Y11 2025/26 The Final Stretch

DS happy after English Lit and Greek language today. Greek was the one he’d worried about the most so he’s chuffed to get that done. His English Lit was paper 2 so it’s weird to think that that’s one complete subject ticked off the list.

My exam students (AQA) seemed to take everything in stride this morning which was great to see. The usual eleventy million requests for the toilet (I exaggerate but that’s what it feels like 😂) but not one person went to sleep so am taking that as a win!

DD was delighted with Macbeth guilt question as she revised the theme yesterday. Said her Jekyll and Hyde answer on Jekyll as a disturbed character was utter chaos, with no structure. I told her not to worry, it’s done and will be fine am sure.

tbh most of my Y11 students said the same. Felt great about Shakespeare, less good about the 19th C novel (ACC in their case). They’re bound to fall apart a bit as they get to the end of a 1h 45m exam.

Lots and lots of happy Y11 faces tho, and that is so important for morale at this early stage of the exam season (am not mentioning that everyone finding it easier may mean the grade boundaries are higher!)

DD is doing Edexcel and had Macbeth and Lord of the Flies, it seems every one seems to do different texts. I love A Christmas Carol and An Inspector Calls, but am unfamiliar with hers, so was a useless as a chocolate teapot.

Biology only tomorrow, then Geography on Wednesday, before Maths on Thursday.

Hope everyone who has two exams tomorrow doesn't find it too stressful.

DD also had same comment as others doing aqa. Happy with first question 2nd question was a bit vague so not t happy with her structure.
Had RE revision teacher give them all a pen with a note and biscuits no idea what was on the note.
Currently doing biology 2018 paper as heard it was the harder past paper.
Made her banana muffins for breakfast trying to decide wjst to do for tomorrow as got 2 exams and study session.

What does this mean?

Haha, love this!

DS also said he had to go downtown to get emotional support chocolates. I told him I'd go with him and drop by our local for an emotional support cider.

Yes, same.

DS foiund it online too. And told me what he put and i said'Oh, good point' and 'It was a little surreal wasn't it?' And that was that. He has autism and is very literal, so it flummoxed him tbh.

My son said English Lit was so easy 😬 and loved doing it! He is edexcel though and had macbeth and inspector calls. He has christmas carol and poems another day.
Off to check reddit and tiktok. Apparently the exam papers are all over tiktok, my son searched it around 2pm today and all exam boards are on there

DS said it was super easy - that worries me slightly!

Biology and RE tomorrow

My DS agrees on the unseen poem in IGCSE - he came up with something but hes found it online and I’ve read it - I’m not convinced he got the right end of the stick . Mouth firmly zipped though and it’s only 20 marks . Hopefully he picked up a few . He was otherwise pretty happy today . Given him some sweets and suggested he unwind on the ps5 for a bit .. biology can wait a couple of hours

Biology and RE tomorrow here. Then nothing Wednesday.

DS is berating himself for not understanding the theme of the 12 marker in business studies (edexcel) . I don’t know if that’s the ‘biggest’ question. Said the rest went well. Yes all hands on deck for biology now 👀

AQA Eng Lit and DS struggled with the CC Christmas theme - it wasn't something we had really anticipated!

We had been hoping for supernatural in Macbeth rather than guilt but hopefully there was enough crossover!

Biology tomorrow...

Same! Really struggled with it.

It's a bit of a double edged sword right now! They have been helping each other out a bit - sharing good resources they've found, chatting about possible themes etc - but DS is more academic than DD and I think post-exam he will be telling us all about his great answers whilst she sits there thinking she didn't do that well! Thankfully they took different options so only have Maths and English to compare. He did triple and she did combined science so my understanding is that their Science papers will be at the same time but will be different and his will be longer.

@clary

Oh interesting. Yes I can see why it would hold more appeal than some of the others! But yes the length has been one of the issues I think!

English teacher mate of mine loved teaching The Sign of Four! She found the story appealed better to a lot of the lads in her classes (better than Dickens or Austen I guess) and it's a really good novel. Bit long tho – which is why so many schools pick ACC tbh.

I have DTs too

DS gave English lit a 7/10. Macbeth but also The Sign of four (Sherlock holmes but a lesser known one) .. hard to find a decent film version of it. It’s AQA - I don’t know how schools land on which texts they do! DS also on a normal timetable and has Business Studies this afternoon.

Mine has a normal timetable but after a lot of discussion we and the school have agreed DS not doing it. We are getting a lot of messages about it being a normal timetable which wind me up just as much as attendance emails did when DS was 5. I almost complained about discrimination after the last one but then DS came home. At this stage he works better at home.

Mine is in until half term full time. (Which she isn’t happy about.) Then only for exams after that. She was nervous this morning. I hope she thought lit was ok.

The first one probably carries an awful lot of stress, I think DD would have gone to bed if she'd come home!

Mine is in with normal timetable, unless the next session is an exam in which case she has a revision session. So after English today she resumed her normal timetable, then tomorrow morning is a biology session before the exam. She'll be in school full time til the end of the exams.