NAT5 support thread

[dementedpixie]

I've just been looking at the exam timetable for Nat5s this year (dd is sitting hers this year) and it is not actually that long until they start. Dds first exam is 3rd May and she has 2 maths papers to sit. If only she could be encouraged to do some revision!

She did well in her prelims so hopefully will do well in the actual exams.

I'm dreading them - the prelims were really stressful and not sure how well DD is coping with revision. Getting support for the subjects she finds toughest and just hoping we get through ok. Finally settled on course choices for next year which was also tricky.

Ds is sitting Highers this year. It was when we were making the next orthodontist appointment today I realised how quickly they would be here.

We have a cluster of exams then several weeks before the last one which is also her best subject. Hopefully go ok for everyone!

How many are your kids sitting? Dd has 7. She also had an options firm out today for choosing highers. Seems a bit soon. There are 5 columns in that but there's a mix of highers, Nat5s, foundation apprenticeships and college course

DD4 (how did I get here again?) sitting 7 with a possible 8 as school trialling Applications of Maths for C grade candidates.

DD3 has the shortest memory in history ((which I told her would happen) and despite her freak outs last year is telling DD4 that as the Higher candidate she gets dibs on laptop. She is dyslexic sitting essay heavy Highers.

As a teacher it's quite enlightening how many assumptions we make about access to tech that pupils have. We all have smartphones DD4 has an (old) iPad, we have ancient glitchy laptop and average laptop. So many of their resources are shared in Glow and Google Classroom which means they both need average laptop at the time .

It's Folio mayhem for me at work as I am a (decrepit) experienced English teacher so have lots of exam classes and their stress induced argument last night was not my finest moment. I didn't take a hammer to laptop as threatened . Just.

Isn't enough gin in the world sometimes .

Ds chose his S6 options at the start of February. Timetabling and fitting in can often take time. Last year he had to change a choice as it didn't fit. So they do need time to re chose should that happen.

Just been on a MN thread on gcse contingency day tagged onto the end of the exam timetable.

Some posters are saying it is in case the queen dies. Others that it was brought in because of Grenfell.

I've looked online but can anyone tell me of there's something similar in Scotland? I am taking a holiday in late May between Nat5 ending and school restarting on June 3rd.

Nothing that I can find on SQA website mentions contingency day.

Here's a link to the timetable.

timetable

Never heard of a contingency day.

Never heard of it either

Here's the GCSE discussion thread

link

Doesn't exist in Scotland. Remember in England pupils can be sitting 11 or more GCSEs with more than one examining body suppose they might need to build contingency.

This is my first time with a child doing Nat 5s. DS has his first exam on 30th April - next month as I keep reminding him.

His "problem" is that he is very academically able and did well in his prelims with very little study. I think it's given him a false sense of security. He really needs to concentrate on English and get a really solid pass as he's not going to take it on for Higher. He's doing 7 in total.

Silence your DS might benefit from some wee frights at Nat 5 so that he can do well in Higher when it really counts. Progression routes to Higher (in one year) is generally B pass at Nat 5. It's the Higher results that will determine where he goes next.

Most pupils find there's a big jump in complexity from Nat 5 to Higher and if he doesn't get straight A's he might go into S5 with a better work ethic.

How is his English Folio and History assignment looking? He may have a good amount of marks in the bag so be happy to rest on his laurels.

History assignment is done and dusted, he's very happy with it. Haven't heard anything about an English folio.... he is totally rubbish at communicating and I usually only get that sort of info through other mothers I bump into in the supermarket. I shall definitely be asking him tomorrow.

When I meant about the solid pass - he is unusual in that he doesn't want to do English at Higher. Nearly everyone at his school does. However, he's looked into the degrees he wants to do and none require a H pass in English. But getting a pass at Nat 5 is a requirement for uni and lots of other things too. Another complicating factor is that he's doing digital papers (I think it was you Lidl who gave me great advice when his French prelim digital paper got "lost".)

Not as unusual as as it used to be to not to take Higher English in S5 particularly if course he's after doesn't demand it Sillene . Pretty sure one of the regulars around these parts Wax has a DC who didn't either.

Anecdotally some of the tutoring clients I've had over the years have had deals with their DPs an A at Nat5 English and they didn't need to do Higher . Well played those DPs!

