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Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

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Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

Secondary education

how much revision is your Y11 doing?

124 replies

princessparty · 25/04/2011 11:41

..and when do they begin study leave?

OP posts:

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NotaMopsa · 02/05/2011 21:35

I did the bribery thing with ds1
I think we offered £50 A* £25 A and nothing for B's or below.

He did so well we had to re think on the day! We know one boy whose parents removed money for B's or below!

DD might respond well to this - thing i may suggest it. Something has to work .....and very very soon!

WhatsWrongWithYou · 02/05/2011 21:49

Think we'll have to hatch a bribery plot as well - like the sound of nothing for Bs! Or maybe promise him an iPhone if he does exceptionally well.

NotaMopsa · 02/05/2011 22:08

what'swrongwithyou tee hee - we offered ds1 an iphone if he got an offer from cambridge - he did !!

maighdlin · 02/05/2011 22:56

read this thread out of interest as DD is not even 2 yet, but need some motivation for uni revision, its just been so sunny and nice.

I'm an intelligent person but did absolutely fuck all for my GCSEs. Got 3 As 2Bs 2Cs and 2Ds. Was in the top stream at grammar school, but was a horribly depressed teenager. Went back and did one year of sixth year (that still does not make sense to me, why is sixth year two years??) but left as i really couldn't have gave a shite. fast forward to now and I realised that i fucked up. I hated it when my friends from school went to uni without me. So i started do the OU and then last year started my law degree and am doing really well because I learnt the hard lesson that you need to do work to get anywhere. It depresses me sometimes that I'm older than everyone else in my class esp when we had a tutor who was a qualified barrister doing a PHD and only 3 years older than me, but then i think because i learnt my lesson and work hard i will get a good degree instead of pissing the three years and the money down the toilet.

I have sympathy for 16 year olds. Its just so much pressure. Its bad enough being 16 with all the joys that go with it, without the added stress of doing exams that will be the basis for your adult life.

forehead · 02/05/2011 22:57

I don't think two hours a day is enough for students taking GCSE exams. A GCSE student should be studying for 4-6 hours a day.
My dd is 9 and studied for 1 and a half hours most days.

Maryz · 02/05/2011 23:02

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

NotaMopsa · 02/05/2011 23:09

i suppose it depends if they are naturally bright

i am a pushy very focused parent academically and my 8 year old bounces on the trampoline for one and a half hours a day and bog all else!

Yellowstone · 02/05/2011 23:15

maighdlin well done you, really. I managed to go right off the rails at GCSE too. DD1 and DD2 both have friends at uni (yes, Oxford, please don't have a go) who just can't get down to work and are risking their degree in one case and their place there in another. I've huge respect for you. I still can't concentrate: show me a blue sky and I'm off!

(Complete hypocrite of course, giving DC5 homilies about the need to work and how his life will be if he falls short of what he can do. Oh well. I know the theory, just not the practice..).

NotaMopsa teehee: no spare cash here at all to offer bribes but DD1, 2 and 3 all with places/ offer (please don't have a go).

duchesse · 02/05/2011 23:16

She was doing 30-35 hours a week over Easter. Currently more like 2 hours /day after school, but study leave starts 11th May and she'll go back to holiday timetable. Is vying with her big brother (about to do A2) over who can do most revision which is keeping both as keen as mustard (more him than her, she is naturally motivated).

duchesse · 02/05/2011 23:21

Longest day for both of them was a massive 8.5 hours. They are nuts motivated. As others have said, I provide the right sort of food, they mostly do the rest. I thank fuck my lucky stars that DD1 is revising this year or we would struggle to get DS to do anything. He did nothing for his GCSEs (maybe 2 hours/day for the last couple of weeks) and still got 2 As, 5 As, 2 Bs and a C. Unfortunately this gave him the misguided impression that he could do same for AS exams- disaster ensued and he has been turned down by Bristol on the strength of his As results. Better they work for GCSE I feel. DD is hoping and aiming for 10 A or A. I hope she manages it. She deserves it.

