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.

Well it's now Friday & the only evidence of any revision prep is the 2 sheets of geography from last w/e. He assured us he would do at least 30 mins a day & write an intro & notes for his history CA. He has at least been reasonably active, sport & some paid work, but he could have had an easy 5 hours revision prep under his belt & been ahead of the game without hardly noticing. He will now have to do this ( if he does at all) after a school day on top of his revision / hwk
Any gentle reminding from me has been met with a roar & I honestly feel like I don't want to engage any further with him over it. I wish he would accept help, grrr.

To be honest, if his mocks aren't till after Christmas I'm not really surprised he's not revising yet. I assumed they would do all their revising in the Christmas holidays. You can't really sustainably revise all year for exams in May and June or you'd be bored beyond belief.

My son is in the same position but has two science tests early next week so will at least have to learn for them.

Well Ive decided to bow out of any more gentle reminders. I told dd about the website that was recommended earlier and dd went crazy. Accused me of saying/thinking that she is going to do badly. She's literally being shouting at me on and off for three days.

Apparantly she's been predeicted Bs and she appears to think that means she will get Bs without revising. Me pointing out that the prediction is based on her revising is met with derision. She doesn't want to get As, she's actually not bothered if she gets Cs, she's top of the class and has been getting As in tests already so why would she possibly need to work.

I am not goi g to mention school or revising be tween now and the end of time. If she fails the lot then so be it.

She has a verbal exam which counts towards her GCSE on Tuesday and as far as I'm aware she hasn't yet written the speech she has to read/debate. Done no reading on the topic.

She's on her own.

Pickachu is your DD a twin of my DS? I feels so frustrated, no revision, no efforts, I decided to stop mentioning it.

I keep reminding myself that years ago my step mother had the same problem with her ds and he's now doing a PhD. But she said it was really frustrating especially when he did really well at gcses without revising. She was worried he'd Ben the same for a levels. Can't remember if he revised for those or no but he didn't for his gcses.

Just trying to get some revision prep in place sunset to get some sort of work ethic in place as I know that for an unmotivated Ds revision during Christmas hols will amount to a quick flick over non existent notes on the last night of the hols. For my diligent, organised dad I wouldn't dream of trying to organise her now, it's horses for courses.

Dd! No idea how my dad did

I do understand. My DS seems extraordinarily unmotivated but I reckon if I try to get him to do too much too early it will just lead to too much tension. Oh for a diligent organised child.

Just been revising some Biology with DS who has been very ill (and will take a long time to get back to normal) - he has "mocks" in 2 weeks (used for predicted grades) and is not going to be ready for them. Hopefully there will be some leeway.

BUT I was most impressed by how well-presented his work is in his book. This was the boy who did scribbly bits of work on paper previously, so he is obviously making an effort.

I agree - if they don't want to listen/get support, you have to just leave them to it. Very hard, but it is their life.

I think DD is relatively motivated and prepared, I hope this attitude lasts until June! Her half term is this coming week, and she's vowed to start revising for January mocks after half term, so is currently learning her Latin set poems and making notes, and getting her homework done so that she will be ready for going back. I hope she can handle all of this, I'm proud of how much effort she's putting in so far. All of her half term report working at grades were As and As with the exception of Physics, a B. She wants all A, so is hoping to gain as many marks in the Controlled Assessments as possible, but that's hard as the school have decided to cram them all in this term
Hope all DCs are having/have had a stress free and productive half term

Just catching up ... ds is on holiday this week with friends so although I've been worrying about how he's managing without plenty of alone down time, I've not been thinking about school too much.

He's finished his physics CA, almost finished chemistry, done the first part of the history one. He has a German speaking assessment when they go back to school on Monday, and a drama assessed performance on Thursday. So I'm really hoping he gets back tomorrow well rested and raring to go, rather than getting back knackered with the effort of being sociable all week!

We went to see a huge sixth form college. He wasn't going to talk to anyone there, but we had a wander round a couple of classrooms, and listened to the principal's talk. (In fact we went into the maths room, and one of the maths teachers asked him if he'd like to talk to some current students, and he just shook his head and walked straight out of the room. I talked to a very nice helpful student though.) And then on the way home he talked about how he was definitely going to apply there and atm preferred it to his current school, and which A levels he might do.

He's done all of his online application apart from the little personal statement/tell us a bit about yourself page.

