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Secondary education

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

Original poster

Anyone else with year 11 dc who needs a rocket up their arse re gcse's?

31 replies

Millicano · 08/12/2011 20:13

My lovely boy is so laid back he would fall over. All subjects reports are saying that he is only working when absolutely forced to. Scraping through with the bare minimum work. All saying what a lovely chap he is. Hmm Followed by 'However......'

I have tried to explain that he will need B or above to do A levels in whichever subjects he chooses to study further.

Cue 'yeah I will be fine, don't worry'

BUT I AM WORRYING!!! i am beside myself with it all. He is fast running out of time.

Suggestions please.

OP posts:
SkivingAgain · 08/12/2011 20:23

Same here, marking my place! Xmas Confused

Original poster
Millicano · 08/12/2011 20:33

Oh thank god I am not alone in this.

Should we make them revise in the hols. Dreading the thought of even suggesting it actually.

I need tactics which won't cause rows. Looking for bribery, prizes, treats etc which will work. It may be expensive I know, but we have only got one chance and it needs to be whatever it takes Grin

OP posts:
SkivingAgain · 08/12/2011 21:15

I'm trying not to get too worked up about it, this is not their only chance and I abandoned school at 16 and now have a MSc. But I definitely wouldn't recommend that he take the same path through education I did!

DS has been to an engineering 'club' run by a training organisation and is considering an apprenticeship, which I think would be better for him. He can always return to academia later when he feels more motivated. Just need to keep calm and carry on Xmas Wink

scaryteacher · 08/12/2011 21:32

You are not alone - ds has mocks straight after Christmas hols - so have sent for all the revision guides etc from Amazon.

I have dangled driving lessons for A*s...and a laptop for sixth form.

I have also pointed out that he will not be able to coast when doing A levels, so he may as well get accustomed to this amount of work, as this is how it will be for the next 2.5 years, if he wants to get into a good uni.

cardibach · 09/12/2011 21:21

Nope. Lovely, talented, capable DD here, who has to be nagged about every second of revision.

SKYTVADDICT · 09/12/2011 21:31

DD had last day of mocks today. I am hung between hoping she did well to give her confidence and hoping she didn't do well to give her the rocket up the arse she needs as she hardly did any revising (or so it seems to me). Also had to fill in the 6th form application form before we get the results which might be interesting!

Theas18 · 09/12/2011 22:47

place marking... DS is pretty self driven and (so far) we have been "hands off" re nagging etc. We'll see what the mocks bring (they are this week and next causing him hell with clashes with school music stuff!).

He's not v happy at the moment- for a start the teacher couldn't find the english paper so they ran into most of lunch time, had 50 instead of 60 mins and straight to another paper via a quick sarnie! We will see....

He's both diligent and able, but doesn't seem to be able to "keep all the balls in the air" in the same way his sister did- for instance mid year last year he got a D in Chemistry, and then an A in the summer....but dropped something else down instead...without any logic to it.

I'm not allowed to get involved in anyway though (eg just mentioning what happened re the english)...Xmas Sad

MrsCobbit · 09/12/2011 22:53

marks place.........

bruffin · 09/12/2011 23:15

DS did his mocks last week and finally picked up a few books!
He will get his results last day of term!

cat64 · 09/12/2011 23:57

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cat64 · 09/12/2011 23:58

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petal2008 · 10/12/2011 14:28

It's a difficult one -drawing that fine line between encouraging and nagging. DS did mocks in November and did well with what I thought was minimum revision and cramming the night before. He failed one exam pretty miserably but apparently so did most of the class. Been assured by his teacher that this will not be repeated and he has done enough in his other modules to get at least a C which is good enough as it is not one of his strongest subjects.

Have drawn up a revision timetable which runs from today until the end of January when he has his final exam. He has just gone to his room to revise the two subjects timetabled for today so am hopeful this will work even if he doesn't stick to it 100%.

