DD has her 'y10' exams straight after Easter, so that is out for this year too...

Our half term is next week, and will include Halloween and Fireworks so that's good.

Currently on half term break and DH has been told by DD no holiday this time next year or Easter - she is usually a ‘bare minimum’ type and seems to do well but i hope this thought about holidays is a sign she is starting to realise she might need to put in a bit more work.

After a maths blip last year she is back in top set but much to her disgust as the school are hoping she will do further maths - they are doing the main syllabus at a faster pace to leave time for FM but she plans to use this time for more revision and not do FM. Does anyone know when they have to make a decision about whether to enter for a particular exam? DD thinks it is April 2021 but that seems too late in my mind and I wonder if when they school mentioned April cut off for a decision they mean April 2020.

Mostly going well here, dd certainly happier now she’s moved away from the mean group and has made some new friends.

She’s working hard and doing well in the subjects she likes but ignoring or doing the minimum for the one she doesn’t i.e. maths! She only told us at the weekend that she got moved down a set at the end of yr9. Ive tried to help her revise maths but we end up getting frustrated with each other. Not sure whether to email the maths teacher and see what we can do over the half term or just back off a bit...

DDs school loves a good pep talk. I do tend to think that DD is of the do the minimum to get by but has definitely realised in a short space of time this won't cut it.

Half term for us all here but she has lots of work to do and lots of socialising planned too

Chicken Teachers do give generalised pep talks. I just tell DD to ignore the ones where she is doing what is needed.

Can I squeeze in? DD2 is in year 10 and so far loving art, music and history but maths and science are stressful. There seems to have been a bit of a showdown in maths lessons this week, with her teacher giving them all a rocket about getting motivated and not just doing the minimum to scrape by.

DD2 is feeling unfairly treated. Personally, I think he is spot on.

It's probably going to be a long year!

Back from Macbeth. I'm not an English expert, but a nice solid good performance in my view. Nothing particularly innovative or brilliant, but a good performance for those studying it for GCSE.

DD seems very light on tests so far compared with all of you guys. I don't know whether to be worried or grateful!