Year 11 2023-24

As an aside I speak to several mums with dc at different school to my dd and as someone who struggled to revise myself the way some come at the problem i know... Is making it worse.

Ie nagging, you've got to learn comments and references to pie in the sky futures that they can't conceptualise yet.

I just know being spoken to like that would have made me feel even more hopeless. What I needed was someone intelligent and knowledgeable to sit with me and help me get organised. Work out where I needed speficic support eg my literature was always excellent but I had no grammar.. My biology cell stuff was v good but I struggled elsewhere.

Helped to study with rewards would have worked with me and achievable goals.

Luckily my dd is self motivated. I take care to never ever nag her or sound depressing or negative over work. I trust her and she will start next week. I will be hands off except for asking what books and materials she needs.

My other dc will definitely need different strageties. But always positive and targeted help.

@Worriedmun.. Dc are not motivated for a huge range of reasons and sometimes due to undiagnosed sen?

Low self-esteem, a sense of hopelessness, a feeling of not knowing what to do and setting the bar low.

1:1 help, positivity, small wins can really help.
Help them see what they can achieve but don't scare then off with heights. Small wins.

If you can get some tutors and make sure those tutors are very good that could help enormously.
Esp if you can target speficic concepts.

@newmum1976 private school dates should be in the admissions section of website. Our private school deadline for external applicants was last week. Another one we have registered with was also last week. But one other is Feb. You normally pay a registration fee of around £200. Then sit tests and may be invited to interview. If successful you pay deposit to secure the place. You may also have to pay first terms fees if you accept offer, meet grades but don't go. T&C will be outlined in the offer letter. Admissions teams are normally helpful so call them and ask about the process and T&C.

Is it just me but shocked at the variations in grade boundaries always assumed you needed 50% at least for a pass. However this is not the case for some past years!

@Worriedmun you are definitely not alone. My DD even told her DB he would be lucky to get into 6th form unless his grades are a lot better due to demand at their school the 6th form has been rated outstanding for a while. They had a big fall out and he locked her out of the house.

@newmum1976 it will certainly vary by school, though some are more transparent than others on their websites! Around us private school sixth-form deposits payable upon accepting a place range from about £1,000 to an eyewatering £5,000 and are largely non-refundable if you choose to go elsewhere or don’t get the grades. One does make it known that they will refund, but it’s an exception. A small number of parents for whom money is no object will pay multiple deposits so that they have Plan B and Plan C in place for results day. These are all schools with high thresholds though - higher than all the local state sixth forms - so aren’t used as backup in that sense.

Would your DD need to do assessments to get offers from the private schools you are considering? If so, beware of entry deadlines which are typically expiring soon.

Registrars at the schools you are considering should be amenable to a phone call or email for any information you need on all of this.

My DD is year 11. Hoping to get a place at a grammar school for sixth form but the grades are a stretch. She wants to apply to a couple of private schools as back up as the offer is slightly lower. Does anybody know how this works? I know this will vary by school, but will we be expected to pay large non refundable deposits for private sixth form. I can’t see the info on their websites.

I've told them they'll have to re-sit next year while their friends are going on to college / sixth form if they don't get the passes they need.
We had the year 11 GCSE info evening yesterday, they pointed out that to carry on to sixth form they need 7 passes and it's only 21 weeks ish away 😬
They did give them CGP and AQA revision guides, 5 in total and science flashcards which is nice and a bit less for me to buy.

For those of you with DCs who are struggling to revise, would revising with a friend help? My older DS did this with his friend for his Biology A level, he was so disengaged due to a terrible teacher that he would rather sit and stare out the window than revise but then agreed with his best mate to revise together and it made a huge difference.

Thank you for your responses, it’s a lonely place feeling like you’re the only one who has a kid who may fail, I have to listen to friends whose kids are debating which sixth form to go to where I know mine is unlikely to get in anywhere.

@Worriedmun got one of those here!
they’ve just lost their game console and phone.
I hate upsetting them and feel awful but got a phone call from
school earlier in the week saying they are basically failing everything. They started secondary with 6+ being the lowest now they are trailing in at 345. I wouldn’t mind if they struggled as my others did but I know they are just lazy.

