Y11 2025-26 Results Day and Next Steps

Went to New Scientist Live today (we go every year) and one of the talks was really useful to get DD started with her EPQ. All seems calm.

Dd is loving her alevels and thankfully feels confident in her choices. The workload is heavy especially with an epq on top but she’s managing well. We’ve been to two university open days so far which have definitely given her a helpful push to really knuckle down.

I would recommend the 'MyTutor' website for A level tuition - used it for DS1 and it was a really flexible system that allowed you to identify experienced tutors for your chosen subjects (ie you can see how many tutoring hours they have clocked up so how experienced they are). Definitely worth looking at. All online and DC can download the notes made during every session to keep.

https://www.mytutor.co.uk/

DS2 is doing well...seems to be working hard and enjoying the courses so taking that as a win for now.

Yes, I know one, I’ll DM you…

Daughter very stressed preparing for tests next week 😬 She has some big-topic tests in 3 of her A-levels and is trying to get on the teachers' good sides from the beginning for those predicted grades next year 😂

Having never had tutors in any of the sciences, she now wants me to find her Chemistry and Biology tutors as she feels it would give her an edge. Does anyone have any recommendations for good online tutors for Chemistry and Biology?

@NotDarkGothicMama Good news about English Lang.

DD seems to be getting lots of homework now or she left it all till last min as done quite a few hours today !

How is everyone else getting on ?

Congratulations to your DS for English Lan @NotDarkGothicMama

Just got English Literature back as well. No change. He was one mark below a 9 so that was vanity only.

Skim-reading and summarising key points is one excellent use of AI. Recommended! He can then go back and read more deeply about things he's interested in or didn't understand from the summary.

We got DS's re-marks back for AQA English Language. No change on paper 2, but 8 extra marks in paper 1, which pushes him up from a high 6 to a high 7. Really pleased with that. Still waiting for English Literature paper 1 to come back.

We're not doing Nottingham as they've closed their MFL department 😭

DD has applied to do a taster day at Churchill College in November. There's one for History and Politics and one for Literature and Languages, if anyone is interested.

We also heard back from Art which the school has asked to be reviewed as the whole year went down 2 grades. There was no change but they're now appealing the decision. DD doesn't care anymore but at the time was annoyed to get a 6 when she was expecting an 8 or a 9! The school is a very high performing grammar so won't want to have a year where the highest grade was 7.

Anyone else off to Nottingham on Saturday? We did Southampton last week but dd didn’t like the campus. That said it was a good starting point and has given her things to look out for on other open days.

This was me with Law reading during my uni years 😂 Headnotes and nut case summaries is what I read as I told myself it was impossible to read all the set reading (and still have a life).

DS is working hard but not at that level @whereonthestair He has very few study periods as his timetable is quite packed (4 A levels, additional electives and PSHE modules) but I would say he's averaging 1-1.5 hours of study time each evening and maybe a couple of hours per day at weekends. Still finding time to fit in volunteering and a hobby once each per week and lots of gaming! It definitely feels like a step up from GCSE but not a daunting step up so far (though the amount of maths homework he gets is eye watering but he's taking it in stride).

I wonder if it's the amount of reading etc that is creating so much work for your DS? Having studied humanities at that level and for my degree I would say there is a definite trick to managing the reading - it is literally impossible to read everything that teachers 'suggest' you should, even for set essay pieces. He'll probably become an expert at skim reading and speed writing in time (I did English and history so a lot of essay writing). But that does sound pretty intense.

That does sound insane and not normal.

We have the opposite problem here in that they are being set hardly anything but they are expected to make sure they go over and actually know / can remember stuff they have done. However a couple of DS1’s teachers like taking their work in to look at it a lot, so he hardly ever has his books. Plus it’s a newish syllabus I think and apparently there isn’t a good text book either! He is really struggling with doing anything as he finds nebulous work very difficult.

Oh my god! That’s like GCSE revision workload 😮 Mad that they expect them to keep that up for 2 years. Is it a college/school where they are prepping them for Oxbridge and similar?

Mines doing History too, AQA. But so far no academic journals to read, just things from the text book and work sheets.

Dd is getting most work done in frees with maybe an hour or so each night too.

What exam boards is he doing @whereonthestair? I wonder if that’s the difference. Dd is also doing history out of your son’s list with OCR. She has two teachers, each taking a unit and it all seems manageable at the moment. That said there’s only 8 kids in her class too.

EPQ has begun here. Title chosen. At DD’s sixth form it’s all done and handed in by June with the result then available to put on the ucas form this time next year.

I’d add DS got 9s in all related subjects at GCSE so I doubt it’s going over his head yet..

Not Stem, humanities. Politics, economics, history. He studies in the college study centre in free periods and they tell me he is studying. His notes look comprehensive so I believe him, but the reading for one thing this weekend was 3 academic journal articles. Then write the essay based on those. The subject DH teaches was understand one issue. DH says seeing the materials he understands why his university level economists have no idea what they are doing as the standard text book is confusing. He is working most of those free periods but done another 4 hours today so far. He took yesterday off but did a couple of hours every evening so 14 hours on top of working 9-5 all week. And not finished for tomorrow yet

@whereonthestair that seems a very heavy workload. My Y13 students also tell me that the work their teachers say will take 1 hour takes twice that time. However I think for that particular group, the 2 hours it takes will be also made up of scrolling, yapping with their friends in the ‘silent study’ area etc etc. Sounds like your son is more diligent than my little darlings though. Might be worth feeding back to the school?

That sounds really intense @whereonthestair

Is he doing STEM subjects?

Mine is doing humanities and manages to do most of her work during the study and free periods of the school day. A bit at weekends and after school but not much so far. I was wondering whether STEM get more homework while humanities, you're meant to be doing more reading. May be completely wrong though!

No EPQ yet here, they need to decide after half term whether or not they want to do one. I'm not sure whether it's better just to concentrate on getting strong grades in your 3 A levels. There's nothing obvious that DD would do it in.

We have started to record how much work is really being set as at the moment DS college says work that should take 2-3 hours is setting work that takes 6-7 hours so roughly setting 3 times the volume they say they set…. So we are on 30-40 hours of set work for 3 A levels plus 15 hours contact time, plus enrichment and an EPQ… which is more hours than I work as a lawyer. I mean DS is a diligent student but I am assuming this is not normal…? My DS teaches one of DS subjects at university and thinks the time the teachers are suggesting things should take is about a third of the time he thinks the same work should take…I fear it’s going to be a long and miserable 2 years

@Ursulla42 congrats to dd fir ger job.
@Stowickthevast great news about the 4.
Congrats to any otgers getting upgraded.

DD has just had some results back for first tests, seems school was checking students where ok to continue with Alevels. Thankfully so far all ok.

@Littletreefrog a high % of emergency A&E medical staff are adhd. And paramedics. We are brilliant in a crisis. We thrive on it. Constant dopamine hit

Without doubt it’ll be one in three of the student body. A huge number of students label themselves ‘neurodiverse’ now, with and without a diagnosis