GCSE '18s (19) - New Beginnings?

[whistl]

Following on from the GCSE 2018 threads as our DC enter year 12.
This the first thread in our new home in further education

https://www.mumsnet.com/Talk?call=Preferences
^^This is the page where you set yourself up to receiving email notifications when someone @ tags you in a thread.
For reasons best known to Mumsnet, it is extremely inaccessible due to there being almost no internal links to it around the site.

Have we lost posters due to moving to FE? I have lost track because of the name changes.

bpisok I really like your dog!

I’ve definitely lost track of most of the name changes!

Was at a Sixth Form info evening at DS’s school last night and we were told that the DC are expected to do 3 hours/day or 21 hours/week of private study/homework . Seems like a lot, and rather more than the 5 hours/subject that’s usually the rule of thumb (most do 3 A Levels unless doing FM). Maybe it’s in response to the new harder A Levels...

BlueBelle glad your DS has come to a decision he’s happy with where remarks are concerned.

Actually, thinking about it, a lot of them also do an EPQ. So maybe the extra hours reflect that.

Dd managed to sign up for the enrichment she wanted - learning Japanese...eek.

Also finding out about her EPQ. Been told not to do an essay as she is already doing essay subjects...
Don't know much about epqs yet.

DS is supposed to do 2 hrs/night of homework, but there has been nothing like it so far.
To tell the truth, he's not feeling all that challenged yet. We have a meet the tutor event this week, and I'm tempted to say something as there are other sets, but DS thinks they are just making a slow start - which is probably true.

whistl I think the slow start thing is likely to be the explanation. DS certainly hasn’t hit full speed in his lessons yet.

I just got back from dropping dd at the station for day 2.

It went ok yesterday but she was exhausted last night. I think she needs to adjust to the early mornings and so do I

She's struggling with energy levels this week. She's due a b12 injection next week. She has them every 12 weeks and she really notices the last couple of weeks before it's due. Not great timing

DS1 has his first proper day of lessons today! It feels like a slow start for us but I've warned him they may hit the ground running with homework having waited this long to start lessons.
My goodness the pup is so sweet! Keep those photos coming!
Alexander My experience of teaching English is that it's most difficult for those aiming for 4/5 - it's not easy to gauge the difference between a 4 and a 3 - but I definitely think good spelling and grammar will get a student through.
With AQA the question format is always the same. I'd keep practising answering the question using any sample papers you can find and working out three main points you want to make for the shorter question. For each say why you think this - example - and then explain the effect of the example and why author has used it. It's deadly formulaic but if it becomes habit it should result in enough points. You can get examples created by teachers from TES online.
Also keep writing descriptions, however short, to build up the skills needed. It's ok to start with a small piece of writing and keep working on extending it - a plan is the best idea.

KickBishop I sympathise on the B12 injections - definitely not great timing.

Totally agree Loose DS cracked it when the penny dropped that he needed a formulaic approach to the exam. All the papers take the same format so rather than thinking what the ,answer, to this question he learnt that question 1 I take 10 minutes and write x,y,z question 2 I take 20 minutes and write x,y,z etc - it appealed to his mathsy logical brain. and you just have to add in words specific to the question in the exam. Practise helped (using plans if short on time) and we made up some papers when he ‘d done all those available.

I am really glad that DS doesn't have to do English any more. It's been incredibly hard work getting him through. He just can't do the reading between the lines bit. Everything was taken at face value, so discussing the authors motivations was like getting blood out of a stone.
The school had him in the top set. I think it is because his SPAG was good.

Just goes to show how dc are so different. DS uses literally no punctuation and spells phonetically (made and egg sam timetable) but must have written some good stuff once he had got over his block. I just feel for those DC who don’t have parents, schools or siblings to help them squash their talents into a rigid exam format.

Kick that must be so tough for your DD.

DS is enjoying his lessons except for maths which he is finding way too slow, probably as FM is run at the same time as his maths lessons.......they tried to talk him into taking FM but he was having none of it, but its very early days and if it continues then he needs to say something, as his class now is far more spread in ability than it was in Yr11!!

Many will find more mixed ability at a level due to fewer doing each subject. Even when there is more than one set, the sets are often determined by option blocks, timetabling and the combination of other subjects rather than ability. I guess the huge colleges may have more scope here for differential sets with more doing each subject. DS is happy he only has about 8 or so in each class so should be differential teaching. Also he was worried there would only be a couple doing CS but that got 7 or 8 too. Perfect size

DS has the opposite problem bluebelle - because he was pursuaded into fm he s doing maths this year with the ‘natural mathematicians’ !! He ll give it a few weeks to see if he can keep up

DS2 wants to take Grade 8 clarinet this term (on top of his four A-level subjects). Quite a lot of preparation is required...

I agree Oratory at the moment they are all just settling in, hopefully it will resolve itself, his maths teacher is head of department so should be able to differentiate but DS doesn't like to draw attention to himself so if it continues I will be interested to see how he handles it

I'm going to try to create a spreadsheet to track the name changes, save it as a jpg and load it as a photo into Mumsnet mates to share with the regulars on this thread. (I've still to setup the mumsnet mates thing too).
If anyone wants to be excluded from the name change track and share, just drop me a PM to let me know.

The head of Maths is a friend of mine. He was telling me about the logistical challenges of planning the A-level Maths sets. The school will only allow the department to have six Y12 Maths classes, but more pupils got 7-9 this year. At one point, 180 had signed up for A-level Maths, which would have meant 30 in each class; too big for an A-level class. Thankfully the dust is settling and the classes are now a more manageable size, but they still might need to redistribute the pupils to adjust the ability distribution in each class.

The mumsnet mates link isn't working for me.

Bluebelle DS's secondary school had the mixed ability A level maths classes too. I think the reason was maths being chosen across several columns and the theory was that everyone who does maths A level is good at maths anyway.
IMO though, it doesn't work because maths is the one subject where you can't work at your own pace and what's right for the student, is too fast or too slow for everyone else by varying degrees, with some hopelessly struggling and others almost stalling because the speed is so slow.

The mumsnet mates link isn't working for me. me either. I copied the URL this morning though.

How about the preferences link?

Try this ...

My Mumsnet (top right hand quadrant of mobile page) > settings > mumsnet mates

At Ds's school you can do A level maths with a 6 so you can see how wide the ability can be especially as DS was told he got top in year. We have a meet the tutor coming up in a couple of weeks maybe if things don't improve I should just mention it, was really intending not to get involved at all with his A levels.........