Year 11 support thread

[pasanda]

I can't find a new thread, moving on from the old full one, so I thought I would create one (please tell me if I'm wrong!)

Last night ds stayed up till 4.30am doing his biology coursework

This time the tsunami affect didn't work and he left it far too late to do a reasonable job. Which is a bloody shame because he wants to do biology A level and he has done so well in his other controlled assessments.

I wait with bated breath to find out his mark

Oh well, thank God for half term!!

[pointythings]

It is fab, Draylon. DD1 is Goth, she is going to look so stunning. She's 5'10'' and has a proper figure... We've sourced some vintage pattern tights, she has killer ankle boots, jewellery will be home made (my hobby) and our tame hairdresser is on board. No frou-frou princess stuff here...

[QueenofQuirkiness]

DD has made a rather ambitious holiday revision plan for the next week, but we're off to Prague for three days, so at least I know she will have a bit of a break! I do think that DCs should start revising gradually now, so that there won't be a huge amount of work to cram in May and to reduce stress, but obviously if your kids are anything like mine then you have to have the right balance to avoid burnout. DD doesn't really do a set number of hours per day, she does a set amount of work, but I think doing a set amount of time each night when the term recommences is the best plan.
DD has her prom dress, she is definitely a girly princessy sort , and I'm very glad we have it so that we don't have to deal with frantic shopping in June! Now she can't stop pestering about hair and makeup and shoes...the joys of a girly girl

[readyforsunshine]

Difference is draylon queen has a diligent dd making a revision plan, totally different to a reluctant Ds making a totally unrealistic plan for himself
My dd has made and stick to a revision plan for her y9 exams, sensibly following my advice & breaking subjects into topics, allotting them each an appropriate amount of time & is totally on schedule without any anxiety or burnout. She is now taking a prearranged break with her friends in town. Ds is still on the Xbox surrounded by detritus. I do believe he's managed to dress himself today though.
Enjoy your break queen Prague is beautiful. I'm sure both yours & pointys daughters will look stunning. The bloom of youth

[TeenAndTween]

With DD1 the 'revision' work at this stage focussed on

• revision cards for science
• question answering technique for English
• understanding difficult topics for maths & science

(other GCSEs were MFLs and Drama so time on them was CA related)
So not trying to learn stuff as such but make sure building blocks were there for later learning. The real learning started in the Easter holidays.

Actually I think the Feb half term itself was mainly spent on recovering from school and prepping CAs for the 2 MFLs.

[AtiaoftheJulii]

Ds has been mostly working with his group on their drama script - final assessed performance in three or four weeks. There's been a small amount of actual revision, and he's sorted all his books out into magazine files for each subject, so, you know, good start

His friend was round on Friday night and said he'd made lots of revision cards for chemistry and physics. Ds asked him what topics were on C1 - friend said "I don't know, I wasn't reading them" - rofl!

[pointythings]

I've just told DD1 to revise her revision planner. Because she has been doing 4 hours a day on all the days we have been home. That is too much.

So we have bargained down to 2.5 on weekends and 1.5 after school and/or during breaks at school, and a max of 1.5 during the week of the Easter break when we are away. She's allowed more when she's at home.

[Laniakea]

back at school today - dd was really tired this morning, she couldn't sleep last night.

She'd done quite a lot of work over half term, mainly French & English neither of which she'd put much effort into before now. I've been ill & haven't paid much attention tbh. She's still plodding through maths - pretty much finished everything now, I think there are 2 or 3 smallish topics they haven't done - I think she's at the point she should've been had she not spent the last 4 years completely dossing in maths lessons.

She does two hours in the evening - half of that is homework, she's getting masses & then hour of tassomai & something else. She tends to start as soon as she gets in so is finished by dinner & has time for other stuff. Weekends she does more so she can have days without doing anything (she's out two nights this week & next weekend) without feeling like she's getting behind.

