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.

Yay for Princess Quirk! That's another one in the bag for her.

And good luck to everyone whose DCs are just starting mocks - spoil them rotten over Christmas.

minesawine grade boundaries are never set until after children have sat the exam because how children performed on the exam is used to set the boundaries - essentially children are expected to perform roughly as expected given their KS2 profile, so if they do worse, grade boundaries are lowered because the paper must have been hard, and if they do better as a cohort, then they are raised as the paper must have been easy (remember this is averaged over thousands of pupils so individual pupils can still overachieve or crash and burn).

Usually, when teachers are preparing students for their GCSEs they use past papers for the mocks and grade the students against the grade boundaries assigned to that paper, to get an good idea of what they're likely to get in the real thing.

However, the new GCSEs are very different to the old GCSEs. The questions are harder, there is more content and the entire grading system is different (9-1 instead of A*-C). Students are consequently performing much worse, percentage wise on the new style papers than they were on the old papers. However, teachers don't know if their students are performing comparatively better/worse/in line with other students around the country on the new papers. Given that the grade boundaries will be set by how the national cohort does, teachers don't know how their students will perform. Every teacher is currently thinking 'have my students scored low in the mocks because it's the new papers and actually they will be fine OR have my students scored low because I've taught the new syllabus badly, and other students around the country are doing much better and so my students are going to fail horribly?'.
The government don't give a crap, so teachers across the country are trying to collaborate and share marks to try to get some idea of how their students are actually doing compared to other schools. Through this, schools are trying to set their own grade boundaries for mocks but they could be way out.

Schools were supposed to allocate extra curriculum time to maths in order to prepare for the new, harder GCSEs but many didn't, so there is a mismatch across the country of how many hours a week of maths students are getting. Some are having an hour of maths every day. My school has 4 hours a week.

What can you do to help your DC prepare? Send them to as many revision classes as the school is offering. Make them do regular online revision starting now. Sign them up to mathswebsite.com for maths tuition videos, or corbettmaths.com for videos, worksheets, practice papers. Buy a revision guide and workbook www.cgpbooks.co.uk/books-gcse-maths-new
Consider buying a GCSE problem-solving book www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Pearson+problem+solving+9-1

Been away from the thread for a while. Lots going on!

Mocks are over here and DS has a few results back. A* in the first chemistry (C4) which is great news, B in physics (apparently 1 mark off an A) But.... this was one of two 'science' papers they sat. The first was on C4, B4 and P4 and the second was on C5, B5 and P5. So in my mind, not really a proper mock because he wasn't tested on C/B/P1-3 and they haven't started C/B/P6 yet. (I hope that makes sense!!)

A D in PE (I didn't see him doing any PE revision at home) and he is now not sure if he wants to do this at A level. He had better decide quickly, deadline for application is Friday!

He is so cool about it all though it is so frustrating! He spends so much time on his phone/PS4 when I think he should revising. There were 3 nights where he 'crammed' and stayed up till midnight (mainly the nights before the science exams). He was really hyped up these nights and it seems it paid off.

However, yesterday I found a packet of 100 caffeine tablets that he has somehow obtained and taken on these nights and he said they helped him to focus and 'be bothered'. And from what I saw, it's true. But I was to find them and have since hidden them away. Not sure what to do really. He says, well 'if you want me to do well, I need to take them'

He has a bit of a history of ingesting things he shouldn't (copper sulphate crystal during a chemistry practical for e.g.!!) and has a very easy relationship with alcohol and, in the past, weed. Plus self harm and 2x overdose in Year 9 It's like he has to find a 'substance', whatever that may be.

Bloody hell, parenting ......

BTW - thank you Noblegiraffe for all the maths info - it really is very much appreciated

No problem :) the post was a bit longer than I intended!

I should add that when I said that grade boundaries are set so that students nationally achieve on the exams what they are expected to achieve, this will go for the new GCSEs too. Ofqual says using KS2 predictions has a protective effect against unfamiliarity with new exam contents and structure. Students who would have achieved an A or above on the old GCSE will (assuming they revise, work hard etc) get a 7 or above on the new one. Students who would have achieved a C or above will achieve a 4 or above, if they perform on the day as they should. The only sticking point with this is that a C is no longer a good pass and students will need to achieve a 5 to properly pass from now on, (although if they get a 4 the government won't make them resit, however their college might).

dd has a coffee habit (with about 5 sugars) - can't say it has much effect on her unfortunately!

Results dribbling in here too - A* for physics & A for biology (just - I'm annoyed with her for not taking it seriously), that's for P1/P2 and B1/B2, haven't got chemistry yet and they didn't sit any of the module 3 papers.

Maths ... weep ... she got 32/80 for the first paper with a stunning 14 marks lost for basic arithmetic errors (e.g. randomly putting down a completely different number to the one she's calculated in the answer space, transposing digits, misreading her own handwriting etc). She's always doing shit like that - I'm so fed up of it. The calculator papers usually go better since being a careless idiot has (slightly) less of an effect.

English speaking and listening next week (she's talking about mushrooms) drama production tomorrow night. Her 16th birthday party on Saturday.

I'm just annoyed with her really. I think she thought half a term of doing a reasonable (ie not ) amount of work would have miraculous results.

gah ... not an excessive amount of work.

You can't really cover all over y10, most of y9 and a term of y11 by doing an extra couple of hours a week of maths.

(she's in the top set of apparently high achieving school - range of marks was 20-41 with two getting 70 something). It is not great.

