Results Day 2017

[Groovee]

Eek it's only 18 days away!

Dd is convinced Nat5 maths will be another C. She's not too stressed about the highers results.

How's everyone else feeling about it?

If he was to go to Uni, then it would be History/Politics/Modern Studies type of thing which he does enjoy and did well in. hence them saying they'd be happy for him to do Geography Higher. I could see him teaching or maybe lecturing in a particular expertise that he enjoys. For that he would need Nat 5 maths....

Wax, he sounds so like DS1, except with more academic potential. DS1's Eyeore like demeanor did not endear him to teachers and he would never ask for help until it was too late!
I don't have much to add apart from my experience of the danger of choosing something that they are not wildly keen on because it will do and my other advice is learning how to drive as soon as possible, I put this off because I thought it would be a horrible combo of expense and stress and possibly challenging for DS1 due to his concentration/organisation issues. However, DS1 is doing quite well with a carefully chosen instructor and it boosts his general confidence and self esteem, gets him out of the house and should improve his job prospects no end.
He should definitely keep going with Nat5 Maths, DS1 has found not having it cuts down his choices a lot.

Dd felt that Nat5 Maths clicked better this year. But in the exam she fell to pieces. Her getting a B was a huge shock!

Thanks wiggly peas in a pod indeed! He only turned 16 this week so another year before driving. Though given his view of a risky manoever someone made today I'm not looking forward to that! He didn't se anything wrong with someone overtaking me and a bus (that I was waiting behind) on a blind corner on a level crossing. Aparently it was fine and nothing happened so I had no business deciding the guy was an arse!

We've had a bit of a chat and he agrees that he needs to engage more with people and things and I've given him a list of things to do, like check to see if a friend would like to go to the cinema with him. See what he needs to do for DofE instead of just waiting for someone to tell him, look up what he would need to teach or look into travel and tourism as being a tour guide covering the Byzantine empire is something he thinks he might enjoy.

He says he's worried as he doesn't even feel motivated to play his computer games. I told him that he may have simply grown out of them as many people do at his age. He just needs to find other things to connect with people about. DS1 spends a lot of time gaming but he does it online with his friends, keeps his room better and does his school work/studies. Not quite the same as spending 23 hours a day in your room and not engaging with anyone. We'll see how it goes.

School gave him the option to do the Nat 5 class for 5th and 6th years or if it helped his timetable he could do Maths with the current 4th years. He wasn't keen and tbh it made no difference in his timetable choices so he's stuck with the 5/6th year class.

I just hope they give them a decent teacher. He'd be more than delighted with a B!

If Dd had to resit this year the. We would have had her and Ds in the same class. D's was delighted with her B and bounced on to her bed to congratulate her! But she genuinely felt it was a bad paper. She needed a B for uni!

Well done to her Groovee. I also didn't realise that it mattered what grade they got in the Nat 5s so that's a bit of a blow too :(

Hers is for teaching so she needed the B to even get considered. Doesn't help that Moray House have more or less done away with their teaching course and want to offer just the post grad. She back to heart set on Stirling x

Ah I've just given him hope that a teaching life might be for him but at the moment a b in maths seems unsurmountable :(

Was just saying that if he wanted to teach Modern Studies or History, the fact that he was doing the Geography would be a good fit as the Social science teachers often have to teach all 3 for S1-3.

I'm actually sending DS1 for CBT, starting soon, his natural shyness/hermit tendencies have tipped over into social phobia/anxiety.

Back to the maths: DS2 started off in the remedial class in S1/2, he improved slowly but surely but there was still humming and hawing about whether to let him have a go at Nat 5 in S4, he wanted it over with so went for it, we did employ a tutor, a sixth year maths whizz son of a friend of mine, he was cheap so we could use him for much longer than otherwise. He got a D in the prelim but managed a B in the actual exam. He is a grafter though.
I am getting a bit over-invested here, I just have so much empathy for teen boys who struggle.

Have you though about getting his Vitamin D levels tested? if he's inside all the time it could have got low enough to make him feel lacklustre and low. I'm a firm believer in taking Vitamin D supplements, my boys are redheads and have to slap on factor 50 when they occasionally venture out into strong sunshine so I reckon they need it...

I paid a fortune in S4 for a tutor in maths and asked for support in her confidence. He was useless. They just didn't click but we were desperate. I did search out a tutor that I had met for S5 but she never got back to me 😢.

She's thinking about crashing business instead of RMPE as this year none of her friends got above a C.

DS1 loves history/mods and is thinking of teaching eventually. He's not ready for uni - still too quiet and lacking in confidence although S6 did wonders in terms of him growing up. He's off to do an HND in social sciences for 2 years and can go into 3rd year at uni after if he wants to. He still doesn't have N5 maths but just got A's for H Adv English and History. However he got his unconditional back in Feb, he needed 2 Highers at C or above and one had to be English. I think taking the pressure off his S6 results has given him great results, if you see what I mean...

Thanks all, he shouldn't be deficient wiggly he has a great tan having been two weeks in menorca and also he is getting his bloods done every couple of months since he is on roaccutane at the moment. He does go out for an hour a day and has a decent diet.

He was described at primary as being a mathemagician. he got a bronze award at that national maths thing in S1. he shouldn't be struggling. He just keeps saying it's a waste of time, he'll never use maths etc. I tried to explain that it's about demonstrating to employers etc that you can problem solve and have numeracy skills and that can apply to any job. It's unlikely that most jobs he'd be interested in will ask him to calculate the degree of an angle etc. he grudgingly agreed.

