Parents of Year 11s - the end has been and gone

[BitOutOfPractice]

The thread that got us all through the exams is now full so here's a new one to get us through the nervous wait for results

Well done to all our brave Y11s and wish every last one of them all the best

Link to the last thread

ddd has enrolled at sixth form college today and been accepted for all her preferred A level subjects. (Very unmumsnetty selection with no facilitating subjects). Health and social care applied A level anyone?
A bit upset to be leaving old school and most of her friendship group but cheered up on meeting some girls from old school there and potentially some people she hasn't seen since primary school.
Sixth form college defo best choice for her as it covers full ability range whereas sixth form at former school (am having to get used to saying that) has reputation for being very academic.
Hope everyone else's dcs manage to get places on their preferred courses. Agree that sounds very frustrating Hes hope it all works out OK in the end.

I guess grade boundaries must be out, you are right! but they aren't on google yet.

Once we know the boundaries it will make it easier to make the decision I think. It does seem rather churlish to send it in for a remark though.

That sounds very frustrating. I hope the decide to be sensible in your DS's case.

DH's HT confirmed his place at 6th form while I was there yesterday. He came out to the car and told me about the D in English but said it was OK. So I went in to check that with a teacher. The HT said she'd sort it all out there and then, rather than me having to come in for a meeting later.

Glad your DD is happy with her choices (however unmumsnetty!), cats.

What else is she taking alongside H&SC?

Catslife DS has no facilitating subjects lined up but he's not at all interested in keeping his options open because he knows what he wants to do. I did my parental duty and explained why some subjects were seen as better choices than others, he looked at the list and noped his way though it (he did look at what the history syllabus covered before he threw that one out). His view was that he's not going to sit through two years of something he doesn't like just because it's good for him. I talked him out of the trio of music, music technology and law though so he's taking music, law and English. I hope he is anyway, that's the list he'll be going in with but it remains to be seen what he comes out with.

Ds was given a list of all the grade boundariesmformthe exam. We had to go and see a staff member (exam officer?) who discussed which exams we wanted to check. Then it was only individual,papers that got re-marked, not whole exams.

Ds was one mark,under the boundary in three exams so we thought we would get those marked. Different boards charged different amount but it cost us £125! If the paper comes back with a different Mark, then you get the money back. We were warned that scores can go up or down..

For ds, it's the difference between staying at his exisitng school, or changing schools. He will start at the alternative school, because the papers won't have Been marked in time.

Not sure I like the modern way of knowing your scores it heads further stress to everything.

Fantasy - dd is doing triple.

BTW, all the grade boundaries are out and published - just google name of awarding body, grade boundaries and 2016. (Well, there might be the odd one that's not out but all the major subjects are out. But they don't all contain the same info and certainly not in the same order, so can be hard to find the data you want.

jamdonut Its not frowned upon to boast about your dc's success, its the conceited tone in the boasting that irks, mingled with utter crassness that annoys people.
Yours is a genuine joyful celebration . I'd be delighted too.

Cambridge igcse boundaries seem to be impossible to find.

Went into school today to choose A levels (VERY excited, weren't sure we would get to that point), all the teachers very happy to have him for their A level subjects, was brilliant.

The only issue was BTEC in Sports Science, one teacher was lovely but the other one was very aggressive; we didn't have the GCSE PE there is no way DS would be able to keep up, he would have assignments straight away that the teacher wasn't going to help him catch up with, it would be done or not at all with no wriggle room. I asked for materials to google or buy so we could get ahead but he said 'maybe I could give him some print outs of OHP's I've done once we get started'. We agreed to a 6 week trial but 'most of the boys who tried last year dropped out'. Are we being stupid attempting this? What the teacher doesn't know (and didn't listen to) is that sports are DS's passion and obsession (and anyone who has an ASD teen will know these can be all consuming things!). He has a sport that he trains with a national coach/sponsored squad, and is taking coaching exams himself, he's also already become a qualified beach life guard which is a very hard and rigorous set of tests covering a lot of first aid as well as other things. We did a past paper of the GCSE PE over tea and I'd say he easily answered half the questions to a higher level than the mark scheme was asking and we learned about the bits he didn't know. I'm not saying it's an easy GCSE either, just when he is obsessed about something there isn't a magazine, science article, training method that he won't learn everything about then apply to himself, he's incredibly knowledgable to my mind. But is the teacher right, without the GCSE is he setting himself up for a fail? Grrrr, it's the one thing he really, really wants to do.

