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.

"There are 3 90 min maths papers for the higher maths GCSE (1 non and 2 calculator) was a shock. In English they have to remember 4 sets of text by heart"

Shiiiiittttt! DS is crap at memorising. Why have this fucking government made things so hard for them

DS spends at least 4 hours 2 x a week getting to and doing footy training, and then another 4 or 5 on a match every Sunday, so he is going to really have to knuckle down at other times.

He will have 8 subjects as he has taken 2 and is dropping 2. But they don't even start back for 2 weeks, so that's 26 weeks before the exams

Can I join? Ds started Y11 this week. He is a bright but horizontal type. He has 3 under his belt already (2 As and a B) and has 11 more to do this year - stupid and unnecessary amount of GCSEs. He follows in the footsteps of his very academic sister who is just going into her 2nd year at university and I constantly worry about him comparing himself to her and thinking he is not as able but really I needn't worry about that as I don't think he cares at all Really not looking forward to this year as I have never had to cajole anyone to work before - all tips in how to get a horizontal boy vertical would be gratefully received!

I really, really don't think they need to be doing two hours a day, do they??

Well I am not sure if they need it or not but DS definitely not planning to do it. He said to me that they do a lot of revision at school he will do his homework and revise a bit before mocks. He'll start the real revision in March apparently. Because that is what some of his friends who took GCSEs this year did and got very good results.

Which probably means he'll get shit results in mocks and I will end up rocking in a corner until the real thing. But I can't see what I can do, boy has a plan, it may not be my plan or the best plan but at least he has a plan.

Hi MrsBartlet /waves/

That is indeed a crazy amount of GCSEs!

Fleur - my eldest did no revision for her GCSE mocks because she "wanted to see what she knew naturally". Because obviously there was no point wasting time revising stuff if it then turned out you already knew it! She did then gradually start to make the correlation between revision and grades, and ended up working quite hard for her A2 exams and getting excellent results, but I did a fuck of a lot of teeth-gritting along the way.

Waving back at you Atia! Here we go again

dd says they've been saying that since y9 & she has never done anything approaching that much work.

Honestly apart from production which takes hours (& is always left until the last minute) she hasn't even done 2 hours a week. Ever.

She's not lazy just has many other things she'd much rather be doing. And she's done 'more than well enough' ... my battle is getting her to understand that actually more work does equal better results and that good enough is nothing compared to how well she could do if she did any work at all. Comparing yourself to people who have different aspirations & talents is pointless if you want to do a course that needs A & As at A level. I refuse to micromanage her through 6th form, she really needs to learn this stuff this year.

Saying all that she's doing tassomai science & maths for 20 minutes a day & enjoying it & learning stuff. I guess mocks will show if it is time well spent or not.

(*the one time she did actually revise for an exam in y10 none of what she'd learnt came up so therefore "revision is a waste of time & I got good marks anyway")

Just mentioned the two hours a day to the 4 year 11s in the back of my car-it was met with howls of mingled outrage and mirth........

DS spectacularly underperformed in his end of year 10 exams so is meant to have done some work over the holidays. He feels he has done loads, I think he is in for a shock.
No homework yet here though he does now know he has MFL CAs in 3 or 4 weeks.
6th form open evenings start on 27th which may be a reality check as his year 10 exams indicated he wasn't on track to stay where he is.

The good news is that he is a very good example of what not to do for ds2 entering year 9!

Please can I join the thread?

I have a very capable but lazy DS who is at a super-selective. So far he has under-achieved although his results are all going in the right direction. He leans naturally towards the Humanities rather than Sciences.

Fleurdelise you could almost be me. I have a DD in Year 6 who will be doing 11+ and other exams over the coming weeks. If she doesn't pass any, there are only two (of six choices) other secondary schools that we would want to put on her CAF.

So in a panic.

DS is starting to understand what is required of him but it's difficult for them to strike a happy balance between work and R&R. His school has never really given loads of 'homework' - it comes in fits and starts. So it's going to be a huge thing for him to keep up with revision (when no homework given) rather than defaulting to leisure activities.

Also, because he is weaker at the Sciences he is already giving greater focus to those subjects than the ones he has more natural ability in. How does one get them to strike the right balance? We did say to him that he is in danger of compromising top notch Humanities subjects grades for Science ones unless he readjusts his revision. It would be a supreme irony if he did better than the latter than the former - he would definitely not want to do ANY Science A Levels

Sighs...it's going to be a long and rocky road...And having to apply to other Sixth Forms on the off-chance that he doesn't do well enough to stay in his own school's one.

Another late joiner here!
DS has just started Year 11. His target grades are all B's, but his "working at" grades are anything from A* in RE, to E for Graphics.
He started using Tassomai for his summer exams, which pulled him up by a grade.
Mocks are at the beginning of December, so only 12 weeks. Trying to get him onboard with the school recommended 2hrs of work a day. As a dedicated Gamer, he is not impressed.

