GCSE'S 2019 Done, Results Received, Moving on to 6th Form and College

[ArthurtheCatsHumanSlave]

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/secondary/3671029-gcse-2019-support-thread-6

New Thread for all our DC's moving on to 6th Form and College to do ALevels and BTEC's, and anything else exciting and new.

He's really pleased, thank you x

Oh sorry to hear that arthurscat - I agree with Fos viewpoint...

I messaged DD with exquisite timing today just as she went into her politics lesson with breaking news on the supreme court judgement. Turns out she didn't see the message until after the lesson so all a bit of a waste!

arewedone - I went to the fishmongers today to buy mackerel for dinner tonight (with a Harissa paste) and loads of prawns to make tom yum soup tomorrow - I shall obliterate this runny nose through the power of spice*!

*Not the drug "Spice" just to clarify

@myrtle sounds delicious, can almost smell it! Im ashamedly less creative and popping night nurse tablets. Seems to be going around atm!

Popping night nurse here too!! 💊

Thanks everyone - and YES I agree, and have been telling DD that. She was fine by last night.

Chicken broth, the cure all in our family, along with hot water bottles. Colds, flu, stomach aches, severed limbs (!), basically all cured with chicken broth and a hot water bottle .

I'm quite scared now, I made the mistake of reading a thread from last year where someone was a mark off the next grade up but on review their marks went down by 10 marks so they dropped a grade!

I am beginning to think that the school has forgotten us but maybe ds is better off with his guaranteed 5 than potentially dropping to a 4!

Berlinbabylon and Hooo

I think the issue is that we can only go on what we are advised to do. I wasn't going to remark any, but then the teachers all started lining up and suggesting we did. It's in their interest to get the grades up, obviously. But on reflection, we just went with the two that DD is doing for ALevel, and that both those teachers said was worth a shot. In hindsight, perhaps I could have put my foot down, for DD we were talking about an 8 to a 9, so for me unimportant, but for her a big deal as she didn't get any 9's. It's always a risk, and one of ours was a possible down to a 7, which would not have been a good outcome. I think the grade boundaries for some subjects are so slim now, that this has created a remark culture, as pretty much everyone will be within a few marks of the next grade up. I am not sure what the solution is....... perhaps go back to where we were with letters, and way back to my day, when you didn't even get your marks, just the grade. Simpler times .

@berlinbabylon at Dds school no one has come back with a grade drop. Few have stayed the same. One was a 14 mark uplift in English which is astonishing.

Ds1s school are still waiting on one or two papers...

14 marks!!??

That's...so shocking!

Aqa English lit back, both papers remarked. No change. Was 1 mark away.

Oh that’s disappointing :(

That is disappointing. Yes, in my day you just got your letter grade and didn't know what mark you had received. But of course they didn't have moveable boundaries either - if you got 70%, you got an A, and so on. I suppose the odd remark did happen if someone was predicted an A and got an E, but I don't remember it happening, so I think it must have been quite rare.

DS' school approached us about his science as he was 3 marks off an 8 and I suppose over 6 papers you could pick up those marks but it would have risked £225 (on top of the £75 for the Eng lang) and as he isn't doing science A levels and 7 is solid, we didn't bother.

I don’t know if anyone remembers my ds had his Biology paper reviewed as he was 2 marks of an A in June’s paper but got a C in Y10 for the other paper which brought his overall grade down to C, his mark stayed the same and he’s done almost 3 weeks in the Biology A level class and has now been told he can’t continue, not because he can’t do the work but because he got a C he was 2 marks off! He’s now been put in a medical science BTEC class, he’s still doing A level chemistry, PE and Welsh Bac. He’s at a collaboration Sixth form taught over 4 schools and all the other schools accept C grades but he can’t swap due to timetable constraints. It seems so unfair that you’re part of a collaboration Sixth form yet get to be selective in the grades you accept. I’m worried that come Uni choices he will be disadvantaged by not having Biology A level.

