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.

Dd not sure if she picked right A levels.
Doing History, Biology and Psychology and Maths. Maths is one year only AS.
Grades biology 6, history 8, maths 7 at GCse. She is regretting not doing Chemistry (grade 6).
She wants to drop history.
Advice please ! Gosh bring an A level mum is so stressful.
She is doing well with history but enjoying biology and getting good grades.

What are your schools doing about giving out GCSE certificates? Where we are, most schools go to 16, so the students have moved on to 6th form colleges etc. In previous years, ds ex-school has organised an evening presentation at a local venue. DS didn't want to go which didn't surprise me as there were kids there he doesn't want to see again - he chose a different 6th form college to most for this reason. But yesterday we had an email saying the presentation has been cancelled due to lack of uptake. They are now going to ask the students to come into school late one afternoon in December and offer refreshments instead.

I can't help feeling bad for the school that this year there wasn't much interest. (I also hope, with school budgets being what they are, that they didn't lose much money on the venue).

It was different for me because I was at an 11-18 school so they just gave them out in an assembly and those who had prizes were invited to the evening prize-giving. But we were invited back to a presentation for A level certificates.

I'm going to ask tomorrow..no info yet.

Pp: I'd suggest contacting pastoral care

having dc has gcse presentation evening coming up fairly soon at old school ( also 11-16) . As far as I know , it’s going ahead

cora I would suggest meeting up with sixth form leaders. No AS levels here but could your Dd continue with the maths to A level and drop the History?

DS2 still at 11-18 school, they have a joint GCSE and A level presentation evening in the Cathedral. Usually 2 sessions. It's timed so most of the Y13 leavers are back from uni +if applicable).

DS2 has attended since Y7 as he plays/sings in the school music groups.

DD didn't want to collect her A level certificates last year, they had until October this year to collect them from school. She emailed school to give DH permission to collect them

We received the certificates by mail, school doesn’t do awards ceremonies until leavers after 6th form. Rather sad really given the results are incredible!

Ds can collect certificates in person from 2nd December

Our school the children collected their certificates from the office on Monday.
Jonathanripples thank you for your reply.
Dd has sorted it out herself. She met with head of year, and as you adviced she will continue and do A level maths and drop History. She has added the extended essay option too.

@cora1942, dd also thinking of dropping history as she is doing maths, chemistry, psychology and history as well as an EPQ. We had a chat with HOY today as dd diagnosed with epilepsy late last April and has a recent setback with seizures restating but she has been complaining that she can't remember things and it takes her longer to get things in history source question. Recent 6th form tests show slow processing and a drop in verbal skills from y10.

so she will continue with maths, chemistry and psychology with EPQ. has to wait for parents evening to drop it

cora glad it’s sorted.

eatthe why does she have to wait til parents evening? Seems daft to waste time having to attend lessons when you know that you are dropping it and you could be using those periods to study for your other subjects.

Has anyone had any actual feedback to how their dc’s are doing so far? Dc seems to think it’s going well and says that all the subjects make sense which I’m taking as a good sign . We have a single KS5 target on an online portal. I Have no idea what it means though as it looked like a gcse score to me
Have first report coming up soon maybe that will make more sense

We have also been told that we can pick up the GCSE certificates from DS's old school after Tuesday.
In terms of feedback, we had an interim indcation about a month and a bit ago - called a "Progress Check". It just gave a letter grade starting with O for outstanding (which apparently almost nobody got and indicated A to A* standard), V, for Very Good (A to B standard), G for Good (B to C standard), I/M for inconsistent/modest and C for Concern. DS got VG for maths and G for Biology and Chemistry. Seemed a bit disappointing, although at the parents evening for new sixth formers they seemed to suggest that it was fine, and that we should only worry if they were talking Cs for concern. He has now had a round of assessments this week, with one more to come on Monday (Biology). the Maths went really well, despite him messing one one 8 marker. The Chemistry not so well, he was disappointed with a mark of 65%

Can't get over being in a school where they do a test one day, and they get it back marked the next. In DS's old school you could easily wait a month!

We got DS2s report last week, ready for parents evening this week. Same format as lower school really. Target grade, current expected grade and attitude to learning score. DS2 had outstanding ATL so has got off to a good start!