@Worriedmun i threatened my son he would loss his game consoles and vr etc if he fails his mocks from not doing any revision. Seems to have worked.

I've told mine he'll have to do it next year if he doesn't pass this year. He was suitably horrified but I think 'next year, once school is over' still seems too far in the future to him to really worry about!

Would it work if they knew will have to do GCSEs for another year if they dont pass? My DS is almost completely motivated by what he doesn't want to do next year - maths again, and to be with his friends. Going toothed college open days has been motivating

Mine is quite similar. Predicted 3s and 4s but working at 2 in lots of subjects. And I honestly don't think he properly understands the concept of revision. He told me, in all seriousness, going to his youth club would count towards his Btec Sport revision as he would be moving around!

In one breath I'm telling him that exams aren't the be all and end all of everything and in the next I'm telling him he's only got this last year to get through and he needs to put the work in!

Anyone got a DC who are making no effort with their GCSE work, and got any tips on how to improve this situation? I have bought study guides, supported with coursework, remind them of deadlines, he is predicted 5s but getting 2s. Feel a bit of a failure when looking at some the posts on here about focussed and hardworking kids ☹️

I have enjoyed it too currently learning Spanish for the first time.

Just reporting in. I helped DD with her Sociology home work last night which was a 12 mark exam question basically. I don’t know about anyone else but I am really enjoying learning along the way too. Might even investigate some short courses for myself.

@Waspie We're a bit further on (Y13) and DC has just finished their EPQ. It has been a LOT of work - maybe 200 hours? It's been worth it for them because they've created an artefact that will help with UCAS applications. If it hadn't been for that I think I'd have encouraged them to give it up. It is very time consuming and lots of DC's friends abandoned theirs. But it can also give lower required grades for some uni courses too. Swings and roundabouts.

Have you tried Seneca? iI's quite a helpful mixture of reading/short videos and questions. Not sure if it replaces revision guides but it can be easier for kids who struggle with focus.

Well done to those kids who are starting to knuckle down. My son is struggling to get motivated - there has been quite a bit of lying about what he is actually doing in his room and some arguments about his attitude. He has mocks in early Nov (and again in Feb) so fingers crossed he gets more focused!

He does have study sessions most afternoons after school and a English lit lecture before school once a week so perhaps that compensates for the lack of revision at home. 🤞🏻

My son's school had an 'expectations' meeting this week and explained all the kids had that day written out a revision timetable and they were encouraged to stick to it from now until the exams. My son had made one, put down which subjects to revise each night etc but when it came to actually revising he seemed very surprised that I was actually expecting him to do it! He has revision guides bought through school but doesn't really have a clue how to use them. I did some revision with him in the summer but it was quite labour intensive for me and I told him I really can't do that all year with him! I think I need to look for revision guides that are set out in a much more simple way, with a little bit of info then a clear question relating to that info and so on, but I'm not sure if that exists at GCSE level.

@Waspie I think our school expect the majority of the boys to stay on for 6th form, very few leave to be honest, so they don't really worry about 6th form applications I guess. I don't like the January mocks because I'd like him to rest over Christmas but it is what it is as my DS would say. 😀

DP would agree that 3 stellar A levels would have been better than the 5 B's and C's he got (although that was in the early 1990's so no A stars). Although his results still got him into Imperial, so he did okay 5 A stars is simply amazing!

Thank you for sharing your daughter's experience. It's interesting to hear because I honestly don't know anyone who has taken one. I'm not sure there is much take up. Anyway, I think I'm going to stop thinking about EPQ until my son actually starts sixth form!

It's interesting that some students are not taking mocks until December or January. In my area they all take mocks in November as the results are used in the sixth form applications which close early January. They do mocks again after February half term.

@alwaysplanning ours are first week back in January too, I'm not pushing him on revising yet, I'm waiting for after half term to encourage that. DS isn't particularly 'good' at revising but has done well enough in exams so far that I'm not going to push things yet to avoid burn out.

@Panicmode1 my DS is also at a boys grammar and they have a similar attitude about mocks. They will start additional classes after mocks are done.