Y11 2025/26… come and join

@Anonymousemouses
it’s incredibly sad and shocking and has come at a very stressful time for everyone. Really sorry your school is going through this.

DD is off today! She was up late crying and was crying hysterically this morning. She keeps replaying how her friend was OK on Friday, when they had their last conversation, then died the next day.

A few of her teachers have already said they won't be in and have set silent revision with a cover.

I was determined to send her in later, but DH said no, that she could do some work and distract herself today. She wanted to go to pastoral care yesterday, but they were at full capacity, with students and teachers.

I'm particularly worried about Spanish tomorrow, as they were a small, close group, and the absence will be obvious. The Spanish teacher has cancelled all one to one listening classes this week.

It's just a horrible time. As parents we know how important this time is, but we also know how shocked and upset the girls are and the empathy towards the parents outweighs the pressure, I cannot imagine how awful it is for them.

@Caddycat I hope your DD does really well. It's so stressful isn't it? DS did his GCSEs in 2008, it was very different then and I don't remember it being as stressful.

@Anonymousemouses Both 6th Forms we visited required a 7 in Maths in order to do A level maths. They explains that a 6 is basically 50% and that it's simply not secure enough to do the A level. With a 7, you are predicted a C at A level. They were really trying to scare the children off and that worries me a lot.
I'm scrambling for Drama costume too, DD's is on tuesday! Funny you mention character shoes, I was trying to convince her to wear hers for the play just yesterday lol. DD also has Spanish speaking very soon and her dance performance in 2 weeks.

We didn't bother applying for other sixth forms in the end. Things would have to go very wrong to not get the minimum grades she needs..

DD definitely wants to stay at her school. She had a meeting with the head of sixth form last week, he said she had the required grades from her mocks and LAGs.

She did get a 5 (nearly a 6), in her Maths mocks, and she originally wanted to take Maths A Level, because her dad wanted her to.

We had a parent's evening the other week. I spoke to her Maths teacher about how she did, and she said she was surprised as she usually gets 100% in her tests and did really well in the Y10 mocks. Her teacher was confident that she would be OK and said that she should do Maths, as she is capable, she said her mocks were the right working out, but she then doubted herself.

She has decided to drop Maths, as although her teacher feels she is capable (and she gets 100% here at home too), she never really liked it. She wanted to do Sociology, but her dad said it was useless.

She's also keen to do English Language, which I'm unsure of. She got an 8 in her Literature mock and 7 in Language, but she likes Language more and doesn't want to read Literature anymore, despite her teacher trying to persuade her.

I'm really stressed out about the second Drama performance coming up. We didn't realise that they needed props, or costume, so had to find those urgently. She now needs character shoes, but I'm improvising.

The Engineering NEA is in for checks, I believe it has to be handed in for real next week (so I guess they get it back if it needs improving?)

Spanish listening is next month I believe?

I'm planning on doing past papers, under exam conditions, from the start of the Easter Holidays. A lot of the teachers thought that the girls suffered from exam stress (I couldn't help but notice that most girls performed less well than expected in the mocks - I saw when the teachers were using rulers on the results - I didn't see the names though), which was a bit of relief! DD said a lot got 3s in subjects, this is not common for actual GCSEs at her school, which always gets great results, so I hope they all improve, though it feels so close now,

@Anonymousemouses what an awful tragedy. I imagine your DD will feel upset and fragile, even if she didn't know them very well.

Last week of mocks here. DS says he's doing about an hour of revision a day but school have got them revising hard in lessons between mocks. No news about Easter classes yet. I'm getting a bit nervous. I don't want to book expensive private lessons if his school is doing them, but don't want to miss the boat either.

@AnonymousemousesI’m so sorry that’s just tragic. Hopefully she will be well supported in school.

DD doesn’t think she wants to stay on at her school, so we applied elsewhere too to keep options open.

I’ve been helping my son with his history. The content is phenomenal - it just keeps coming! I thought English literature content was bad enough but I’m now starting to think history even harder, especially how they have to pull it all together to answer the exam questions in the right way. We’ve spent bloody ages on the Cold War and that’s only 1/4 of the gcse

We have also only applied to DS’s current school’s sixth form. They have no minimum grade requirement and he has no desire to go anywhere else but I do get moments of worry that we should have at least considered another option.

DS is finally on the home strait with the DT NEA, thank God. He also has his MFL speaking assessment - the real
thing, not a mock - next week. So those two subjects are the main focus at the moment. I doubt much other revision will happen before the Easter holidays now.