Do the trial, MrSlant, and let DS know he has to do well to stay on the course. I wish my DS's obsession wasn't Pointless, with Alexander Armstrong, and actually something useful, that might help him to make friends!

He has an obsession he can do in parallel to lots of other people rather than with them, I don't think we have gone much past toddler socialisation some days .

Well we've already printed off a few past papers and are working through them with the mark scheme so we can be as up to speed as possible when the course starts. I'm a bit scared for the teacher actually because I do think this is the one time DS will stand up to a teacher and go 'well actually...' and spout off the most up to date research on the subject . I swear there is nothing worth knowing about VO2 max that he doesn't know! It's what he wants to do at uni, it's what he wants to do at life so I really hope we aren't taking a gamble. He can always find a way of doing the GCSE in a year if he has to and then the BTEC. Life isn't as linear as we want!

All I could find were the past papers when I googled the board and the exam. I'll add 'specification' into my google search in the morning! Thank you.

Brilliant, found recommended GCSE revision guide. Honestly, the teacher was so spiky and unhelpful, we were basically saying we would spend the next week getting as up to speed as possible and all he would say was he could 'maybe give some printouts of OHP's he'd done once the course started' and I just found an exam board endorsed BOOK. It's a very rugby school and we are not a rugby family anymore so I don't think we 'fit' his idea of sporty even though DS has competed in national competitions. Never mind we will get through and hopefully do better for our FFS we'll show you attitude!

The school have asked prospective History students to buy a particular textbook. It's £26 No wonder the school want us to buy it. It was published recently so second hand copies are going to be few & far between.

Mrs Slant I would also recommend looking at the specification as this will cover all aspects of the GCSE.
I agree that it's worth giving it a try. If it's your DS passion, he will do well.

kitten grade boundaries for Cambridge igcse don't come out for weeks. Am not sure how potential remarks are decided upon. Teachers have the raw marks for each paper and the ums so perhaps it's a question of teachers looking at the cohort as a whole and ums scores to see if any papers should be remarked.

Doesn't seem a very helpful or positive attitude MrsSlant by that particular teacher. I hope your DS does do the trial.

We have decided to get DS's English Language 'reviewed', as he is one mark from an A, so the risk of dropping to a B is unlikely. Isn't it funny how different teachers make such a difference to a pupils learning and experience? There's ones such as MrsSlants* as above, and there's DS's English teacher, who turned him from a B/C going in Y11 to 2 x A's, goes over and above every time and has enthused and motivated DS to reach his potential.

We emailed her yesterday, expecting a response when term restarts, and I had an email back within 2 hours, suggesting it was indeed a good idea to review.

If folk need to know, AQA charge £34.50 for a review.

We have been given the 'agenda' for the first few days back in sixth form, but no textbook suggestions.

MrSlant- what level BTec does your son want to do?

Thanks Shanghai. That's useful to know.

MrSlant, good for you. That teacher knows nothing about your ds.

No book recommendations or anything here yet.

Shanghai If you've got the UMS I don't think you need to see any published grade boundaries. Because the whole point of UMS is that they always correspond to the same grades every year. If the ones you're looking at are out of 100 the the boundary for an A is 90, 80 for an A, etc. You might need to multiply up a bit of, say, they've done 4 papers equally weighted, and the UMS is out of 400 (would then be 360 for an A etc)

The independent school that I asked about a late application for DS has come back saying potentially yes. Think they must have had a last minute drop out as they normally fill their spaces very easily. DS would still prefer his original first choice, so I'll have to confirm with them on Tuesday once we hear from them. But he'd prefer the independent over his back up sixth form so could mean a last minute interview next week, then they start back on Friday

It's a bit scary that the next stage is coming so quickly! So much focus on the results, then BAMM! it's college.

Anyone else's dc very flat at the moment?

I would imagine there are a fair few who think sports science btec may be a bit of a doss, so perhaps that teacher was just trying to make the point that it isn't.

DS was very flat and quiet yesterday OYBBK and didn't get up until 11am. I think he was catching up on the sleep he missed Wednesday night! He's excited today though as he's celebrating with his best friends. They are lovely girls and despite the fact that their grades were considerably higher than DS, they are very proud of him and don't make him feel any less clever than they are with their A*s and As!

He'd refused to do much planning for sixth form as apparently he was worried he would jinx things and not get the grades he needed so its great to be able to start thinking about it properly now! Can you believe that the week after next our DC will be studying A levels (or equivalent!) this seemed such a long time ago when we first joined the Year 11 thread last summer.