What is Tassomai Science?!

Not exactly sure what DSs predicted grades are from memory but I would be delighted if he gets a clutch of B's including at least a pass for Maths and English, whatever that will look like.
He tried to change his attitude/behaviour a bit last year in Y10, and I think he is quire anxious to do OK now. it's not gaming, but footy that is his passion!

www.tassomai.com/

It's a revision programme. dd uses it for triple science & maths ...I honestly don't know how effective it is but she's been doing it for a couple of months & actually enjoys it!

Bertrand - how many hours' homework do they do or are they set then now (or in yr 10).

As I said, I should think ds's averaged 1.5 hours per night last year, and he always does it on the night set, leaving the entire weekend free. I don't think 1.5 hours (three subjects times half an hour) is much out of a 6+ hour evening?

Ds had an assembly this week to get them psyched up for all the work they need to do this year and they were advised to do 1 1/2 hours per night (this is a superselective grammar). I have to say I was surprised as I thought they would be suggesting more but at least this seems a realistic target where ds is concerned.

Bit late to this thread. Can I join? DS1 has started yr11. He's able but stressy. He's worried about French after his first lesson back consisted of a recap of vocab (hello, goodbye, please etc). He doesn't understand how they haven't progressed much from yr 7. He knew the vocab but not many in his class did. Now he's saying he needs a tutor for the subject

teddygirl good luck with both the 11+ and GCSEs, it must be really hard. I currently tend to ignore the 11+ stress as it is next September so I feel we have a whole year to prepare, I do panic about the GCSEs though. I don't know why though as I can't do much about it.

Laniakea - Tassomai looks really good - thanks. I'm going to suggest it to DS1.

Dd did two hours of work yesterday - 30 mins of tassomai, an hour of maths with me & then 30 mins of maths revision questions. She said she'd do the same today.

I just can't see her doing that much regularly after school. She's got a children's book festival thing she's helping out at next weekend - so there won't be much work done then & this week will be getting costumes together.

Peace and harmony reigns in my household as DS gets on with his 2 hours of homework (1 hour, 59 minutes and counting!).

I started looking at 6th form options and was really surprised to see that the open days start in the next couple of weeks, with the first one on 1st October. DS is not sure what A Level subjects he wants to do but I want to get a feel for what is being offered.

I think I will look at his current school, another school and a 6th form college, and will probably apply for all of them if they look ok. How many schools/colleges are you all considering and what should I look out for when reviewing them.

Thanks re the Tassomai, Lanaikea. I will see if DS wants that or my gcse science.

DSs school are holding their first sixthform open eve this week and DS seems keen to go. I want him to have a few possibilities as we have no real idea what he will do next! So we will probably look at a couple of other school sixth forms, perhaps a sixthform college and then his footy academy. DD visited and applied for 6!

Wine, I think it's about getting a feel for the place - ethos/pastoral as well as academic options. Also what are the other students like (will they fins like-minds to make friends with) and also ease of travel tp/from.

Moving to a new sixthform is quite a big step and it took DD quite a while to settle in - it has to be wort taking the step IYSWIM!

Lol, how did the homework go wine?

DD2 and I decided that there probably wasn't any point changing to a different school, given that she liked her school, so we looked at a couple of localish sixth form colleges. She liked them both, especially the larger one that we saw second, but ultimately decided to stay at her school. Having seen dd1 go through y12 and seeing how you really have to hit the ground running, she decided staying put with students and teachers that she knew was probably best for her.

DS is thinking about changing - he's at a high achieving grammar school and he's feeling a bit pressurised at the moment I think. Again, I don't think there's any point going to a different school - there are definite disadvantages to leaving his current school, and I don't see that another school would provide enough compensatory advantages. So we'll look at the two sixth form colleges again - I checked this week and the big exciting one is one day and the smaller less exciting one is the next day, middle of October. His school sixth form isn't until December.

I don't really have the same worries about him heading into sixth form academically, so I think he'd have some mental energy to spare to get used to being in a new place, so the advantages to being at a big college might outweigh the disadvantages of leaving.

Anyway, we'll go and look. Mostly the feel of it, I guess. He wants to do computing, so the facilities and what the teachers are like.

As for A levels - Maths, FM, Computing + probably something else?

The step up in sixth form is huge so unless there are pressing reasons to change, my feeling is they are better off staying where they have friends and are known and where they know the teachers. It really helps them to hit the ground running. When dd went into sixth form, she in common with most of her friends, had a bit of a meltdown in the first term and she was happy not to have to contend with making new friends etc on top of that.

Providing ds gets the required results (which he ought to!) he will be staying on at his school. Current thinking on A level choice is English; History; Politics and Drama.

Ok, off to talk to Ds now. 28 weeks is 7 months. I thought exams were around may or so.....