At the end of the day we cannot do it for them but it's a definite worry. Strange, I don't remember my mum or dad being overly involved with any of my exams or revision or that of my siblings. Mind you, they seemed to do most of their revision/homework on the bus on the way to school Shock Times have certainly changed.

goinggetstough · 10/12/2011 15:27

cat64 maybe you could mention to him that the actual exam might be a 'really tricky' paper too.

cat64 · 10/12/2011 16:04

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amerryscot · 10/12/2011 16:06

We are two years on from the OP. Also have a 'lovely chap but...'

He actually did fine in his GCSEs - clutch of A* - B. His ASs were more dubious.

However, a we had a parents' evening this week (the last one ever), and he has pulled the finger out and knows what he needs to do for his A2s (and seems reasonably committed). Because of his relatively poor AS performance, he is on second tier for university, but this should only have a small impact on his overall career choices.

I like to think that some children are late developers, and that you can lead a horse to water...

It has been a stressful few years with DS, but no amount of jumping up and down on my part has changed anything for him. He is just not wired the way I would like him to be - but he is a lovely chap.

Doilooklikeatourist · 10/12/2011 18:19

Been there done that too !
DS is now in what I would call lower 6 th ,

He coasted through GCSE year , all laid back and content , UNTIL about Easter , when he suddenly changed and got on with it. He's not a high flyer , and is at a basic secondary , but he got all B and C grades and is now all laid back and content in 6 th form .
Here we go again !
He needed 5 x C and above including English , Science and Maths ,To enter 6 th form , and managed that .

SecretSantaSquirrels · 11/12/2011 13:15

A mixture here. DS very able at Maths and Science and should sail A*s there. He wants to do Maths FM and Physics and Chemistry A levels and Astrophysics at Uni.
It's the English and other "boring subjects" that are the problem. He will sit revising Physics and doing practise AS level Maths when he needs to do some English.
It's hard to criticise because he works so hard but he will regret it if he doesn't get a string of good grades.
Mocks started last week and he has exams all day every day this week.

upatdawn · 11/12/2011 14:11

I've got a bit of both - twin DSs one of which is very driven academically, the other very driven sports wise and needs a kick to do any work! It's mocks after christmas though so they will be revising then (hopefully!) and if they don't do as well as they hope then fingers crossed they will work harder for the real things!
DS1 is 20 btw and when he was doing his he didn't do any work until he had to and got his grades and at uni now :)

Cybbo · 11/12/2011 14:17

I did a LONG thread on this a while back, hang on will link

Original poster
Millicano · 11/12/2011 18:44

thanks for the link cybbo,will take a read.

I think possibly it is a boy thing with the blardy english. In fact any subject which takes a good bit of writing. DS collapses at the starting line. Can,t get it down fast enough.

He seems much better with the maths and sciences etc. Mind you, there can.t be many boys who revel in poetry at 15 years old.

OP posts:
bruffin · 17/12/2011 11:36

DS has got his mocks back one or two a bit disappointing ie
Maths B should be A/A*
History C target A but that is another thread
Bilology and Physics A*
Chemistry B but he knows where he went wrong
RE A
English C and B target A

German C target A - he does struggle with german so he is actually pleased with the result
He does have dyslexic problems and for the first time he was given some extra time,

JellicleCat · 18/12/2011 20:41

This could have beeen me last year. Tried everything, nagging, reasonableness and finally bribery - only thing that motivated her. She was still VV laid back and as far as I could tell did little revision, but got good grades in the end.

I am pleased to say that one year one she is working a lot harder. I think maybe she grew up a bit, but also I made her look at the grades she will need for the course she wants to do at uni which was a bit of a wake-up call. So as long as you can get through this year, it may just get easier next year Xmas Smile

Original poster
Millicano · 19/12/2011 03:21

Well, we are entering the second week of the holidays and so far no sign of a book!!

Appparently, he has a plan.....after a good relaxing christmas, he assures me he will get cracking in the final week of the hols before he goes back for the mocks

Watch this space

OP posts:
bruffin · 20/12/2011 12:29

We had a letter this morming and they made a mistakes and his history should have been A

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