Year 11 GCSE Exam Support Thread

[Littleham]

Is anyone else fed up with GCSE's and the stress they create? Thought I would start a support thread for the following few months. Mocks start next week at my dd3's school.

Lynette ds's sixth form only want Bs for Economics, Maths, Physics, Chemistry, Biology and MFL's. Everything else is a C. It is a really good sixth form and, yes, the teachers are amazing and so dedicated, giving up so much of their time. I recommend you encourage your ds to apply to his sixth form as a sort of 'first choice' and keep the college as a fall back if he doesn't get high enough grades.

One thing I have told both my children is that this is what all those years of going to school is for. It's important not to flag at the final few crucial weeks. But they do need down time and fun time so I will be putting that on the timetable too

They will be excused from usual jobs around the house, for example and I will try to keep spirits up with little treats. Financial incentives might be more appealing to some?

We have applied to the 6th form at his school....I'm even considering paying him a higher allowance if he goes there, as he says he's fed up of the travelling (13 miles away, rather than 2 miles to the college). Thing is it won't occur to ds that he actually has to apply, fill out a form and everything

My DS1 stayed on at school 6th form luckily, as we rate it better than our college. Going to college would have involved a much lengthier commute so that also helped, although he just sort of assumed he'd stay at school so we didn't have to persuade him!

School 6th form require B in the subjects being studied at A level. Not sure about college.

DD didn't seriously consider anywhere else other than staying at her current school. She likes it, most of her friends will be staying, and it gets the best results in the county. Its requires 5 Bs, As in some though not all of the subjects to be taken, and at least a C in Eng. lang. The next best college hereabouts apparently has only 5 Cs requirement, less than some of the others.

auntpetunia "no one else's mum is making them do all this!!" - well, actually that's true. Some of us aren't actually having to make our kids revise! DD decided to postpone our coat-buying trip to Ambleside till easter (and TBH maybe even till June, so long as it's before the practice DofE) - so, having planned a day off DH, DDog and I went for a really nice walk. Then at about 4:15 DD announced that she needed a break as nothing was going in any more ("not even electronics"), amazingly enough she took little persuasion to get her to actually come outside (she never usually wants to walk locally) so DDog and I got another couple of kilometres.

DD is staying on at 6th form. I've no idea what grades she needs as they didn't tell her any when she applied, it's a selective 6th form though so she had to meet whatever the requirements are. The head already had her predicted grades, though she doesn't know what they are as the school don't tell them.

School don't tell them their predicted grades? I'd find that a bit weird if it were me!

On one hand I can see why they wouldn't tell them, (kind of a 'need to know' basis) on the other it'd annoy me if I didn't know!!

They have a target grade which they set themselves and they are told if they are on track for that but they don't know what the teachers think they will get. The main indicator that they get is from what set they are in.

That's interesting Epic, not heard of it being done like that before.

DD has had predicted grades since year 9 and each term they are shown the new predicted grades, so we can see over time whether she's slipping back, or doing better. She sees some as targets to beat and others as an indicator that she can pass without doing much more work.

I'm at all your dc staying on for 6th form. Our schools 6th form closed suddenly ( unsustainable numbers) and the college is just down the road. Dd has a place, but it's of questionable reputation, they are trying to improve it, and to be fair it is getting better.

We have also applied to a Selective academy, but are completely out of catchment so she will need top notch grades to get in.

The predicted grades thing is a bit of a two-edged sword, isn't it?
On the one hand, knowing them could lead to either complacency or underachieving if the prediction is low; on the other hand not knowing them may give rise to unrealistic expectations or underestimating their own ability.
On balance, I'm inclined to think it's better for the kids to know what the teachers think.

Ds gets a predicted grade which is what the teacher thinks he will achieve if he carries on at his current rate. He knows that if he slacks off he might not achieve that grade.

He also gets a potential grade which is what the teacher thinks he is capable of achieving if he puts in maxiumum effort.

They are updated regularly based on on coursework, assessments and test results. He has just received new ones after his mock results. They really do help him understand what he needs to focus on and what he could achieve if he tries hard. If you don't have them, I would suggest asking for them, they can be very helpful.

DD is told if she's on target to achieve her predicted grades or whether she's slipped below them, she just doesn't know what they are. I was a bit surprised by it at first but DD says it's good because she knows if she has to work harder in a subject or not or carry on like she is but doesn't have the pressure of knowing if they predict an A grade or think she's going to fail.

If we didn't know DD's predicted grades, we wouldn't know how to pitch expectations for what to do at 6th form.

We have seen predictions vary from start of y10, mainly going downwards which was more due to unrealistic expectations from teachers initially than any lack of work from DD.

I'd take a bet that if Epic's DD's predicted grades were below what she needs for her 6th form choices then the school would have said something.

Errol you're probably right, but there is also what is needed and what is sensible, isn't there?

To go to our local 6th form for A levels you need minimum 5Cs.
But is it sensible to do A levels on 5Cs (that you've worked your socks off for)? Probably not.

DD's initial predictions would have been fine for A levels, current ones are much more borderline.

Yes, and if a pupil wanted to apply elsewhere then they would need to know the expected grades. My DD needed hers for her Arkwright scholarship application too - the assumption is that pupils have these.

Errol I expect they would, though I don't know how they choose who to offer places to - I was already pretty sure that they had decided to offer DD a place before her interview since the week before she was given a letter to apply for the 6th form Germany trip.

I know my friend's DD got a couple of As and the rest Bs and got into 6th form but other than that I don't know. They don't do any vocational qualifications so it's A levels only.

DD has predicted grades and target grades. Both seem to be anxiety inducing for her
She has to send off the grades from the latest mocks (when she gets them) to the sixth forms she had applied to. As she came back saying she had flopped every single one, I am

Dd only needs C s for her 6th form, and already has A, A and A half banked, so something will have to go very wrong not to get in.
On the other hand to get into the selective 6th form, I think she will need mainly A*. How much she really want it is the big question.
So far she hasn't done as much revision as I expected, and has another set of mocks after half term, so we shall see.
I've already told her if she gets the same grades in summer as her mocks I will still be very proud of her, as I don't want to pile the pressure on iyswim.

Do any of your DC have to travel to school by bus?

Mine do, but because it's our catchment grammar, they receive a bus pass. Yet when DS1 went into 6th form at the same school, we had to pay for his bus pass!!

As DS2 is the first year that have to stay in education until 18, it will be interesting to see whether we will have to pay for his bus pass.

DS1 travels an hour each way on the designated school bus. It's not the catchment and costs us £547.50 a year.

AFAIK for 6th form everyone pays whether it's catchment or not though.

We have to pay for DD's bus pass - we're out of catchment though, don't know if the ones from within it have to pay or not. My understanding is that there is no catchment for 6th form - maybe it's the same with yours and that means no free passes for anyone?

That's what I gathered Errol all the catchment parents were having a moan about starting to pay for 6th form, and I was all 'we've been paying for years'.

Sounds like here then, where in catchment don't pay and out of catchment do - and then everyone pays in 6th form.
It's a bit cheeky of the govt to make it law that the DC stay in education until 18 but then charge the parents to get them to the educational establishment. The nearest 6th form provision is 7 miles away at our grammar school.