Year 11 2023-24

Good luck to all the DCs taking mocks next week.

Mocks next week for ds. It’s the only official set that they do in exam conditions, though there’s been plenty of in class testing and they’ve already sat quite a few of their GCSE papers for some subjects.

Prom deposit is paid, we’ve not thought about a suit or transport yet!

Good luck to all students with their mocks starting next week!

DS also has mocks starting next week but has not done, and plans not to do, any revision. He revised for the November mocks as he needed these grades for his sixth form applications but says he's just going to use February mocks as revision in themselves. They're only revising in class now as they've covered all the course content so I can't think of a good argument to change his mind.

Mocks start tomorrow. English Lit flash cards still on going. HT will be fun 🥲

Half term here and ds has mocks in the core subjects when he goes back. Looks like it’s the Paper 2s for the sciences. Luckily his girlfriend is away this week and his male friends are either away or studying so we are not having the usual arguments about his social life being more important than exams! He has really got his head down and feels a lot more confident.

His prom is at the end of June and we tried a few suits on the other week. Not thinking about transport yet - but I am hoping they'll be ok with the bus!

DS has had 4 hours of science and an hour of English tutoring, then short bursts of history and computing. Slightly even up on RE which is a worry but I think he feels spread thin with so many subjects. He is trying hard but I think he needs to to get passes. He told his brother to start now and don’t wait for year 11! Good advice 🤪

My DD has 2 weeks of mocks straight after half term, last round before the real ones. They get the results just before the last parents evening which is at the end of March. Luckily she seems to be quite motivated to revise this round. In November she needed much more nudging. This week she is doing 8 study sessions each day, one for each subject where she has mocks this round. No mocks for Eng Language and Add Maths, they last sat those in November.

I panicked when she first said she wanted to revise for all 8 subjects each day in half term, but some are shorter (e.g. 30 mins of German, 45-min History) and some are longer (1-hr Biology, full Maths paper on drfostmaths, etc.).
Last session each day is Art, which she loves and finds relaxing - she listens to her playlists on Spotify and starts drawing/painting/annotating.

She stops around 6pm and after dinner either goes to a friend's house or dissapears in her room and watches Netflix on her tablet.

Anyone else's child doing Electronics? Managed to find all the dates for DS exams apart from electronics. Not listed under exam board DS told me.

Got a feeling my DS will be the same unless I want to discuss £000s for a car hire just for an hr he has no interest waiting to see what his mates do. DD still got years to go already thinking about the dress 😂

DS' school is having a prom but we're already on holiday so he can't go. I think he's quite relieved at not having to decide whether to go or not!

He's had three interviews and three offers which is promising. Still to hear from three, although his friends haven't heard from these schools either, so it's not just DS. He does seem to have finally settled on a subject combination though - thank goodness! Now he's moved on to debating whether to do an EPQ or not.

Dd is having a prom, but it's very lowkey. She says that a lot of people wont be going actually as its in july so lots of people on their holidays. Its not really a hot topic iygwim

Ds hasn’t decided if he is going to bother going to prom. Said he’ll let me know nearer the time . Which basically means he’ll probably tell me two weeks before 🙄 and if it’s a yes I’ll be scrambling around last minute.

My DD is dreading prom. There's nothing she'd hate more, but there's peer pressure to attend. She's an introvert who's social anxious. She hates to think of anyone looking at her or judging what she's wearing. She wears nothing except leggings and hoodies. Doesn't wear skirts or dresses, ever. She's never worn makeup or groomed other than basic showering, washing hair etc.

She's conscious that she's not one of the popular kids. She doesn't see herself as pretty. She's self conscious about her spots, glasses, braces. All of the prom talk is worrying her more than the exams.

I'm keeping it low key at the moment, but I know she's soon going to have to face making a decision to attend or not. And then deal with the fallout from that decision - finding an invisibility cloak outfit or working out how to avoid all of the inevitable prom chat for the next 5 months.

I wish they weren't having a prom until Y13.

All schools here are 11-16, so prom is this year, girls have decided against the limo (thankfully) so just a dress to sort (which we aren’t allowed to discuss yet).

Half term for us and we’re in Tenerife, dd spent most of the flight studying and has a few hours to get in before the end of the week, but studying Spanish in Spain can’t be too bad right?

No Y11 prom here, just Y13. Which is a great relief to both me and DS.
We have mocks Thursday and Friday and then the full week after half term. I'm quietly dying inside 🥲

What is everyone doing for prom transport? Dd is part of a group of 9 wanting to travel together and a limo is coming in at £900 which seems like a proper crazy amount of money.

Are you in Manchester? Could she travel to eg Trafford? The schools there have 6th forms that are good

Yes, round here almost no schools have 6th forms (there is an all girls in the nearby city that has a 6th form, that's about it). So we have some A level colleges, some vocational colleges, some mixed colleges and an agricultural one.

It's strange how things differ.

Here, the more academic kids stay for school 6th form. Not always their previous school, and lots of schools don't have 6th forms.
College is for less mainstream subjects or those who didn't get on with the structure of school or for non A level options.

Any insight into business studies verses media studies? Younger son really unsure and older son isn’t doing either?

The problem is, in our area every able student goes to one of two sixth form colleges. I would prefer her to go to sixth form, however it's generally seen as being for less able students and would hold her back academically as it has only one of her chosen subjects

Colleges do tend to be more hands off - which definitely suits some people better.

Ah,at the college dd wants to go its only twice a week!

I was a sixth form tutor in an 11-18 school for over a decade. I used to tell my form that I was their mum at school - I'd support them all the way but if they messed with me, woe betide them. We saw them every day twice a day so I tended to know who needed nagging and who needed TLC.

I miss having a form.

The teacher we spoke to made it seem like there was little to no input! Dd is self motivated, but shed need the reassurance