Crikey, I posted on here so much in exam season and then didn't update with results once they came in...what a whirlwind time that was.

DD doing chemistry biology and physics and EPQ so extremely challenging. I swing from wishing she'd taken an "easier" 3rd subject to thinking "she's got this". She wants to do medicine so had to choose wisely.

Her predictions are AAA but that is based on GCSEs and the first assessment. She doesn't think she can manage the A in physics but it's still early days.

Awards ceremony in december where she will pick up her certificates.

Hi everyone
It’s all gone a bit quiet on here.

Hope everyone’s Dc enjoying college courses/ apprenticeships/ 6th form subjects now that we’ve nearly done a full term

Dc is very tired but on the whole seems to have had a good term. I’m hoping that not too much homework is set over Xmas so that they can just do self study instead.

Hi everyone. Name changed.

DD has had report and parents evening. Parents evening really good, all really pleased, struggling a bit with Biology which she got a 7 for at GCSE, and she is only doing for AS. Head of Biology has said she can drop it next year if she is continuing to find it challenging. His advice is if aren't guaranteed an A, don't bother (private schools!).

On a down side DD has been really ill for 6 weeks. Started to feel down, and then tired, then started to pass out frequently. She then literally collapsed and spent two weeks in bed. School were great, and supported her really well in keeping her up to date with work, but no homework required. Long story short, she has had loads of blood tests and scans, but nothing has shown up. Probably some sort of post viral syndrome, or post Glandular Fever, is the best guess. Poor old DD. She then got slightly better, and now has gone down with a cold..... I hate winter :-(

Hope your dd feels better very soon. DS has had 2 days off college this term for illness which is the same as his whole time at secondary school. And I've had to take him to the doctors and I actually can't remember when he last had to go, it must have been before he was 7! He is at a sixth form college so maybe it's just lots of new bugs coming together.

Happy New Year Ladies:)))
Looking forward to supporting and being supportive this year ! Can’t believe how far we have come from this time last year!

Arewedone Happy New Year to you too .

Happy new year Arewedone
Hope everyone has a good 2020

Happy new year all!
Namechanger here (was Hooo)
Ds1 doing well. Parents evening good.
He has gone to 2 uni open days and another next week.
Hope all dc are coping and enjoyed a nice xmas break

Happy New Year! Another name changer here.

Ds1 doing well but I don't understand the system so it is frustrating. He is predicted A*/A in all A levels, his report said all okay not needed for a parents' evening, they only want you in if your child is a cause for concern.

Then Ds texted me from school saying are we free on parents' evening as one of his teachers wants to see us. Turns out that doing the expected homework, the additional study stuff to prepare for each lesson and completing all work in class isn't enough but that is more than a lot of children do. Basically the teacher said he doesn't show me his commitment in class. Which basically comes down to the fact that he is introvert and doesn't put his hand up enough. Grrrr. I have been having this argument for years. From primary school throughout secondary school.

He then started waffling on and I realise he doesn't know my child at all. So I told him a few things including that he was introvert. He was really surprised, so even though my son completes the work in class, shows he understands it, because he doesn't put his hand up to show the rest of the class he understands it then he is seen as not giving it his all. I don't think they realise how hard it is for him just to go to sixth form. 95% of his class are strangers to him. He hates large groups.

I think a lot of people who aren't introverts think that it means shy, it doesn't and I believe that this teacher thinks that too which is why he was surprised. I am an introvert but a lot of people wouldn't know that. I need time alone to recharge, I get overwhelmed in big groups.

Luckily in his sixth form there is a quiet study area where you can't talk so Ds1 can go there in his free periods just to get some quiet time when he needs a break.

Anyone else got an introvert?

stinkyeddie - Ooooh, have the open days started up again...... must look at the lists. We have only managed one so far.

Yes.
He's done 2 already and has 1 on Saturday and 2 more in the summer

Anyone know where to stay in Exeter close to the uni? I see that their open days are end of May, which is also half term. Great for convenience, but hell for driving, and assume hotels will get booked up. We will therefore probably go down by train, and look to stay for one night. Anyone know the area well??