Starting Year 13 (number 4!)

[Mindgone]

I just thought I'd get us started up again!

Exactly Waiting!!! Confiscating technology to' free up time' is not a solution - he has to want to do it for himself.

Yours is by no means an unusual story. I know several young people with similar attitudes to school who have gone on to achieve either academically or in work.

But, as a parent, you have to know that you've done everything you can to help and support your kids! I really think they need guidance, rather than being left to their own devices, to either sink or swim!
BTW, I do mean guidance, not spoon feeding and mollycoddling!

Carrot and stick approach would be only a short term solution no use when they are growing adults only work on young children. Might get the desired results but I suppose when he gets to uni maybe go back to his old ways. If he could strike a balance where he could still play his games but promises to put x amount of hours into his subjects that might be ideal. Then hopefully when he gets his good results come august that might be just enough to make him see why good work ethics and hard work really does pay off and he will see it as something to be proud of, and won't want to go back to how he was. I think it really does depend on him in the end. One last ditch approach and that's it, your offering him a life jacket but its up to him if he wants to sink or swim. If he decides he wants to sink, stand united, no perks, extra money, make life at home not as comfortable, nice and cosy as he is used to, just provide him with the basics.

It is only until June. He isn't going to perish if they can come to some sort of agreement to put the technology on hold for a bit. Anyway, it is best if parents follow their own instincts as each teenager reacts differently.

Littleham - Of course he won't perish! My point is that confiscating his x box is unlikely to achieve anything. Look at what Waiting said. Removing the distraction does not equate to providing the motivation. My DS1 developed an intense fascination with his bedroom ceiling whenever I removed his xbox controllers!!

Mindgone - I know parents need to feel they've done everything. I got the same advice myself when I was in Horsemad's position, but I had to keep trying, as I'm sure she will. I'm' really just trying to make her understand that others have been there and she shouldn't feel the awful guilt and panic which I know I felt because I couldn't turn the situation around. I'm not suggesting any parent should stop all support and guidance - but drawing up revision timetables for an 18 year old is not really going to achieve the desired result.

horsdmad I'm not commenting on yours or any one else's parenting- wouldn't dare!! (Glass houses and all that) I'm just trying to add support and reassurance that when he chooses to study/work whatever he will shine and achieve all that he wants.

Also lots of time still for him to improve and surprise you in August - Sunny Southampton is not ruled out on the basisi of mocks.

Stonecircle, I didn't mean to imply that revision timetables should be drawn up for a teenager, rather they should do it for themselves. And I'm the parent of a DS who has managed to turn things around.

Spoke to a couple of people today and large numbers of students in the sciences / maths A Level classes got similar marks (U's and E's). Large chunks of the syllabus have yet to be taught & there won't be time to teach all of it before the exams. So if that is the case in our school I'm wondering if it might be similar elsewhere?

I get the impression that there are not enough teaching hours to cover all the work. Some of the Mock results are very low in our school.

My dd is very lucky then by the sounds of it littleham in maths they've just finished all the modules now doing past papers. They have a good maths teacher, who stipulated right at the beggining in order to get the high grades have to put in the same amount of time at home to practicing to the amount of maths lessons at school. Don't know how the other maths class is doing though as there are 3 groups.

My dd is still being taught new course content in all subjects, but she has been told that they might not be able to cover everything in her science (teachers are good). What I'm trying to say is some of the low mock marks may go up once they have covered the course content. Although I wish dd had reached the stage of doing past papers.

In fact the teachers are calling in all those they are concerned about to re-do mocks. Anyone that got a D or above has not been called in.

I think each school may be at a different stage.

She has done very well mumslife considering with what she has had to go through especially in context of her other classmates. Sometimes it does astound me with work ethics of some students I remember at dd English GCSE 5 pupils in the class got E grades, most of them didn't turn up to classes, whilst this kid from China that had only been in the UK for 1 year joined the class late on couldn't string a sentence together to begin with managed a "C" grade.

On the other hand if the teachers haven't taught all the content related to the mock exam then its understandable why kids come out with low grades. Can't penalise them entirely for it.

I have no idea how anyone has done in their mocks other than DS as any information he gives is strictly on a need to know basis. His mocks were very early -straight after Christmas so there is time to fix things if anyone needs to. DS did well despite his Cambridge rejection coming slap bang in the middle of the exams

I think all the work will be covered by Easter and I'm doing a lot of fretting about coursework ie where are you up to? How many drafts can you do? Is there a deadline? Do you know what mark you are likely to get? Etc etc DS just does this face

We got a letter today about when study leave starts and the arrangements for the last day. Nooo how can this have happened DS is my youngest so no more school ever again!

According to my DS his college aren't having mocks

Feeling calmer today. Have spoken to Chem tutor who will start with him next week.
DS1 is an odd one stonecircle, he's lazy but willing to work when 'managed'. I think he feels overwhelmed but won't admit it.
DS2 is different - he IS strongwilled and will definitely dig his heels in if not handled carefully. As he has GCSEs this summer, it's a minefield.
Deep down, he's more sensible than DS1 but hormones are running wild and he's horrible at the moment.

DS1 says the Chem mock was last summer's paper which was a particularly difficult one because my friend's son sat it and he is very studious and couldn't believe how awful it was.

Mindgone - thanks for the revision tips, I'll pass them on

You're very welcome :) they worked for DS1!

Don't forget the for yourself!

Ha ha, have had half a bottle tonight think that's why I feel calm..

mumslife does your dd wear glasses? When my dd was first prescribed glasses in gcse year she use to get a lot of headaches it turned out she had Astigmatism think its spelt like that. Basically one of her eyeballs is rugby shaped rather than sphere and something like it causes blurry vision long and short vision it was only on one eye, it caused extra straining and headaches. Unfortunately there was only the option of laser eye surgery which she didn't want to go through. She has got use to it by trying not to focus , fixed too long on her tablet or telly takes breaks, as she finds it causes the headaches when she's fixated too long on anything that requires a lot of eye concentration.