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

you are right, there is no equality. DS is unlucky to have dysgraphia and lucky to be otherwise able.

I don't think giving bad advice though which happens to be the text book formulation absolves the teachers though. They would have had him do A level History and would never have said a word about the lack of wisdom of such a choice. In fact, it matched their criteria perfectly ("do A levels in subjects that interest you.." with no mention of weighing that against what you have a natural talent for). he even got as far as attending a taster session in it.
In the end, I sat down with DS and pointed out to him that each A level choice had pros and cons and a huge black mark against History was that he'd have his dysgraphia making everything more difficult. Luckily, he listened to me and he's taken a path that the dysgraphia won't as much of difference to, so i think it will make him happier in the long run because he has a fighting chance of doing well now.
But what about the DC whose parents don't have enough influence over them to take notice when their parent take a stand against the bad advice coming from the perceived experts?

Ha ha I started writing something along those lines but you have put it so much better ! Wow !

I

You are right - advice has been pretty shoddy in general. Mind you your comment about DC with parents who don't have any influence and kids that take no notice of advice made me chuckle a lot. It's my dyslexic DD who at the last moment swapped from Sciences (sensible choice) to History, English and Politics plus computer science (unusual choice hahahaha) she has already swapped Maths out and I expect she will drop CS after half term.....so all written subjects.

......I wonder why they didn't do these aptitude tests before? Then they could have swiftly combined them with the gcse results and it could have influenced the firm A Level choices on the first day back at school.
Surely it would have been more useful that way round. It's pointless knowing a term in that they would have had a better chance of success at different subjects!!!
As a student I would have preferred to know on day one that the probability of me getting an A at Maths is 25% if I do it with chemistry and physics but if I swapped physics for PE the probability goes up to 40% and my chemistry probability would also increase 5 points (note - these are totally made up numbers!) I appreciate that's 'gaming' but I reckon DD and I could have had fun for hours calculating the optimum grade/subject appeal combo.

I can't speak for other people's schools but at DS's when it came to choosing A Levels teachers only advised on their own particular subject and a pupils suitability ie can they meet the minimum entry requirements, for example DS's English teacher has no ideal what he was like at maths or science just English and advised on that basis only, do other schools do things differently?

Fantastic discussion from bpisok and whistl! Its what I love about Mumsnet sometimes and these threads all of the time. Could you link to some of teh websites that you got the info from? Facinating.

We have had no ALIS, no predictions to date. DS is at his same school with teachers who know him well (lucky in that sense) so it will be interesting to see first set of predictions or targets - which I suspect won't come out until after the first formal assessments in early Nov.

I guess we are all different but I would still choose the subjects I enjoyed the most over what would get me the best grades, eg I did maths A level because I loved it , was I good at it ........No! still don't regret doing it though, even though I would of got a better grade doing something else.

Well I'm hoping that English Language turns out to be the right choice for DD as the facilitating subjects list now clarifies that they only count Lit, whereas it had previously stated a generic English. On the bright side, our postcode technically puts her in a deprived area, so she has been invited to a Aim Higher type event. I have a feeling that given the affluence at the college they rubbed their hands together with glee when they spotted our postcode. I've reminded her to mention any Oxbridge aspirations, which may counter-act the AAA target grades.

bpisok, I am feeling that I may have put my foot in it! I don't know how severe your DD's dyslexia is. It may be very mild -spelling aside -and then the pull of subjects that engage her outweigh the downside of having to work that bit harder because of the dyslexia?

I agree about how much more useful these IQ tests would have been pre-finalising A level choices, rather than once the courses were underway. Is it that they come out of a further education budget and the year 11 budgets won't pay for them as it doesn't help them? So, sixth forms wait until they know who they'll be teaching before stumping up for the tests?

Sorry if this has been covered already, but how much have you spent on textbooks so far?

Chemistry:
£0 on textbooks (provided by school).
£25 on revision guides which cover both years.

Maths and Further Maths:
£60 on textbooks for Y12.
Calculator will cost £20ish.
Haven't yet been told cost of Y13 textbooks.

Physics:
£50 on textbooks which will cover both years.
£25 on revision guides which will cover both years.
£50 on extra textbook (optional but v.useful).

Nothing so far, not even a calculator. So far, I'm only out by the cost of the train pass.

German: £32 on four workbooks. We could also have spent another £60 or so on her own copies of various textbooks, but she can borrow these for the duration, as long as she doesn't write in them.

Physics: I need to buy a textbook but haven't got round to it yet .

Maths/FM: £19 on a new calculator. No textbooks yet.

