Year 11 2023-24

It's good that she's showing signs of improvement though.

My son got some of his back yesterday. He scored mainly 1s and 2s in the November ones. He has been doing a bit of revision, as I've been forcing him to, and has extra maths and English tuition. But has managed to go down from a 2 in maths in November to a 1 in the recent ones.

He hasn't got English back yet but has been told by the teacher that he hasn't done very well. In November he got a 1 for language and a U for literature.

He has a place at college in September and can start on a Level 1 course with no GCSEs. So it's not the end of the world if he fails them all. But I do feel for him as he's struggled with school his whole life. I hope he's able to feel more successful once he's doing a vocational subject at college.

Morning, well I tentatively asked DD if she has had any mock results back yet from what she took the over the last few weeks. She did slightly better with 2’s for most of them except Biology which was a 1. Better than last time as all were 1’s, except a surprise 5 with English. She has not heard back from English and Maths yet. To be honest I am just supporting her as she has been trying. She revises at home and goes to extra sessions at school. Will be glad for her when it’s all over and she can go on to college and the next steps. GCSE’s just are not for DD.

DS dropped further maths @anoukis - he got a 5 in the November mock and it just seemed a pointless additional GCSE. Like your daughter's school it's not taught, it's just an extra curricular after school one day. We talked to the maths teacher and all just agreed to drop it. DS is now concentrating on core maths and getting good results. Further maths after school group is now just the "hardcore" of kids who want to do further maths A level.

@Tebheag and @tellmewhenthespaceshiplandscoz very positive updates, well done to your children!

"Destination Day" sounds good @gingercat02 I hope it went well.

@Panic71 - DS says History is about structure as much as knowledge. He suggests doing a past paper question and then reviewing the mark scheme for that question to see where your son might have gained/lost marks, then trying another question, incorporating what he picked up from the mark scheme and so on. Time management is also so important in History - it's easy to go over time on each question so be ruthless about only spending the right amount of time on each one, taking into account the number of marks available. This is DS' downfall issue with History (and English) but he's working on it Best of luck!

@tellmewhenthespaceshiplandscoz that’s fantastic, so glad her hard work is paying off.

Any tips for History (edexcel). DS just can’t push into a grade 5 which is really frustrating.

Our mocks were last week. DS feels he did reasonably well, but time will tell.
Results just before Easter.

He's borderline for F/H for maths and combined science, so he has been pushing hard with those.

He has a "Destination Day" tomorrow at school, where they get 1:1 time with staff, current sixth formers, careers team, and local colleges.

Then we have parents evening on 21 March.

It's full-on! I don't recall any of this when I did O-levels.

Rough guide, rather!

DD is doing her mocks this week and last and she's been bingeing maths past papers with her dad to revise.

Using previous years grade boundaries (we realise these can only be a tough guide) and often under marking her when not sure , she's consistently coming in just under a 3 after getting 2s in both Novembers mock and last years y10 mock.

Tiny, tiny baby steps I know but I'm so proud of how she's pushing on I could cry

Hope all going well with your kids mocks.
DS had college interview got told he will be accepted got email confirming it. He just needs at least a G5 in maths to do core Maths. They never mentioned his English which was a G4/3 in Nov mocks. Just says he has to be available in August to discuss A Levels choices after he has results.

@Waspie I'd love to go to a Stratford production of Shakespeare, it's high on my list. Not Macbeth though :)

So DD is happy with her Biology and Physics results, she was told verbally by the teachers her mock grades. I'm concerned with the English Lit papers (not sure why as we have no indication of grade yet) and Add Maths.

Question: Add Maths FSMQ OCR is optional at DD's school, available only to set 1 kids and taught (scarcely) after school. It is graded A-E and it is a level 3 qualification I believe. If DD takes the exam and doesn't score high enough (say C or higher), does it need to be included in uni applications? (I am guessing yes). What I am trying to understand is whether she should take the exam if we don't have confidence in a high enough grade.

Last day of mocks here! DS just has psychology this morning.

We went to the RSC production of Macbeth in the Summer anoukis and wonderstuff. It was okay but I've seen better. It did allow us a nice weekend in Stratford upon Avon though, which is always welcome.

