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 🍀

Our sixth form induction days are in two weeks' time. I am a bit puzzled regarding what happens if let's say DS doesn't get the required grades?! He set his heart on it, bought the dress code clothes, going to the induction days and then boom, you are not joining?!

Fleur at dd's she'd have to change courses if she dropped grades but wouldn't lose her place. Either change A levels or reduce number of A levels/do BTECs/do resits etc ... that's at a comp though which offers wide range of courses at all levels. I don't know how it would work at a super selective where they only do A levels or have very high entry requirements.

To do 3 or 4 A levels dd only needs 7 passes with Bs in her A level subjects & a 6 for maths for science courses.

Last exams this Friday, prom next Friday, induction the week after then we're off on holiday.

Dd & her friends were all trying to get glib & crusty into their papers. Their extract was a bloody Daily Fail article.

crusty!!

DS's girlfriend got 'condescending' in but ds hasn't told me of any good words he wrote yet!!!

fleur - I was wondering that too.

DS put down biology as one of his (four) A level choices but since actually revising for the subject has realised he's not too keen on it! Only took him 2 years to realise it He did mentioned swapping it to english but after todays paper he's now not sure.

So gawd knows what he will do. Hid inductions days are at the beginning of July and I guess they will explain it all then.

I suspect it is the same at DS's school, not super selective but partially selective (we are in an anomaly area where most schools take a % intake on academics, that's how he got in as we're outside catchment). He'll have to change options, he applied for Biology based on being last predicted an A/A*, Business studies and geography with English as a back up.

Now he doesn't really want geography so he may change that anyway but he doesn't know what for, English went well (he says) but I don't think that's a good idea.

DS thought his (AQA) English was ok but not great. The comparison pieces were apparently something about parents talking about their children growing up, with the 19th century piece from a newspaper. His persuasive writing was something about parents giving their children too much freedom or being too lenient or something like that - tbh, we were eating lunch in Pret at the time and I can really only remember the word "parents"! He didn't think it was a particularly difficult paper but I think he's in a bit of a slump at the moment so just couldn't get himself motivated to do as well as he should/could have. Roll on Friday!

Our school states that if you don't get the maths required grade you can still join sixth form but retake maths gcse in year 12.

@Piggywaspushed I thought exactly that too. If only DD had read about controlling or relaxed parenting, the pros and cons, on here, she'd have aced the exam. I reckon a few mumsnetters could have got an 8 at least on that question!

Did he manage Choccy?

settledandsmug I won't find out till 4 o'clock; our school is wonderful and makes them stay in the afternoon, even when they haven't got an exam.
In fact it is even better than wonderful, as they have special revision sessions in between exams.

Oh yes keepondreaming, that thread about the woman who wanted her DC to climb trees in the park but a controlling DF kept 'forcing' them to play competitive football games sprang to mind!

We could have written it in the style of Mumsnet!

Tbh my own DS never goes out anywhere, has no sense of wanting to 'explore ' the world, is utterly risk averse... not sure what on earth he would have come up with.

I am betting' we can't wrap them up in cotton wool' makes a zillion appearances in the responses. And maybe 'special snowflakes'.

Just when I was looking forward to not paying for extra maths, I've just had a text from ds saying " Can I have piano lessons?"

@woodlands01 Thank you very much for the link. Ds is doing it right now.

Ha, there'll be Band practice round at yours in the future then Bertrand!

It already is!

Wjec English fine but boring. He seems so exhausted I haven't pushed to ask more. He went to a maths revision session but decided against the history, I managed to hold my tongue.
Re marks, I honestly don't have a clue. He was predicted As & A but I was told he was not expected to reach full potential as was not working. He didn't revise for mocks & got a real mix from E -A. He has done more revision than I expected but not as much as I'd hoped for. I just hope he gets what he needs for 6th form, I would guess it will prob be a range of Cs-A*, I hope!
He also is thinking he'll need to change A level courses if his mocks are anything to go by. He says he'll see what he does best in.

Ours had a meeting in maths to be told that there may be some questions in tomorrow's exam that they haven't been taught I did wonder why I've had a flurry of revision papers to my inbox

AQA English here. DS said the "40 marker was about over-protective parents so I knew a lot about that" 😂

Same A level choice here fleur geography, business and biology. For his first choice sixth form he needs an A in biology which he may not get so psychology is his back up. If he doesn't get the required 5 Bs for his first choice then he doesn't get in. Simple as that.

He has welcome days at both first choice and 2nd choice sixth forms. the grades in August could be very variable, at the moment I think 70/30 or 60/40 he'll get in the first choice but definitely not certain at all. Which is why I think it's important he goes to both welcome days.

Well. I am confidently expecting the social services round sometime over the summer- ds wrote about the time when he was 6, and I let him do something which ended up with him breaking his wrist and nose, two black eyes and concussion...............

DS failed to get "hubris" into the paper, but said he used "sarcasm, which is a higher level construction" He thinks he'll get a 7, which is optimistic at best.

Ds mentioned this higher level construction business. He managed to make a comparison with one of the poems that he'd studied which he claims is a level 9 construction but who knows? (The comparison doesn't have to be with a GCSE text just a text in general)

English is his weakest subject by far. We're hoping for a 5 so he doesn't need to retake.

Dd had to compare moving house with life in a Soviet prison (Libby Purves vs Irina Ratushinskaya).