I just went in to say hello to dd1 in her room and found her looking really glum - and when I asked her what was up, she just said school is all too hard and horrible and started crying, which is very unlike her.
Having generally done well enough without too much stress in the last 4 years, she's now finding the intensity of it all overwhelming. I think in retrospect, maybe she should have done some softer subjects, but she had no special aptitude for anything artsy or crafty, and is doing eBacc stuff straight down the line. Last year she was still doing ICT, but now that's finished the only thing she does that's not for an exam is RE and PE - but in PE they just seem to be marking time now and not, for example, doing cross country, which she's got better and better at every year and was really looking forward to trying her best in this year.
She says she doesn't even like the subjects she wants to do for A level any more, she is overwhelmed by the sense of fatalism about it all - ie., there's no turning back, GCSEs must happen, there is no way out.
She did get two test results today that she wasn't pleased with, and I tried to say that tests now are not about 'oh hurrah I got a good mark' and move on, but rather eliminating potential banana skins one by one so that you don't make that mistake in your exam.... which she agreed with, but it hasn't made for a very happy day.
Everything is apparently OK with boyfriend and friends, she may or may not be hormonal, but all the same I would very much like to hear whether anyone else's year 11 is unhappy at the moment, or what anyone has done in the past to help them through it all.