Year 12 - 2025/2026: Here we go again!

[QueenMabby]

A new thread for the new school and college year. A friendly thread for parents of those going into year 12 in September 2025.

Oh no, what an extra stress you both don’t need! Hope it can get sorted (and that you don’t have to pay again for that)

@achangeofnameisasgoodasarest- poor dd1! I hope she gets the politics sorted and gets the result she deserves.

Received a very nice email this morning, dd’s maths paper was reviewed and she got an extra mark which changes her grade from a 5 to a 6 so we’re all delighted. It was so quick as well as only sent in on Friday! Presumably not many maths papers are sent in, compared to English etc as not often upgraded. Now waiting for her German and geography papers to be checked by the teachers.

@achangeofnameisasgoodasarest - how frustrating and upsetting. Hope it gets sorted soon.

That's great news @Dagnabit - she must be thrilled!

Yes, frustrating indeed. Poor kid. Never mind, at least she did spot it in the end

Happy DD2 as chemistry went up to a 7 after review.
not such good news for DD1 with no change in her marks for either paper review. Missed first choice uni but is busy planning an exciting year off and going to second choice in 26.

First ‘proper’ day at 6th form college today. After 2 short visits to do registration and induction. She was up early and on the bus by 7.10 as it’s quite a distance from home going into Manchester City centre. Her first lesson is Politics which was at 9am. Her timetable was finalised on Sat and apparently all her teachers for Spanish, History and Politics are female which she seems happy about. History is a fairly boy heavy group and she has noticed quite a few Spanish names in the Spanish class. Fingers crossed she takes it all in her stride and has a good first week!

Great news @Dagnabit and @Soundofshuna on the grades going up, though sorry DD1’s didn’t change. Interesting the maths was so fast, I guess as well as maybe less going in, probably also faster to review?

I’m hoping DS’s history will get submitted for review today after the teacher let us know which paper, still waiting to hear their thoughts on biology and chemistry.

Thank you - she is chuffed to bits.

Good job your dd noticed it; imagine if she looked at it in a few months time and realised. I hope the school is suitably apologetic and cover the cost of this review.

They've sent it off now, didn't ask for any money. We'll see...

Thank you @Eccle80 - yeah, it must be a lot easier to check marks for right/wrong answers even with the added marks for workings out than say, English, where there could be lots of interpretations that could warrant a mark. Makes you think how things like English can be marked fairly in the first place! I certainly don’t envy their job…

Will keep everything crossed - what a roller coaster for her.

So there are kids out there who did not get into first choice uni, did not get into the Sixth Form of their choice or did not get on the A level courses they wanted, because their papers were wrongly marked in the first place. What a mess! Hopefully those who go up grades who are in the schools where they have been told they cannot do eg A level Chemistry or History, will be allowed on the courses if they get the grades after remark? Or will it all be subject to timetabling at that point?

Which chemistry board etc went up. Still waiting to hear from DDs science teachers about any sort of review on her combined science papers. We just want to find one mark..

edexcel GCSE- she needed 2 marks. Went up. 1 on paper 2 so submitted paper 1 and went up a further 2 so 3 in total! Teacher felt it was fairly math but that he might have been a bit more generous on some long questions so we gave it a go! We were lucky that they were happy for her to do A level anyway but was (obviously) better for her to get her 7!

Sorry fairly marked

Sorry you did say. One of her paper 1 questions is clearly right and marked wrong. Another, first question - Experiment with Cl2 gas. It’s poisonous. What safety steps should she take. She wrote wearing goggles. Marked wrong. But I’m wondering if the mark scheme was only going for ventilation. Which is why I would love the teacher to make a comment 😩😩

And I think we’ve now lost the time advantage of going through more than one paper.

A friend of DS missed his science grade by one mark to study psychology. He's getting it reviewed but he's already been told the class is full.
It would be so much better if the school would make a judgement based on expected grades in those cases rather than the rigid "one mark off a 6 is too much".
The amount of grades changing on review seems really high if mumsnet is anything to go by. I dislike the GCSE system anyway but as a minimum, the grades should be fair and correct.

Ours each came back in 2 days so probably ok to do 1 paper at a time

I have had two English papers back unchanged - one lit yr11 DS and the other lang for yr10 DS . I think perhaps we just hear about the few where something changed not the many where it doesn’t . DS1 - his teacher did think the paper we put in was under marked - but no change . He has a 5 in English Lit but I’m assuming that the requirement for a 6 for a few Universities is Language rather than Literature .

First proper day for DS today-he got there and back on the bus and train no problem.
He has already said Spanish is going to be a challenge. I had worried about this-he got a 6 and realistically he is with people who have Spanish parents or who got 8/9. They can’t swap for 2 weeks but I have said he needs to have a positive mindset about it , he has literally had one lesson and had done no work for 3 months.
I guess he will need to see what he could swap to -there are no clear options for him that he fancies.

Interesting to hear people's experiences of remarks/ reviews - my dd was told on results day by her geography teacher that her paper was being put in for review as one mark off the next grade, and I think they all had to sign a piece of paper to agree to any remarks. Not heard anything since, but it appears school have just put in remarks for anyone who is one or two marks off a grade boundary, even if they have not been told - on Friday 2 people received letters in school to say they had gone up grades in English, one of whom went from a 6 to an 8 in lit and did not even realise the review had been requested!

So now my dd is refusing to check progress with the exams officer or teacher, saying they just have to wait and she has heard it takes a few weeks.... whereas on here people seem to be getting them back in a couple of days. And she has told me not to email and embarrass her!

It doesn't make too much difference I guess as was not needed to move on with her current plan, it is just annoying! (Appears to be annoying me more than her). Also seems quite different to what other schools are doing.

I very much agree with your last comment – yes the grades should be fair and correct and there have been some shocking errors or changes that I have read about this summer.

I do wonder if it is related to a lack of markers in some subjects and perhaps some exam markers being less experienced or not well enough trained. It’s very poorly paid if you work it out to an hourly rate.

I also agree that schools should use discretion wrt grades. My DCs' school did – it required a 6 for most A levels but I certainly know students who were accepted with a grade 5 and reasons for it (or knowledge of the student for example).

It does seem a bit ridiculous for a school to say “you’re not good enough to take this subject” and then when there is an extra mark on the paper due to a marking error, suddenly the exact same student is! I mean they are not any better at biology or French or whatever. Sigh. Rigid thinking in these matters does no one any favours.

I would stress to him that being in a class with mother-tongue speakers who got high grades can only be a good thing. A levels are not a competition – look at it as a great extra resource for him of peers who can tell him the right word for xyz or give him some super up-to-date idioms to use or interesting views on Spanish political issues (possibly! depending how well informed they are!).

I would say tho that a 6 is a low grade for MFL A level (it's my subject). Was the 6 unexpected – as in was he predicted a higher grade? Was there a reason it was lower? Did he have a mare in the exam, or just not do very much work?

My DS2 got a 6 in Spanish and would not have been a suitable candidate (not that he wanted to be!) for A level IMHO (having seen what he knew) without a lot of work (which tbf he never did for GCSE as his main focus was on other subjects).

It's a shame your DS has not done any Spanish since GCSEs – was he set no bridging work? Could he have a real blitz on whatever areas of weakness he is aware of over the next week and see what he thinks?

To all of you pursuing remarks, were you not worried about grades going down??? We just can't risk the 8 going down to a 7.