The biggest expense has been £60 to cover subscription to Unifrog, travel to a universities fair next week and tea/coffee supplies for the common room.

Maths - £65 calculator (DD showed me the curves she can draw with it earlier) and £20 for a textbook.
English Language - £10 on resources for the year.
History - DBIL tutors & has given DD his copy of the necessary textbook.

£22 calculator
£20ish on a textbook
£500 on annual train ticket
£80 a month for lunch
Not to mention a lifetime of guilt over wrong decisions and poor judgement

Moving away from A levels I really need to share with someone (other than my DSs who don't understand) how amazing my new work place is! Five medical group practices who have merged to form one company with 45000 patients. 160 staff, of which only about 20 are male (GPs and a site mgr). EVERY SINGLE admin, HR, secretarial, IT, nursing and pharmaceutical person is female!!! We had a get together today, and met in our work groups. What a revelation it is when there isn't one male who wants to dominate the conversation. I have never been in a work environment like this so it's a really exciting thing for me And things get done! If a dept wants another staff member, they do an audit of current staff capability (like an old time & motion study) so they can justify employing someone else. That is how I got recruited, I discovered today. Not rocket science, just common sense.

Bloody hell if we (this thread) were running the DfE it would all look a lot different!

@whistl - genuinely absolutely no offence taken. It just made me laugh....She's very articulate and good with words and structured arguments- if anything her writing sounds a bit academic and pompous. Her grammar is OK. Spelling is appalling but she types so that helps. Reading is best on an electronic device so she can make the text big (so there aren't as many words jumping around) and all the textbooks have been available in digital format. She treats most humanities like a science anyway - she's very logical so applies logic and context to what she reads and can put together a balanced argument based on probabilities - she reads between the lines. She had already read all the books on the Lit course except some of the poetry (rather unusually for a dyslexic she has loved reading since her first kindle). Politics is simply fun - my side of the family regularly have heated political debates (when we aren't arguing about religion) so she has been forced to listen to all sides of the argument and was joining in at 5 (we aren't dysfunctional I promise). History she just sees a 'old politics'.

The sensible choice would have been science but she finds absolutely no passion in it (it's all a bit black and white). Doing humanities means she has the disadvantage of dyslexia to contend with but also a massive advantage due to her pre existing knowledge and the weird way her little mind works.....so it may not be a bad choice, just a brave and somewhat unusual choice.

But as you can imagine we had some rather long chats and rather than me talking her out of it, she talked me into it!

......and as to how much I have spent, sh*t loads!!! You have all forgotten the uniforms/school clothes that we had to buy too.

About £30 on deposits for text books so far and around £200 on uniform and shoes. I'm happy that his sixth form charges a deposit on books supplied to ensure they are returned after 2 years. In my work life in another school I have to issue text books and spend ages trying to get students to return them or pay for lost ones. A deposit is a great idea. I may suggest it.

No essay type subjects here. And after DS3's comparatively poor English GCSE results, that's been a good choice.

So pleased for you Terf. It sounds as though you're fitting in really well despite being "out of it" for so long.

So pleased terf. It’s great when people love their workplace

Don't mention calculators. I wish I hadn't bought a new one. DS is talking today to the music teacher about swapping maths for music! He has decided he prefers essay subjects.
Terf your new job sounds fascinating and a great environment!

@LooseAtTheSeams - at least he's doing early on.....and that he will be doing subjects he loves

@Terf2Terf - great news! Sound like you are one of the team already.

bpisok yes, I think it's better to decide now and make the switch. He seems to be enjoying all his other subjects at any rate and I know he'll enjoy music.

Terf that sounds great. The sheer scale of the service is amazing. So different to the 2 doctor practices from when I were a lass. I suppose it's the health equivalent to the huge sixth form colleges.

@Terf2Terf - really wish you worked at my Drs. There are 2 practices and about 8 ladies who work on reception/answer phones and all are all bloody terrifying.

Bpisok your description of family conversations around politics, religion, history etc sounds a lot like us (but the boys were more like 10 when they started joining in). DS1 used to ask to stay us to watch Question Time as a "treat" and both boys have got up at 4am ish to watch things like the referendum count and last year's GE. Both of them recognise most of the front benches on site and know the political interviewers and political editors. Both are really interested in History (apart from the life of the average woman stuff from the time before women had any real influence).
DS1 has lost all interest in politics though because he says he is so tired of hearing about Brexit!

Brexit aside, he has a keen interest in all these things, but studying them at A level and university would have stressed him out and ultimately made him unhappy, because the essays would have been too challenging for him. So, he'll do some thing STEM related instead and have these other things as hobbies. I think he'll be happier this way around.