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.

Liz, hope she manages to sort out something that she enjoys.

How is everybody hanging on? DS started his mocks yesterday, found biology easy and thinks he did really well, maths really hard and thinks he did pretty bad. No way to know till the results but he heard the maths teachers talking and stating it will be bad results across the board, apparently all the pupils were talking about how hard it was.

We'll just have to wait and see.

Good luck to Ds with the rest fleur
I had an email from maths teacher saying it was expected to be tough & how important early revision will be, links to revision & suggestions of how to go about it. Also, to let us know there will be a tracker on thurs in case we are unaware, ha! im v concerned that he is in a group of lower ability due to his behaviour in year 9. I brought up my concerns at year 10 parent eve, he always gets high test marks & had a good predicted mark, but lacks focus, I was assured he was in correct class. The revision work his class has been set is level 4 & 5. I'm pretty sure he was working at gcse grade c old money in year 6, going to email today.

Thank you ready! I am really frustrated regarding maths as DS had a predicted 9 based on the cat test in year 7 and while I understand he won't necessarily achieve that with the level of effort he puts in it looks like intervention early on should be the answer. He asked about extra classes but he was told to use a revising website. Which of course he won't.

well, no idea what ds does, revision wise. Seems to be on his mobile a lot.
He did mention he would do a biology lunchtime class. Not the other sciences as they are at the same time as running club (you have to get your priorities right...)

Oh and to show how schools can influence your DCs development, DS went from his favourite subject being Maths and English his weakest to exactly the other way around since year 7. He gets fantastic results in English (got 8 in last year's mocks!!!) and drops in maths by the day, 6 in last year's mocks.

I am quite disappointed as I think it is the school who got him into this situation, he keeps repeating the school made him hate maths.

good luck with the rest of the mocks Fleur!

We have a similar situation with maths - dd's target grade is an 8, she's currently predicted a 6. She had a terrible time in year 10 (went from the 8 down to a 6) ... absolutely hates maths now & completely lacks confidence. She's working so hard on it - got a 7 in the last mock (was the highest of the non-8/9 kids) and has been at a 7+ all term in class work & tests but is still predicted that bloody 6. She doesn't like her teacher & has a terrible attitude tbh.

They've all been told that the school are expecting really bad maths results. Honestly if the mock is a disaster despite all her work I doubt she'll ever be motivated to try again. Aaaarrrggghhhh!

She's off today - she's got a cold but is mostly skiving. House matches mean she's only missing one lesson & she's been sitting with her maths & French books for hours so probably time better spent than shivering on a hockey pitch.

Same here Laniakea, he had some teachers that he couldn't/wouldn't get along with throughout time and it all went downhill. He was a 7 last year, now his prediction changed to a 6. It is quite annoying to see the "predicted grade" based on CAT test 9, realistic predicted grade at current A2L next to it a 6.

At least your DD is working hard, DS has given up I think...

Fleurdelise, definetely. In fact choice of several GCSE subjects were made with possible teachers in mind!

Ds hasn't been to school since Thursday (they could have hung out yesterday Laniakea!) - but had been revising (and doing housework ). I'm giving him a lift today (not quite all the way to school, but nearby) and he's already up, so that's good. At some point I think we're going to have to deal with an EWO.

Well we're in the thick of mocks here, DD has History & Maths today. We managed to head off an anxiety attack last night, & she's got up this morning with a pretty positive attitude (said she's glad they're in the same day as usually she would be stressing about maths but instead she's worrying about History as it's one of her A2 choices).
Meanwhile I am acting as unpaid taxi service so she's there for the 9.05am start in a relatively stress free state (unlike the service bus which gets caught in traffic & DDs friends will be stressing each other out).
Thank God for my sympathetic manager at work as I am rolling in at about 9:15 instead of my usual 8:30!

ds has mocks soon. I think they are squashing them in at a rate of two a day. Better get some food treats in!

He doesn't stress too much about most exams. English is the one he worries about as it isn't quite so predictable.

Dd has French speaking today, so she told me last night! Not much progress on options so far.

I sent her in today - still a bit snotty but she's got a prom committee meeting which is obviously more important than anything else

They should've done Atia dd was at Tesco spending the rest of her birthday money on junk food (motivation apparently) at about 2, I could've sent her around! Hope he made it in okay today.

DD's mocks start next Friday (maths first of course), 6th form option evening is on Thursday & she's got drama on Tuesday night.

