GCSE Results thread and starting 6th form

[WitchofScots]

Follow on thread from the GCSE exams and proms thread. For hand holding and recommendations of wine/chocolate/biscuits to get through the post results stuff.

Drayton, mine is at BP as well.

Much much happier tonight, geography dropped for graphic design. He had a quick meeting with the teacher who has set him an architecture research project that he was chatting about ideas over dinner tonight and what to get ready for Monday.

Phew!

SugarPum, I'm glad DD is settling and sorry to hear about DS experiences. It's an all consuming worry when children are not happy at school.
If it's any consolation, we had a similar week with younger DD. I really struggle to understand what drives teenage girls to be so damn evil to each other. Upsettingly, DDs did let herself down and was not entirely truthful when quizzed by the deputy, so she's just had to face up to the repercussions as well as deal with evilness from others. DH received a tearful call from her at 11 am yesterday demanding she be picked up. We didn't. She had to face it out, but Monday morning will be the acid test. I managed to stay calm, but the physical effects of the stress are tangible so I'm getting a glimpse of how you must be feeling. Hope you have a nice weekend with some time for yourself.

An Inspector Calls is on BBC tomorrow night!! I wonder how any of our DC will want to settle down and relive that wonderful play!

Spud, my sympathies - I have had many of those calls (including one on Thurs) - it is heart-wrenching when your DC are suffering at school.

And I saw the ad for AIC and thought the same! I might watch it as I have never read or seen it and only saw the character analyses that DD wanted testing on!

By the way the Kidscape day is free and the families we met were all really lovely. The children were kind / intelligent / sensitive and had all been targeted for completely different reasons - too tall, short, intelligent, sporty, having a rash, being too popular. The only common theme was that they reacted to taunts either by shutting down, crying or losing temper.

The kidscape staff taught a variety of techniques - practising retorts, different ways of reacting and fogging etc. Worked like a dream.

That is very helpful Moss, thank you so much. He is happy today and enjoying his birthday, though didn't want to see anyone from school. That's fine though, I think he feels supported by us so we've managed to do that bit right.

Unless there is an email from his teacher before Monday morning saying something that puts my mind at rest, I think I'm keeping him off Monday morning and going in to see the head. In fairness to the school they have improved a lot with the new Head and his last form tutors were lovely so hopefully they will put something in place to support him .

Apologies for the hijack and thank you all very much, a big help.

Spud I'm sorry you've had a week of it too. Well done on the staying calm front, have some I hope Monday goes as well as it can, will keep my fingers crossed.

How are they coping with the HW this weekend? DD doesn't have any yet but we have had a discussion about using free periods wisely so bulk of assignments done during the day and not leaving to evenings and weekends after long days and bus ride.

I saw some homework on DD's bed. She said her drama teacher threatened detention, because she told them to get file dividers on Monday and DD didn't have them by Friday. As stationery is in short supply in our village, they were on the weekend shopping list.

Good luck to everyone starting on Monday.

Hi Draylon,

Mine is now doing graphic design, product design, maths and the combined science BTEC.

Is yours signed up for any clubs yet? I'm telling mine he has to do something else he enjoys so it's not all work... But says he hasn't seen anything.

DD had to leave a lesson early this week, to see another member of staff. She went to talk to her teacher at the beginning of the lesson and the teacher said, "Oh ... you don't need to tell me. Just get up and leave whenever you want". DD's face was like this when she told me.

HSM, that's so different from DD's new sixth form!

She is feeling a bit overwhelmed by the workload which is VERY heavy. She had an Economics essay to write and the English teacher told them to read A Streetcar named Desire and annotate it over the weekend and she has a Psychology essay to learn for tomorrow. I think there was some History too. Doesn't help with her anxiety for it all to be piled on straight-away.

Are any other DC who changed schools finding it hard to integrate with the internals? DD has the students from her old school and has made friends with a couple of other externals, but says the internals aren't really interacting with them much. The form tutor has seated them so that they are all mixed up, but she says the internals just lean across the externals to talk to each other and then the externals can't really shout to each other across the room! I think the internals are nice, just not really making the effort.

Same here Tilly, dd finds that the existing girls are not very friendly, as they already have their friendship groups. The external girls seem to be forming their own group which is great. The one exception is in PE, where she was paired up with a girl who was nice. It's early days yet, but so far, going better than expected.
Work wise dd was in a tizzy as she had a fair amount of homework, and was tired from Saturady working then a family party. Luckily we have an inset day on Wednesday, so a much needed lie in.

BTM DD is finding integration fine but I think her circumstances are rare. All the girls are new. So there is immediate camaraderie, plus opportunities for them to gel (sport etc).

And the exisiting cohort actively want to make friends with them...as they're all boys!

That said, some are finding it easier than others. DD is very open, very friendly. She says that even when she is feeling nervous she just gets in there and asks people about themselves. Asks if they want to go to lunch. Or if they want to meet up after school.

