Year 11 2023-24

DS is swithering between history or geography and business and psychology. He is staying at school and will only need 5's to do that, but obviously, we are aiming higher than that.

He's been pretty good at self-directed revision for the last few months, and his mocks were OK, but there was lots of room for improvement.
DH is helping with maths, and I'm the flashcard queen.

My mum speaks fluent Spanish, but apparently, she would not be helpful for the spoken exam 🤦‍♀️

The exam period terrifies me, but I'm focusing on the summer ☀️

Predicting 9s can put on an awful lot of pressure.
Surely better to predict 8s (or even 7+) and let the student exceed rather than them feeling they have 'failed' by getting 'only' an 8.

@dinomirror think DS school is similar for 9s only know 2 kids at DS school predicted 9s both been straight 9s all year I every test for the subjects.

I am unsure about dd doing 3 essay subjects although they are her strong suit. She has chosen History,politics and economics so i am hoping econ isnt as much writing? Also does anyone elses school not predict 9s at all? They have basically said they only predict 9s if they have gotten a 9 in every assessment which i think is unhelpful as we dont know what they truly think

I don't know much about Business but both Politics and Economics are heavy essay subjects.

DS has been offered History, English Lit and Classical Civilisations at his first choice. At his second he was going for History, English Lit and Politics (they don't do classics) but changed politics to biology at the interview as the college said three essay subjects would be hard going.

DS is doing GCSE psychology and says it's all about the answer structure. He said he has realised that he doesn't have to write paragraphs and paragraphs as long as the information is presented in the correct way structurally. I suspect GCSE format is very different to A level though.

@anoukis I am similarly stressed! DS seems to think he's done the hard part already by getting the super selective offer and getting the required grades at GCSE will be easy by comparison (the school he wants to go to offered on 68/70 points for top 8 GCSE's and he only needs 56 to confirm the place, so I sort of understand why he thinks that). To try and help motivate him we did a calendar yesterday which all of the exams marked on it and stuck it on his bedroom wall above his desk. He is saying he will do more revision this week, although he's gone off to the tennis club this morning! DS dropped further maths as it seemed superfluous given that he doesn't want to do maths at A level anyway.

Our 6th form offers both the A Level psychology and the BTECH. The btech sounds much more case study oriented and hands on.

Super anxious, you want to see them succeed don’t you, it’s not at all easy being 16 in any circumstances, it’s awful to have all this pressure of exams as well as doing the whole young adult thing.

They said at interview they’d want at least 5 for English to study psychology and dd got 4 in mocks, she doesn’t enjoy essay writing, for quantitative psychology it’s quite formulaic, but qualitative is very wordy and I think she’ll find that tricky (I did a psychology degree recently). But maybe she’ll improve her writing which would be great. If she gets a 4 they maybe happy because her science is strong who knows, but she should have a reserve choice.

For me I think the bits of psychology that are quite scientific are interesting, I like the stats, but the social stuff is not as interesting as other social sciences. But obviously I’m not dd and she has to make her own decisions.

DS if 6th form Geography Business Studies Economics and core maths if college Accountancy Geography Business Studies and core maths plans to go into accounts Finance the 6th form dont do accountancy ALevel.

Is anyone anxious about the upcoming exams? I'm more anxious and nervous than my DD is. I keep telling myself to 'trust the process' and that she's worked hard but anxiety is still lurking😨 .

Luckily DD isn't anxious (not consciously anywway) and I'm hoping it stays like that. She was a bit tired at the end of last term, but seems to have a boost of energy now. The Easter break has helped her relax, even though she's done quite a lot of revision. She saw friends quite often in the evenings and went to all her sports training sessions. This coming week she will finish revising for all subjects. She did a fast run through all GCSE content since early March, mostly through answering topic-based questions. After next week, it will be just papers + harder questions + flash cards + covering gaps. Mostly it will be paper 1s until May half term, except English Lit and German. And Art, which will be over at the end of April.

We are still not sure whether she will sit the Add Maths exam, although she's now improved her % in papers. There are over two months left until the AddM exam, it's her last one, on the 18th of June. I hope she decides to sit the exam, but I won't push for it. Revising for AddM helped her anyway as there is quite a lot of overlap with the A-levels Maths curriculum.

Is her 6th form flexible with entry requirements? If so, go with what she’d enjoy. She will work hard and often some of the prerequisites are silly.

My dts were settled in their choices early on. DD’s chosen Chemistry, Biology and Geography with a view to study medicine. DS opting for History, Politics and English Language, he’s thinking of doing law.

Yes, DD is not totally decided. We're hopeful that she can take four until October half term and make the decision then.

Ds still isn’t sure.
He knows that he wants to stay at school sixth form and has put in his current choice but once they have worked out the columns to choose from he may change his mind.
His predicted grades and mock results are more than good enough for him to be accepted on whatever he decides.

