Y11 2025/26… come and join

@36and3 Electronics is under a Welsh exam board their school has a Maths teacher who enjoys the subject so has taught it at Gcse level for a few years.

That’s very good! I’ve never heard of electronics as a GCSE!

DD got her results and is very happy 9 maths 9 geography 9 Electronics and 9 in Chemistry got 8s in both Englishs was a lovely surprise as was hoping for a 7. RE 8, physics 8, Biology 8. Almost a shame it was not the real thing!
Sorry for all the grades just very proud and can't share it elsewhere.
Hoping mocks are going OK ok for everyone else.

My DS gets his results on the last day off term. So its either going to make or break his Christmas.
He keeps saying his Mocks went well. But time will tell.

Thanks it’s only one grade but yes a boost. But then the next result came in and it’s a 6 for RE - totally fine! But she’s now in a mood. This is quite literally a rollercoaster. I wish we got the results on one bit of a paper too rather than the anticipation over several days.

DS doesn't get his results until 18th December, so he's still in the happy land of telling me he doesn't need to revise I'm half hoping for terrible grades to give him a wake-up call in time for the real exams, but that would jeopardise his hopes of getting into his preferred sixth form.

Well done your DD @36and3!

I’m with you @waitingquietly.In despair at lack of meaningful work and will result in mock grades that will exclude her from some colleges

Well done to @36and3 DD . Just to add the balance DS2 only has one grade for one history paper back so far which was a 2 … he told me it was awful when he got in the car afterwards so I wasn’t hugely surprised… it would help if he did more than a smattering of revision . He keeps telling me he will revise for the real things … I’ve suggested he start soon - little and often- it’s the classic leading horses to water and not being able to make them drink though

What a boost to get a 9 @36and3

DD has half her mocks next week and then the rest in Jan or Feb. She is revising, but probably not as much as she could….

we’ve put her applications in for sixth form. First choice is grammar with tougher entry requirements, second choice a college offering A levels, third choice a local high school which offers A levels & BTECs and fourth choice a local high school which offers the the IB career programme (only needs 5 passes at GCSE for that one)

She’s still not sure what she wants to do when she’s older, so has picked what interests her - criminology, sociology and maths, and applied
science BTEC in the back-up choices. Probably an odd mix, but she doesn’t want to go into anything specific like medicine, law or economics etc, so hopefully won’t hinder her

@36and3 well done to your DD wow a 9.
DD gets all her mock results tomorrow at the same time on a piece of paper as if it was gcse results day. She did very little revision as wanted to test her knowledge! 6th form still not sure about, was funny at her schools open evening as a couple of teachers where trying to talk her into going there.
Good luck to all those still doing mocks.

First mock result back… 9 in English literature. She’s thrilled! This is her first choice subject for alevel so has given her a much needed boost. The other results will come in slowly over the next week or so. Essay subjects are much more her thing than stem but we shall see. I always find it fascinating how some kids just “get” essays or stem or vice versa; they all have their strengths don’t they!

My son has 5 potential subjects on the table for A level, and is struggling to choose which 3 to focus on: Biol, Chem, Physics, Maths and Business. And he has no idea about career, so we can't help him choose on that basis! We've been to 1 open evening at a Sixth Form, and have more coming up (next week and January). He's in the middle of a 2 week 'assessment period' and then mocks in Feb. I think that we are hoping A level choices will become clearer when we see grades from this assessment period, and when we know more from Sixth Form evenings.

Most of the Sixth Forms do AQA for the sciences, but one of them does OCR Chemistry B (Salters) 601/5371/4 which uses something I'm unfamiliar with called the Salters approach. It is context-led, and uses real-life scenarios as a starting point for learning scientific principles. AQA is more traditional, topic-based. I feel that my son would do better with the AQA approach. Any thoughts on different approaches?

Had DDs parents evening today and fantastic feedback as always - I can't boast anywhere else sorry! I did joke with DD it's getting a bit boring now and maybe she should try and get her first detention just to make my life more interesting.

Lots of debates here about what combination of subjects to choose but were somewhat reassured by advice that for degree apprenticeships the actual subject taken don't seem to matter much, so concentrate on most likely options she'd be interested in studying at university (not that she has a clue!). We also found out which chemistry teachers take the sixth form and it's not her current teacher who she thinks is rubbish, so that's good but also makes the choice even harder as we have more subjects on the table as possible choices.

DS2 is in independent … I’ve taken him to DS1s Grammar and the local sixth form college - neither felt right for him and he agreed - although ithey look great on paper - I am not confident to put him back in the state comp ( the best local option ) he left in yr8 so looks like it’s staying at his independent… feel a bit sick at the cost. Good luck to all those looking at sixth forms - it’s been quite eye opening but feel much better placed to know what suits DS2 now than I did in yr7. He had just started mocks and I think is realising that maybe doing a decent amount of revision might be a good idea

Hi, popping my head in. It’s all a bit overwhelming, isn’t it? We are in a grammar area and DD is predicted mostly 6s and a couple of 7s and 5s but possibly won’t have the grades to do what she wants at a grammar sixth form (Science/Maths/Psych)

The offer and results from the local high schools are really poor. She seems keen on college (open evening is this week), but again - results aren’t great and it’s an hour and a half away on public transport.

It’s not helped by the fact she has no idea what she wants to do after!

I’m hoping it focuses the mind too. My ds was a bit overwhelmed by choice. But at the same time that choice will be quickly narrowed down if he doesn’t pull his finger out. We’ve only been to one so far. Visiting a couple more next week.

His school doesn’t have a sixth form, and the other schools around her that do are super competitive

That’s really good. We couldn’t do the one which would be back up plan (lower grade requirement) due to too many clashes

It's strange how it's so different from place to place. Colleges here run open events from September right up to the following August and accept applications at any time.

That size is normal here and admissions seem to all be January - but I’ll be checking this week!

Our open days were July and September and so admissions deadlines are long passed. We got a place at a heavily oversubscribed state college but there’s 2000 students! Dd is adamant she’s not going so she’s staying at her small Indy school sixth form. Alevel options are finalised too.

How did college taster & open days up for people this week. Suddenly all feels more real & DC likes the idea of a big college with lots freedom! Can only hope that focuses the mind on grades now to get on course they want

Give me teens over infant and juniors any day 😂

Also, once a real GCSE exam is done, they can forget that content, forever if they want to! And clear space in their little brainboxes. Unlike mocks where they are still retaining/revising ALL content, and still learning more.