Y11 2025/26… come and join

As Stowick said, accept all offers and then make your decision on results day.

We have lots of movement the first week back with pupils withdrawing then offers being made, this generally goes on for a good few weeks until numbers are confirmed.

Thank you so much. We will accept all. I hope your daughter gets well soon. You are doing the right thing by reassuring her, she needs to rest and soon she will be back soon. x

@splenda I think you can accept as many as you like. From friends with older kids, it can be a bit of a bun fight on results day trying to confirm various places and decide. I definitely know children who have left it till results day and later to decide - we're in London though so there may be more options than in other places.

No work going on here as Dd had been ill for over a week. She finished her mocks and then collapsed. She's now stressing about what she's missing but has a temperature and is genuinely really under the weather so can't go back in. I'm trying to reassure her that it's better to be ill now than later.

Hi all,
I have a question about Sixth form offers DS has got an offer from his 1st choice and also from 3rd choice. We haven't heard from 2nd choice 6th form yet. How do this work? Do we have to accept all the offers or only accept 1st choice? Thank you.

We haven't been given a guideline on how much revision they should be doing. More than none would be great!

We are 1.5 hours a night

DS's school have said 2hrs a night but we have compromised on 1.5hrs as he has intervention for 1 Hr after school a few nights a week and his sport takes up quite a bit of time even though he has cut down to give more time to study.

How much home study are schools saying they should be doing a night now?

My DS is at a “good” state school but so far the only subject they have revision lessons for is his best subject where revision lessons serve little purpose. He’s been swimming today (he’s a national level para swimmer) and now trying to decide if he goes to the national championships which are literally just before his next mocks. Timing isn’t great and we keep changing our mind as those championships are about as far away as we can go without getting on a plane

After each round of mocks, at my (state) school we have to analyse how each student is doing against what they ‘should’ be getting, and if they’re not making expected progress, we have to write notes on why this is (attendance, home circumstances, are they attending revision sessions, do they do their homework etc) and we have to say exactly how we are going to help them improve (calling home, getting them set up with a peer/staff mentor, enlisting then for compulsory intervention, giving them extra support in class etc), then we have to implement this. And we are held accountable for this. I don’t begrudge it for the kids, as we genuinely love them and want them to do well. But yes it is exhausting, and I guess my overall feeling is that, if a kid is at a good school, there will be so much being done behind the scenes right now, that you kind of have to trust the process and the school, and it really does depend on the child doing their bit. You can take a horse to water and all that. I say to parents at parents eve, alas the adults at home need to be absolutely on it too. Knackering all round 😆 but it will all be done in 5 months!

DS2 school have been brilliant for us this last week or so - he’s been in a right state at home ( masking at school ) and they’ve organised a subject drop and some extra sessions in core subjects . Very grateful to the teachers who are looking out for him .

Sounds like some amazing extra support from some DC's schools here but yes I agree @eurotravel - there will be a lot of pressure on teachers for Y11 to do as well as they possibly can. And it must be so frustrating if students don't make the most of the additional opportunities. I invigilate exams for a local school and I know how invested we get, even as invigilators - you just want them to do their absolute best.

DS is having a work-free weekend having finished mocks last week. He has had a few results back and really pleased so far, he should have the rest next week. In the meantime I have celebrated the retrieval of my dining room table (it's been piled with revision stuff for what feels like months!) with a big bunch of daffodils. So nice to come down the stairs, for the time being at least, and see a nice vase of flowers rather than books and papers all over the table!

It is amazing and I’m very thankful. On the other hand it feels like they are very under pressure too and it’s sad that there is so much content and scrutiny. Assume is like unpaid overtime. Agree there’s a lot of help for us re exam practice too

That’s amazing, what awesome teachers!

DS's state school is putting on 5 hours of science lessons every weekend, with different classes for students doing triple/combined and struggling students. I think it's amazing. Imagine teachers doing that every year for every year 11! DS is less impressed, but I hope he'll be grateful looking back.

