Y11 2025/26 The Final Stretch

History is just so so time consuming and never ending

My son doing 1 - 2 hours each evening
3 - 4 hours weekends
it’s a slog and he’s tired but there is so bloody much to do. He also can’t remember stuff we revised a few weeks ago. It’s like walking against a strong current of continual information and getting bloody nowhere

I agree, I did art gcse and loved it and I don't remember having to write a word! It's so unfair to non-academic students who might be extremely creative and talented that so much writing is involved now. The annotation is tedious and so repetitive

I find this thread refreshing about the number of hours revision that most kids are doing. DD did 1.5 hours last night (normally more than that but it was at least full attention revision). The problem is she often procrastinates so spends hours and achieves very little and then feels incredibly hard done by. I am making her work both weekend days for quite a few hours but I think that's because she's been so patchy with revision up to this point so I'm worried. Perhaps I should pull back on that (although still lots of art to do!) Threads I had seen previously had kids working pretty much full time from end of school until bed!

My DS is doing 2 hours revision after school, and about 5 on one of the weekend days, but I'm encouraging him to take one weekend day off. I couldn't work 7 days a week for weeks

Good luck to all the MFL speakers today!

@Tebheag that sounds so horrible for your poor DD. Agree that the moderators will be looking at a random sample and will mark the entire cohort up or down if he/she feels that teachers have marked too harshly or generously.

@UncomfortableSilence that sounds really tough re the lack of consistent teachers. It’s so hard for them all anyway but that situation just heightens the stress. Hope she can enjoy a lovely birthday tomorrow.

DS has taken in his DT NEA model in today, the actual PowerPoint submission is in already but they need to show teachers the final models. Is it really bad that I’m glad to get the damned thing out of the house and don’t ever want to see it again?! DT has been nowhere near as bad as art I don’t think but I feel your pain @BeasKnee - DS put heart and soul and so many many hours into an NEA that is worth half of just one of the 11 GCSEs he is taking….

Agree about Art. It's a passion for my DD, but takes too much time. The content is too much. Night and Day to when I did Art GCSE - but also to other GCSEs today. I think someone above called it a 'time thief' - too true!

The end of Art can't come quick enough. 11 days until all sketchbooks need to be in and the exam starts. It's such a time stealer. Expected Mark is fine (7) but if I think about the time and effort that's gone into that 7 and how it could have helped in all other subjects it's a bit depressing (& she's still considering art a level)...

Good luck to all those taking MFL exams today!

We’ve gone for 2 inch kitten heels! And they’re too baggy round the ankle so need to take them to get adjusted.

MFL speaking today, lots of nerves!

DD is going for kitten heals - I really like some of the block heels, she keeps on rebuffing my suggestions. Can’t imagine why 🤔

Similar @UncomfortableSilence that my son is being taught Chemistry by a Physics teacher and hates it as a result. She's not been great.

@Caddycat thank you I will tell her that. I just ordered some fabric pens for leavers shirts might suggest she invites some friends round to start decorating them.

On the count down for one sport got one training session left and two days of matches just hope no injuries but feel she needs the escape and laugh she has with team mates.

DD also said no to trainers she is short so she picked some platform shoes as found them easy to walk in. Though now looking for a cheap 2nd prom dress as all her team mates and year above are wearing prom dresses to the end of season sport party during the day with bbq unfortunately a few days before DDs prom so could be too close if something happened to the dress.

DEICHMANN stores for shoes and bags are fantastic - not too expensive and loads of choice. Got DD prom shoes from there

I suggested DD wore her tan dance heels but apparently that's not ok 😂
No idea where to find suitable shoes that don't cost a fortune as she wont wear them again. I'll try Vinted, thanks for the idea!

DD shot down my suggestion of trainers with a prom dress. Have got some Vinted shoes on their way. DD asked for a small heel, we went for one that was not too skinny, but she does dance so has some practice in heeled shoes.

@Tebheag this is rubbish. Tell your DD that the moderator takes a sample from the class, and if he thinks the marks aren't right, he will moderate all of the coursework, including the classmate's. So if your DD is marked down, it's more than likely classmate will be as well.

@Tebheagtotally mean girl behaviour I’d say

A lot of the kids just wear new trainers to prom. My DD is with dress. Leavers shirts defo gone into diff realm!

All syllabus complete here, so school now doing revision in every lesson. Even pshe and P.E lessons have been repurposed to revision. School now confirmed no exam leave which is whatever suspected from previous year.

DTs doing 1-2 hrs per week night revision and a bit more at weekends. A few remaining sports fixtures to play then there going to not start second sport again till after exams. Not done any exams yet first is French speaking next week and then we’ll all be on the conveyor belt of exams. We’ve got 47 exams between the 2 of them!

well done to all the DCs already completing art, DT, mfl and PE exams and NEAs.

in non revision news.
they’ve started decorating their leavers shirts. In my day people just wrote on it but it seems you need to embellish it these days with your name and the year as a minimum. We are rubbish at art hence not doing it for gcse so it’s proving a nice break and distraction for them trying to be creative.
in other news I’ve realised I’ve not sorted any shoes for the prom outfits and they’ve delegated that to me! So now to order some wedges I think as they need some height due to dress length and have never worn heels before. Other suggestions welcome..

@Littletreefrog I did wonder this kid is a head prefect and all the teachers favourite always get awards etc.
Was not nice coming home to find DD in tears after having the girl go on at her about it.

On a good note just been informed they finished another subject syllabus today.

I think DDs classmate talks BS

@NotDarkGothicMama poor kid really hope it don't effect his exams.

DD got coursework back today full marks. Anyone know how it works with coursework checks by invidulaters (sorry feeling brain dead can't spell.) DD classmate told her she asked for 39 marks so hers would not be checked as they would pick DDs instead as she got higher so would likely get marked down.
Starting to see why this girl has no friends these days as always mean.

Poor boy @NotDarkGothicMama hope it doesn’t affect the rest of his exams too much.

Anyone know what the minimum break time for your brain to recover actually is? Here minimising breaks as they are also either practically nonexistent or really really really long in a “I just got distracted, sorry” way. The art of a quick 5 min break has definitely not been mastered here! So going for a change of subjects as then there’s then hunting out different books/notes/questions etc which is like a really small break (kind of hopefully?). Plus thinking about different stuff - eg maths to English. Also swapping between past paper questions and quizzing.