Let's say his teachers have shared predicted grades (crazy talk) which some do, he may well, as befits a bright lad, have worked out exactly what he needs to get across the various papers to achieve the grades he wants. He will exert precisely the effort required to meet this

My DS2 didn't do H English. Did another social science instead. He's regretting it now as he finishing up 2nd year of a science degree at Glasgow and thinking about teaching. He's probably going to do the Aberdeen uni online course.

Clerk that course pops up on my social media it's a brilliant idea.

My DD1 who "couldn't understand why a graduate would go into teaching, did I not know that £36000 is not a great salary " as she embarked on her degree thinking there would be a plethora of employers begging to offer her a lucrative wage 4 years ago.

Cut to present day and she's so excited to start her Secondary PGDE and thinks being in the classroom is just amazing.

Thankfully she had Higher English and Maths by coincidence as she had no intention of being a teacher when she was at school.

Yes, my DS didn't do Higher English, he got an A at Nat 5 though. He's similarly coasted through. he didn't need Higher English for anything he intended to do and hasn't taken any "wordy" type subjects at Higher. He's just about to finish his first year at Uni with about 90% average (or more) in his class tests so reckons he has no first year exams to do. He's definitely not incapable of Higher English or beyond, just struggles with anxiety and selective mutism so he needed a break from anything that required him to talk in public. We all reckoned the chance of him going into teaching was minimal...

Well done to your DS Wax ! That's an impressive start to uni for him. Sounds like he chose well.

Looks like my DD4s "chill subject " PE could be the one that pulls her down . She was a club swimmer , gymnastic natural athlete and has full marks for practical element but is essentially self teaching written aspect of the course . Have came to the conclusion that the PE teachers in their school are rubbish at the theory side. She might end up with a C like DD3 who had similar practical scores.

We have sat with BBCbitesize and every resource we can find from other schools' websites trying to work on her write up.

I genuinely think that their school haven't a clue about the written element. She is an English subject prize winner (that's my girl) and has a confidant command of language she just has not been given the theory to apply it to.

Any PE teachers or DPs of pupils whose PE departments can actually deliver the theory side out there?

Thanks lidl I think his lowest score so far is 87% for a test that some students have appealed since quite a lot got less than 10%! He says so far it's no harder than the AH. However, I don't think he has spoken to another soul the whole year, I'd rather he got lower scores and spent more time socialising.

His "chill subject" at Nat5 was Art. His only C ever and he should have done a lot better. They chose the topic of self portraits though which was not ideal for a cripplingly shy only boy in a class of girls with really really bad acne who couldn't really face looking at himself.

I hope your daughter gets some help with her PE stuff. Isn't the theory quite a small %age of the total score?

Okay lidl I've looked at the 2018 mean scores and grade boundaries for PE. Not sure if we are talking Nat 5 or Higher so I've done both.

At Nat 5 there are 60 marks available for the Portfolio side and Performance side. Mean marks were 31.4 for the Portfolio and 53.6 for the Performance. The boundaries were (our out of 120 available marks) 87 for an A, 75 for a B and 63 for a C.

At Higher it's 40 marks for theory and 60 for performance. Mean scores were 15.2 and 53.5. Out of 100 you needed 77 for an A, 67 for B and 57 for a C.

My DSs school managed to deliver the theory for national 5 PE but were terrible at Higher. Wasn't unusual for kids with As in H English and Human Biology who played sport at regional/Scottish evel to scrape a C. I'd buy a revision book and avoid the higher like plague.

Used to be Wax but changed last year . We worked out that DD3 (A for Nat 5 English) must have had single figures for her Factors Impacting on Performance write up to end up a C. And it was looked over before submission . Though both DD3 and 4 both say unless you are boy who plays football you are invisible to the PE teachers at their school.

I have tried to defend them despite the memory of DD1 being entered to a swimming gala as a boy. They clearly didn't think a girl could swim that fast . She doesn't have an androgynous name and the meet organisers emailed to ask if they were sure that "girly name" was a boy. They said yes.

Oh dear :(

Neither of mine have had any success at PE. DS1 was bullied by the "sporty" kids at primary though he was actually not that bad and was a really good swimmer, he never made it into the swimming club as his stroke wasn't strong enough in every stroke even though his crawl was definitely good enough. Anyway, long story short is that as they were the only school without a pool and he wasn't already in a club then school weren't interested. DS2 wasn't into sport either but now that he's found to have hyper-mobile joints and probably dyspraxic, that's probably not a surprise.

As you say they need to be playing football or already successful at whatever it is outside of school for anyone to be the least bit interested.