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

Has anyone else’s DC kind of given up on history? DS. Failed his June mock, scraped a pass in his December ones but it’s most definitely been deprioritised for the others. He’s revising it now, but I can tell that he’s just going through the motions.
It doesn’t have any impact on his choices for 6th form so it doesn’t actually matter. But I’d love it if he managed to get a 4.
I need to be at peace with it as I’m pretty sure he is. Learning and remembering that much content just isn’t his thing. He has said previously that he quite enjoyed the lessons so I guess it wasn’t a complete waste of time even if he doesn’t pass!

11 done, 9 to go, but a huge weight off DD's shoulders when history is over tomorrow. I said I'd meet her afterwards and we will grab some lunch before her revision session in school in the afternoon. Little treats to keep going!

7 to go here. 13 done! It feels good for them to be on the home straight. Though next week is tough with 3 on Mon/Tues

DS reports the maths exam well and he feels positive about it despite the stress of this morning. He really can't wait to finish this school and move on. He reckons he got an 8 possibly 9 on it so hoping to make it for paper 1. Not many left to go now!

AQA higher maths was "pretty good", which is the most positive response we've had to date. Usually it's "mid" or "bad". AQA Geography was "better than paper 1", but she ran out of time. Physics was a bit of a disaster yesterday, brain freeze and lots of silly mistakes.

2/3 of exams done now though!

Wow we still have ten left. History 2 and English language 2, five next week and 3 the following week

DS2 reported IGCSE was alright ( he reckons he got 40% .. which is not my old person definition of alright 🤷🏻‍♀️) Geography was ‘good actually’ .. ICT tomorrow then only 4 more to go

DS did iGCSE Edexcel and reports it went well, we avoid looking at Reddit etc but he seems happy and that’s enough for me. He’s done for the week now and has six more exams left to go.

So sorry to hear about the troubles with the access arrangements @Moneyordream and I hope the paper went well for your son this morning. We deal with so many different access arrangements at our school and do our best to accommodate what is required and I just can’t imagine denying a student something simple like this.

Also hope your DD is ok after geography @Bluebelle8261 I think your approach makes total sense and will hopefully reassure her.

I am usually pretty relaxed about DS’s exams if I’m honest, of course I wish him luck and think about him but the good thing about invigilating for other people’s kids is that you don’t really have time to worry about your own! Today’s drama was an older invigilator whispering to me ‘I just need to let you know that I feel a bit strange’ about forty minutes in to maths this morning. He looked awful, chalk white, breathless and sweating and I was genuinely worried he was going to pass out or have a heart attack or something. Thankfully exams officer took him out with minimal disturbance and he was ok and went home. But all a bit stressful. Last thing the poor students need is some bloke collapsing mid exam 😱

DD said it was edexcel Pearson higher. Slightly annoyed as worked a question but didn't think it was right so didn't put the number down in the answer box.

Geography was OK wasn't keen on the 9 marker as wanted it to be about another place.

She also has 9 papers left.

@Bluebelle8261That’s so frustrating for her, hopefully she will be able to make it up across her other papers 🤞

Edexcel Higher here was good, she’s happy with it although she said it was definitely a harder paper but she’s always been really good at Maths and it’s also an A Level choice. Although I could hear plenty of unhappiness from the pupils walking past my office today when the exam finished. Last years grade boundaries were so high as a PP mentioned so we shall see.

That’s 9 left now for DD, finally single figures . History and French tomorrow. She’s upstairs going through History now.

Oh and OCR higher was very hard apparently but everyone found it

Dd upset. Geography best subject and missed a 10 marker by mistake. I said to think of it as 10 marks lost over all 3 papers and if she is strong on the rest she can still do really well. She said she only just finished the paper in time so maybe if she had done it she may have lost marks by rushing all the questions. Does this make sense? 🫣

DD happy with Edexcel higher. Annoyed with herself for getting two wrong but she’s hoping with marks for working out she’ll have enough to get her 9 based on last year’s boundaries IF she has a good paper 3.

DS reporting that Edexcel higher was "easy". I am sceptical!

Maths was 'solid' apparently. AQA higher. Paper one wasn't great so that's an improvement. I am not putting too much faith in how DD thinks she's done though as those have been way off the mark (both up & down!) in the past. I'm always just happy if she comes out pleased that she's done her best

It’s not that the papers were easy, more that the GBs were relaxed to take account of Covid. Also in 2022 there were several concessions (eg in MFL, certain topics were dropped altogether).

So don’t worry, I am sure the school will bear that in mind. It’s just looking at the GBs for what I might call the Covid period is not perhaps representative.

Oh this worries me now lol. DD's predicted an 8, but all of her mocks have been made up papers by our MAT. She's done past papers and always gets comfortable 8s on them, but now if they were easy, I'm worried 😱

Hoping everyone gets that maths grade they need :)

Agree re GBs in fact I would look no further back than 2024, then skip back to ds2’s year 2019. No point at all looking at 2022 or tbh 2023 really.

All the best to all for the rest of the week.

Ds sent a message as im in work so haven't seen him.
Apparently aqa higher maths was "quite difficult but not too bad".
He is really wanting a 9 even though we are trying to get him not to be disappointed if it doesn't happen. As long as he passes but its his favourite subject and he wants to do a levels

Oh God, the wait to find out how Maths and Geography went.

DS is usually pretty relaxed, but I think the sheer amount of content for Geography has made him feel stressed out.

Looking forward to being back to single exam days only.

Same here. All we need is a pass.
Grade boundaries have been creeping up in recent years to get back to pre Covid levels.

With maths I do not care as long as he passes! Everything crossed

I’m worried now , DS2 will be in Geography now . He had the IGCSE maths this morning .. and so far I’ve seen the two extremes on here about that one . He needs a 6 .., this time last year he was struggling to get a 4 . He has worked so hard on his maths . I hope if it was hard he’s managed to put it behind him

DD said that edexcel iGCSE maths paper 2 this morning was easy. But she’s a maths girl so was never going to find it too challenging.

Only 6 papers left, thank the lord! No more this week, 4 next week and 2 the following Monday. And thankfully all essay subjects long gone (DD hates essay subjects) with only further maths and science paper 2’s left.

Can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel!