Starting Y11 support thread

[AtiaoftheJulii]

(Yeah, I'm procrastinating ....)

For all those with one or two (or more?) offspring going into year 11: controlled assessments, coursework, practicals, performances, GCSE revision (or not ...), being guinea pigs for the Maths and English 1to9 exams, choosing what to do next - schools/sixth form colleges/college/apprenticeships/BTECs/A levels and more - and generally being 15!

It's a tough year academically - in some ways harder than sixth form I think because there are just so many subjects and exams - and a tough year emotionally - not always mature enough to organise themselves, too old to have organisation imposed upon them!

Ds still has an MFL CA, a couple of science practical CAs, and two assessed drama performances, plus coursework to do for History I think. I can't see there's going to be much let up and he's definitely feeling the pressure I think he'll probably end up staying at his school for 6th form (he's very mathsy and his school is a good fit) but we may well look at a couple of sixth form colleges as he's already talking about whether he can go somewhere that won't feel quite so pushy.

Do your 6th form or college choices have set hours, like school (9-3ish) or do students just go in for their particularly lessons?

DDs current school 6th form is a structured day, year 12s are expected to be there 9-3, think they're allowed out for lunch. If they aren't in a lesson then they are supposed to study at school. They relax it in year 13.

Local colleges only want them in for their lessons, or sport if they're into that.

I'm trying to convince DD that the structure of 6th form would suit her personality far better than ad hoc college hours. I doubt she'd even get up and go if I'd already left for work, but maybe I'm under-estimating her and she'll grow up a bit between now and then

DC school expect them in for registration but they can sign out early if they have no lessons, although if they fall behind the frees become supervised study periods.

DS school has a timetable, they are expected in every day, they have supervised study times included in the timetable but I don't know all the details of it, so not sure if they can/cannot leave early on days when they don't have late lessons or what the deal is. They are assessed every 4-6 weeks in order to decide if they are keeping up and if they are not there will be an intervention. That is all I know at the moment.

ds school lets you do 4 for 1 year then 3 (if I have understood this correctly). just gives a bit more choice for ds, who is not sure what he wants to do.

DDs school are not offering AS levels, but you can start with 4 then drop 1 in the first term so you have a chance to try 4 subjects then drop the one you like least.

DS 6th form eve on November 10th. Not sure what to expect really. He has expressed no interest in looking anywhere else though, as all his friends want to do A levels at the school too.

DS has done no revision at all for his mocks. His dad has been asking him to produce a revision timetable for about 2 weeks now and all he has come up with is a spreadsheet with 2 subjects under each weekday heading and 20 mins written beside each subject. Not that he has done that though!

He has, however, been in a very strange place these last few days. Exhausted, low mood and decreased appetite. He has a history of MH problems (self harm and 2x overdoses and antidepressants in Year 9/10) but hasn't self harmed for about a year now and has been so much better.

I had a sneak at his phone last night (a legacy from those horrible days...) and he said to his (new) girlfriend that he just wanted to cry and was trying hard not to 'do something stupid'

It's so hard to know how hard to push the revision stuff. When he is like this he really can't be bothered with anything and has no motivation to do anything school related. But we all know how important it is.

I am just hoping that it is a tiredness thing and half term will help him feel better. Luckily they broke up today so have a nice long break

I have also discovered a programme called 'Get Revising' . You input the GCSE's they are studying, the exam boards and create a revision timetable. You can blank out any times where you know they can't revise (football training for e.g.) and really tailor make it to fit in with your life. Each subject is broken down into topics and each topic has loads of links to revision resources. You can access past exam papers and questions and it looks like it is going to be a godsend for ds. He literally cannot organise his time so I am really hoping this gives him a bit of structure to it all. Just to know when to approach him about it as it takes about an hour to input all the data they need, and we really need to do it together....

Hello all, not sure how I missed this thread, I think I was in denial and skated over the Yr11 thread title.

I feel very at sea over the whole 6th Form entry thing, and have as yet no grip over the whole timetable of CAs and mocks.
DS appears not to be attending any of the revision or catch up sessions that his school have lovingly provided .

pasanda it must be so hard for you! that must be really hard...

I think it puts things into perspective for a lot of moaning concerned parents like myself and I think you DC's mental health is much more important than any GCSEs revision and grades. At the same time it must be hard for you to find a middle ground, to keep his mental health in check but also not letting go of exams stuff.

pasanda Tell him to take it steadily. Health is the most important thing. It really worries me how much some teens feel the pressure at school in year 11.

Pasanda, your poor boy. I hope half term provides a window.

Pasanda I hope your DS will be able to get his mental health under control, Year 11 is such a stressful year and in DD's case, the teachers are cramming in the controlled assessments now to try and get them out of the way, which naturally makes all the children overworked and stressed! Hopefully half term will be a good break for your DS

DD has a trial 6th form day where they have had to chose 5 subjects (1 each in 5 blocks) to have a lesson on that day. Decisions, Decisions!! She has now chosen them as she knows they are just 'taster' lessons to see what it's all about. She has chosen BTEC Sport, History, Geography, Psychology and , Business BTEC. They also offer Applied Science - what exactly is this?