Rugby It seems really rotten to let him start a course and then change their mind once he’s done 3 weeks
Was it an igcse? I don’t understand why he did some of it in year 10? If the 2 marks of a C was for a paper in year 10, then surely they should have had the C paper remarked in year 10?

@Rugbylife - that sounds so ridiculous! Hard to believe a school could be so pedantic. Could he resit that Year 10 paper at the end of this year - Or even resit both!) and then do Biology A level next year - taking three years over his A Levels? There is funding for three years, I believe (could he even, dare I say it "audit" the Biology A level class). If he wants to have all his A levels in one sitting, then could he defer doing the Chemistry and PE until the year after as well. Not ideal, and it would cost to keep him at home an extra year (plus travel and the rest - although if he was taking it easy maybe he could get a job) but I wonder if that wouldn't be a better solultion than pushing ahead with subjects he doesn't want, when he is clearly eminently capable of the subject he does want!

WJEC GCSE’s and his school always sit one of the science papers a year early, he did triple higher paper in all and got C in each one in Y10, he was offered to resit them at the end of Y11 but he was adamant he didn’t want to as they were passes, plus he didn’t want to add 3 more exams onto his 20 plus exams at end of Y11. He has now realised that was a mistake! He got an A in chemistry in June paper which brought his overall grade to B. He’s sticking with everything at the moment, I’m just really annoyed at how it’s been handled, why let him start and then change their mind, it’s not just him they did it to, there were about 4 boy’s that all got C’s they all came from different schools to the one that was running the chemistry class.

If he took it in Y10 he's obviously not going to have done as well as he would have done in Y11. They're not using much common sense are they?

And for two marks? Even less common sense. Are they really going to bar him from the biology class? I'd be inclined to carry on going. They should not be cutting off his uni choices without good reason and this isn't a good reason.

He was in his Biology lesson when I had the phone call from his school telling me the decision, he later told me the teacher said you shouldn’t be here, you can go back to your own school. His school has put in a complaint against the other school but they’ve not responded yet. My ds has said he won’t go back there now anyway! So he’s going to stick with medical science instead.

That seems very odd rugby

Hi all 😊
A few weeks in for A’levels. Hope all is well.
Got Dd’s Review back yesterday for her Chemistry (AQA paper 1) she needed 1 mark to go up a grade ( from 7 to 8 ) the review found 3 marks. So she’s very happy as now all her GCSE’s are the same grade & I have already been refunded the fee - win win !
Dd is such a happy bunny compared to yesterday- she has dropped her maths A’level today. She had a meeting with her head of 6th form last week & today.
She’s still doing chemistry, biology & history . The amount of time maths took ( her away from the others) was really getting her down.
Best decision I feel - I have a changed, happier child overnight.
Going back to GCSE reviews/ remarks. I was chatting to the exams officer ( about my refund ) today. Out of 152 GCSE & A’level remarks only 22 have gone up this year. ( I also work in the school).

onaroll
Sounds like a sensible move to me.
Dd doing same A levels and still doing the maths atm. I would like her to drop one as I feel it’s too much (and you don’t need 4 anyway) .She’s adamant that she likes them all despite moaning constantly so I have to tread carefully and hope she makes the decision herself soon. We had a chat about the possibility the other day.

6th form evening rather pointless tbh.

Nothing there that wasn't on the website.

Reliable source at dc's school told a few of us that the biggest increase in a GCSE student's mark this year (as a result of a re-mark request) has been 20 marks so far !

20 marks is huge surely.

It looks like the school knew what they were doing when they put in so many re-mark requests. Mostly they have resulted in a few marks being found which in quite a few cases has been enough to lift the student's overall grade.

@Rugbylife even if he keeps going with the BTEC medical science for this year - might it not be smart to resit the Year 10 biology paper this coming May, in case he then wants to switch to (or pick up) Biology the following year?