She managed to get her prom dress in the sale after Christmas ... she'd had her eye on it for months & they had one left in her size reduced from £150 to £20! It's kind of 40s glamour I guess, champagne coloured

[LittleHo]

The dress sounds gorgeous.

Back to school - ds moaning about the prospect of a lecture on revision in assembly.

[pointythings]

Aaaargh mocks part 2,,, Maths tough again, RE not so bad...

However, I have just seen a silver lining: mocks are everything compressed into two weeks. The real thing lasts much longer, so there will be breathing space, revision will be more plannable, there will be lots of support at school. I can't help but wonder whether schools make mocks super high pressure so tbat the real thing feels less so.

[teddygirlonce]

FWIW, at DS's school they did their mocks over six school days, although they didn't do the same number of papers (in most subjects) as they will do in their GCSEs .

Agree about loads of homework suddenly being piled on (after seven pieces over half-term too). This week DS has had to prepare for a Physics ISA (not sure if that's correct spelling?) which was brought forward with 48 hrs notice, revise for a Spanish CA (and there's still one more to go apparently) and a Biology Test. I don't think extra revision has featured at all yet this week.

It all seems very, very much more 'full on' AND pressured than when I was at school!

[Laniakea]

feel for your dd with mocks part 2 pointy ... hope she's okay.

the hw situation is mental - dd is getting 4 or 5 pieces a day & trying to revise on top of that. Yesterday she had double double maths & came home with three pieces of maths homework including a past paper. She's just texted to say she has physics, history & geography tonight so will try & do some maths too.

She has two French CAs left - written next week, speaking a few weeks after that - and the presentation for drama but is done after that. She's finished all the original work for the creative writing portfolio 'just' has the critiques to do (exam is slap bang in the middle of the GCSEs but she still wants to do it). Got her ISA marks today & did really well in all of them which is great!

She & I are going into London for an anatomy thing tomorrow night & dh has booked her tickets for two gigs in March & April which will hopefully keep spirits up ... she's undoubtedly working way harder than I did. And after school revision sessions start next week.

[Ontopofthesunset]

Similar to ours - they did mocks over 7 school days but just one paper in each. So for example they just did the hardest parts of each of the MFL reading/writing/listening papers to give one paper.

[readyforsunshine]

No homework here, just revision, which he isn't doing.

[pointythings]

No homework during mocks but DD had quite a lot over half term. I don't see that changing until after Easter, to be honest.

[LittleHo]

Is anyone elses son or daughter very bored with studying the same stuff now? ds says that every class is just more of the same.

He wants to just take the exams now and move onto A Level.

[teddygirlonce]

I think DS is just desperate to clear the decks of homework and get on with revision now! He seems to have had loads more this year than all the previous four years put together!

How many weeks is it now until the exams start - 11?

[Laniakea]

81 days until dd's first exam

[pointythings]

DD1 had a panic attack in the middle of her Geography mock when she realised she was halfway done but only had 20 minutes left. But she controlled it and kept working, and no-one noticed. That's actually quite a big step forward compared to how the panic normally takes her.

[Ontopofthesunset]

They're still completing topics in the sciences and history so have new homework being set on them. Revising in MFL for mock orals. Maths is all revision/past papers. Latin they have a mini mock on the other half of the literature next week. Drama is controlled assessment and preparing for performance. Don't know what they're doing in English.

[PossumInAPearTree]

Finally have some good news.

Dd has a conditional offer for the new school she wants to go to sixth form for. She needs to get "9" between maths and English, i.e.; a 4 and a 5. So I've told her it's down to her now.

She needs B I think for her a level choices but she should get those fine. She needs to revise to ensure the maths and English grades but at least she has a reason to focus now. She's over the moon.

[teddygirlonce]

Well done to your DD PossumInAPearTree!

[Laniakea]

that's great Possum :) I'm glad she's feeling happier about it all.

[CheshireEditor]

Can you suggest some good revision/timetable apps? Thinking keeping it tech will ensure my DS is engaged more!