GCSE '18s (20) - half term beckons!

[mmmz]

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/further_education/3355907-gcse-18s-19-new-beginnings

So dd now in floods of tears and says she wants to quit (grits teeth)

Oh sorry to hear that Limits

sticker DS read your comment about the 2020 cohort and rolled his eyes How could anyone know better than him?! I thought it was interesting and something to consider.

We have a meet-the-tutor tonight, DS not included. He specifically instructed me not to embarrass him! You'd have thought he'd be immune by now...

Sorry limit to hear of the anguish, fingers crossed you can find a sympathetic person at school to discuss it with?

I'm having dinner on my own in town having dashed from work in vile traffic to meet DS at Apple store to exchange a faulty thing (they needed an over-18 present!). He's gone home for dinner leaving me to a beer and burger and MN

Beer and Burger and half an hours peace doesn’t sound bad at all Terf. I’m home alone as DH away again and it’s a funny mix of missing the DC and worrying about how theiyre doing and yet enjoying having the horse to myself

Horse !! No - house. I do not want a horse to myself (or to share for that matter)

Thanks for the new thread mmmz, page 3 already!!

LimitIsUp is it due to the biology test, or was that the last straw?

Stickerrocks I agree with your prediction regarding 2020, the last few years they keep on saying that there is unprecedented choice for the DC after results and DD and friends certainly got onto courses with a number of dropped grades.

DS was asked today if he would give his permission for all his GCSE science papers to be used for the current year 11's as a learning exercise......if they all fail it will be down to him then

Thanks for the new thread, mmmz, glad to hear your DS is doing well.

limit hopefully just a bad day?

DS3 has thrown himself into sixth form life, at least at school. He's helping and performing in house music next week, has joined orchestra as well. He's missing his old friends a bit from his secondary school but is hanging out with people from his old primary school in sixth form. So happy enough and not regrets that he's told me about as yet.

His school is one of the odd ones still doing AS levels and 4 A levels in Y12 as standard, dropping to 3 as standard in Y13. He can drop any of the four, they're doing FM and maths in parallel rather than maths in Y12 and FM in Y13. Basically they haven't changed their system since the decoupling. Not sure of the logic, but there are pros and cons. At least they get a 'proper' taster of the 4th subject and a qualification for it. They also do an EPQ as standard so not many free lessons!

Thanks - I think the biology test may have been a catalyst but perhaps she has had underlying doubts and this has just crystallised them. I have emailed a lady in study support (she has met her before) to ask if dd can meet with her asap to talk things through. Dd does escalate things and get them out of proportion so it may blow over....

Hopped into this thread out of interest because my third daughter is doing A levels this year . Predicted 3 A*s and heading for a top London Uni.
I am shocked at the level of involvement some parents have !
My advice is to step back a bit and let them get on with it. Unless your child had SEN or anxiety issues and /or is at a failing school, the teachers will know what they're doing.
My eldest two daughters are graduates from RGs and are doing well too.
It's their life, future, degree.
Get on with your own lives !

???!!!!!????

Ophelia did you mean to be so rude?

Is it safe to post has she hopped off

I am sure that we all feel very grateful for Ophelia's pearls of wisdom

Ooh thanks Ophelia, very kind of you to give us your time. A lot of us also have older DC though, so don’t worry on our account.

Anyway...Limit I feel your pain.

I’ve found over the years that the big adjustments needed for DS’s dyslexia (like extra time in end of year or public exams) is the easy part once a DX is made. It’s the day to day adjustments that individual teachers seem unable or unwilling to make.

I do understand that sometimes it’s impossible to allow for eg extra time in class tests if that means the lesson will overrun, but often there’s no allowance made for this when reporting marks. So DS’s report would say things like ‘DS has contributed well in class and appears to understand this topic very well, but his recent end of topic test was disappointing’ and DS would say that he hadn’t been able to finish it but had got pretty much full marks in what he had done.

Recently he asked one of his maths teachers if she could give him notice of the topics they would be covering in advance so that he could read ahead a bit and wasn’t hearing new concepts for the first time in lessons. But apparently this wasn’t really possible...

I think you were right to email study support. Doing badly (and having to read out your low score in class ) can really batter their self esteem.

Ha ha Ophelia, very funny. Great MN bingo, predicted 3 x A and a top* London uni, no less! And other DDs at Russell Group unis, well I never. And all done without you having to bother your pretty head about any of it. DFOD.

I've touched a nerve or two.
We show an interest , of course, but not onvolved to the extreme as some on this thread .
Try backing off , unless they actually ask for your input (as stated in the exception of SEN) and see what happens.
It's their life .

Ellen

Get thee to a nunnery....

Anyway, back to business as usual. As far as the beer & burger goes, I was gutted that DD managed to catch an early train tonight as that utterly ruined my Costa break. I hope someone will think I'm enigmatic & writing a novel or something interesting rather than preparing notes on Reporting Financial Derivatives.

Thanks for the new thread @mmmz - I can't believe how quickly it's moved on!

I do love the way posters like @Ophelialovescats pop onto these threads to share how successful their DC are with minimal support. All well and dandy but it takes all sorts and wouldn't it just be better to leave others to parent on their own way without being arsey?

DS1 still doing well and showing my no desire to drop an A Level. He got his first history essay back and got a B+ ! Not sure if that's good but he was pleased so I'm pleased.

Like @KingscoteStaff 's DS rugby season is now in full flow do Saturdays are busy and he's volunteering at Oxfam on Sundays (D of E). So pretty busy! No let up at half term though as he's off to Japan on a STEM trip and going the chemistry taster day at KCL.

He seems really happy at the moment - let no may it last!

@Stickerrocks - I like your humour 😉

I suppose you left it all for the private tutors to do eh Ophelia

Sandy, how are they going to cope at uni without all the parental involvement /control .
Or rather , how are you going to cope with you reduced role in your child's life !

Back from the Y12 information evening.

The talk from the Head of Y12 was pretty much the same as it was two years ago (same HoY as DS1 had in sixth form).

The talk from the head of KS4 & KS5 didn't provide any new info that I didn't already know.

The headteacher started with the GCSEs results (60% of grades were 7-9, 19% of grades were a 9), then went on to his learning mindset talk, which was exactly the same as when DS3 started Y7 in 2015, even down to the same slides. Luckily he is good public speaker, so I didn't die of boredom. He then did some new material I hadn't heard him do before, on Stephen Covey and using the important / urgent matrix for time management, and he finished with flipped learning and a quote from Goethe.

I came home and showed DS2 the important / urgent matrix as a tool to help with his time management. He sighed and said "Not this again!" - it turns out they've had the same talk at school.