Parents of Year 11DC support thread. The final term.

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

Eep.

@BadKitten, thanks for the suggestion, but no, DS really wouldn't engage with a tutor. He just panicked mid-exam, I think, suddenly woke up to the fact he had missed vital exam technique info in English for several years. They are going over it in class. He has the skills, he reckons, got wrong end of the stick about what they wanted.

Funny aside... parents are moaning on Facebook (parent school info page) about new rigour in uniform rules at school (same old rules, new HT efforts to enforce). I am the only parent who posted that my DC likes the crackdown. Now he doesn't feel like an Oddball for actually following the uniform code.

Still not been told when study leave will start. Think it may be at half term.

fb is terrible for parental moans!

Half term for study leave here too. Wish I could excuse dd and have her working at home, she seems pretty worn out this evening. It's going to be a long slog still isn't it.

Dd looks so tired. Has indigestion and a twitch in her eye

I'm hoping the place at her preferred sixth form one of the best in the country shameless boasting will take the pressure off a bit.

I don't know about all of you but I'm ready now for this to be over.

oh I am too and we arent yet at the exams
I have banned work for one day each weekend and imposed a compulsory lie in. There hasn't been any protests. It's important to work hard, its more important to stay healthy.

The history class had a diversion today - they spent ten minutes going through the Quizlet set that DS made. Teacher thought that it was a good revision tool and could he do a set on the Vietnam War by Monday?

All "my" good ideas on revision have come from here, thank you all for sharing what is working for you. Some of it is now working for DS (and just in time too)

No study leave here. Just keep turning up until the exams finish.

That's pretty cool Knitting!

My mum sent me a hilarious article from the telegraph titled ' id I'd like to stop worrying about his exam revision but the stakes are too high'
Ends with " given that a) our kids are so stressed out and b) we have spent so long helping with revision, why don't we plump for option c) and sit the bloody things ourselves?"

perhaps cos we don't want them to fail

dd just casually announced while watching tv 'we've booked the limo for the prom'.
wasn't expecting that!

article

I wonder if she's on this thread!!

There was one in the Guardian yesterday

www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/apr/23/how-to-help-your-teenagers-revise-for-exams

I liked item one "Ask if they need help. Help that’s not needed or asked for isn’t about their agenda, it’s about yours." I considered sending that to school on the bottom of the reply slip for the Saturday revision session that they were offering. They have them in school all day until the last exam but can't find a couple of hours for a revision session except over a weekend?

I asked dd whether she would like any help today after reading the guardian article. We both contemplated what possible use I could be for a few moments, before we both concluded that she probably didn't need my help.
phew!
(if you are reading this dd, the offer is still there!)

DS1 has gone from doing too much (with the resultant stress) to doing hardly anything at all.

It usually takes a bit of persuasion to get him out of bed to attend the church, community and charity events we do, whereas in the last few days he has suddenly become a keen volunteer. It's interesting what starts to seem appealing when the alternative is revision.

The upside is that he is less stressed and starting to eat and sleep better.

The downside is that he has revised less than half of the Biology and Chemistry courses and the first exam is in 10 days.

...When is he going to learn the art of moderation and balance?

In case it wasn't clear, we don't expect him to attend church & community events during this period as we understand that he has revision to do.

In the last 5 days, he has spent 15 hours (on top of school hours) at church and volunteering at charity events. This is what he does in his spare time, rather than music or sport, but ten days before the start of GCSEs I feel that it's too much.

It's displacement activity isn't it? Personally I could never start revision at Uni until I'd emptied the cupboard under the sink, cleaned it and put it all back. By the time I'd got to that point I had to admit that there was nothing else left to do except revise. Does he have a plan that will cover the syllabus in the time remaining?

Know what you mean. dd has been hoovering and dusting her room before revising (activities that normally require much more parental persuasion). As a break from revising (and to get her out of the house/her room) she went on an outdoor activity day yesterday where she did abseiling etc.That's probably the last all day fun activity before the exams though!
Have just read both articles. Personally I am not sure about BBC Bitesize, it's useful up to a point, but isn't that detailed and is no longer describes differences between one exam board/syllabus and another.

Ds1 has done 3. 5 hrs volunteering at an animal rescue this morning. This afternoon he is doing a timed English essay, biology past paper and some German vocab.
He also has to clean out his animals so is going to be a little busy.
He did his sports activity yesterday morning and had an afternoon off yesterday so still feeling chilled about it.

I think DS has got a good balance although I suspect school would not agree. Today was Vietnam War to start, band practice, gaming, WW2, gaming, band practice.

DSD is champion of displacement activity. Her bedroom is tidy for the first time in years. All her old toys have been given away, and I had to stop her volunteering to tidy younger dd's room the other day

Agree there's not a lot your can do to help them actually revise, though taking up refreshments helps support them and gives an opportunity to see if there's anything they need help understanding. (If it's a subject your can actually do of course. I'm fine on maths but sod all use on computing or classics)