Pasanda I hope your DS gets on top of things soon. I think this has been a very hard half term with all the work and mocks they are doing coupled with the nights drawing in and generally becoming more dismal. My DD has been absolutely exhausted and has been taking a nap after school every night.

tapdancingmum DS has A levels trial lessons in June, I assume that means they can still change their mind on enrolling after GCSEs, otherwise what is the point of trial after the application is submitted. Applied science - ds's school offers it also, from what I can gather is more to do with forensics as a career path, one of the module from what I remember is called science in the modern world and they are quoting forensics as a future career path.

I am in fact amazed at the amount of courses they offer for A levels, including business studies as an A level or BTec, music, art, theatre studies, sports academy, photography, there is something for everyone.

Thanks for the supportive messages. He is generally a different child to 18 months ago but I totally agree with the sentiment that the mental health of our children should come way before any GCSE result.

DS went to the Arsenal match last night with his dad (and is chuffed they won 6-0 ) but couldn't sleep. Woke at 5am and was on his PS4 at 7.30am.

I now have the task of getting him off it to discuss the revision programme I mentioned upthread.

Joy!

pasanda really glad to hear things are improved & totally empathise with the feeling of just keeping them happy & healthy as although we didn't have things as frightening as you had, I really felt we were on that path. I'm so careful all the time to tread the path of keeping him happy & level & wanting to be a good parent in ever reminding him the importance of these exams & that he really will need to work for it. Glad he had a fun night, I think the gaming is a way for them to switch off but of course it's so stimulating too. Am going to look at the revision plan, sounds great, I then gave to find a subtle way of introducing ds to it which makes him think it was his idea all along!
We have yet to go to an open day & mocks are January so I'm feeling behind the curve here. Ds did tell me he has a history CA after half term though. I wish the school would inform us.

My DD has already done her history CA and has had two 'mocks' for maths this week (I think they do these on a regular basis) and a Citizenship exam. Inset day tomorrow so she is coming to work with me to play with my littlies - I run a pre school and we are off to Forest School with marshmallows and chocolate biscuits. She is so looking forward to sleeping next week.

Pasanda Great score from Arsenal - bet he was really chuffed he went.

Fleurdelise - That was my take on it - don't think she will be choosing to do this.

It's all been a bit of a blur! History CA tomorrow, Biology mock last week, French oral ... Roll on half term!

DS has been on a school trip this week and half term next week. After that he has a CA in French on the 3rd November, chemistry ISA on the 8th November and then two full weeks of mocks starting 14th November. Basically November is a write off month for anything else except GCSEs.

I hope all those of you with mocks after half term have a relatively stress free break, difficult as everybody's dcs are so tired. I'm going to be in your unenviable position over the Christmas hols
Ds is enjoying the lack of hwk, disagrees that this is to allow them the time to revise

readyforsunshine YABU of course, no homework measure is in place to give them more time to play on consoles.

For all we know our DCs are probably online playing FIFA together and laughing their heads off at the nagging their parents are doing.

got emailed dd's mock timetable yesterday - they start on Nov 25th - she can't remember which subject is in each option block though so still no idea when her exams actually are!

She's had a weird week - birthdays, funeral, school trip, & two days off school - not much work has been done and away tonight & tomorrow. She's been doing about 45 mins of tassomai a day, lots of home work & she's done revision cards for history, geography and most of biology. There's no way she'll have gone through all her subjects before mocks - she wants to finish biology, do chemistry & some maths over half term ... I think that's ambitious!

DS looked a 'Get Revising' today and was actually impressed and positive!!! (I nearly fainted but kept it together )

I must say, it is a fantastic programme and even if you don't use the revision planner - which we started but didn't finish as it was quite time consuming - there are so many resources on there it's great. It will print out revision cards, mind maps, etc and ds printed out P4 and P5 for his Physics mocks today. He even asked to go to Smiths tomorrow to get EIGHTEEN folders to put the print outs into, and some revision cards! Again, I nearly fainted!

Anyway, I thoroughly recommend at least taking a look because it's really difficult to get any enthusiasm out of my ds but this was relatively successful

Love that site Pasanda, thanks.

Dd has a speaking English GCSE exam after half term. She can choose any subject and has to speak on it. She hasn't started writing the speech yet and declines all offers of help!

It is a great site pasanda I buckled & told Ds about it in a straightforward conversational way, naturally he eye rolled yeah yeahed in return. However, he did then print off a whole 2 pages of geography revision cards which are still sitting in the kitchen. It may be some time before his coloured folders see any action
Aside from a rugby match this w/e the Xbox has had a good hammering, he has also been catching up on his lying n his bed time.
fleur I don't know wether to laugh or cry at that! I was just really struggling to keep my cool this w/e. I've been working & I really struggle with his lack of work ethic, it's so frustrating to me. He has agreed with Dh to do just half an hour a day of revision prep, along with the prep for his i story CA watch this space...

Pasanda many thanks for recommending this site. I forwarded it to my DD and had a look at it myself - looks very useful! I hope your DS is better and has decided to work hard and do well (sounds like he may have had a think about it).