I think over time, integration will be organic for your DD, but maybe she could force the issue sooner?

Yes, I can see that it must be easier if they are all new together and especially if the boys want to make friends with them too!

Dingit, I think DD has found internal girls nice and OK on a one-to-one, but very quiet, and less bouncy than DD is used to. She says the internal boys are easier. It's only the second full week and I'm sure it will improve over time. She has clicked with another external girl, but the girl is feeling similarly that the internals are very quiet and said she is considering moving to a sixth form college...

Sadly, I think DD is going to find friendships just as much of a struggle at college as she did at school.

Anyway, I panicked DD yesterday by pointing out that her AS Spanish exam is in only 8 months. It seems very close when she's only had 2 lessons in it so far.

I have DD a long lecture about being friendly towards new students. She had a large friendship group, but had made a new friend and helped them integrate into the group.

The school also created the tutor groups in some kind of order, so all the dramatic types are in DD's class and have similar characters, which helps them get on with each other. Another tutor group had all the people taking 3 sciences, etc. it's not all perfect matches, but they've clearly made an effort. Apparently they have a freshers party in a couple of weeks with the year 12/13 students all together.

Sugarplum hope all went well for your DS at school today. Why are kids so horrible to each other? I say kids but I've met some pretty nasty people at work too! Including a lady who was blind and was totally, unacceptably rude to everyone as if she thought her disability gave her the automatic right to bully others.

Is everyone still doing 4 subjects? School is wavering and now saying the new A-levels are going to be really tough so they need to drop their 4th by the end of November. Gulp! They are only doing A2s unless the subjects are only available in old style AS/A2 so DS will be doing 2A-levels and one AS/A2. I'm not sure what the universities think though .

Meanwhile I spent yesterday taking DS round various shops in town to look for a job. It was a bit of a wake-up call for him though as he thought he would be inundated with job offers just because he has a clutch of GCSEs and a confident personality so I am hoping this inspires him and shows him that if he were to leave school he'd find it hard to get a well paid and interesting job, lol!

DD still has four subjects and we have been told they will still take the AS level even for subjects which have the new A2s. We'll see if they change their minds at Christmas.

Dd's college seem to be wavering too - from saying all kids will take 4 ASs, and do the AS even if on new style subjects, they're now saying if kids want to drop one that's fine. Dd continuing with four though

Wouldn't be surprised if they decided that doing AS next year was a waste of time....

Ever the optimist I think not having that natural 'cull' point of AS exams might mean that kids who should't have continued to the 2nd year do so, and the grade boundaries reduce in consequence!

It's tricky.

Without AS grades, students will be applying to university with only predicted grades. This will probably be fine for a lot of courses; the universities will make an offer to those with ballpark predicted grades and students either make them or don't.

But not having AS grades/UMS may prove a disadvantage when applying for the most selective courses, if others do have an AS garde/UMS IYSWIM.

ono and titchy, dropping to 3 in Nov because they are going to be so hard makes me feel a bit worried (combined with the amount of homework/expectations DD has had so far...) I wonder what will happen at DD's state comp. I think, frankly, 3 would be a lot more manageable.

SGADM, surely all sixth forms will move to A levels only over the next few years? How did we get predicted grades in the days before AS levels?

HSM, DD said her sixth form used to put them into tutor groups with others doing the same subjects but this year they have more tutor groups and have mixed them up. Not sure if it makes a difference - that is how it was in my day. But we didn't get put into tutor groups - we got ourselves into groups IIRC. There were only 2 externals (twins) who became my best friends

I think our lot are in unchartered waters somewhat with the whole UCAS thing but that Universities will be flexible knowing that they are in a transition period.

DD's school grouped the tutor group with the arty ones etc. Not that she was there for long but she said she thought it worked well. She did say they had some new people, the school does work hard to integrate them - it was on the letter the had about making an effort. Still very early days yet and everyone sussing out each other. Hopefully the barriers will start to break down. Sorry some of them are finding it hard

Ono, thank you for asking. He is OK I think. His form tutor saw him after school and DS said it has helped. I'm going to keep a very close eye on things. Did try to sed if any other options but Admissions were really unhelpful and said they don't know where they are at with waiting lists at the moment and won't for 2 weeks.

DD felt quite rough this morning but did go in armed with train fare just in case she needed to go home sooner. She hasn't yet turned up so hopefully ok. She has a new soup flask.

BTM back in my day teachers made predictions based on what they'd seem if you in class and how you did in the internal exams at the end of L6.

I think they will go back to that. But some students will continue with AS (decoupled from A2) regardless, where their schools feel it will help with applications to university.

In subjects where there is a lot of competition ( medicine, vet med etc) a good AS score might just give you the edge over a candidate with no score.

Ditto for those universities where virtually all places are hotly contested (Oxbridge, LSE etc).