DS1 started to tutor him after the prelims but it was too little too late I think.

He just doesn't seem to want to help himself. I wonder sometimes if he is dyspraxic. He certainly seems to tick a lot of the boxes and DS1 is borderline aspergers. However, when DS2 was a small boy he did have very good co-ordination (rode a bike at age 3, could talk before he could sit up) so is there such a thing as late onset dyspraxia?!

I'll stop chucking ideas at you, I'm sure everyone on here has thought of just about everything you can possibly think of to help their children, some young people just take the long way round no matter what you do, I've had three years to get used to the idea and it doesn't stress me out half as much as it used to.

Thanks wiggly all the ideas and suggestions are very welcome, you just don't know when you might have missed something obvious :)

At least we all care and are trying to do our best. Teenagers are the hardest part of parenting I think.

My neighbours daughter has a dyspraxia DX, it mainly seems to affect her planning and organising, and executive function issues, she is very bright but under-performed in exams, her mother managed to negotiate a reduced offer for uni entrance due to her school not making sufficient accommodations for her in exams. She is actually in the youth GB squad for a sport that involves very high standards of hand eye co-ordination but can't keep her room tidy and loses track of assignments and dates. I think she was diagnosed at about 14/15. So yes, you can have dyspraxia and not be un-cordinated across the board and you can be diagnosed late (i think DS1 may have it too).

Thanks wiggly - that's exactly what he is like, he can't seem to organise himself or his stuff at all. It takes him half a day just to pick up a few clothes and put them in a drawer and seems shocked that I can completely gut and clean his room in around an hour.

He was missing deadlines for things at school and he is legendary for losing things up to and including the laces from his shoes!

I'm thinking we may need to ask if he can be assessed. The school just doesn't seem to deal with this stuff well at all. DS1 has been supposed to be getting help for social anxiety issues since primary.
Many promises made but nothing has actually happened! However as he is bright and well behaved he gets shunted to the bottom of the pile while they deal with the squeaky wheels.

I'll keep you informed of how DS1 gets on with his CBT for social anxiety...
It is definitely trickier to get help for children without official diagnoses but even then DS2's help only really kicked into gear when he nearly lost his arm, school was much better with a bona fide physical issues.
DS2 was sent on social skills group training run by speech therapy when he was in primary, it was all very obvious common sense stuff and he was top of the class easily but had no effect on his social life at all, ironically years later he ended up friends with boy who had also been sent on the course but whose mother had declared it a waste of time and withdrawn him after the first session! I don't think your DS1 missed much to be honest.
My neighbour's dyspraxic child was assessed privately (it was a local well known independent school that failed to help her!). I don't know how long the wait for educational psychology is these days, I think the budget is a lot smaller than it used to be, 10/15 years ago there was a lot more on offer, even educational occupational therapists running movement classes (DS1 got sent on those!)

That would be good wiggly i'd be very interested to hear how your DS gets on :)

They've let him run with 2 free columns on his 6th year timetable on the basis that they will use the spare time to do some things with him such as interview practice and hopefully some short work experience sessions with local places since although his WE week went well from the point of view of the work he did, they found it very painful trying to get him to talk/integrate with the people there. Given that they were a very laid back place full of friendly folk, it's a concern.

However, the support person who talked to us about this has moved on and passed him on to someone else. This is a situation that has repeated itself all through school. Someone finally clicks that he has a problem (not for want of me telling them) decides on a strategy and then fecks off. I know it's not their fault that they leave, but it just feels like deja vu every time and in the meantime nothing happens :(

Dd2 is dyslexic and has some of the traits you mention wax re being disorganised etc.
Have you hooked up with the Developing Young Workforce group in Forth Valley? They should be able to help him with placements. PM me if you like...I can also help with this but dont want to out myself.

Ructions in the household

Ds has just texted to say he was 2 marks off an A for his Physics - but more importantly (and annoyingly) he only got 10 for his assignment despite his teacher having "shadow marked" it at 19/20

Dh is all set to match into the school and have the physics teacher's guts for garters

To be fair on the school, they will put it in for a re-mark as it was within 2 marks of an A.

Still waiting on feedback on the other two Bs (English and Chemistry).

Another week before we are back at school PB so no idea how far DS1 was off. Hopefully within a couple of points for at least one of them I thought they weren't supposed to "mark" the assignments though, is that not what Mearns Castle are splashed all over the news for?

Thanks demented for some reason your post didn't seem to be highlighted to me

That's great info thank you and I'll look into it. I think the lines of who potentially has what are being blurred between my two DC now. I think I need to arrange to speak with both of their support teachers asap once school is back in. Oh the joys!

Oh, also meant to say that surely if the assignment was marked so low there might be more scope for extra points or don't they remark the assignments?

DD not back until next week either. Does anyone know if they will only submit for a remark if the grade differs from their prelim result? Also, am I right in thinking they only have until next Thursday to request it?

They better have longer than next Thursday as ours only go back on Tuesday and we don't have the scores yet!

I shouldn't think the prelim results will necessary matter as they aren't taken into account for the remark. That's not to say that the school might say that they feel the mark is in the right ball park of what was expected and not pay for a remark but they should be basing that on more than just the prelim. i.e. how the pupil has done in other class tests/course work etc.

DS1 did not study for the prelims, absolutely nothing, and as such the marks for those in no way reflect his ability. Teachers have commented that on his report.