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

Yes, ds will be doing AQA and most people I know of their dc do AQA.

Dd's scholol switched to Edexel as they felt the syllabus and style of questions was more user friendly and gave more options for the free writing.

DS's school changed from AQA to Edexcel in the sciences and maths when the new syllabuses came in, one of the reasons cited was that AQA were known for their curve ball questions.

Biology, maths and psychology AQA
Geography OCR. Had a bit of a meltdown yesterday as everything a bit of a shock to dgd new faces, new way of teaching, new way of organising herself but all OK now and gaining in confidence.

Blubelle - ds's school have just switched to OCR maths and science for the same reason. They experiemented with mocks and re-sits and although the content was the same the the style of questions for OCR was more straightforward and students doing maths re-site did way better than they had in previous years with AQA.

I’m with comrade Terf There should be a single board for all.

As long as its not AQA

Comrades CherryBurn and Terf - that's exactly what Tory Michael Gove was trying to do when he put through the reforms.

From the Guardian in 2011:
rian Lightman, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, which represents many secondary school headteachers, said Gove's insistence on a single, untiered final examination to cover all pupils – from those with learning difficulties to potential Oxbridge candidates – presented an immense challenge.

"Simply making exams harder does not guarantee higher standards nor mean that students will be prepared for a job," he said. "Harking back to a bygone era by replicating O-levels, which were designed for a very narrow cohort in a completely different economic context, is certainly not the way to a world-class education service"
www.theguardian.com/education/2013/jun/11/michael-gove-gcse-reforms

oops sorry .. wrong quote!

here it is:
www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/feb/07/michael-gove-gcse-replacement

I know!! I can't bear the man but he did make one sensible suggestion

I expect the chiefs of the exam boards are married/related to key figures in government...it's usually the way...or someone at the DfE is getting a massive back-hander of course!

Happy to be a comrade if it means all the kids have equality of opportunity!

DS has just been told that he will have tests next week in all 3 sciences and it will be on the GCSE material..........and he's recycled all his notes and books...........

Terf congrats on surviving your first day! You will get used to the NHS - but yes it is a strange beast - I have worked in it for 33 years.... ( ). It is one of the most complex organisations as a whole on earth and yet is run by many non-clinicians with lots of gov interference. Enough said - I'll get on my hobby horse otherwise!

TheThird sympathies - my ds is taking his G8 piano this term. However tough the enxt few months are I think it's best to get it our of the way before end of year exams and uni aplications. We can cheer each other on.

Kilash blimey 33yrs is a loooong time! I doubt I'll last 33 months

DS home after first day of lessons. His maths lessons are in the Humanities building because the maths building isn't big enough: there are TWENTY SIX y12 maths classes!!!! (About 20-25 in each) And then about 28-30 y13 classes.

He has an algebra test next lesson. He got history homework but did it all at school during his 3 study periods today. They're starting the syllabus with Communism! Appropriate considering our conversation on here earlier. He's also joined the politics society - they meet at lunchtime and eat lunches in a classroom while discussing politics. He'll be Mr Unpopular if he mentions he supports Brexit...,

Good summary of the NHS Kilash agree entirely (I lasted about 20 years !). Surprised at the supervised private study - doesn't that go against the 'sixths forms different and more responsibility etc'. Though may be good to get the DC into a good routine at the start. DS had to 'earn' unsupervised free periods in year 10 and 11 via high effort grades but year 12 they are all unsupervised and taken where they want.

He now has to 'supervise' year 9-11 prep time and bed time :) Can't se that ending well !!

BlueBelle he’ll probably find that most of the material comes back to him but if there’s anything he’s hazy about there’s loads of science revision stuff online.

Terf I'm still reeling from the £60 charge for a calculator. I hope they're only charging cost price or that will be 800 lots of profit the sixth form is making down here.

£60 for a calculator? Which one is it? DS was told he had to have a Casio fx-991 Classwiz, which is £24 in Ryman’s at the mo. He’s not doing FM though so maybe something Classwizzier is required for that

Kilash how is the piano prep going?

DS2's clarinet:
Pieces: three pieces underway, none are close to performance-ready.
Scales & arpeggios: some are fine, some are very dodgy indeed.
Sight reading: he should be OK.
Aural: he occasionally practises on the app.

He had some positive news today in that he got 96% in the readiness-for-Maths-A-level test.

DS2 (Maths & FM) has been told to hold off on buying a calculator as the GCSE one will be fine for this term and the Maths department will be buying them in bulk at a discount.

I think it will be the Casio FX-991. Not sure if that's the Classwhizziest model. 😆

The 'supervised' study is only in so far as there is a member of staff present in order to deter silliness or loud conversations and, in these early weeks, to help wobbly Y12s who can't work out how to use the IT etc. DS said that in fact they don't have to swipe in and out of study periods and can do them in one of a number of places. So not too draconian!

I also spent most of my L6th in the library because my homework and test results were too poor to be deemed responsible enough to do private study (in boarding school)!

Excellent maths test result TheThird

Yes brilliant maths test result! unless of course the marks were out of 10 I think he's ready for A level maths!

TheThird- its ok ish...1 of 3 pieces is performance ready, 2nd is being polished but a Prelude and Fugue is hard going! Scales are coming along ok, sight reading is variable and aural is..dodgy! He's actually quite good but just can't bring himself to sing. He took a string G8 about 18 months ago and told the examiner he was not going to sing when it came to singing the lower part and insisted on playing it back instead. I don't think that's an option for piano as the examiner will be at the piano.

Well done on the test! Ds had a very whizzy calculator in Y10 as he took his Maths AS then, he managed to break it so I've had to fork out for a second.

Kilash DS2 is not a fan of singing in aural tests either, which is weird as he sings in the school choir.

Just asked DS he says the fx991 too. It's actually £21.99 at Ryman's right now! It's the preferred one because it does statistical calculations
Huh. I did maths with stats A level and never had a calculator to help me ...grumble grumble