Year 11 support thread - keep on keeping on!

[AtiaoftheJulii]

Just getting this ready!

Following on from www.mumsnet.com/Talk/secondary/2936097-Yr-11-support-thread-the-scaffolding-is-holding-up-well

Good luck to those with exams today 🍀

DS gets his all on the school portal - available from 6am. No one goes in though there are teachers available if you want to discuss any results.

Clavinvova, dd was asked to call later than y11s, think it was after 12 , for her y10 result. We were on holiday, on a mountain walk, an hour ahead and it took several calls to locate the right person when they were not on lunch! In person I think it was after 2pm.

I've just realised that I was feeling quite smug that DDs 6th form uniform is ordered and awaiting collection (hopefully) on results day, but I have completely forgotten that she will need new school shoes. Her current pair are falling apart, and she got away with some cheap ballerina pumps through the exams, but will need some proper shoes for the autumn/winter.
I hate shoe shopping at this time of year!

We are about 5 mins away from the school. Parents can't go in with them to collect results. DD says we have to wait until she gets home to know how she's done, but knowing her she'll get chatting to friends and go off to Costa with not a thought for us.

No signs of DD being bored. She's been away with friends and abroad with us. We have a camping trip planned and she also has five days away with a club. Inbetween she's happily reading, seeing friends, playing her musical instruments and the odd bit of tidying!

With my older two we (dh and I) drove them and waited in the car each year. (Actually for dd2's A level results, she asked me to come into school with her and then didn't want to open the envelope, and her favourite teacher just told her her grades!)

Ds however is insisting he's going by himself, doesn't want any company on the way to school, etc. So at the moment that's the plan. Will feel very strange going off to work and waiting to hear from him.

dd wants me to go in with her & open the envelope for her (dh has to wait in the car though). She's actually pretty nervous - I have instructions not to pretend that her results are okay if they are lower than her mocks but I am supposed to say 'it'll be okay, we'll figure something out' if it is a complete disaster. She should get her AS result the week before, but I'm still not sure of the arrangements for that. Gah.

We're driving to collect her cousin & delivering them to Reading festival straight afterwards (four hours stuck in the car will give her ample time for the post mortem )

DD want me to take her - school opens at 8.30am. She is undecided whether I can go in. I suspect what will happen is that I will hang around at one end of the school hall with her friends mums whilst the children get the results. Teachers will be lurking for those with 'unexpected' results.
My main problem is what to do with the younger dc. DD is adamant she doesn't want them there, but DH is at work and the whole process will take at least a couple of hours so I can't really leave them home alone.

One of us will probably do the journey with DS but wait in a nearby coffee shop. He has to go into school to collect the 'envelope' ostensibly to find out whether he's done well enough to get into the sixth form - another massive thing quite apart from the results themselves.

Not entirely convinced that schools will want siblings (and possibly not even parents) hanging around on site? I am not under the impression that DS's school is expecting parents to show up in school on the 24 August, although I guess there might be a caveat for DCs whose results are not sufficient to get into the sixth form - but that might be later on? The only exception would seem to be if a pupil has give his parents written permission to collect results on his behalf but even then I doubt parents would hang around?

Quadratilla my mum is going to look after my younger children for the morning ... I imagine it will be fairly chaotic & not much fun for anyone with lots of siblings around.

DD's school expects parents to come (with their cheque books) in case they want to get anything remarked. It is always absolutely heaving.

I will have to find a play date for the littlest - the 14 year old can find her own (she refuses to be left alone or with the 10 year old ). I think parents are expected at DD's school in case they fail to get the required grades for 6th form (7 x A and 1 x A* in old money). It's ten miles away anyway, so I am required as chaffeur!

yeah, dd's is over 20 miles from us with no public transport out of term time so no option but driving her.

Laniakea this is new to me, I had expected some period of reflection. Would we be expected to ask on the actual day for remarking?

yeah dd's school have been ... erm ... aggressive (?!) in suggesting remarks in the past (I have last year's advice letter somewhere - they wanted to get all the remarks sorted on the day so had BRING YOUR CHEQUE BOOK in all caps!). I'm not sure how they will advise this year - we don't even have a cheque book with our bank account!

Given the utter shambles around recruiting markers this year and stories like this www.tes.com/news/school-news/breaking-news/markers-disagree-correct-grades-half-english-literature-exam-papers I wouldn't be put off asking for a remark if results are unexpectedly low.

I don't blame any parent or school requesting a re-mark, it says a lot about the lack of confidence we have in the exam system and in the staff recruited to mark the papers.
A re-mark resulted in DS1 getting his first choice university place, based on the re-mark just 1 paper over the 18 or so papers that he took. How many errors weren't picked up? !
Frankly I'm angry that the exam boards have moved the goal posts on re-marks. It takes away the oversight and reassurance that you can have a paper re-marked by a skilled and experienced exam marker.

Actually I'm more concerned now having read Noble-giraffes link as the paper we had re-marked was a Physics paper!

So what's the answer?
Presumably there are points that need to be covered in each answer to earn the marks, plus points for the actual essay style, again marked against explicit criteria. So why such variation in marks?
Does anyone know how the marking and re-marks in the iGCSE system compare to the GCSEs? Can we learn anything there? Or compared to other the systems in other countries?
Seems bonkers that we have to accept a poorly marked paper as the final result of 12 years English teaching!

I might also add that the whole 'remark' issue only applies if one can afford it. So again parents and children from better off backgrounds more likely to request and pay for them.

Very true. Although if a re-mark results in a higher grade then the fees are refunded (or were in the old system). And really you should only be looking for re-mark if you are v close to the boundary, in DS case he was 0.5% from the boundary to the next grade, so it was eorth a re-mark - which came back with 6 extra marks on the paper!

Three weeks to go...

Three weeks seems an age to wait though...