@ECT22 thank you she has 2nd mocks in Feb for 2n papers so will wait and see how that goes.
Thank you for the info about English will pass it on.

Aw nice to hear a parent make a positive comment about teachers!
I work in the state sector too and the focus on Y11 is forensic and relentless 😆 I think parents would be amazed how much granular discussion of each and every child there is, and the lengths that are gone to to help them succeed. At some schools at least. Sorry have gone off topic!

Our state school has a timetable of extra sessions. God bless the teachers

I will say, every decent school will be throwing everything they possibly can at Y11 now - revision sessions before and after school, interventions, hopefully stretch and challenge sessions. Possibly if the syllabus isn’t finished in a subject, it’s because they’re deliberately interleaving previous topics to aid knowledge retention, or layering it with exam practice.

I’m encouraging my dd to attend everything available, as the extra sessions really do help. If a student is working hard and taking up all opportunities, they will reach their potential, whether that’s being made up with a 5 for some students, or bagging an 8 or 9 for others. Trust the process 😊

I can only speak for English - Language I would say should be completed now and it’s just practise practise practise (The Exam Whisperer is a good Insta account to follow for tips with that, also lots of examples answers online). Literature has a huge volume of content - we won’t be done with it until Feb half term at the earliest. But other schools might be different.

Some Lit podcasts that are great are The English Network (for most GCSE texts) and The Play’s The Thing (for the Shakespeare texts) - listening to them will give lots of contextual knowledge and ideas that can help students develop get to the ‘detailed and perceptive’ level they need to get top grades.

@ECT22 thank you I will check with DD how much is still to be completed for each class. When do you think it should be completed by ?
English is actually her weakest subject normally a 7 but got 8 in her mocks. Did send her on a school trip for poetry which she enjoyed.

@SatsumaCat thats good they kept her grade the same for Geography I had to get DD on the pill after she was ill during end of yr10 exams physics she couldn't finish the paper. My DD is also planning ALevel Maths and Physics.

DDs mocks are back - mostly 7s, and therefore predicted 7s, with 9 in Biology (fave) and Food tech, and 8s in Maths and Physics. Supports her preference to do those at A level which I'm still nervous about but maybe shouldn't be!

She told me that they've finished the syllabus for maths so now it's all revision and practise tests so feeling quite relaxed about her getting the 8.

Also got 7s for English which is a relief, presumably the choice to do tutoring for that has paid off.

The only shocker was geography which is one of her A level choices, where she got a 5, they've still put her down for a predicted 7. She was ill on the day though, came home and vomited.

Sixth form open evening next week so will be able to grill the teachers.

I do genuinely think she'll come out with more 8s (possibly 9s) than she's predicted now. But maybe just proud mama / wishful thinking. I don't want to push her because I think 11 GCSEs is a lot to work on and don't want her to burnout.

As a teacher I’d say the school has no choice but to spend time completing the syllabus - that has to be the priority. To get grade 9s, students need to be extremely self motivated at this point in y11. For example in English, there are numerous podcasts that can deepen her knowledge of context to enable her to reach those higher grades (I can post some examples if you like, if you tell me the texts she is studying?), and many examples online of Grade 9 exemplar answers to use as models in past papers. It’s about practice and honing exam skills now, and that can absolutely be done independently by an able student, in this digital age especially. What teachers should and can be doing is making time to look at practise answers your dd has done in her own time, and giving feedback on those.

Ouch £450 for an online course or am I way out of touch!

DD prom dress is in so of to try it on hoping size is OK as she was in between sizes.
Trying to decide if I need to speak to school as DD is bored too many classes repeating simple work and not finished the syllabus so making it harder to achieve 9s.
Wow 1st of May for study leave that will be here soon 🙈
DD study leave is after May half term. They also do revision classes 2nd week of Easter half term and before every exam.
Feel like I should be doing more to help achieve the 9s she could but at same time thinking anything over a 7 is good. More than happy for criticism on that comment.

Yep we’re booked onto a couple of Justin Craig courses. Each course is about £450 for two days. Online or in person.