GCSE Summer 2020 - Thread 11 Carry on Corona Cohort - Starting New Terms and Settings

DS reckons his maths and physics groups are "about 20", his geography group is about 15 and there are 7 in his Computer Science AS group (not offered as an A Level due to not getting sufficient numbers).

There's 2 maths and geography groups but only 1 physics group.

All their text books are online.

His (school) sixth form has a record intake this year but I don't think it's CAG related as they always had low entry requirements. I suspect it's due to reduced other options.

@Shimy My DS did politics - it was his 5th subject choice (had to start with 4, but dropped chemistry fairly early and swapped to politics instead) He later dropped physics and kept politics which ended up as his favourite subject. They did lots of debates)discussions, held a school wide mock election during last year's GE, and had visits from MPs, visited the HoP and Old Bailey, Supreme Court etc.

@BlueMarigold @Piggywaspushed It’s the Economics class that is fuller than usual (when ds1 did his A Levels there were 18 in the class). But Ds2 did it for GCSE & got a good mark so hopefully it won’t impact on him too much. His other classes are below 20.

Classes are also bigger this year because of CAGs. Students who might otherwise have bombed exams have been admitted to schools and sixth forms. Plus, years of cuts are beginning to bite in staffing...

DS1 told me 52 applied to do economics at his place . They only have staffing for one group so they had to select. There's still 28! He doesn't like it now though because I think he finds the class intimidating. Lots of uber confident boys.

15 to 18 DS said yesterday.

@Decorhate what subjects is your DS doing? My Dd was told there would be lots of people dropping out as that’s what normally happens in sciences.

@BlueMarigold Thanks. I’m used to it being under 20 with my older kids

Biology and Psychology. They are text books the school said the children must have. To be fair I could have looked harder and found some 2nd hand but she needed them ASAP so I ordered them from Amazon. I am hoping this is it for a while. At least there will be no school trips for a while.

Homework isn’t too bad as she can do it in her study periods. She had a small amount left to do last night but it wasn’t too bad.

As this is my first child, I have no idea what to expect regarding workload. I saw some of the DCs on here have jobs and was hoping my DD would get one too at some point. She wanted to settle back first to see how much free time she had.

Anyone know what sort of class sizes their dc are in? One of Ds subjects seems to be high for a 6th form class. Not sure if it’s because more pupils than usual wanted to do that subject or a temporary staffing issue...

We haven’t had t8 buy books. I asked asked at the start and they said everything they use is online. Is it worth seeing if there is is parent’s Facebook page? On the one for D’s old school people sell books, though mostly GCSE.

DS has got a laptop as didn’t have one and being away from home we felt he needed one. He also needed quite an expensive graphics calculator but that was through school so less than it could have been.

Had first computer science lesson as it was ok, there are a couple of others who hadn’t done it for GCSE is at least not the only one. Homework exists but isn’t heavy as yet.

What subject @BlueMarigold? Does not seem fair to expect you to spend hundreds of pounds on books.

@Monkey2001 No, it’s just a regular state school.

DD started yesterday - very nervous and a bit indignant on the phone last night as she didn't get all the extra curriculars she'd asked for. However after baking and sharing a trayful of chocolate brownies she seems to be getting on OK with her corridor mates (all year 12) and her house mistress so a good start. Also her form tutor is the coach for one of the extra curriculars that isn't running and has explained why so she is a bit happier tonight...

@icanbewhatiwant perfect physique for a jockey!

DD’s timetable still not sorted, no response from the school 😤

@Shimy thanks. Not sure if I said already. Ds is 5'3" and 6 stone. So he's tiny and skinny. He is almost 17. A few years ago his little brother (now 11) was almost the same height. People commented on the big age gap between ds1 and then ds2 and ds3. But only 2.5 years between the older 2. He doesn't have an eating disorder.. He's just always been small.

Having been a bit meh about DS being 50% in school and 50% on Teams, I now think it could be very lucky. As various schools have to send bubbles into isolation, it means that for DS 2 weeks out of school would just mean an extra 5 days of teams and they will be used to working that way.

@sansou I would get your DS to research what would be best for him, I think a budget of £350 should get something good enough, or spend more if you want to. It is a good exercise for him to do the research and explain why he is recommending whatever he recommends.

For university we splashed out on a surface pro for DS1 which is brilliant because you can annotate slides in tablet mode or attach the keyboard to use as a laptop, but it was expensive (even from Tecobuy, which was slow but excellent value)

DS said everything is now online and done via laptop. Absolutely everything. He’s always used a laptop at school though (Indy). He has a dell laptop bought back in yr 9. I’ve still got the spec but there’s probably something more up to date on the market now.

DS is at his school sixth form and is basically there all day. Anyone else's DC taking a laptop to sixth form every day to use during free study periods between lessons? Any recommendations? DS has a high spec PC at home but a modest laptop would probably be useful for school.

You are lucky if you are the first user though and some are a bit dog-eared!

At our state school there have been recommended revision guides which are given to people on free school meals and other people are advised to buy them. Everything else was provided, although we do have to provide paper and exercise books in sixth form.

No, not these days! They are so eye wateringly expensive schools can't afford them .

I think I have spent £100 on books for DS.

Some subjects are more textbooky than others so it's a little bit luck of the draw...

I’ve heard of others at state schools having to buy books but dd has been given text books by school so far.