DS wants to get a summer job too @Gazelda For some reason around my area they only take kids post GCSE. I think it's to do with the child employment laws.

@anoukis it was Dock X, I liked the staging and I thought Indira Varma was fantastic, but I was quite underwhelmed overall, I didn’t think Ralph Finnes was particularly powerful. Ive definitely seen better Shakespeare, but can’t decide if it’s Macbeth that’s just quite inaccessible? Or if it was the super uncomfortable seats that just distracted me?

@MrsHamlet we went through the same thing. I told my DD to do her best to revise given the limited time she had - she actually sat both Eng Lit papers this round. She created flashcards for the themes and mind maps for characters for all texts, but not for all poems as she ran out of time. There are 2+ months from now to the real exam to cover all gaps.

@wonderstuff is that the Dock X production with Ralph Fiennes and Indira Varma? We went to see it in Feb half term and we loved everything apart from the costumes. (To me, it looked lady Macbeth was going to a 9-5 job in the morning and the kids in the play looked like posh kids from SW postcodes - that ruined it a bit for me, I was trying to ignore it and focus on the superb acting).

Poor dd is missing her geography mock tomorrow morning as she has orthotics appointment instead, such rubbish timing! She’s stress busting by trying to organise a post exams holiday, not sure they’ll actually get anything organised, there’s 10 of them trying to agree on what to do!

Her prom dress arrived yesterday, she’s not tried it on yet!

We went to see Macbeth yesterday, thought it might be useful (ds in y9 also doing Macbeth). It was really, really long! Not sure dd got much out of it, did reveal that ds isn’t paying attention in class (why are they carrying bits of trees?) at least he’s got a couple of years before the exams.

First of all, breathe!

Secondly, get her to make a list of the themes of the novel. And then for each theme, a couple of quotations. Some of them will cross over. If she can do it without looking, that'll be a great start.

Same for the poems.

Then breathe again. Mocks are just to help us to know what we need to go over again.

Mr Everything English for ten essential quotes for the novel (he does several - ours is An Inspector Calls)

My son has memorised two or three quotes from five poems that span all the themes: Ozymandius, The Prelude, London, War Photographer and Remains. He believes these should cover most (all?? 🤞) eventualities.

I would focus on 2 or 3 poems and know these well. You need to compare the given poem to another one so hopefully at least 1 would work. Watch Mr Bruff to learn these well.

In need of help! Dd has severely neglected eng lit and now realises that she cannot revise 15 poems and a novel for tuesday🤨🤨. She is now having anxiety- what would be the best way to help her. Before anyone says anything this is very very out of pocket for her

Totally agree!
My biggest worry used to be which brand of nappy rash cream I should use.
I wish I had enjoyed that stage even more now!! 🤣

@Gazelda I wish for the toddler/early years was so easy

We are discouraging DS getting a job till after Gcses he is desperate to start working.

DS got his email to say he can go to prom last week as got more than enough prom points so went shopping to get a suit yesterday. Should have given him and DH a budget but didn't think I needed to as thought £150 £250 max for suit etc .
Currently home dying my hair to save some cash 😂 stress of DS and mocks got a lot more grey hair in last 3 months.

DD has finished second set of mocks. Which is making her feel a bit anxious because the next milestone is The Real Thing!

It's a tricky balance between keeping them calm and stress free while simultaneously urging them to keep revising and focus and give 110%.

I'm keen for her to find a summer job or at least commit to some volunteering, but I don't want to raise this while she's already feeling under pressure.

Oh for the simpler toddler years!😂

Yeah I know it's a lot to go up and mainly down to your son's determination to do it.
DD's school do lots of after school and through holidays guided revision, they bring in tutors on Saturday's too but she won't go to these sessions so far, doing her second set of mocks at the moment so we'll see what they say.

We’ve had lots of tutoring and revision though and he’ll need to keep it up now 🙃

That's amazing Panic, I'm hoping for same for dd

My Dts have really impressed me with their revision timetable. They revise together every day (when I first found out I was expecting twins one of my first thoughts was they would be able to study together!)
They’ve been very focused and the mock results are reflecting that. Very impressed! They have a plan mapped out for the rest of exam season. We live in a very deprived area and my dts in particular sees education as his way out of this area.