Y11 2025/26 The Final Stretch

It was 1% for hay-fever.
Might help people who are inbetween failing or passing.

DD shirt done today ready for signing seems they have a very small window to get them signed break or lunch time only on last day. Which is the Friday before May half term then they go on study leave. Dress dropped of at tailors for shortening and taking in sides and moving straps cost £95.00, looked so much better after pinning just hoping it fits as well after alterations !

I think the percentage uplift is very small even if the special consideration is granted. I'm sure people with more experience will be able to explain better but I'm sure I was told at some point that even recent death of a parent only gets you a 3% uplift in marks so I don't think hayfever can be awarded very much of an uplift if any.

Just read a news article stating an increase in requested marks for illness etc it even had hay-fever on the list didn't even know that was a thing. Jumped through so many hoops trying to reduce hayfeaver for my DS as he struggled so badly from it.
Spent last few months trying to get DD in better condition for periods,as really struggles, didn't even know you could put in for additional marks.

Please keep reminding me had no one cares about gcse as long as they get onto next step (med / vet / dentistry aside)

Mine will defo get the results of a child that didn’t really work for mocks twice over or Yr10 exams. They need to get enough to get to college then hopefully lesson learnt for As.

Lots of luck to him @waitingquietly🙂

English lit is the one DD hates the most, she can't wait for it to be over. Very glad it's one of the first to be completed so I dont have to listen to the stressing about it. And I won't need to pay for the tutoring hurrah.

@TomorrowMoreWorsts thanks - that’s very much what he’s doing - he’s a quick witted kid , only just realising now that working might be a good idea

Don’t under-estimate the power of cramming @waitingquietly. And it’s quite a long time from now until the end of the exams as well. What about focussing mostly on English and Maths, and whatever else he needs to get to do the A levels he wants to do?

My poor DS2 said to me last night that it would have been so much easier if he’d worked for his mocks - so he is probably one for whom it’s all a bit too late and he will ‘reap what he sow’ :-( … at least he will have learnt for a level 🤞

Dd adores English lit and it’s by far her best subject but I’m having a hard time trying to get her to give other subjects equal weight. We too have ditched anything that’s not until after half term.

English Lit Papers 1 and 2, and English Lang Paper 1, will all be done by half term 💥

DD has 2 this week and 5 next week. But by the end of that, she will have ticked off 3 - art, drama and German - and I think English lit will be over by half term. Some heavy weeks ahead though!

Yikes it’s the one week count down!! Dd is revising RE and maths today.

I just want it to get started now. 5 exams next week 😬

@MayasJamas I've just said this to DD this morning. It will get easier as you tick them off the list. DH has made her a pie chart with all exams on it, so she can colour in all of them.
This time next week she will have done Drama and will be preapring for English. The present sounds lovely @TheBeatlesWhoarethey - DD is a bookworm too - She has a pile waiting for the exams to be over... Books, snacks and dance lessons is where all my money goes!

Morning all!

DD is up and revising while I’m still in my pyjamas 🤣

Hope everyone’s Sunday is good and some revision is done 🫣

This time next week we will be the day before the first exam. Yesterday I went out with my youngest to get a exam treat present - got a nice box from The Range and filled it with hot chocolate, a nice new mug, pop corn, biscuits and chocolate. Also a new book for AFTER exams (DD is a book worm and would happily read instead of revising).

Realistically, they are pretty much out of time. There’s not much more they can be taught or learn. Sure they can cram, and there’s research which shows that’s actually pretty effective. But every single one of them is in the same boat time-wise. So whatever they’ve sown so far, they will reap. @Caddycat it sounds like your dd could not be working any harder, so she will deffo be fine.

The other thing to remember is, the cognitive load will lessen as the exams go on. After Lit Paper 1, they can offload all that Shakespeare and 19th century novel content from their short term memory. The day after, Biology can go too. They’ll have less and less to revise as each day passes. It’s not so torturous when you see it that way!

God this last week of build up already feels like a slog. My dd, and the kids I teach, just need to get started now. Roll on Monday 11th when it kicks off in earnest…

Same feeling of running out of time... The content is insane. DD's school do the history curriculum backwards, she started with the content of paper 2 then paper 1. She was going through Elizabethan and History of medicine again yesterday, she had forgotten Paper 1 is the stuff she's done more recently... but she feels she needs to work on Paper 2 content as she hasn't looked at it fully since the November mocks...
@Walkingbkwrm I feel the stamina going here too. DD is shattered.

I feel that this shirt signing business is like an ultimate popularity contest thing and tough for those for whom school hasn't been the easiest. DD has been so lucky. She's found a group of friends on the first day of year 7 and they have had absolutely no fall out, no disagreement, nothing. They aren't the cool kids, but they have each other and I'm so grateful for it. My youngest went to Y7 with various friends from her dance school and it hasn't been plain sailing at all. There's an odd number of them, and she's always the one left behind for working in pairs or groups or picked in a PE team. School is such a lottery.

I finding myself getting anxious about my DS forthcoming GCSE's. His fine - it's me! Bloody peri-menopause!

I really feel for them. It’s a lot of pressure. And I think worse than when I was doing GCSEs many years ago.

It’s last day of school on Wednesday and signing shirts. I really have no idea how many people are likely to sign son’s shirt. He doesn’t have a lot of close friends but we’ve never really heard about friendship issues either. He’s quite self contained.

Feeling a bit like we have mostly run out of time and stamina here too. DS1 supposedly did do 3 hours today but about half of that was staring at maths blankly so not that helpful! So we rewatched one of his drama performances online pausing regularly for him to tell me all about the lighting & props etc (and for me to point out bits he hadn’t noticed). Hopefully he will remember some of it!
Potential crisis here as I noticed that some of his early exams had been put on his online timetable- but his extra time had only been included on some of them….School has been emailed so hopefully they will sort.
Glad your DS is feeling better today @3GoldenLamps

It is hard when they don't find their people got a DS who also struggles he only had a few signatures on his shirt from a couple of hundred in his year. If I recall correctly he only made double figures thanks to a couple of younger kids asking to sign it!
DD is getting stressed, done a couple of passed papers and been writing up notes. Says there is not enough time!

Glad to hear things have picked up. DS has never found his tribe either. Onwards and upwards

Hi all- thank you so much for everyone who really provided support to me last night and today.

DS has picked up today. Cracked on with his work and is feeling more chipper. he said that maybe next year he will get some friends for people who are coming into the school for A-levels or IB.

I completely agree with the poster who said he might find his tribe when he is older. I know that was the case with me. We are quite similar in so many ways.

All in all a better day.

I'm so impressed with your DS @whereonthestair swimming at such a high level (and winning!) during such a stressful time. Good on him!

@Caddycat - today I bought DS some snacks for him to take to school- it hadn't occurred to me he might be too nervous to eat a proper lunch, so thanks for your post.

I'm thinking of us all on the thread- such a stressful and anxious time.

❤

My DS is a bit variable atm. He swam in the regional championships earlier (silver medal won) and came back knackered but had an hour of discussion on English Lit in the car (Thank you audible) has done another two hours on English Lit on Shakespeare and a bit of maths. I am getting more concerned about burn out than him not knowing the stuff as when I help him, and he wants a lot of help, he really knows his material now. We have agreed do nothing now if it’s not before half term as he has 6 exams the first week and 5 the second.