Y11 2025/26 The Final Stretch

Wow art sounds brutal. Dd hasn’t done any creative subjects.

Is it as brutal at alevel for those who have chosen it?!

Heartily agree about art. I thought DD had finished as her exam was last term but apparently she never completed one of her other projects so cue panic this week - it needs to be in on Friday - and random painting of jars to final it off.

Slightly worried that she's now decided to do it for A level too - switching from economics!!

10 thousands to go made me smile @36and3. Well done to your DD for her spanish speaking exam.

I agree regarding the art subjects. My DD does dance and drama and the course work took so much of her time... in addition, it's all box ticking, and as a result I dont think it's that artistic. She is a great choreographer but her piece for gcse was possibly one of my least favourite because it has to fit the curriculum and include so many random elements... she was forced by her teacher to do a group piece, because so many of the boxes cant be ticked with a solo. This added the pressure of working with others, not always as committed as you are... she was put off dance and drama A levels for this reason.

Speaking exam done and dd is really pleased with how it went. She was asked all the questions she memorised and the roleplay and description were topics she was confident on.

1 down. Ten thousand to go.

Agree that the Art exam consumes a disproportionate amount of time and effort, given its contribution to final grade. IMO schools should make sure it is done and dusted before Easter. Tbh I’m feeling similarly about the Spanish speaking exam atm - it’s my dd’s weakest part of her weakest subject, yet it’s dominating all her time as she’s so anxious about it. Roll on Wednesday when it’ll be done! This whole experience makes me think the GCSE system should be overhauled, with assessments spaced out over Y11. I say that as a teacher and a parent. This bottleneck of pressure is so stressful for them (and us).

Completely agree. It was a shock to find it was only 25% of the grade given the stupid amount of time it requires and how much of the coursework is just a dull grind in the end. It seems a bit mad as though someone went out of their way to make it "academic".
It's made me very sceptical of Art A level. I'll be paying a lot more attention early so the boring but necessary stuff gets tackled a lot earlier.

Counting down to DT submission on Friday, that cannot be gotten out of the way soon enough. Art is the following week but DC1 is hazy on what date, her blasted art teacher keeps "suggesting" other bits to do, it never seems to be enough and she's spent the whole of Easter on three subjects. Her Art exam is not until after the bank holiday weekend so I am envious of those for whom it is behind them and they can focus on other things now.
Spanish speaking also next week, it's going to be a long week !

Congrats.

I decided to not drink from yesterday to the end of exams. That is challenging for me tbh, even more so now!!

Yes, i always think it's so poorly designed. (Humans and society I mean). We give the poor sods the most extreme amount of stress right at the time their hormones are going wild and they have no personal agency at all.

DS1 is a lovely gentle little guy. We have an agreement that when he explodes I walk away without reaction and he comes for a hug and a sorry when he is up to it. Did not quite work last night though to be fair.

And I'm dieting including cutting out all refined carbs...

I feel like the guy from airplane... I guess I'll drink ALL the coffee! 😆

Coffee and ALL the chocolate!

Ah... I'm 8 months sober.... so that's challenging!

Yes there has been a bit of this but he does reflect and say sorry.
A few "I KNOW What im doing"
But I am aware we haven't started properly!!
Big sympathy to mums with dds with more hormone swings plus exams! Extra wine for you all

Ooh the grumpiness.... My son is a very chill young guy but one weekend he was watching a film and I popped my head round the door to tell him I was going to bed and not to be too late.

"CAN'T YOU JUST LET ME WATCH MY FILM?"

Next day. Sat with him and said "I can understand things are a bit stressful but I felt quite upset with how you spoke to me last night."

He then profusely apologised. But he's being completely out of character for him.

I'd second this. While it was a good 30 years ago for me now, I still remember both my French and German speaking exams being way easier than I feared. My German teacher even said to me after mine... "you revised!" in amazed and happy tones. 😆

Hello
New to the thread
We've had german speaking and then spnish tomorrow. A bit of a break and then english lit on the 11th may and I think 4 that week.

Hopefully a few done before may half term.
Its a hard balance between being supportive and not nagging and just trusting them to get on with it (and to not react to the grumpiness!)

Awww thank you @clary that's very kind. I think we are at the point that it all need to start because the stress is mounting so much. Stress has always got the best of her and it's so hard to help them. No amount of reassurance seem to help.

Oh bless her. Please tell her from me (genuinely! I know she doesn’t know me but I know about this) that her teacher wants her to do well and will do all they can to facilitate that (asking questions they can see she can cope with). Really, students do worry about this but IME (pretty considerable) they do much better than they fear. Always.

They also catastrophise one wrong answer but really that’s at most a mark or two.

I am sure she will be fine. All the best to her and anyone sitting speaking exams in the next few weeks.

DD has speaking Spanish on Monday next week. She's so stressed about it. She's done fine in the mocks, but it is a nerve racking exam.

DS won’t talk to me in any detail about what he’s doing revision wise. His teachers all tell me he’s working really hard but that mock results didn’t reflect his true potential, particularly in maths (he wants to do A level next year). He also tells me he’s working and will reel off the list of subjects he has planned each day/ has worked through. He’s only started going through puberty in the last six months or so and he’s gone from being fairly chatty to quite challenging to get info at all from. Hoping for the best!

That was me as a child too.

I'm trying to shut my own panicking mind up and accept that even if he doesn't do what he's capable of (he could get all 9s if he really tried, he's dead clever) that doesn't actually matter. Perfection isn't the aim. A well rounded and happy child is.

I have no idea how to find balance either. He won't listen to us just panics.

Well after DS's mental health breakdown (and a psychiatrist telling us that he is most likely autistic and we have just not been aware of it for the last 16 years) we haven't done any nagging on the revision front over the Easter holidays.

Back to school today and whilst obviously his health and happiness comes first I know he will be very unhappy if this all derails the hard work he has put in so far so I think we need to find some sort of balance but what that looks like I have no idea.

Morning!

DS1 has had his French speaking and I think he has a drama exam next.

He's working very hard so i am worried about burnout (autism and anxiety).

My DS has had two sets of good mock results (they did two rounds of it for some reason) and has finished all of the courses so all he's doing in lessons is revision yet I remember doing so much more work than he is at home. I know what he's like though. If I force him, he'll not do any more, if anything less. So I'm trying not to be like my parents (who were pretty abusive about academic stuff but that's a different story) and realise that I can offer suggestions but I cannot do it for him.

3D design (which he hates as they changed the course, so we've both accepted is just aiming to get a 6 at best) is the first assessed thing but that seems pretty low key then it's not till mid May that his exams "proper" start.