NotaMopsa · 02/05/2011 23:21

yellowstone - well done your dds! the irony with mine is that ds was motivated enough not to need the bribes dd however.....

Yellowstone · 02/05/2011 23:22

forehead I don't understand. How can a 9 year old need to do one and a half hours homework a day?

Am I being stupid (very possible)?

None of mine at that age have done anything except kick around.

Yellowstone · 02/05/2011 23:32

duchesse that's really interesting. I do get asked quite a lot why I think mine have done well (so far) and they're pretty bright and their school (state grammar) is fab. But I do think now (since I'm not pushy) that there's a competitive dynamic going on (lots of siblings close together all at the same co-ed school). I definitely don't encourage it and have never had and never would encourage it but I think it's just naturally there. Good luck to your two!

Not a Mopsa in the absence of hard cash, threats of boredom and destitution will have to do!

TheSecondComing · 02/05/2011 23:42

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

NotaMopsa · 02/05/2011 23:45

yellowstone - we do have three of them at neighbouring schools ( state grammar - single sex though)
The boys DEFINITELY compete but in a jokey easy way - it does help though as ds2 is desparate to outperform ds1 who has done very well!

DD though is more 'put off' by ds1 achievements - taking the line - she will never match him. She is just as bright but much less motivated...

forehead · 02/05/2011 23:45

Yellowhead, during the holidays my dd studies. I work full time and and therefore use holidays to ensure that my dc's are not struggling.

forehead · 02/05/2011 23:45

Sorry Yellowstone

NotaMopsa · 02/05/2011 23:48

sorry desperate

Yellowstone · 03/05/2011 00:24

forehead I'm tempted to get your name horribly wrong, as I so easily could :)

senua · 03/05/2011 08:18

DS started the holidays revising well, but went downhill. Now he has gone back to school I need to rachet up the nagging again. Am I the only one to reward effort rather than achievement? DS has a festival ticket waiting if I think that he has done enough revising.

gingeroots · 03/05/2011 09:01

senua - how will you know that they've actually spent that time alone with books /laptop revising rather than pretending ?

melikalikimaka · 03/05/2011 09:09

My DS is in denial, he hasn't really got 9 GSCEs coming up! He would rather be on facebook or hang around town. But it is his life, no amount of nagging will get him upstairs to revise. He has a girlfriend too, which doesn't help, you can imagine what else is on his mind!!

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hennipenni · 03/05/2011 09:22

DD1 does 3 -4 hours aday (not sure how much is revising and how much is reading/watching t.v or day dreaming). She has however lost her exam timetable but knows her first exam is music. She hasn't got a clue when she goes on study leave.

All this aside she has done really well so far with the exams she has passed, she's very commited and passionate about what she wants to do at college (has already been accepted on the course of her choice as she has the entry requirement exams).

She attends a "failing" school that is threatened with closure (we find out next month what is happening with it). I'm extremely proud of what she has acheived so far which was made harder by the fact that she was very ill with swine flu and pleurisy before christmas and missed a lot of school.

We don't reward as such for exam results but we had promised her a laptop for her college work.

WhatsWrongWithYou · 03/05/2011 09:27

This is the problem, isn't it? As Ginger said, they can spend all day in their rooms but you have no way of knowing how much time they're actually revising, or how much information is going in.
For all we know, they're staring at the books in utter incomprehension/boredom.

senua · 03/05/2011 09:45

Good point, ginger. He does sometimes go on to the internet to research (yeah, right) but mostly he is at the dining room table with pen and paper. When he goes on study leave and I am at work then I will have to trust him but you can always ask to see notes, practise papers etc. (are they practise papers or practice papers?)

I am trying to save him from himself motivate but am also being as hands-off as I dare. He is able but, at the moment, not terribly motivated. He is going on to do A Levels but I don't know what happens after that: no way am I going to encourage him to get into a huge amount of student debt, it has to come from his volition.

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