Hope French (Liz) & mocks (error & Fleur) go okay :)

So today I had an interesting email exchange with the head of ICT. DS has been asked to attend a 2 hours after school intervention group as he is behind in his computer science course work which I have of course reinforced at home asking him to ensure he does attend. He went last week and told me his entire class was there. I asked him if he is in a lower ability class and he said they are not setted, so no ability as such, it is the entire class that is behind.

I couldn't believe this as of course that would reflect on the teacher, wouldn't it? So I decided to email the head of the department to check and it appears that DS is correct, the entire class is behind.

I am now quite annoyed with the situation, surely this reflects on the teacher doesn't it? How can a whole class be behind in their course work? I've asked the head of ICT to clarify but I am not sure if I should take this further to the head teacher?

Laniakea - thanks for the good wishes. They were very effective here, & DD has been chilled enough to go to 1 (of the 5) dance class tonight. Biology tomorrow, but after poor teaching for most of Y10 they are behind the other group so I share your pain Fleurdelise.
Re ICT, surely worth asking how this has happened, and why parents weren't informed the whole class is behind.

Glad to hear it went well today error :)

Fleur we had similar for geography - dd's whole class had to spend a week of lunchtimes 'polishing' their fieldwork write-ups (still haven't managed to get their grades despite the other classes all knowing theirs). They had a really weird teacher - didn't 'believe' in homework (they didn't have a single piece in year 10), predicted everyone in the class a B regardless of ability & managed to cover only 2 of the 6 modules that year. Thankfully this year's teacher is better but they are way behind (this was a subject dd was considering for A level but not anymore).

She's feeling rotten tonight - had 4 pieces of homework so she only managed half an hour of French revision - gone to bed now. Prom planning is going well though ... though stalemate on the issue of what colour the leaver's hoodies should be!

Dd1 got to choose the colour both times (y11 and y13). I don't remember them being any more expensive than dd2's (everyone's were black), but maybe there was a pound or two difference.

When dd2 started y11 the school told them that they had covered less than half the triple science syllabus and they put on after school lectures twice a week. Such a massive cock up. Will be interesting to see what the ICT head says Fleur

Good luck with mocks and assessments and revision to all in need of it! And soothing vibes and to all parents in need

Ds was muttering all weekend about having lost a pair of trousers (he went on a theatre trip last Thursday and they could take their own clothes to change into - he's mislaid a bag of trousers, shirt and tie). This morning he realised his school shoes were also in the bag. Ffs. So he went to school in brown trainers (form tutor emailed me saying not to worry about the shoes, that "the best thing is that he's here and it’s lovely to see him" - I don't know whether to think this is lovely or to roll my eyes massively!) and I took him to Tesco tonight for new black shoes. He's positive dh or I have hidden or thrown away his carrier bag. I think it's rather more likely that he just left it on the bloody coach!

Roll on the weekend ...

Well DS is making it even harder by "forgetting" to go to the intervention class today. The head off didn't get back to me after telling him it is concerning the whole class is behind and asking if there is a reason for it, either he didn't see my email or he thought "gosh, she's one of those parents". But I genuinely need to understand why have they just realised now an entire class is behind and why is the same teacher still teaching them.

I have also emailed the head of maths (yeah, I was on a roll ) to understand the predicted grading and the progress check. She sounded quite depressed about the new grading, stating that unfortunately compared to last year when they had 30 A* in maths this year they think only around 10 pupils will achieve a 9 out of the 260 pupils in total. She agreed DS could push for a 7 but needs to apply himself more.

Anybody needs to apply for sixth form soon? We need to submit the interest form next week.

No one's going to be expecting lots of 9s though - 10/260 is probably reasonable, or on the high side. As long as they get roughly another 20 8s I wouldn't consider that worse than last year.

tbh I'd be surprised if more than 2 or 3 got 9s at dd's school. They aren't predicting any level 9s. They seem to get a couple of students a year who get 11+ A*s & A^ for maths - I think the 9s are only for kids like that.

(dd's English teacher last year very helpfully said that dd should get 8s in English but couldn't suggest what needed to be done to improve to 9s since that was for private school kids ). The maths department seem beyond depressed tbh and I'll hanging be out the bunting if dd gets a 7!

I'd be happy for a 7 also, both in English and Maths, don't think DS will achieve it thought with the current effort levels.

no school again today :( I'm losing sympathy. Have printed out the specimen maths papers to have a go at - she hates me.

Oh no Laniakea! If there is any consolation I think DS hates all the time, I often wonder how will our relationship be when he's an adult and how much damage did the teenage years have done.

Saw dd HOY last night at a school function and even he seemed confused and didn't know what subjects had been withdrawn. It sounds like most have chosen 4 full A levels but will drop one. However this was really just a snapshot for the school's planning purposes so could change again in Feb.