Y11 2025-26 Results Day and Next Steps

DS has been away with the Scouts since Monday, back tomorrow evening. I've not heard from him since Tuesday which I assume is a good sign.
Their weather looked better than ours this morning and for the rest of the day and tomorrow. Sleeping in a tent when the rain is hammering down is probably not much fun.

DD got to Reading yesterday. I’m actually delighted by the rain as was very worried about fire risk at Reading what with tents being set alight in previous years. DD has her wellies to pair with her skimpy outfits and is channelling the “Kate at Glasto” look.

OMG Reading and Leeds? It's Biblical out there today – my drive into work (not especially near either R or L tbf) was awash. Don't envy them. (I mean I don't envy anyone at a festival anyway, even in bright sunshine hahaha)

Just dropped mine at the coach for Leeds with a back pack bigger than our house full of skimpy outfits and suede boots 😖. If there were GCSES for common sense we would be on a resit.

Not heard anything yet. Refreshing email all the time. It’s been a week now!

Yes I’m driving Dd today but her friends went yesterday to setup camp. It’s disgusting out there!!

Has anyone had remarks back yet? The wait is awful!!

Thank you. She is enrolled to study fashion at college but lately has said she’s not interested in that now. She had a private tour yesterday so
more reluctant about going this week than outright refusing like she has been so there’s progress. We will just see how it goes and hopefully will find some inspiration along the way.
Hope everyone else’s teens are well rested and ready for their next step!

Morning all - anyone else's kids off to Reading? I dropped DD at the station in the pouring rain at 5.30 this morning. Apparently they need to get there by 8 to start queuing for a camp spot. The weather looks rough so I don't envy them at all! And obviously being a teen, how they look was more important than how dry they'll be!

She did make a decision yesterday though to leave her current school (grammar) and go to a different one for 6th form. There are pros and cons to both, grammar gets better results but new one is nearer home and in a nicer part of London. I feel like she's always had slight imposter syndrome at her grammar so may be good to be with a more mixed bunch.

Well done to your DD @Mysonwontwash. It's a tricky few years for them.

Aah, the terror of looking at your results is awful so I can understand how your daughter is avoiding it. @Mysonwontwash. I hope she looks soon and feels relieved and happy.

She's done amazingly well considering her challenges. I hope she will accept the grades and the congratulations given time. What are her plans now?

My dd has refused to even look at her results!

She had a terrible time in school after being bullied in year 9 but her teachers have been so supportive and understanding of her anxiety.
Her predicted grades were all based on her taking higher papers, mostly 7’s and 8’s but she completely shut down and refused to revise until the week exams started.
Her attendance was down to 43% by year 11 and she requested that she move down to foundation to take away some of the pressure.

She finally let me look today on the condition I don’t tell her anything and she has received mostly 5’s and a 7 in English language. She got a 4 in art which is one of her strongest subjects but she had no plan at all for her exam or much coursework so just made up something in clay on the day. She took piano lessons for gcse music and with the help of her piano teacher got a 5. This was the only subject she worked on as she found practicing helped her brain switch off from the stress.

I’m so proud of what she’s achieved under the circumstances, I just hope she can be proud of herself too when she does finally look.

Ah ok. I was just speculating tbh

My dd is at private school and we pay the fees, the school don’t!!

Or not having the budget to. Another discrepancy between state and private I fear? 😕

Yes totally agree, it’s also some schools paying for reviews and others not prepared too.

I think it’s a lot of do with how keen on improving their rating schools are . DS1s Grammar School were set up to email anyone who was 1/2 marks off a grade boundary . DS2s non selective private school were completely relaxed . For us last year neither grade moved ( DS1 eng lit / DS2 eng lang )

Wow! This is amazing. Our school don’t even order any scripts in unless asked - I can’t believe the difference between schools.

@clarythank you so, so much for taking the time to respond. I really hope there has been a mistake - we’ve submitted the speaking part for review (although school won’t process until start of term) so will keep everything crossed. It gives us hope at least that an experienced teacher and examiner also thinks it’s strange! I wish they’d go back to the days of modular exams or coursework so that 2 years worth of work wasn’t dependent on your performance in 2 hours on 1 day.

Thank @clary for your experienced insights. I just asked my son did he know about the real aloud and role play and he said yes, of course. So at least he wasn’t surprised by that and presumably they had prepared at school.

I’m hoping for a result this week. 🤞🏼

Ah Ok @ShowDownTime a native speaker with knowledge of the exam should be the best of both worlds. But the fact that they didn’t know about the read aloud task is a concern. Did they also not know about the role play element? The spec was new for this year’s exams, with a role play, no choice of topic for the discussion, and questions on the read aloud topic and then on the picture topic; also a choice of pix to describe. I wonder, if the prep focused only on one aspect, whether your DC was confused when faced with the other elements in the prep and exam? But surely your DC would have prepped all those in class while at school anyway.

There was a lot of paperwork for candidates – I decided to get them to put all their notes and cards in order before we started the test so they didn’t get confused. But again, the examiner may not have done this and they may have got frazzled by that. It’s a very short exam with not much space to faff about if that makes sense. If you spend a minute trying to think of a word of getting confused by a question, that's a lot of time lost where you could be gaining marks.

@propertymug gosh 50 on the writing is amazing – full marks. That certainly shows they can pull together some good French when needed so I wonder about the speaking. A candidate scoring 50 om writing I would expect to get 10/10 on role play, at least 13/15 on the read aloud and questions, and at least 21/25 on the photo descrip and subsequent convo (and that’s allowing for some lower marks than I would actually expect). Unless there was a question along the way which totally threw them and they were unable to answer. My suggested marks would give a total of 44/50 so 29/50 seems low. I wonder if it’s possible that an element was not marked or even missed out in the exam? I would certainly probe that a bit. This applies to @ShowDownTime's DC as well actually – not quite such a low sp mark but still lower than the rest.

All that said, there can be anomalies. I recall querying DD’s French GCSE grade as her written CW (old spec) was marked as a B which I found bizarre as her marks for other elements were much higher (and I knew what quality the piece was). But it was looked at (I didn't see it myself) and came back still a B so hey. In the grand scheme of things it really has not been in any way an issue tbh.

@OranginacanonlybedrunkinFrance Dd's school won't review scripts until term starts but they've sent them through to us on the day requested. I don't really know what I'm looking for so just sent the lowest paper for a review. She's one mark off in English Lan. I reckon if they don't find it on this paper, I'll send the other paper off and try that. English Lan is particularly tricky I think as it's subjective. But I do feel like she's got very few marks for the 40 marker so hoping they'll increase that a bit.

Thank you. I will see what the school suggests and then contact the hospital.

Thank you, I will do this 🙏

Could you get in touch with the hospital and get something in writing that confirms your appt/details? I have no idea how it works or whether they would take it into account but if there’s nothing to lose by appealing (apart from cost obvs) then I would give it a shot if it saves them resitting - really hope it works out for you 🤞🏻🙏🏻