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 done to her pointy hopefully you can both relax a bit & think about Christmas.
So far Ds has manage to fulfil 3 revision sessions from his self made calendar in the last 10 days. I'm definitely not going to need to remind him to allow himself enough downtime
The school have assigned him a mentor & he has the headmaster he was delighted to find that this means he gets a drink & biscuits
However on the plus side his CAs & Islas have gone well, As & A* level. Maybe he quietly does have things under control?

He might well do, you just can't tell how much goes in
And they will be doing lots of exam stuff at school too.

Last day of mocks! So far it's gone okay apart from maths (particularly the first paper) - maths paper three might've gone quite well (dd said it was question 18 before she started thinking WTAF whereas usually it is about number 7 ).

I'm picking her up from school & we're going straight over to my sister's birthday party which will be fun. DD's final assessment for drama is on Wednesday - she's off timetable all day but will also have to stay in late on Monday & Tuesday nights ... so looking forward to the Christmas holiday.

Fingers crossed for your DD, Laniakea. Hope she enjoys her downtime, it's so important.

thanks pointy :)

she just texted me (she never does that) with a thank fuck it's over ... both physics & history were really hard, thinks she managed the physics okay but who knows with history. That's the first time I'm ever heard her say that about anything other than maths - fingers crossed that means she's getting less complacent!

(just read that back - what I mean is that she's never actually cared that an exam was hard, everything has always been okay no matter how badly she did!)

DS starts his 2 weeks of mocks this week and is sort of revising, but I am on the case (AGAIN!!). His has had his maths results and achieved a total score of 97. I don't know how worried I should be, I have emailed his maths teacher because DS said that nobody got over 100 and the maths teacher said that was fine.

He did the edexcel test. Does anyone know if that is a reasonable score. He is in set 1 and predicted a level 8.

Should I be looking for a tutor?

More maths questions...sorry

Dd was marked 44 and 38 for the two non-calculator edexcel foundation papers and 39 for the calculator paper.

She asked her teacher what grade she put down for her sixth form applications and was told a 3 after she was asked what her predicted grade was (4).

Does this seem about right? dd had good results and feel the revision is having good results. Just feel a bit flummoxed about how to help more with maths.

DD has her French speaking controlled assessment tomorrow and is desperate for an A* after having a panic and meltdown in her last one she's revised a lot and really deserves it, I honestly hope she can keep it together and deliver tomorrow.

wine DD1's marks were 62/62/66 so a total of 190/240. That was marked as an 8 but with the proviso that nobody knows what an 8 looks like. Because nobody has a clue where the grade boundaries will be and it will all be graded on a curve, the way the yanks do it. She's considered one of the top 5 pupils in her year and they all got similar scores in their mocks. It's horrendous the way things have been left hanging.

Queen sending good vibes to your DD. My DD did both French speaking CAs last year but nearly mucked up her second one because she had forgotten the deadline - cue major, major panic attack with some mild self harm.
We talked her down and spent the 36 hours she had working to prepare and she nailed it. Hope your DD has it easier. It's so stressful.

Re the Maths, DD scores were 54/50/64 and graded 6/6/7 apparently. With the same disclaimer that no one really knows what the grades will look like. DD is top set at a high performing comp, but is middle of the class.
I say apparently because we should get a written confirmation of this tomorrow.

I don't know dd's marks yet but chatted to her teacher at 6th form evening* & they said they would have 50-55 (depending on the spread of marks) as the bottom of 7.

So quite a lot of variation between school & no-one really knows.

(also they've changed the entry requirements for phys and chem A level to a level 6 from a level 7 for GCSE maths which kind of implies they aren't expecting great results)

Idefix the grade boundaries I've seen would put a total mark of 121 on the foundation paper as a 3. However, this would obviously come with lots of caveats as we have no idea really. If she is predicted a 4 in the real thing then this should be doable so long as she works hard and revises effectively.

My DS is good at maths, predicted a level 8. He said the first non calc test "wasn't too bad". His teacher said he "did well" with a score of 40/80 (he's in set 1b, highest result was 44). From what other people have in pp, that would give him a result well below an 8! I'm a bit worried now!

A lot of thinking re higher grade boundaries would put 50% at the high end of a 6 (obviously it would depend what he got on the other two papers, and would vary between exam boards).

It's going to be very difficult to guess where the 8 will fall as no one knows where the 9 will be, and the 8 will be halfway between the 7 and 9, wherever that ends up.

Still, there's plenty of time to go and it's all still to play for. Just cross your fingers that the most selective independent schools decide to do IGCSE this year.

It's pretty unfortunate that they get to be in effect guinea pigs for what are pretty much the two most important subjects! Dc is most worried about English, so if he hasn't done as well as expected in maths which he's always found pretty easy, then he's going to be really anxious about it all!

Thank you noble this reassuring, really difficult having no comparisons. What really concerns me is dd had the second highest marks and revised a lot. They still have some of the curriculum left to go.

Dd needs a 4 for sixth form place so this will be a good motivator.

Hi noblegiraffe. I am so confused by these new grade boundaries and not following the conversation very well. Can you please explain to me in simple terms why it is not known what the score will be for each grade will be until after the exam and how will we know if our DC's are on target if we don't know what the target is. Also what assistance are schools being given to get the kids through the new style exam, which focuses on problem solving rather than answering the question. Is there anything I should be doing to help my DS?

DS started his mocks today. He has done some revision - not as much as I'd consider ideal but any is more than he did at the end of y10, so we're looking on the bright side and being encouraging

He had a German listening mock on Friday (because originally the French, German and Spanish listening exams had all been scheduled at the same time in the same room, lol) - but went to it straight after a 3 and a half hour maths thing and found it somewhat difficult to concentrate!

I've got a crappy cold (I was the last or penultimate person in our office to go down with it) and youngest dd has got it today, so I'm really hoping that ds doesn't succumb to it this week - fingers crossed xx

Ah hope the exams go okay Atia & he stays well (& you feel better quickly!)

Mines - I think (someone correct me please!) they will set the grade boundaries to ensure the same percentage of entrants get 7/8/9 as previously got A/A* ... so until the exam has been marked the examiners won't know where the boundaries lie. I'm not sure if the are doing the same thing with 4/5 and the % of Cs?

DD's French speaking went really well today so now she should have 30% of her GCSE. Now revision for January mocks begins - yay

Yay pour la Princesse de Quirkiness! Good to hear

Re the 7/8/9 thing - they're also saying what percentage of the 7+ people will get 9s, aren't they?

good news Queen

Didn't know that re the 9 Atia (I haven't paid much attention to anything above 7 ). I wonder if they are doing that for English too.

They peer marked their B1 papers today - dd was not happy, she's asked the teacher to remark hers (it was significantly & entirely unexpectedly much lower than anticipated). I'll save the bollocking until it has been properly marked! She also said they were doing really easy stuff in maths today - I think that means they've glanced at the papers & it was a disaster all around [pessimist]

Just got dds mocks timetable for January. She has a clash which she'll need to resolve, one clear day and one clear except for Games(compulsory).