Year 11 GCSE Exam Support Thread 2

[HSMMaCM]

New thread ..... (DD not sure about the prom dress she has bought!!!!)

Eek, poor thing

Glad your DD has her timetable HSM. At last!

How awful. Chicken pox at this time! Hope your dd has already had when she was little dingit.

She has had chicken pox, but I caught shingles when I was 16!

One of my friends had chicken pox when we were taking our OLevels (JMB iirc) She was brought into school each exam day by a teacher and did her exams in isolation to avoid infecting any of us.

The same thing was done for another one of my friends who was pregnant - because y'know pregnancy is contagious. convent school

That must have been terrible. I had chicken pox when I was sixteen and it was horrific (luckily after the exams in my case).

Best to stay away from friend for a while just in case.

I got chicken pox at 22 - after a final teaching practice, thankfully not during exams!

Do any of your DD's suffer with PMT/periods? Looks like DD might have that joy during the exams after half term

Well that's if she comes on next week as she thinks she should!

Oh chicken pox us nasty when your older as well. Girl in my school was like woolybacks friend in and exams in insolation and similarly with the pregnant girl...again nuns thought we might all catch babies.

So glad I don't have to think about PMT with DS I just have to have enough carbohydrate and juice in the house to keep him fed.

bigTilly - if you are quick could you get her prescribed the pill ? Even if just for exams if you/she isn't keen for her to take it longer term? It's been a weight off our mind for DD who has been using it for around 18months to sort out heavy issues.

DD received a good luck postcard from one of her 6th form colleges yesterday. I wonder if the others will send them too? Considering how big it is it must cost them £1000+ to send them all out!

DD seems less worried than me that her first GCSE paper is so soon. It'll all be over in just over a month.

She has a friend coming over to revise tomorrow. I hope they do.

Thanks Tilly, I hadn't though of PMT.
All seems calm in the Dingit household too (the calm before the storm springs to mind). So much so, we broached the subject of trying on her prom dress just to check it fits ok, and she even conceded that she may use a little fake tan on her legs. ( she is quite a pale blonde, so difficult to pull off without looking like a satsuma)

Sorry sorry all wrong ... Dd tells me I don't listen. ... 15 including the 3 she took last year and now 14 as pe dropped .... so 11 to take this year.
My bad!
Still ridiculous.
She should 'only' be doing 8/9

She's weirdly unstressed

I hate the reward thing that's going on. Friends getting told £50/£100 per Å or A*
We're going to take her shopping for a watch after exams and before results. She doesn't know

What do you, your kids cohorts do?

QOD when DD1 got her GCSE results (5 years ago - mostly As and Bs) we gave her a £100 voucher for New Look. She spent it on office wear style clothes for 6th form. There were pupils at her school who were on £50/100 per A/A*.

If DD2 is aware of the possibility of a similar reward scheme we will be hearing about it soon

Fab idea woolly. Hmm.

Glad you were wrong about the number of GCSEs your dd is doing, QOD!

What rotten luck for someone to get chickenpox just now. DD has never had it so last year we got her vaccinated. She has something of a needle phobia but liked the idea of being ill during the exam years even less.

I've just remembered my biology o-level was actually a "16+" - they were trialling a one-size fits all course ahead of GCSEs (1977) . I got a cse certificate for it as well as a gce one, annoyingly separate to the others.

We haven't had any discussion of payments per grade, but we'll definitely be funding some clothes shopping ahead of sixth form and I think I've promised her a windsurfing harness. Paying for grades doesn't seem like a great idea to me - a good grade is its own reward and conversely if a kid gets a disappointing grade then being 'paid' less for it rather adds insult to injury imo.

Completely agree on the rewards thing Errol - here we'll have some small celebration when exams are over - maybe go out for a family meal - and we have that Uni visit planned. Perhaps dd and I can do a few other nice things together in June/July. Then we'll try to be as happy and positive as possible on results day. I agree if there were any disappointing results you wouldn't want to add insult to injury by missing out on any reward too. If anything all the more need for a distracting unconditional treat
My DP's (the DGP's) may be slightly inclined to give some rewards for success/good grades but I will discourage any mention of them before-hand and try to moderate the conditionality/reward aspect even afterwards. But you have to let them have their own DGP/GC relationship too. I think it's maybe not quite so pressurising coming from grandparents? Nice that they take an interest, send good luck cards, and are generally encouraging I think

We wouldn't pay per grade here as with twins it's almost certain that one will best the other and they have both put in Herculean efforts.

I'm not going down the road if who did 'best'.

We've talked (endlessly) about who would like to get what on which subject and I have tried to impress upon them that close to that will be magnificent and even outright disaster is not infixable at this stage .

We're not rewarding on grades either. Instead, once the exams are over we're giving some money as a reward for all of their hard work.
I had a lot of pressure put on me to get high exam grades and I ended up in hospital as a result of it, consequently I'm trying not to do the same.

No rewards here either. We will probably go out for a family meal, then a big shopping trip for sixth form. Once there, we may possibly purchase an iPad ( although I think they may get a school one) or a graphics tablet.

We aren't paying for grades here - working hard and trying your best is what we feel is important. The results themselves should reflect that and so be the reward (but as grade boundaries and marking seems to change by the minute, it is entirely possible that the grade they "should" get might not be achieved, despite working hard)

Instead I am taking DD to NY in October - partly a belated 50th present for me and partly a reward for working hard towards her GCSE's. No doubt we will go out for a meal at the time and she will definitely need some new clothes for sixth form!

I think that's right BTM.

Someone could miss a deserved Grade through misreading a question etc.

I think there will be treats and celebrations here when the exams finish. We will all deserve it!

I also agree with Errol. We'll do a family meal to celebrate new beginnings and transition to 6th firm whatever the grades. DD said sadly the other night that most people say it's hard being the youngest as you have to live up to the eldest but DS has nothing to live up to as she doesn't get good grades and he's going to get good grades anyway. Felt sad hearing this and I want her to feel supported by us all.

She will get money for 6th form clothes shopping on her Japan trip and has just received a very generous amount towards the trip costs from my Dad so I think she is doing very well at the moment.

I had something funny with my Physics where I got an O level grade and a CSE grade, something to do with moving towards GCSE.

I'd like us all to go out to dinner to celebrate The End.

But DD finished on 16th June and DS dribbles on for another week until 23rd.

I feel that we should wait for DS bit that the moment will be over for DD. Oh well.

I have the same problem Word - am considering takeaway when DS2 finishes, (he loves takeaway!) then a nice meal out a week later.