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.

QueenofQuirkiness I feel your pain!

Atia - it's a two-year diploma course that is the equivalent of an A level - apparently.

My dd is an atheist and loved RE/Philosophy A level. She's still an atheist, but just starting her 3rd year of a Theology degree!

Arrrrrggggghhhh dd's train is bloody cancelled AGAIN. She's going to have to be rescued & driven to school - which is an hour and a half round trip - so bloody pissed off. The train pass costs a fucking fortune and so far this term three days out of five there have been problems.

More atheists here with children talented at RS! DS did it to A2. I think it helped that we have lots of debates around the Sunday dinner table (only time we sit down together ☺️) about all sorts of issues. And also it does rely a lot on remembering standard form essays (especially at A level) so it is relatively easy to get good grades if that suits your learning style.

That's so annoying Laniakea! Can you get any kind of refund at all?

DD seems to be settling into about an hour and a half a night. A lot of it is art which takes up too much time imo but has to be done as most of it is coursework.

She's thinking about biology, chemistry, RE and maths at A Level. I have told her maths will take a huge leap up but she seems keen. Not sure yet whether she will stay on or look at VI form college. She wants to go into veterinary work of some kind and has her uni picked out and everything... She just needs to buckle down. She's too horizontal.

Bertrand love your ds's response

Well I am not sure I belong to this thread as DS is not doing anywhere near as much work/revision as I read on here. Or he may do without my knowledge but I strongly doubt it. I'll try and be optimistic but I am running out of optimism to be fair.

Oh don't worry Fleur, you certainly are not alone.

We have the first week of school this week - last week was taken up with assemblies and "enrichment", so no homework yet at all. Have emailed school to find out about coursework. Head of year and tutor now want to phone me tomorrow to discuss ds's disappointing end of year exams. Slightly hacked off that they don't seem to have discussed them with him! However looking forward to hearing their solution!

This growing up but not grown up stage is so tricky. DS has earned, bought and built his own pc, but since he got it, his grades have dived (even though we still limit wifi access). He just seems to look for any shortcut or way out. In fairness he did do a maths paper "to find out what he needed to revise". He got much lower than he was hoping for (he knows the stuff he learnt up until the pc arrived!), and threw a toddler tantrum (chucking stuff around in his room). When he eventually calmed down I persuaded him to do the corrections. After 3 hours or so of faffing, I asked to see them. It was pretty clear that he had just decided to write in the answers having looked them up, rather than working out the method. Asked him whether he thought that that was going to work for him and was greeted with a shrug.

It is going to be a long 28 weeks.

We have been trying to get DS to stick to 2 hours work a day. 1 hour revision, 1 hour homework.
Arrived home this evening to be told he had done 1 hour RE revision and his Maths homework. I pick up the homework, an exam paper to find it untouched. He tells me he was confused!!!
Bloody kids.

And it continues downhill...

DS has his English Speaking and Listening group task assessment tomorrow (he found out today).
Apparently he is not meant to prepare for it . Edexcel iGCSE. At least it seems to account for a third of 10% of the whole grade.

He can certainly argue, so hopefully that will stand him in good stead.

bloody kids - yup
long 28 weeks - yup

sigh

Early finish the afternoon - work situation:
homework - none
tassomai - 30 mins
revision - if staring blankly at the same page in a book counts she did 30 mins of chemistry. Oh and she remembered what sin60 is but doesn't really 'believe in it' ???

I don't know how the edexel languages work, the AQA ones seem to have masses of in class preparation but don't think she's done anything at home.

They finished section two of their biology ISA today. dd found out she got full marks & an A* on section one so hopefully (fingers crossed for no massive cockup), she won't have to do it again. The chemistry one is on Friday then physics next week ... they might start getting homework after that. I don't think she's got any language CAs until November, I'm not sure about the rest, she did one for geography last term but has no idea how she did or anything.

FlyingFortress can't say it is good news to hear I am not on my own tearing my hair out but it does feel less lonely in my "I can't be bothered" corner.

I have no clue when DS has mock, CA for French, any homework as he won't share this precious information. I get the "every time you talk to me you talk about GCSEs, can't you talk about anything else?!". Well yes, I could, but seeing that I only get to talk to him at dinner time as for the rest of the time he's busy doing stuff playing on his PlayStation in his room, sometimes pretending it is homework, I do tend to check if there is anything I should know.

Oh well, I'll find all the details out next Monday when I have the yr11 parents meeting. And panic some more.

Oh you are definitely not on your own Fleur! I am trying to restrain myself as every time I look at ds at the moment I ask him if he has homework to be doing.

Fleur my ds is just about doing his homework, he's certainly not doing two hours a day!

Well, since school started I haven't seen Ds play on his ps4......but I suspect it's not homework he is doing on his new mobile.....
Fleurdelise, I also have no idea about controlled assessments. Is it when they have to learn to write something for mFL in a certain time about certain topic?. He did something like that last year.

Any dcs doing Macbeth for English? In which case if you know the board, I'd be grateful!

FF, DS is doing Macbeth (and Jekyll and Hyde I think) but I'm not sure of the board. I think when DD did Eng Lit it was an iGCSE, but I don't know if DS's year is doing the same. I am worried as he was not really keen on English last year, mainly because he thought the teacher was boring. Probably will have the same one this year.

I see your DS is doing EdExel - I imagine it is the same. When DD did it, she had to do a speaking and listening thing - they were given a task to talk about? If he is bright (built his own PC!) and fairly articulate, I can't see him finding it too hard.

Well DS survived his first day work experience, chopping veg and serving lunches. I think he's realised that it is not the kind of job that he would want long-term

He's doing Edexcel Language but I can't see Macbeth on the list for Eng Lit, which is why I'm wondering (Henry V or Merchant of Venice are the Edexcel options). He's definitely done a coursework essay for it though.

Building a pc actually equates to following a Youtube video. Far less impressive than it possibly sounds. But it just makes him more attached to it.

I'm trying a mix of increasing aspirations (he's going to a uni science taster day) as well as a "here are your more limited options if you get the same grades as last summer". I'll see which, if either, has an effect.

FF, I see the AQA GCSE covers the 2 texts my DS has - maybe he is doing that

ds is doing Macbeth. I believe his board is WJEC but I'll check tonight.

I'm not noticing 2 hours of revision a day yet but it is a while to the exams.

dd is doing edexcel they're doing Macbeth, Lord of the Flies & Jekyll & Hyde.

trains tonight were so messed up that dh ended up driving from Basingstoke to Goring to recuse her - she was waiting for an hour (the trains are supposed to be every 15 mins), she didn't get back until nearly six. No homework still, tomorrow school photos take up most of the morning for y11.

Once I have the year 11 meeting I'll let you know if DS is doing Macbeth 😂. No, I'll ask him but not around now.

Exampanic yes I think that is the control assessment and I do think DS did a lot last year but surely there is more to come.

Ds doing of mice and men. Dh and I just happened to watch the movie on Amazon when Ds came home with the book. I then borrowed the book to read it myself....

DD has her English speaking and listening assessment coming up, and is learning a little bit of her script each night (or so she tells me)
Bit concerned about the volume of work still left in English compared to the other subjects, seems to me like they didn't do enough of the work in year 10 as now everything seems to be crammed in

Oh and thank you for putting my mind to rest about revision and hard work, as I said I can't say it is good news but at least it is good to know I am not alone in my battles. Which to be fair didn't start yet (the battles) as I have decided I'll give it a bit to get over the first couple of weeks.