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.

Re teachers. Yes, science is scarce. I am a supply teacher, speciality English, but have been teaching Physics for 2 weeks in an outstanding comp (SW London) because they desperately need cover for Y11 (and Y10.) Normally they would re-deploy science teachers from other year groups to Y11, but they tend to mostly be biology specialists, so not better than me

DontGo, this is what I don't understand. Surely years ago teachers did a degree in their subject i.e. Geog and then became a teacher in that subject?
How can teachers teach/deliver lessons in a subject their degree isn't in?

I was chatting to an acquaintance about this last week. He is NQT, his degree is Bus. Studies. He has a job in a local grammar school and had been asked to cover Maths (he has Maths GCSE Grade C). He has actually resigned, because his Maths is shaky and he felt uncomfortable teaching Yr7&8 - said he knew he wouldn't be doing a good enough job and felt out of his depth. I don't think someone with Grade C Maths should be teaching Maths!
I just find it weird that teachers are teaching lessons they have no advanced knowledge of!

Horsemad I agree! When I was at school I don't remember having supply teachers. My DC are at a local indie and they don't have supply teachers - the regular specialist teachers have enough free periods that they can , if necessary, cover other teachers for the dept.
But now that state teachers have to wear so many hats - form tutor, subject leader etc, they have meetings, trips, illnesses, jury service, even holidays (yes, really! a school I was in last week, before half-term had two teachers on holiday) and there is a need for their lessons to be covered, and not enough free periods available from their own dept. And when they get in supply teachers (like me) they don't have the luxury of always getting an expert. I have A level maths and often am brought in to teach maths, but also cover physics, geography... whatever is needed.

Going back to the bus pass, yes we will have to pay next year £200 per term. (When DD goes into Y7 I will Bs paying 3 lots if travel, so £1800pa)

It still works out cheaper than public transport though.

We are in London so DC have zip cards for free bus travel though I think they have to get a new one at 16.

Yes we are lucky to have zip cards, the college is a 5 minute walk, but selective academy will be two buses. ( another plus to college)

We would have to pay for the bus fare but we will get a bursary for DD which covers bus fare and £2.20 a day towards lunch plus money to cover essential school trips and text books.

OT, but wondering what the heck a 'Business Studies' degree consists of if you can do it with 'shaky' maths.

I'm not sure that a teacher (if they're a good teacher) necessarily needs a degree in a subject in order to effectively teach KS3/4 (really good mathematicians can make the worst maths teachers!) but they surely need time to get to grips with the course content, not just be thrown in ad hoc.

Lynette's beating me on quantity, DD's bus fare was £905 this year. Wonder if the fall in fuel prices will peg it there.

Oops! The teacher I was referring to teaches Bus. Studies; his degree is something like Bus & Finance or Bus. & Management.

I totally agree with mathematicians making the worst teachers, I'm married to a mathematician and he's never been able to teach me!!

The school that DD has applied to for 6th form is a five minute walk away. She currently gets the train, followed by a 20 minute walk. The train costs about £70 per half term but will go up when she turns 16. The new school will cost us a fortune in food costs as students have breakfasts and lunch at school with their tutors. DD can't resist a nice croissant she takes after me

Well, DS is in school for the third time this half term.

I've have suggested he reads the copy of "The Inspector Calls" that I bought him, but he declined, saying "We read it at school and it's really boring. All the books we read at school are boring."

I've just noticed the local college are asking for a B in maths and a B in Chemistry if you want to do Chemistry.

Can I ask if your DC aren't planning on doing A'levels next year, what they do want to do, and what grades they need?

I bought dd of Mice and Men on DVD and she fell asleep half way through. I have to admit, can't say I really blame her.

This afternoons conversation was; "You try it, Mum, you read the books and and take the English Lit exam, and then you'll see how hard it is."

Funnily, enough DS1, I have, I did, and I got quite a good grade.

My DD doesn't try that line with me re Eng lit because she knows that one of my texts was Chaucer's Nun's Priest's tale. Even the M&M and Inspector calls have to be better than that! Frankly, that was a total waste of time, it really wasn't English and I can't really remember anything about it - I was jealous of the other set who got a proper book (Tess). Fortunately the other was Under Milk Wood, for which I have some affection and can still remember chunks verbatim! DD thinks that of all the subjects Eng Lit is the most pointles - I have a feeling that it tends to kill love of literature in a lot of pupils.

She actually revised something other than physics today - only because she's waiting for DH to return from waterstones with a physics revision guide.

I did Under Milk Wood and Chaucer but can't remember any of it. Also remember doing Milton's Paradise Lost which was horrific.

I did Paradise Lost too. Nightmare. Put me off reading for a while.

Horsemad, surely it's ingrained 'It is spring moonless night in the small town, starless and bible black ...' (I could go on, but I'll spare you )

I've never read Paradise Lost - I feel like I'm probably still too young for it.

I can't remember what I did for Eng but I got two As. Seamus He any and The Importance of Being Earnest, I think. And I think it was a John Wyndham book. This was at a 1950 's style girls grammar!

Hopefully the DVD 's I ordered for DD will be waiting when we get back!

O Level Lit way back in the early 80's - The History of Mr. Polly and some dreadful Thomas Hardy poetry tosh. Sorry Hardy fans.

Chatting to DD tonight, she was saying that Eng Lit really shouldn't be a compulsory subject (which it is at her school, and many I guess). She used to like poetry before she had to 'do' it. She doesn't much like German (they had to do an MFL) but at least she can see that it has some use.

I did the French lieutenants woman, the taming of the shrew and the two princes. I forget what else. Oh, schlinders list as well.

One of DD's objections to the eng lit exam is that there's a lot of luck whether the questions which come up 'suit' you. For instance with the poetry apparently the exam focuses on one of the however-many they've studied and then they have to choose another to discuss in relation to it, so it depends on whether it happens to be one of the poems that they relate to. Even moreso with the 'unseen' poem part (first I'd heard of this) - which could be one that some pupils had come across before, and again might or might not be one that you 'get' - poetry's like that, isn't it?

I loved The French LT's Woman but didn't study it, just read it.

I did Graham Greene for 'O' Level, Bernard Shaw's Arms and the Man, Cider with Rosie and Lord of the Flies.

For A level I did Anthony & Cleo, Hardy's Return of the Native, Chaucer and some others I can't remember right now.

My dream of a little revision each day was just a dream. Apparently she's going to do it "all on Sunday". Hmmmmm