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.

DDs mocks results are in and I am delighted with her she has worked hard and I'm glad it's paid off. She achieved Level 7 in Maths and English, 5A* and 2A, and I think this has really boosted her confidence and motivation for aiming high this summer. I hope everyone's DC have been pleased with their results, and know what the next step is

DD and I were told at parents' eve that the school did mark mocks harshly, in the sense that is there was any doubt they would not get the mark. That way getting a tough marker wouldn't make a difference and they might get lucky.

Queen, that is a great set of mocks.

really good & encouraging results! What a relief to have mocks out of the way. We were also told (at parents' evening) that they marked very strictly - always marking down where ever possible. Possum I'm glad you're getting helpful advice form dd's tutor (& that she likes her).

Not much happening here - 6th form application went in just before the deadline. She's doing (another) physics ISA & French writing preparation at the moment. They are getting 3 or 4 pieces of homework a night ... pretty much more in the last two weeks than she's had in the rest of her school career. Staying on top of that means she's not doing much more than a bit of tassomai most nights.

Aargh. Dd has just decided she needs to draft English speaking and listening for tomorrow!

Haven't posted for a while. Hope everyone is ok. Sorry about your DD Possum .

Mocks over, DD has still no idea what a levels to do. She has whittled it down to 9 (!), loves all of them and is good at all of them, zero idea what to do at uni. We are going round and round in circles, it's crazy. Impossible for her to choose just 4.

I seriously think she will end up pulling them out of a hat!

Wow thanks Draylon, that's very helpful. She is a stars and 9s across the board, and I've heard that argument before about maths, so it's a valid one.

She adores physics and chem and is ok with maths. She also adores German, French, Latin and History though.

Current thinking is maybe Phys, Chem, Maths and German. Sounds great, but then doesn't she need Further Maths to stand a chance of a science place at Oxbridge? Or two languages for a language place? I think she needs to work out what to do at university. Oxbridge won't like a candidate who's ambivalent about what they want to do (she's keen on Cambridge, I think she'd prefer London but I don't want to put her off).

She is a talented linguist so I think she should do that. But some people say she is 'wasted' on languages. I think she's reached the stage where she wants us to decide for her. But I've no idea how.

She finds Classics so interesting too. Part of me wishes she'd done the Bacc instead so no need to specialise as much.

Thanks!

Thanks, very helpful again. Sixth form is good, 40 Oxbridge offers in a year group of about 130/140 this year. She just needs to work out which university course to do with those a levels now.

She doesn't need two languages at A level to do a language degree. One is fine as she can do her second language ab initio (should she decide to go in that direction).

Thanks Little, that's good to know.

Does your DD 'dream' in maths? If she doesn't, she won't benefit from further Maths. And the boys don't shower

What the fuck?

Draylon has some interesting ideas but is drifting into the realms of fantasy re FM.

Just look at university entry requirements. Cambridge NatSci will have it all spelled out, with every college variation on their websites.

A single language degree will require an A level in that subject, as will one language plus one ab initio language. Numbers of MFL A levels are pretty low, all but a handful of universities are recruiting rather than selecting for MFL degrees. Even Cambridge MFL courses have about a 40-50% offer rate which is pretty high for Cambridge.

We were told very clearly at DS's school at the A-level choices meeting that Further Maths is both more and harder maths. They are pretty clued up and have a very strong Maths department - over 130 students took Maths A-level last year and only around 50 took Further Maths. More students would have taken AS levels in both subjects, I imagine, but that no longer applies.

I think the most important thing in A-level choice is interest level and enjoyment, all other things being equal (ie ability). If your daughter really enjoys all subjects equally, she might be better off doing a mixture of arts and sciences, unless she has a clear vocational plan like medicine.

Raskolnikov I don't know how much research into university courses your dd has done, but has she looked at less traditional degrees like Liberal Arts or Human Sciences? Might reassure her that she can gain a broad and academically-sound education, and not necessarily have laser-sharp focus for A levels.

Thanks will have a look at alternative degrees.

Today's choice is Latin, German, History and Maths.. Think that would leave routes open to study Classics, Modern Languages, History and Law. No idea about anything else though.

Sorry don't want to make this thread all about my DD. But thanks!

Lol, no worries, the focus is constantly changing Could go for PPE with those subjects too.

She told me last night when she came home that she had solved the problem - she is going to do five a levels, and that lots of girls in her school are doing that. Aargh!

I've given her the speech that doing five offers nothing over doing four, and that many children do three which is more than enough for any university (four is compulsory at her school). There is no point killing yourself over five!

But she seems really happy at the prospect of being able to do one more subject. I think she's frankly mad to even think about it.

Rask
We have whittled it down to 4...lets see...many more sunsets to go...

Morning all. I haven't posted for a while but have been reading all the posts with interest.
We had parents evening this week, DD doing well, but I'm really concerned about triple science. The lovely, and very experienced, physics teacher confirmed what DD had been telling me - the school hasn't started any of the "triple" modules yet, ie B3/C3/P3 😲
They will start them after half term and work like crazy to cover everything, the teacher believes they will get it covered, but will be learning new stuff right up to the exams. So no revision will be happening in the class.
Frankly I'm staggered. The issue is lack of lesson time, cramming the work into the same timetable as double science. DD is a very able scientist but won't cope well with that pressure (scored As in the mocks). So now we're considering if she would be better to stick with Double and hopefully get 2 high grades rather than risk triple and possibly get pulled down to 3 middling grades.
A separate, but related issue, is if she does drop to double then she will only be taking 9 GCSEs, and virtually everyone else is doing 10 or 11 (triple science group)
(She dropped dance at the start of Y11, as she does high grade dance exams outside school, and ironically it freed up some time in the school day so she could focus on keeping up with her other subjects)
Help! What would you do?

I wouldn't worry, I think they will cover the work in time. There is a lot left to cover in all of DD's subjects, but I think it will be fine. I would definitely stick with triple science. Your daughter can revise at Easter and get up to speed. All children will be in the same boat. If others are ahead in science, at their schools they may be behind in eg history. Don't worry.

queen well done to your dd, fantastic results

My dd is still having last minute doubts about triple science. She got Bs in all of them in the mocks which apparently would translate to AA if she was doing dual.

If she stays with triple she's worried because they finish the syllabus very late leaving little time for revision.

If she does dual, she'll be down to 9 GCSEs (is this enough??) although probably with higher grades.

We are doing to discuss this with the school at parents' evening in a couple of weeks but does anyone have any advice?

For A Level she will be doing English, History and then either Psychology/Sociology/Politics.

It's Atia actually And no need for censorship either. Feel free to disagree with what I said, but don't try to tell me how to say it.