Parents of Year 11's - in the midst of exams!

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

roll up roll up, for our new support thread for all parents of year 11 kids. Whether your kids work hard or not, what ever their goals (or not!) this is our place to de-stress :)

"Then it's Whit Friday which means local chaos"

What happens on Whit Friday where you live?

The bank holiday isn't until next weekend.

It's the Whit Friday Brass Band Contests. Known as the greatest free show on earth. Hard to explain but we have a contest in every village in Saddleworth (9) and Brass Bands from all corners of the globe drive round the narrow lanes in coaches to play at each contest. Every man, woman, child and his dog turns up to listen to them and drink Tis a truly wonderful and unique occasion. The sound of a brass band echoing through the hills is guaranteed to bring a tear to many an eye.

If you play in a brass band then it's the Whit marches. In an attempt to appear to be a responsible parent I said no to the GCSE candidate turning out this year. As the driver who picks him and his father up from a random layby at 4am I'm not altogether sorry about this.

X posted with Exit there.

I have name changed as this may out my ds1.

I've been at work all day so I texted Ds to ask how he got on. He replied:
The exam was fine, until I was found to have my phone!

I called him and he kept refusing my call.

One minute later I received another text:
Only joking, it went really well.

Longest minute of my life, I aged 10yrs!
I don't think he'll do it again.

I expect there will be a few bands from this side of the Pennines then. We used to have a marching band contest every July, but lack of funding put paid to that.

I bet the atmosphere is fantastic. I hope you get fine weather for it

The road closures and brass at midnight would certainly bring a tear to my eye if I lived locally. "Don't you go with them?" - nope. I'd rather just pick them up from the coach at silly am.

Forecast not good. And I won't be going as I can't stand for long, or walk up and down the hill. But it is a fabulous night.
Many happy memories.

Dd is working in the bakers after her exam

Ooh knitting. Who do they play with? Mum used to do the signing in at a contest and I was on phone duty late into the night as the bands phoned for the results.

4 students have being disqualified from as exams for phones

nohysteriahere I'd go grey over that.

Second - we're doing CIE chemistry as well. One paper was okay, the other difficult. Apparently everyone thought it was difficult. Chemistry is not one of ds's strongest subjects.

Fantasy - is your son at the same school as mine? (Kent). Ds has the exact same subjects next week.

My nightmare is ds accidentally forgetting to take his phone out of his blazer. Apparently it happened to someone last year.

Second - we're doing CIE chemistry as well. One paper was okay, the other difficult.

DS1 found them both difficult! He is very relieved that Chemistry is over and he doesn't need to do any more CIE papers.

What's CIE?

I have a DD not a DS 228 were nowhere near Kent and were not CIE for chemistry
DDs exam boards are
IGCSE English language and literature CIE
IGCSE AQA double award science
IGCSE Edexcel maths
GCSE edexcel history B doing Cold War for unit 1, unit 2 Germany and unit 3 Britain
GCSE OCR religious studies
Igcse edexcel French
IGCSE aqa geography

Would be wise everyone doing that so we can see who is doing what etc

An exam board. Cambridge I? Exam?

Fantasy that's impressive. I don't really know which boards my DD is doing. Feel like a bad mum now!
I only knew about the Biology because it was reported on.

I think a lot of exam board use the same timetable more or less. Presume this makes it easier for schools who mix and match exam boards to avoid exam clashes. DSD and DS are at different schools with different exam boards and they both have exactly the same subjects as fantasy's dd next week. Their timetables match completely.

Hysteria That's awful. I'd have bloody killed him

Ds1 did edexcel chemistry today. He thinks it went really well so is very pleased.
228agreenend, that's my nightmare too.

CIE = Cambridge International Examinations. At KS4, they offer iGCSEs and O-levels (still).

I do worry about the accidental phone-left-in-blazer. One stupid mistake can have long-term consequences.

Exit you're not accepting personal messages?

"My nightmare is ds accidentally forgetting to take his phone out of his blazer"

Why doesn't he leave it in his school bag instead? I make a point of making sure that DD's phone is switched off and in her bag on exam days.

Someone pointed out to me that they do all the various exams the same day/time, no matter the examining board. So each corresponding units are covered in exams running the same time, all over the country.