It is all very concerning
Ds has managed a maximum of 3 half hour slots a week revision so far. I am encouraging & reminding but not enforcing as I'm afraid he'll switch off if I do. I'm dreading the Christmas hols though & I love Christmas

Are people's children already revising for mocks after Christmas? Can't persuade my son that he needs to. I'd be delighted by 3 slots this week. What with concerts, school plays and homework there wouldn't be much time anyway.

sunset DD1 definitely is. It helps that a lot of the homework she is being set is heavily revision-related, but in addition she has a timetable/rota and is sticking to it. She doesn't do massive amounts each day but takes the approach that working through it all keeps it clear in her mind.

DS1 gets all his results on Friday. In an envelope. 🙄

I hate the fact that DD's mocks are straight after Christmas. She is so self-motivated/hard on herself, that she will hardly give herself a break at all. Very frustrating, and I don't want her to overdo it.

DD is now stressing that she doesn't have enough time to prepare for mocks and that the teachers are setting too much homework for her to have time to revise I have an awful feeling she's going to spend the majority of her Christmas holidays in self imposed revision hell
My only comfort is that I know she's going to revise properly, which should hopefully make revising for her real exams less of a strain as she will already have consolidated a lot of the topics
Thanks for the maths website recommendations noblegiraffe

Second wave of mocks for DD1 is mid-February. So I am going to make sure she takes breaks over Christmas.

Thank you noble, your explanation was so clear. I finally get it and will share your comments with DS tonight. I have also put in a call with his teacher. Fingers crossed.

I must admit, I am please ds's mocks were before Christmas (except for one). The thought of trying to get him to revise over the hols would fill me with dread!!

Hello all, how is it all going? Thank you for all the info noble! You are amazing, thank you for helping.

DS has packed up all the revision he was doing as the mocks are done and dusted. Next week we'll receive the results, I hope it won't be too much of a shock... At least he is still going to the extra intervention classes for computer science (2 hours because they are all behind) and also the maths group 1 hour after school. He's planing to join the chemistry group also after Christmas so fingers crossed we'll see some good results.

Good luck with the mocks all the DCs.

Hi again Fleur I hope ds's results are good. Fingers crossed!!

Had a bit of a rant at DS today

He's had his Sixth Form application forms since November 10th. Thursday I asked him to look at them and really read up on the subjects he's interested in as he has changed his mind from his original choices. He could't be bothered.

Last night he went to his gf house till 6.30pm. Came home, went on his phone, had a bath, went on his phone, told me to take his phone away so he could look at the forms. I though, what, surely you must have the self discipline to read and fill in a form directly related to YOUR future without having to have the phone removed. So I left it with him.

Went back and he had fallen asleep. I left him there. Form not even opened.

He did it on the bus this morning.

I am so fed up of his attitude. Trying to take an interest, hoping he might show some interest in his own choices and being met with strops if I dare to try and help. Called him a robot

Today I am done. I am not going to try and get him to do any more revision, school work, etc. He can do it all himself from now on. It just gets me stressed.

ps sorry if this is a bit self pitying! PMT is a bitch!!

DS1 got his results
6 for Eng Lang ( they did Lit earlier and he got 7+)
B for History
B Music
B+ Science
A+ Law
P2 ICT ( a C apparently, which is disappointing, as he got a distinction in ICDL)
4- Maths

So all in all not bad at all! Maths isn't great but it's a grade higher than he got last time ( and he's also moved up the 'ranking' in his class if that means anything). He was a bit disappointed in Eng as he wants As for both, but the exam was straight after Maths, so...
Anyway, proud of him.

Sprog the new maths GCSE is really, really hard so if your DS is making progress at this early stage in the year, that is good news.

All in all a good crop of mocks.

Thank you pointythings - I'm hoping that he'all continue to progress. He was hoping for a 6 in the real thing but I think he'll be happy with a 5 now. He's looking to do History, Psychology, Politics and Law at A level, so at least doesn't need maths for sciences. Though I know there's a maths component to Psychology.

I'm so glad ds had his mocks before Christmas. Having to revise in the Christmas holidays wouldn't be great so much sympathy to anyone in that position.

Sprog that's a really good set of results :) - well done to your ds!

DD didn't do much this weekend, it was her belated 16th birthday party. She'd planned to do her English S&L but I'm not sure how much progress she made. Also some French which is the current bête noire but I don't think she managed to stay awake long enough after doing a very small amount of chemistry homework last night.

She just texted to say she did much better (for her!) in the second & third maths papers. I think they will end up calling it a five - she wanted a 7 but needs a 6 - hopefully the improvement will be encouraging & she'll keep working. I got her the new 9-1 maths workbook to do over Christmas, she's going to try and revise all the geometry as she'd been concentrating on algebra pre-mocks. There's still lots they haven't done.

School finishes at lunchtime on Friday - I'm going to pick her up and then take all the kids to buy a Christmas tree.

DS has been feeling ill all thro' his mocks so far (on Day 3 of 6 today). I think he's got an acute case of nerves despite saying that 'in his head' he doesn't feel nervous.

He's also had to prep for his upcoming Spanish Oral exam that's smack bang in the middle of his mocks - how did that happen?

This term has been hugely pressured and he's barely had time to stop to draw breath. He started revising for at half-term but still feels he's not had enough time to cover everything equally.

A well deserved break is the order of the day over Christmas methinks.

pasanda that is my usual monologue, I probably repeat weekly "right, I don't care anymore, I won't get involved, he is close to being a recognised adult" and so on, followed by feeling so frustrated that I explode at him. I find it so upsetting but I can't do much about it, except hoping that he won't fuck up too much.

DS filled in his sixth form application on the last day before the deadline. I tried to talk to him and discuss what he thinks he'd enjoy, I got "nothing" but he apparently put down the options he will dislike the least. I honestly don't understand how you turn from an academic interested boy into... This.

This week we should receive the mock results, I am dreading it! It will probably end up in a massive argument even though I keep repeating myself that I should stay calm.