Anyone else’s kids still pondering A choices? Dd initially had a backup in case she missed maths, but now that seems secure, but if she misses English then she may have to rethink psychology. She’s not sure, thinking business or economics, I think economics will be more interesting and she could consider politics too. Whatever I suggest she’s wary of and I don’t want to push her into a choice she’s not happy with. I’m not sure why she’s not considering another science. Career wise she’s not sure but after career interview thinking maybe finance sector.

Thanks @Gunnersforthecup - I've redone the acceptance on the portal for DS and if we don't get anything back from the school by deadline of 15th I will speak to them. He doesn't want to miss this opportunity due to some admin system failure.

@wonderstuff that's interesting to hear, thanks. I have heard similar. Lots of the kids from DS school go on to F6th and say that they are ruthless about monthly testing, and if students aren't making the grade the are managed to other courses. It's a great campus, great sports facilities, and lots of DS friends will be going there, so he's keen. It's a train journey away so at least an hour's travel each way for DS.

DS loves Mr Bruff too Your daughter revising with her cousin sounds like a good idea - they can motivate each other. DS isn't doing that much either from what I've seen - he's playing basketball today and playing rugby tomorrow. Hopefully next week he will get down to some proper revision.

Dd really isn’t doing much revising at all, spoke to dsil yesterday and she’s worried about dn, I’ve asked dd to get together with her for revision, I worry they’re both a bit complacent.

Did spend an hour or so on English today, thank you to whoever recommended Mr Bruff, really good.

She’s far more interested in organising her summer than focusing on exams!

I worked in Fleet until recently so F6th was our main feeder. They are good, I would get clarity on their threshold for staying on after lower 6th mocks I think they are a bit ruthless on some courses at off rolling kids who aren’t doing well.

@Waspie

Regarding sixth form, DS applied to 2 (his current school and a very good 6th form college) and has got email acceptances for both.

I'd have a low threshold for double-checking with the college if there isn't a confirmation.

DS is much more focussed on his social life than revision.

He thinks he is doing a lot of work (up to 2 hours a day)

He is very bright and should be getting mainly 9s but struggles with application. He does have ADHD and autism. The ADHD has only just been diagnosed and he hasn't taken it on board at all.

He probably should be having extra time (he got a 4 in English Language in a previous mock because he didn't finish the paper) but he has refused to consider this - as he doesn't think he has a problem.

He does use a laptop as his handwriting is so illegible.

I have been trying all year to get him to adopt a revision timetable, even a very loose one, but he downright refuses. He has begrudged every minute spent on school work but would happily argue with me for an hour or more if I encourage him to revise.

I think there may be a bit of PDA in there - the Educational Psychologist that he saw in December agreed with me - so I backed off with demands.

However, he got a 4 in spoken MFL - and I can help him with that - and school have asked all parents to support with practice for MFL as those exams will be first up after Easter. Wow, is he being uncooperative.

It is sad as he has so much potential and really isn't focussed on maximising it right now.

But he has been getting some 9s in mocks before Easter, so I guess we'll just see how he gets on!

My Dts have both been accepted to a 6th form college and a school 6th form (their school doesn’t have a 6th form). They had interviews for both. The college is their preferred option so fingers crossed!!

Thanks @wonderstuff . That's the same as most of those DS applied to. Sixth form colleges do seem to manage their applications and admissions process very well. I guess they don't have year 7 admissions to have to deal with at the same time though! DS' second choice is Farnborough Sixth Form college (Hampshire), which is enormous but has a really good reputation and good student outcomes.

We got an email confirmation a couple of weeks ago from 6th form college, they did an interview and then confirmed after that. May be different here though because no state school 6th forms, everyone goes to college and it seems everyone who meets criteria gets in, colleges are so big they can flex to meet demand. Does mean class sizes are large but they seem to get results.

May I ask a question to those of you whose children are applying to sixth forms different to their current school please?

Have you/your children had email confirmation of their offer and acceptance of their offer?

DS applied to several and has had offers, but the one he really wants has only put the offer on their portal. He's accepted it (and taken screenshots of both offer and acceptance page) but we've not had any confirmation of the acceptance. The offer acceptance window closes next week so I'm wondering if they wait until then before sending out emails? I'm not sure if this is normal or standard for some schools. I'm itching to email the school but DS is asking me not to! They are on Easter break anyway I'd assume so I doubt I'd get a reply.

We need to get some air tomorrow :/
Today after maths tutor had left, we did an RE and History paper - I typed and DS instructed. He sent those off to his teachers following some rather roasting feedback from his history teacher. I read it and thought flip! I love honestly but savage was more the word :(
Im skint from the maths tutor and my head is banging from attempting to type on an exam paper - technical I’m not!