Y11 2025-26 - Trying not to melt and pushing through the final weeks

@XelaM and @BeasKnee thankyou for all the context. I have emailed her art teacher to get to the bottom of this.

DD has no intention of changing/doing more even it was allowed, she is full steam ahead for maths/science next week and art has taken a disproportionate amount of time compared to all her other GCSEs put together and caused untold stress in the process (i swear it has made me go grey!). She is taking it for A-levels and if she drops marks as her piece was ambitious and she didn’t finish then I’m ok with that (and it sounds like the 2 grade thing was rubbish!) Thankyou!

I can now turn my attention back to worrying about English 😂

Popping on here to say hi!
Light revision for DD last night, she did a few practice plans for question 5 but had was too exhausted after history. Feeling like the end is finally in sight.

I love this! Bless your ds for his ingenuity.

Hope everyone has a good Eng lang day.

DD and I on our way to work sometimes see the same lad on his way to her old school. We reckon he must be year 11 by now (he’s pretty well grown) and he was walking in with particular unwillingness today. Reckon he’s not a fan of Eng lang.

Thanks @Drivingselfmad. I've shared your tips with DS, although he no doubt reckons you're in on the MN grade scam with @clary 😅If only teachers had time to be so devious.

I think if they don't ask for the Art raw marks they can't then ask for a review of the marks if they're not happy with them, as there's a deadline for this. I'm no expert though. I'm sure many schools cheat with Art. We know a school with many grade 9 Art students every year, but the grade 9 sketchbooks that they showed us at open day wouldn't even get a grade 7 in our school. It's all very subjective and totally dependent on the individual Art teachers.

Big one today!!
Good Luck all! X

DD hasn't had her Art grade but that's because she hasn't asked for them. Apparently they are available if you want but it's their choice. It annoys me as I want to know.

As others have said, exam piece and exam sketchbook shouldn't be changed after the exam has finished. I wouldn't be surprised if there is some fudging of this that goes on though (I completely restarted my exam piece at home for a level many many years ago when it didn't go to plan, I'm sure that wasn't what was supposed to happen but my teacher told me I had to or I wouldn't get the grade I deserved!)

Another double exam day today and then will finally be into single figures with 9 left
Ds was quiet this morning but to be expected as hes not a fan of English.
Good luck all. We are slowly ticking them off!

Once your Art exam is finished, that’s it I’m
afraid. You can’t then go back and add bits or change bits. It’s like any other exam.

& @XelaM that’s why I am so confused - I thought it was done done, although we haven’t had marks for this sketch book yet. This all came about yesterday when another child said to DD oh Mrs Art teacher said you haven’t finished your final piece and it needs to be done and you will drop 2 grades for an unfinished piece? All a bit random, will email the teacher today and thankyou all for talking me down!

@coffeeagogo Is Art not already finished and graded? She should already have her Art marks. She can't go back to finish her exam piece, but she should already know what raw marks she got.

DS also quite fed up which doesn’t bode well for next week. He loves English Lang though so I’m hoping it might give him a little boost if it goes well today.

Next week is a hard one - maths, history, science, DT. I don’t think he’s even glanced at DT!

I don’t know anything about art but when you say she’s refusing to go back? Surely she can’t anyway if the time has finished?

@Drivingselfmadthankyou so much, that’s really helpful and will give me some talking points for our walk to school, DD likes me to walk with her and revise on the way.

Anyone on the thread know anything about Art GCSE? DD didn’t finish her final piece in the (10 hr) exam I heard yesterday that could drop her 2 grades (!) and am now panicking.

Her sketch books are amazing and her prep and process was really thorough, she just didn’t have enough time to finish in the exam (she did 2 canvas’ one fully finished, the other 2/3 done) and is refusing to go back as she said Art has already taken too much time and she needs to focus on her sciences and maths. Thoughts?

Yes good luck everyone for English language. By 10.45, that’ll be another whole subject done! Number 3/9 for us.

Good luck for Eng Lang today! Some final tips (I’m an English teacher):

• Section A - always explain and extend your analysis. Before you put a full stop, can you add ‘because’, ‘which’ or ‘so’?
• Q2 - you do NOT need to analyse language. Quote, inference, compare only. It’s only 8 marks , so move on after 10 mins.
• Q3 and Q4 - you MUST analyse methods eg language.
• Q3 pay attention to which source and line numbers it is.
• Q4 - read the question! Is it similarities, differences or both? Do not skip this question! It’s a big marker.
• Q5 - Don’t forget the basics: paragraphs, full stops and capital letters, use a variety of punctuation.
• Q5 - pick a side and stick to it. Use a strong voice - even if you don’t care about the topic, write like you do.

On the exam front a day of two halves here. Morning was unusual exam board WJEC/Eduqas history. 1 DT has answered a history question on medicine completely for the wrong century! Null points for that question. Plus they both said the questions could have been better. Their topics were USA and Medicine. Good news is history is now finished. Hopefully they stilll get good grades as 1DT wants to take it for A level.
French reading in the afternoon was according to 1 DT very good, which is the most positive short summary to any of the exams so far.

the best news of yesterday is both DTs finally have shoes for the prom. The shoe saga is resolved.

tomorrow English language like most people and that will be another subject ticked off.

It feels like the end is in sight even though they still have French (writing) , geography (paper 3) science all paper 2s and maths (paper 3j to do.

i can’t wait for the exams to be over, but I will miss our year 11 threads you’ve all helped massively over the year as its first and only time doing GCSEs in this household. I hope we are having a results thread as I’m almost as invested in your kids results as my own. There is going to be so many success stories in august. I’m in awe of some of your DC who have battled illnesses, missing school, overcoming SEN. We will need a virtual party to celebrate just how amazing our DC are doing gazillions of exams on topics we’ve sometimes never heard of and hopefully all going on to their next steps. 😍🤩

DS seems.a bit tired and fed up here too. He’s alright but just wants to be finished now.

Glad ppls' DC thought the French exams were OK.

Don't worry @TheBeatlesWhoarethey about your DD not using extra time – I don't think the writing exam is one that necessarily requires a lot of time. You don't have to write reams in the time given, unlike Eng lit or history. So it may well be that your DD did perfectly well.

Good report for history here, phew! French writing - she did not use her extra time, left with 10 mins to go. So not sure if this is good or not!

Some revision done for English lang tomorrow.

Thos week has again flown by!

We only did a brief run through of what to do in the English exam tomorrow. Proper revision on Saturday.

French writing "fine". DD avoiding revision earlier by having a go at her little brother's times tables rockstars. At least it's maths I suppose!

My DD is leaving school as soon as she can now after each exam. She says she gets more done at home, but I’m not convinced. I do get that she doesn’t want to go to a Physics lesson and be forced to revise Physics straight after a History exam and when it’s 10 days til the Physics exam though.

She said she thought History went ok (Edexcel American West and Anglo-Saxons). There were a few smaller questions she found hard, but said the 16-mark questions were ones she could do. She likes History but isn’t great at remembering facts so hope she didn’t make too much up!

English language tomorrow and then that’s another subject over,

She had a small panic earlier in the week as her calculator broke in her Physics exam and she had to borrow one from school for the Maths exam. Trying to borrow one from someone for the weekend for revision- I really don’t want to buy a new one for a week!…