Had a school report just before half term which was good, he was happy with all his "currently working at" grades. Mocks in December.

Sympathy/empathy to those whose kids are having a less than optimal time. Only a few more months! Tilly I hope your son is on his way to recovery (that's Harry Potter style healing chocolate).

Good luck to all those with controlled assessments and/or mocks when they're back next week

Hope he's feeling better tilly &. That he gets the leeway he needs

Thanks, sunshine It is not something that will be quickly fixed, but hopefully babysteps....

Sorry to hear your ds has been ill bigTilly. Wishing him as speedy a recovery as possible.

It is so hard. Just found out my DS did one hour of revision each day of maths only, even though his mocks are starting when he gets back to school. I had a look at GetRevising and thought it was really good, but he was very underwhelmed and said it would take more time keeping it up to date than actually doing the work. However he has promised to look at the revision aids with me later, they were excellent.

I wish I was like some of you and able to say nothing. I try but the words of frustration and disappointment come out before I even realise. Well a new term starts tomorrow, I am sure it will be fine. The battle continues.........

Thanks Little. And Atia - somehow missed the choc

DS hasn't really done anything either - mocks in a week, but not sure if he will sit them/some. Must look at the GetRevising link!

Well I'm truely at the end of my tether with dd. Ive said nothing over half term after the last melt down/outburst.

I haven't seen her do any work and I know she's been playing on the computer.

So she comes down crying this evening saying she wants to kill herself, doesn't want to go back to school as she can't cope with all the workload. So I gave her some reassuring general mumblings along the lines of breaking it down into small bits or you'll get overwhelmed with the bigger picture. That this was a hard year but it would all soon be over and how it would be very silly to kill herself over exams.

She says she's got outstanding, art, graphic, English and RS. Alarm bells started ringing as the English is for a proper exam which counts towards her final grade and will be on Weds. She needs to do a speech and hasn't written it yet.

She says she will do it Monday/Tuesday evening. I offered to help her with it this evening and she just cried even more saying she feels ill, can't breath, feels like puking and is having flushes.

She has been poorly with Vit d deficiency and anemia but really annoyingly when we went back to the Drs on Friday for a three monthly blood test she refused to have it done. Was totally hysterical. So I don't have much sympathy for her feeling ill right now. I have no idea if she's still anaemic....she shouldn't be after three months of meds but we now have no idea if treatment is working.

I asked her what she's been doing this week and apparantly she's spent days doing her btec dance book! She has no idea about prioritising the important stuff. She doesn't like dance, only chose it because it beat getting cold/wet of she did PE. She had to do one or the other.

So she could have spent this week doing her English but no, has fucked about doing dance.

I just don't know what to do. I'm frustrated but more than that I want to stop her being so upset/hysterical/saying she wants to kill herself and don't know what I can say to help?

I just can't believe she thinks it's fine to leave the speech writing until the day before the bloody exam.

I veer between wanting to shake her and scream and not wanting to put her under pressure when she seems so upset. But is she really under so much pressure if she isn't working? Might she just be sticking her head in the sand to try and pretend it's not happening?

I'm kind of hoping she fails her mocks to put a boot up her bum!

DD has a writing assessment on Thursday. How much revision did he do? None! I'm losing it!

Oh dear. I sympathise. Was talking to a friend who has a dd in sixth form and she said her dd was the same in year 11 but did ok. Managed to pull it out the bag every time.

I meant DS bloody phone keeps correcting me.

I hope he pulls it out of the bag. I do hope so...

Well I'm glad to see that it's not only my two that haven't been revising this half term . Even my usually self motivated DD has done sweet FA. To be fair I did take them away for a few days - they didn't want to go - but that's another thread.

We've got the mock timetable, thankfully this side of Christmas - I think Jan mocks will make Christmas hols very stressful for some of you. DT1 has all three science exams (paper 2, triple science) on the same day - is this usual, seems completely crazy to me. Why not spread it out a bit.

Oh my god bigsandy I just realised you have twins! I am not sure I could cope with two DCs taking GCSEs this year, you just became my hero!

Miracle: I caught DS revising last night! I went into his room expecting him to be on his console and prepared to mock him for his hard work and I was left speechless.

Me too fleur ! He was prepped & v pleased with himself for his CA this morning. I was very good & didn't point out how he was enjoying the organised feeling. He needs to realise it himself & carry it through to the next stage fingers xed.