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.

I think if she can go to art college with an E or F she should carry on in spite of what the school say. Keep her options open.

Cecei we must have cross posted and I missed what you said.
Yeah it's becoming very apparent that the art is a lot of work. More than I think dd bargained for.
We have emailed asking what the time scale is but what they have Been saying originally is she will have to do it every day and every night after school which is totally unfeasable. I think the teachers are getting kicks up the back side and panicking and put the panic onto the kids. It was interesting to read what you said. Good luck for your friends dd

Dance girl that's how we feel about it. Still waiting on the school me enail but they know how we stand.
Will let you guys know!!

Sounds like the old art teacher hadn't made her aware how behind she was when she missed classes & now it's so late in the day the new teacher is left with this as only option- masses of work or drop it. Awful situation for her & difficult decision especially since you're concerned about adding to her anxiety with extra work for what it's worth if she were mine & talented I'd be keen for her to complete to give her the option of art college & looking into the chance of any kind of extension due to illness. No experience of this but thinking along lines of dyslexics having additional help?

Thanks ready for sunshine, we are in the mind set that we are going to see how she feels in a few weeks to see how she is coping and if she isn't (and if the art teacher comes back today and really puts it across that it is going to make her worse) then we will advise her it probably wont be the best thing for her to put the focas into and like you say she can fall back on it if the child care thing doesn't work out.

incidentally to all if your child is having problems with anxiety and panic or even stress dd is having CBT at the moment and its really helping her loads she was given a bottle of glitter, and basically when she is stressed anxious she is to shake it and watch the glitter start falling to the bottom, this way she has a chance for things to calm down for her in her mind by watching it settle. Just thought id share as thought it was a really great idea.

im half asleep this morning, typos and grammar issues on the last post

We just got an email from school, no study leave. Sounds good to me, I was dreading the nagging I had to do during a study leave period.

Hi Fleur does this mean no study leave at home where they are at home for a long period of time?

Yes, so the letter says they need to be in school normal hours until all exams are finished. They will be taught and support to revise until that subject exam has passed, once the exam is taken and it frees time they will do supervised revision in other subjects during that period.

I know I sound evil but I am so happy about it.

Im with you i think thats a good idea as I know from my dd side of things its going to be hard work to push her to get on revising!

I really hope our school doesn't have too much study leave too

DD prefers supervised revision. It means there is support and the social side of it also matters. Revision can be really lonely.

Parents' evening tonight, let's hope we get some useful info out of it. They are usually pretty good.

Some good news fleur should help the nerves, yours not his
I work from home & am lucky that I can be flexible to make myself available to Ds for study leave, of course wether he takes my offer is another story. How on earth do working parents cope with reluctant dcs loafing about all day? I could imagine I'd be coming home to a pile of plates, closed curtains & boy fug
Almost there with the mocks now, finished for this week & englang, third maths paper & physics left for next week.
fleur Ds not at festival stage yet but your question did make me think about making some plan for him to do something over the long summer for the reasons outlined above! Anybody any ideas? He's a late summer bday so something suitable for an under 16.

Ds's school has study leave as optional.

It's a dilemma for us as ds works best in absolute silence - he can't bear low level chatting and won't listen to music or anything through headphones, so from that point of view I know he gets on better at home. He's also very hardworking and dedicated. However, if subject teachers are offering actual focused 'taught' revision lessons, he would benefit from them.

I think we'll be going with a mixture of going in to school and staying at home.

pointy parents evening here tonight too. (Same school? )

ready yes, good for calming my nerves DS is also summer born so he would have only turned 16 when the festival is on. I'm reading another older thread about it. Not sure about summer stuff to do, mine will probably be busy on his PS and out with the friends all day plus our two weeks holiday away then back for the results.

I have just resigned from my job wanted a change plus they halved our staff and expected all the work to be done all the time and become an intimidating environment constantly having goes so I decided to leave. I am having a small break which is nice so i can support dd as especially as my old company wouldn't let me make calls or receive calls.

I think dd does leave for study leave but I will do temping so i can work out to be around for her she will need a push in the right direction and ill need a retreat some where

On festivals: they're not actually allowed at Reading if they're under 16 if they're not accompanied by an over-18 - not sure if anyone checks. DS2 will still be under 16 by the date of the festival so although I know some of his friends are going I wouldn't be comfortable with him going. He hasn't mentioned it recently!

Parents eve here for us too but Dds not Ds. Anyway it's been postponed due to non existent snow was quite looking forward to it she's a goody two shoes. Always come out of Ds parents evening feeling 6 " shorter & gagging for wine

Fleur are you in Suffolk perchance?

Teachers said lots of nice things about DD1. She was deeply disappointed to get Bs in Chemistry and Physics - until she was told tonight that her mocks were assessing the entire syllabus, including a chunk that they hadn't gone over yet. Then those Bs looked a lot shinier. And the 8 in her maths mocks was very nearly a 9. Blimey.

Got good pointers on where to focus next and got backup from the teachers about DD not burning herself out, so that was nice. A good evening all in all.

Well done Pointy. I have DS parents evening next week and am very nervous. He has avoided telling me any of his results, which makes it worse. Although he did say that he got a level 8 in English and is thinking of changing from physics to English language for A'Level. Bizarre! Does anyone have any idea about A'Level English, I have no idea as it was not even on the radar.

Well done pointy! Not in Suffolk, in Herts.

We had mixed feedback: Bs in sciences could easily become As and A* as there are a couple of topics to cover in each of the sciences. Maths- teacher believes he can still get a 7, he could get an 8 or even his predicted 9 if he'd do an hour revision a day but 3 hours a week should make him achieve a 7 so we'll aim for that. English - we have no clue where he is as his teacher is a bit on another planet which is a bit worrying. 8 in the mock last year, 4 this year.

Geography and French- with a bit of revision he should get a B, he got a C in mocks but only by one mark in one and two in the other from a B.

Still failing computer science and PE. Good news, we'll discuss again in 2 months time and if he still didn't improve in PE he can drop it.

Oh and he'll join all the revision session available Monday to Friday, day off on Saturday and a couple of hours on Sunday. That should help a lot.

Well done on the parents evenings!!! Not sure when ours is.
Art we are going along with it she told the teacher. The teacher said she will support her and has given her a list what she needs to do and told her to take small steps.
She seems a bit overwhelmed And hoping for a snow day!

Good luck for you guys parents evening, dd saw the art teacher today and she got a small list what she needs to do the teacher said small steps and we will see how she goes with it in the next few weeks!!

Mocks today have been postponed, so planning a study day at home unless her German oral can't be rearranged.

So positivity all round at the parents eves, nice to have some good news. Lizs I've allowed Ds a home study day today, will be interesting to see how focused he is. I'm feeling terrible & got a really busy day, currently having a lie in in the hope that I'll improve enough to get on & get my work done. Feeling quite sorry for myself pitiful!