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

Oh my she's cute bpisok. Looks a bit like mine as a puppy. He's a furry energetic lump now that's gets me out and about, particularly when I'm working at home.

For those doing further maths how may are doing the ‘normal’ maths in a year and further maths in year 13 option ?

Sorry - how many

Not at Dad's school Oratory. Maths and FM are being taught in parallel, each for the full two years. Only three of them doing FM and they are great friends who will have a ball doing maths together for 4-5 hours each week!

Gah! DD, obviously. My dad is definitely not doing further maths.

Not at DD's school either - both taught alongside each other and taken at end of Y13. I know there was an issue for one school locally a couple of years ago, as a couple of med schools did not accept further maths, (because it is too similar to maths i suppose) and also insisted that the 3 a levels they did accept had to be sat at the same time, so a local school changed the way they taught the maths and fm so no pupil was disadvantaged by the very few med schools' rules. That said, i don't know if that is the case now, but am certain my info is correct for approx 3 years ago.

Same here, Maths and Further Maths being taught in parallel.

D's loving his new timetable, one day he has double Maths, double Physics, double Further Maths! That would kill me!

There are still quite a few who don't start until Monday. Our annual term-time only season ticket for the train (3 stops in 25 minutes) is £920. The bus is around £600, but the timing is completely inflexible and DD would have to be there at 6.55 each morning and not get home until 6pm. One of us would have to drive her to the bus stop, as there are far too many flashers lurking in the undergrowth en-route and these days you can't just point and giggle.

Loving the pup pics. Come back Sost, we need a Pup-date from you too.

Wow what a day Kalash 6 hours of maths/physics.

It’s a new thing at DS school Started with the change to Linear A levels and they feel the further maths is easier after you ve done the other maths - they used to be parallel. I hadn’t thought about the issue of uni s who want all papers taken at once - unlikely to be an issue for ds but could be for some. I know some do it this way but not sure what’s the norm. I think he ll probably drop it anyway when he gets into lessons proper and the play and band rehearsals etc kick in - in which case nothing lost as apparently he can just switch in to to the two year normal maths class. So no harm in giving it a try I guess while he works out how he s going to find sixth form in general.

DS2's sixth form used to teach Maths & Further Maths in parallel, taking both A-levels at the end of Y13.

Now that the courses are linear, he will be learning the Maths A-level syllabus in Y12 and the Further Maths syllabus in Y13, but will still take all the exams at the end of Y13.

Well done @Oratory1 and @terf2terf on your exercise - I too did a Pilates class today and can feel it now!

Got DD raw scores emailed over today - it appears that school have submitted four of her 10 subjects for review as they are within 3 marks of the next grade boundary - she did say that if nothing was heard by half term then the grades remain the same. The only on DD wants to move is the maths - to go from a 4 to a 5! The others are within 2 marks and don't affect her a level choices, so its just for her records if they do change.. We are assuming they wont. She did have good look at each paper score and see if it was how she remembered the papers, but its so long ago, she cant really recall it!

Interesting to look at the breakdowns.

@bpisok love the little pup - what have you called it and what type is it?

Induction day today but no time table yet - just talks about independent learning and how they can leave early if have free lessons !!

Daughter has had a good first day at college. 4 hours of each subject a week plus minimum 3 hours independent study - they have to swipe in and out of study zones and their personal tutor monitors progress. She's got another day of induction tomorrow and can't wait to get started with lessons on Friday.

DSs school teach maths and further maths in parallel with exams at end of year 13. But he has asked to do the A level at the end of year 12 - partly because somehow he just gets maths so quickly that he has already taught himself AS maths in year 11 lessons - he hasn't done normal lesson maths for a couple of years. They have agreed, so he will be going to year 13 maths classes and year 12 further maths. I don't know if it's a good idea, but his thought is that if he also needs to do STEP in year 13 it will be better if he is doing 3 A levelsnot 4.

She's a westiepoo called Lexy 😍

DDs school also do Maths in yr12 and FM in yr13. They are not allowed to do FM as a 3rd A Level only as a 4th.
I think some universities/courses don't accept FM as a 3rd A Level.

Welcome to Lexy! She is very cute, even for an ardent non-dog person like me I hope she will be less trouble than the teenagers...

Pilates was tough as ever but I did manage to do 5 mins of jogging (one min each of jog then walk for 10 mins). Now I'm too tired to undress, shower and go to bed!

Yay well done terf

bpisok sooo cute! Love the puppy photos!

Cute doggies! 🐶

DS's sixth form does maths and FM in parallel. All exams taken at the end of Y13. They all start with 4 subjects and usually drop one after Y12 so can drop FM and continue with maths if they want. They still take AS levels in Y12 so the dropped subject gets a qualification. Maths groups have a mix of FM/maths and maths only students.

His old school teaches maths in Y12 and FM in Y13 but only allows 3 A levels so you couldn't drop FM if you found it too hard or you'd be left with only 2 A levels. It means that they get a much smaller uptake of FM and that all maths and FM lessons have to be taken with the same group of students.

I preferred the first system, mainly because it allows FM to be the 4th subject and can be dropped if too hard and because it encouraged more students to take FM giving a healthier class size. My DS3 struggles with social skills so, for him, a class size of the same 3 for 2 subjects was too isolating. Only 3 applied to do FM. I can see the advantage in doing the maths syllabus first then FM if you are certain to continue both subjects though.

He has 9 x 1 hour lessons of each subject per fortnight so has a pretty full timetable with extra lessons for EPQ and careers/UCAS etc.

Dd's college still offer AS further maths. It's the only one they do still offer.

They are taught in parallel so she's planning to just do it for the first year to free up time in y13 to revise for her main 3.

Lexi is gorgeous!

That’s a thought the third - they said the maths is taught in year 1 but I didn’t check when the exam is taken - thinking about it probably at the end of the second year would make more sense, I’ll check.

And if he finds the pace too fast (will be in a small group with just further maths students) or its too much work with 8 hours a week he can switch to the single maths at any time. I think he quite likes the idea of a smaller group though (hopefully five or six) so sounds like a good plan.

bpisok what a cute little handful

DS's school teaches maths A level and FM as two seperate subjects over 2 years, he's not doing FM.

DS has 6x50min lessons per subject except one lesson will be without a teacher, clearly as a way to cut costs are any of your schools/colleges doing this?

Managed to get dd up yesterday in prep for starting sixth form (she likes her sleep) and to practice the school run. No joy today so I've left her to it.
I'm hoping that it's going to get easier tomorrow...

Well, in response to my enquiring text last night I got one word ‘grate’. I guess that’s a good thing !

Will have to resist the temptation to txt twice daily and bombard with a weeks worth of questions on Saturday.

DS has 14 x 40 minutes per subject over a fortnight timetable so equates to 9 hours 20 per subecjt (taking 4 ).

They also have 2 hours enrichment, 4 hours games lessons, and EPQ will be timetabled in after half term. Currently one Friday afternoon is entirely free so I suspect that is where EPQ may be slotted in.

He is happy with the history syllabus (so far) as the school does 2 different choices but it is pure luck which you get allocated to. They are also doing 2 in their Y100s and Y200s that haven't been done before at their school. (OCR History H505).