@Caddycatdd also dropped further maths at Feb half. I’m delighted!

@Caddycat - that sounds like a good move , DS1 did further maths .. another that ended up a 6 .. he has 11 and an HPQ .. DS2 will hopefully have 8 .. I don’t see much benefit in the extra 3.5 if I’m really honest - DS1 was exhausted by the final week

@waitingquietly DD dropped further maths just last month. She's going to have 11 GCSEs anyway without it and was spending an awful lot of time practising it to the detriment of other subjects. It was a matter of pride i think and it took some convincing but her teacher was supportive. I think going down on predictions in history isnt surprising. The knowledge together with the insight needed in some of the questions can make it very tricky.

@Caddycat - DS found History the worst for content - a 9 prediction turned into only just a 6

I would imagine all but the brightest make choices - I know DS2 is too - even having dropped History in January .

I tend to think of DS1 as my learner child - I’ve got a better idea the following year with DS2 . By pure chance DS1 is hugely more sturdy than DS2 thank goodness .

The thing I will say is listen to your gut

DD did end of year 10 exams in the hall for the feel of it. The November mocks covered paper 1 for all subjects except maths was the full 3 papers. The Feb/march mocks were all of paper 2 except the 2 options with coursework.
Im not sure how she will cope with the stress and volume of stuff to know being twice as much. @waitingquietly i wonder if prioritising A level choices becomes a thing for the vast majority of children. I know they should all be familiar with the curriculum by now but im sure my dd forgot things like names and dates in medieval history of medicine the minute the mocks were over!

If they did full sets of papers for mocks they would lose too much classroom time.

If they have sense they will have spread things out, eg paper 1s end y10, paper 2s nov/jan.

I worry about this as well. DD’s mock history exam was one paper, two hours. The real thing is three papers! I was quite miffed to be honest, it wasn’t much of a mock at all. Also, they were allowed to take some book or anthology into one of the English mocks, which apparently they can’t have with them in the real thing. So what was the point of that?! Infuriating!

@Caddycat - that was the problem I identified too - mocks cover smaller parts of curriculum. He had a prediction of 7.6 , got 6.7 - mocks was also 6.7 weirdly . He did get his choices but he has everything from 8-4 as he prioritised his a level choices in the end . He was a worker though and still ran out of time.

DS2 is at a different school ( private not state grammar) and his chosen subjects aren’t allowed in his chosen combination by what would have been second choice . No other provider offers that combination with lower grades . So no second choice is more necessity than choice for us . He needs 6 in Maths and his A level choices - if he gets his finger out and keeps it out that’s doable 🤞

I'm so worried about the possiblity of DD getting marks significantly below her predicted grades... especially as all the mocks we've done never had the full curriculum covered. Did your DS get the courses he wanted?

We’ve not applied anywhere else - though we did look at other options - just couldn’t find an alternative he liked ( or that I was happy with ) Also last year DS1 didn’t look at anywhere else - his actual average mark was significantly below his predicted so it could have got a bit hairy . Several of his friends had to find a slot elsewhere

Oh your poor DD, that must be a shock. And the poor parents :-(

Regarding Sixth Form, DD has applied to 2 but to be honest all of the Sixth Forms around here have the same entrance criteria, so I think it's a little pointless. They have offered DD a conditional place with 6 x 4s, so her place is more or less guaranteed (fingers crossed!). This would be for Btechs though. For her choices of A levels she needs 6 x 6s including biology and english (and French, but she's already taken that 2 years ago) and 7 in maths.

Yes you pick the subjects you want. We have two days of maths and then two days of chemistry. It’s intense. 9-5 each day.

Ideally you do apply to more than one, just in case things go a bit haywire.

How likely is she to get the grades she needs for her school sixth form? Always best to have a back up plan really incase the worst happens. Having an already established back up plan is a lot easier to cope with on a disappointing results day than scrabbling around to find somewhere to go and something to do in September.

Are we supposed to apply to more sixth forms? DD's school has a guaranteed place as long as they get a set amount of points, and I've not applied anywhere else?

I've got another thread, which is best not discussed here, but one of her friends and classmates died at the weekend. Today they have not done any work, and although I've only been giving 10 minute tests in Maths, Physics, Chemistry and Biology, then moving to past papers in April (as she has her second drama performance/engineering/Spanish listening due imminently), I was thinking it would be best to not push her, as she is bound to be shocked and upset.