Y11 2025/26 The Final Stretch

My son has French speaking tomorrow. He got a 4 in his dec mock but he’s been working hard since Jan so I’m hoping his several hours of French a week for last few months has paid off. It’ll be pretty bad if he hasn’t!

It’s so rubbish. I have a child who is studying and working and doing all she possibly could, all anyone could ask, yet still the tension in the air is awful. She has French speaking the day after tomorrow and we are both miserable with it!

Evening all, anyone else now bored of GCSEs!

Just want it over and done with.

my heart sinks when my DD gives me flash cards to go over (she never seems to ask her Dad 🙄).

If I’m feeling this the kids must be feeling this x1000

This may be no help but we went right around the houses on pens as my son had a specialist pen (yoro pen) recommended by an OT for years. Then the company stopped making them, then we found another one (Maped) for which the supply of black ink pens evaporated in the UK. So we currently have a very small and very very expensive set of basically biros imported from the US at vast expense for GCSEs only. As there was no other way around the problem when writing was required with JCQ. We tried. We have pages and pages of reports. We have complex agreed access arrangements and for most exams DS types. But when he can’t the pen was the insurmountable part!

No it’s a regular gel pen. Bic gelocity. It has a great shaped grip and the ink also flows nicely. They seem to do a ballpoint version “velocity” so I’ve ordered that.
Sadly we only saw OT once. I’ve ordered a batch of different pens. I understand it is because they scan papers. But surely not the long essay type questions.

Yes our school have said this. Some ballpoint ones flow just as nicely. The OT might suggest things that can be placed on the pen to help grip

Great stuff @Caddycat - really good that she extended her answers, and tell her that gender errors are classed as "minor errors" and even for the top mark for linguistic accuracy, minor errors are allowed. Big well done to her.

@Wolfiefan is it just a gel one or one of the frixion ones? The frixion ones disappear with heat, which might be a problem but the regular gel ones don't? I think my DD uses gel, I didn't realised they aren't allowed!

DD just called me out of her Spanish speaking exam, she is over the moon as she thinks it went better than mocks. She said she did extended answers for all questions and that the teacher asked what she called a spin off question (further from the first question, not the actual set question) on pretty much all of them. She said only one question she could have answered better but still gave a detailed answer. Teacher gave a little bit of feedback and said she did well, free conversation being her strongest and that she only made one gender error. 1 down, 23000 to go ;-)

I'd definitely talk with the exams officer then and see what they recommend. They may have come across the issue before and have practical ideas up their sleeve.

Using a scribe when you have not had a fair bit of practice would be a hard task IMO. It's definitely a process you need to get used to!

Thank you. I don’t think she would cope with a scribe or laptop either. She suffers massively with anxiety and I think that would just knock her for six.

It's because for papers that use a computer scanner (for multiple choice etc) gel pens don't always scan reliably.

I recommend talking with the exams officer to see if she is able to use a word processor or scribe. I know it's late in the day, but the exams officer can guide if evidence provided by the OT (any reports you have, referrals etc) would be accepted for a change if she can't use another pen.

ETA- good luck, hope it goes well.

Random question. Has anyone else been told by the school their child can’t use gel pens?
DD has a painful lump on her right (writing) hand. After months of trying different things and seeing OT she finally found a pen she can write with. But it’s gel!! Panicking a bit here.

@EducaatingRita yes that's my understanding of AQA Art.

@UncomfortableSilence it sounds similar to AQA drama. DD got told today her devising part which is marked by the teacher is a 7, it's worth 30%. She was a bit disappointed as was hoping for a 9 in drama but outside moderator may change them later. The grade boundaries are very tight apparently with 70 out of 80 being a 9, 67-70 an 8 and 64-67 a 7. I think they are generally higher in creative subjects.

@FlyingPandas thank you that makes me feel a little better. He has no access arrangements in place as he couldn't face the thought of doing anything differently to how he did his mocks and his school have been spectacularly unhelpful and uninterested. I have hopes that college will be better for him in terms of support from them but also a more diverse group of people.

*waves back at @3GoldenLamps yes, we all feel very protective of our students too (with the occasional mild eye roll at the number of toilet breaks they ask for!). I always get emotional on results day wondering how they've all done.

@Littletreefrog it sounds as if you are doing everything possible to support your DS. Have school put any access arrangements in place for him? Rest breaks etc? I know it's easy to say but no way should you feel bad, autism presents so differently in different DC, and at different stages of life, and you can never quite predict how teens and young adults are going to be. My eldest with autism was actually fine at school, okay ish at sixth form but then the wheels massively fell off at uni..they are all so different. In certain scenarios mine will appear quite neurotypical - see him in a different situation and he will present as very autistic. Sometimes I feel like I never quite get it right in supporting him but as parents we can only do the best we can manage.

I'm so happy to hear about the pastoral part of the invigilating. DS has not been doing well mentally and from seemingly out of nowhere is now being assessed for autism (so that's me feeling like a bad mother for not having realised for the last 16 years!) I think he should be ok but honestly he's the kind of kid who seems ok until he is spectacularly and seemingly without warning definitely not ok. So whilst mocks have been fine I do wonder if the fact they are "the real" thing is going to cause a melt down.

@UncomfortableSilence thats so interesting. Dd got one mark for dance (a performance of about 16 counts of set choreo), only worth 12 marks but not for the duo or choreography, also marked by the teacher. Im not sure why she felt the need to give that one out!

@UncomfortableSilence that's interesting, so do they have an idea of their mark before results day? I guess it can change depending on where the grade boundaries for this year will sit?

waves to my fellow invigilator @FlyingPandas !

I love invigilating.

I find everyone cares so much that the students are okay and we get so excited when we find out how some of them have done. I had a lovely lad last year who was really scared about it all. He saw me in town one day and came bouncing up to tell me had passed English. I scribed for him and it made my day. There is alot of care for the more vulnerable students I find. People think it's just standing in a room for 3 hours but it's not, Loads of safeguarding and pastoral care as you say.

I agree about just getting on with it now. I am worried that by the time the actual exams start DS will be exhausted.

I am also an invigilator @3GoldenLamps and would totally agree - people often assume invigilators are only there to stop students cheating but I always point out there is a real wellbeing/pastoral/safeguarding element to the role too. Sorry your DS is finding it so tough. I think the students are at the point now where they just need to get started, this last week or so of waiting to start is almost the worst bit.

Thank you @clary and yes it’s IGCSE. DS found the speaking fine in the end but was anxious beforehand and is glad it’s now out of the way!

Does anyone know the % mark for the Art Sketch books? I think its 60% with the exam being 40% but not sure!

And yes we've got Michael Gove 2015 to thank for the Art (and other) GCSE changes..

Morning everyone and good luck to all!

DS is better this morning. I told him he had worried me and he said that next time he storms out saying he never wants to speak to me again he'll make sure he texts me photos of where he goes so I know he's okay. .

He was angry with me because he had a meltdown about something and I tried to help. But didn't help in the 'right way'.

Poor poor kids.

Oh- I'm not sure if it will help anyone, but as an invigilator we often have children collapsing in tears in the middle of exams. We always take them out, brush them down, pause the exam for them and make a note of the time and then mother-hen them back to the room. We have 30 or so invigilators where I work and every single one of them responds both professionally, but also with compassion. I hope it's the case everywhere.