Year 11 2023-24

Just hopping on to vent. I despair I really do. My DD is just digging her heals in with revision. She has done nothing. Just tried to sit with her to do some science and it was a massive battle of wills. I hate this. Why won’t she just revise! Mocks in two weeks.

No @teenageangst2023 it's an independent.

Are these for a state school?

Marking place

Sounds like my son, he's currently year 10 so we'll see how that goes, hope the GCSE doesn't spoil his enjoyment of drawing.

@Philandbill thats how it should be, it certainly isn’t for my DS. I wonder if it’s a difference in teaching / exam board as DS doesn’t get a choice in what he has to do other than at exam time. I also think it’s an attitude thing, he prefers to work on things that interest him, I was more like your daughter and loved doing art for its own sake but it was definitely a ‘freer’ subject when I did it. I’m genuinely glad to hear that your DD is enjoying it.

Also forgot to say there is so much d GCSE maths that we don't get either so it's a bit bloke leading the blind

DD2 is and loves it, she chose a sensible focus theme and seems to be doing well. She spends hours of her leisure time on it so doesn't see it as proper work. She'll definitely take A level art.

Hey that's ok and advice welcome so thank you! We do try as much as we can in between sessions but she doesn't respond as well to us especially when she still starts to feel defeatist, as she would to a teacher or her tutor (who I wished we'd signed up with Yeats ago).

I'll look at maths buster thanks. Already stocked up on whiteboards!

From the sound of it, I wouldn’t wait for the school to deliver a turnaround as they’ve been unresponsive to date. If it were me (and it was - my DC received very poor early maths teaching which has taken a massive home effort to turn round) I’d be sitting with her and going through it together between tutor sessions. I bang on about MathsBuster on here (by CGP) but it really is good and has a Foundation version. At under £20 we have found it an excellent investment. Get a couple of cheap mini whiteboards from Tesco or wherever and practise together, little and often.

(I realise you didn’t ask for advice - sorry!)

Thanks both

Tutor picked up quite quickly that many of the issues are the basics weren't embedded at all so until recently that have been going back to these. She's improving in recall and confidence.

Teen I agree we need to consider this however she has such tunnel vision and DH seems to think she'll cope better than we give her credit for as the subjects she's looking at are her strongest and ones she really enjoys. But yes you have a point.

I've emailed school several times throughout the year to follow up where the promised support is and either been fobbed off or ignored. I'm going to wait for the outcome of these mocks and I'm d no improvement then try again. e.

If you really are think mainly 4s with possibly a few 5s and a 6, then I think you need to give serious consideration as to whether A levels would be the right next step.
With those grades a T-level / level3 BTEC extended diploma may be a lot more suitable.

Sorry to hear that @tellmewhenthespaceshiplandscoz. So difficult, especially when you and DD are already throwing everything at it.

Does your tutor have any insight into what’s not working - e.g. is she better when not under time pressure, is there an element of panic/overwhelm setting in? Or are the difficulties more in mastering maths facts and concepts?

Should probably say other subjects are ok-ish although science is another worry but at least that's not a compulsory resit.

With the exception of maths I'm fully expecting best case scenario will be mainly 4s and possibly a few 5s and a 6.

Feeling low today (me, not DD).

Mocks are going okay but I attended a "Steps to Success" evening at school on the week by myself, was aimed at helping parents help students.

In a nutshell DD finds maths incredibly difficult and has done since primary. I was told by teachers for years to not worry, she'll get there etc every time I spoke about our concerns.

Fast forward to her y10 mocks in May and she got a 2 and this is with seeing a private tutor every week. No SEN.

She works hard (not always on the right thing but we're going to talk about new strategies once these mocks are done ) all the time so I know her effort is there. We raised it with school in January and various interventions were promised but failed to materialise. This week she has finally been put into a maths revision group, almost 10 months after flagging.

Anyway I managed to grab the head this week at the parents evening and shared my concerns as she wants to do A Levels here but must have a 5 minimum in maths. He was highly unsympathetic and just reiterated the criteria. He helpfully offered that they MAY consider her with a 4 if everything else is there but she would have to resist in November alongside doing her 4 A Levels.

We're going to a local college open day at the weekend where she could do As and they require maths at a 4 and only 3 A Alevels which I feel is such a better fit for her so I'm hoping she likes what she sees and considers it a serious 2nd choice.

But I just feel school don't give a shit and the head just sounded like a talking prospectus. I'm not having a go at teachers as there are so many great ones there but I work in another underperforming city school and our head is incredible. His desire to get the kids better outcomes is so apparent.

Anyway thanks for reading ... nothing anyone can say I guess but just feel low and needs to say it out.

My DD is currently doing her mocks. She has made a list of all topics for each subject and stuck the lists next to her desk. She made a timetable with equal weighting for each subject and has ticked off completed topics after each revision session. She also spent about 5 days just doing past papers. It seems to be going well, as have a visible reminder of all topic areas seems to focus the mind.

My method for DD1 was:

. Write down the topics for each subject
. Get DD to estimate time for each topic
. Include extra for exam practice
. Work out how much study time available
. Adjust study time or revision estimates until things fitted

. Allocate each study slot a subject, allowing for mix of subjects, and whether subjects needed to be done when fresh etc

. A week ahead allocate actual topics to the slots

We worked in phases for revision e.g.:

. to start of y11 (cards written for y10 work)
. to y11 mocks (Jan)
. from mocks to start Easter (things that were poor in mocks)
. Easter to end (things not in mocks, prioritised by exam date)

Just had a look at studybuddy, it looks good but does seem to over complicate stuff. I say this as a teacher...what we did with DD was go through the ex boards specs as they had headings and they always correspond direct with CGP revision booklets and worked our way thru them. Otherwise you can overwhelm the child and yourself!

@JustHereWithMyPopcorn it may be worth looking for the National Gallery website. Clickview may he able to be accessed through your DS's school email address, but it depends on whether the school subscribes

I think I've opened a can of worms here - sorry! 😂Any of the coursework subjects seem to be a time swamp, thing is you want them to be able to do something other than straight forward academic subjects but they've made those subjects tedious and stressful. @Panic71 I think the PE / sport ones are also quite time consuming because you have to play a number of competitive sports and record you matches etc. we didn't do that but I know a few who have.

@Angrycat2768 thanks for the tip, I haven't heard of clickview but I will take a look. I'm trying to encourage him to try a screen print (looking at an artist who uses this) apparently his art teacher doesn't know how to do this. I know I was taught this doing my O level (old) but I can't afford all the equipment needed to do it at home.

Actually I just remembered something. DS was saying the teacher didn't have time to teach perspective 🙄 so I found a video from the National Gallery that DS found really helpful that gave him some good ideas. I get Clickview through work and got it through there so not sure if you need to he a member but many schools have a clickview account. There may be some other videos.

My DD started food tech GCSE pre pandemic. There was a fair amount of theory in terms of food groups, nutrition, how gluten works etc. Then there would have been some devising taste tests, and cooking the same thing with variations.
You would probably have to be willing to shell out for lots of practices at home for the main practical, but we didn't get that far as DD didn't return for y11. I think it was a good, interesting, useful course. (Eduqas)

Any insight into btech sport, business or food tech gcse?

And french. Speaking exam will make us all cry before the year is out.

Avoid music and 3D design also!! Thought the coursework would make it less stressful - spoiler, it does not 😅