GCSEs 2018

[DoNotBringLulu]

Hi all, I am sure many of us with dc going into year 11 this year are trepidatious about teachers and pupils thrown in at the deep end due to the new GCSEs.

There is one thing I can do which I hope will help my ds (even though he thinks I'm mad!), which is to get hold of this year's GCSE English Language and English Literature papers, read the books and work through the paper myself - I studied English Lit at university over 20 years ago. I will know for myself after I've done this how difficult the exam papers are at least - I'm not sure who I can ask to mark it for me though!

Can anybody tell me how challenging the Maths and English papers were for their dc? I understand these were the two subjects introduced with the new format.

Thanks Bluebelle123 - I'm not sure about the contract - there probably is one with a relevant clause :-(.
There are several children who dont do languages for whatever reason - in fact one even managed to pull out with a C grade in last years mocks due to dyslexia and the fact that she wanted to concentrate on other subjects even though she's an A* student across the board (dad is deputy head of another school so I guess he could put forward a strong argument). Dd would be able to top her core subjects - she badly needs to try and write more concisely because of her Hyper-mobility- she didnt finish her History mock at the end of last year because she writes so slowly due to poor pencil grip - so this would be a chance to improve this area and improve her grade.

Not sure whether to write a response to the "setting a precedent" email or wait for the final response ...I do know that they refused one of the girls pulling out of the same French set a month ago - probably on the same precedent basis - so perhaps an immediate response would reconfirm that as parents I think this should be our decision because I do not have a budding linguist - I wish I didnt have to pull her out but the benefits are very clear.

I would reply to the precedent email, you need to show them your committed to your decision and its not negotiable, especially as you know others have dropped a language. I would also emphasize the positive inpact it would have on her other subjects and will help her manager her hyper-mobility.

DS has dysgraphia. He writes slowly and painfully. The school let him type instead (not for French though). He's still slower than most people's writing but it's legible and pain free.
Maybe typing would help your DD too?

Thanks both ...have drafted response tonight - just reconfirming earlier email, positive impact and just showing disappointment with the comment on precedent given that no parent would wish to pull there child out of a subject unless they thought it was a last resort and there were other positive benefits.

MMZZ - Dd managed well during the last exams with rest breaks apart from History - again the school is sadly lacking in this area because I suggested typing and left it to the SN coordinator to let DD sit a mock History exam using typing (this should have been done by the end of last term - but it just didnt happen). DD has actually attended lunchtime workshops for History all this term and she is managing to write more factual/concise reports so its improving ..although would you believe that Eng Lang and History exams are on the same day so this is becoming even more crucial - she would rather not try and type now because she doesn't feel she's had enough practice.

It is a good school 72% of the GCSE(i) results last year were A* A ...I have great respect for allot of the teachers ....although I am sure the pressure is showing ...there are a few cracks - interestingly enough I cant see any of the individual subject grades to know whether MFL is an issue within the school or whether its just my DD and maybe a few others within her set. I think DD's Midyis for French was an A when she joined (yr8)and the grade has just gone spiralling down ...

To type in the exams, it would have to be your DD's normal way of working, so it might be a bit late (or at least she's in the last chance saloon to start). I'm not very impressed with your DD's SENCO for not addressing this a long time ago...
However, typing might be worth bearing in mind for the future.

I've had my own frustration with the school this week. The monitoring reports went out. All good, except one subject. The teacher is predicting a disappointing grade for DS in geography.
I sent an email asking why DS is so far off his target and got a reply back saying that the prediction is accurate based on class tests. To my mind, that's not a reason why, that's just an affirmation that the teacher hasn't made a mistake on the paperwork. So I wrote again saying what I wanted to know was why DS can work just as hard on geography as the other subjects, bring the same qualities to geography as everything else, be actually more interested in geography than many of the other subjects he had to do and try underperform both his target and every other subject?
No reply. I think if I do get a reply it will be "Dunno. Never thought about it really."

I suspect that DS1 isn't on the teacher's radar. He's doing ok. He isn't disruptive. And tbh the teacher left me feeling like he couldn't be bothered when I met him at parents night for my other DC earlier this year. (He had no idea who DS2 was, then thought his job was done when he looked him up on the list and read off his class test marks to me).

Adding too my last post, I think I've just answered my own question. When I think about it, DS has been telling me all year that he finds this teacher's lessons boring. He says everyone does because of the way the teacher presents the work. DS says the teacher doesn't seem interested. Mainly he compares unfavourably to the very inspiring teacher whom he replaced.
I think this may be one of those cases where we don't leave it to the school to teaching DS. I've just been a bit slow to wake up and see what has been under my nose ever since that parents evening in February.

mmzz don’t feel bad - this is what happened to us with maths and there’s still time to sort it. The teacher sounds like DS2’s geography teacher in Y7 - and again it was the one weak one in an otherwise excellent department. This year DS2 is having to work!
There’s an art to answering the longer geography questions and it sounds as though the teacher hasn’t explained what they need to include to boost the marks - can you get hold of the head of department and ask for some guidelines? If not, the mark scheme and examiners’ comments will be on the exam board website and a good revision book should help explain what is needed to boost the marks.
I’ll ask DS1 if he has any tips - it’s actually one of his best subjects but he’s done a mountain of practice papers, which seems to be key.

mmzz I would really echo what loose has said. When DS did his year 10 mocks, his geography was out of kilter with the rest of his results and at the parent's evening the geography teacher said although he had the knowledge it was his exam technique that he had to work on.......at this point I would love to tell you what she said but I can't remember

You may well find that it's your DS technique that is losing the marks, could you ask for his latest test paper go through it, especially if they are given model answers or like Loose says past papers and mark schemes, it won't matter that its old spec as the exam technique wouldn't of changed.

MMZZ - I think sadly sometimes our DD's are at the mercy of how good teachers are at motivating and inspiring our children....My DD had an excellent Chemistry Teacher (head of science)last year and came on leaps and bounds - forecast was A* at the end of last year on year end tests...then because of other issues within the Science department they switched this teacher to pick up some other classes Physics lessons (due to staff departure) and DD now has the boring monochrome teacher - her grade forecast was dropped to an A just on the back of one topic test within a few weeks of the new school year (probably because I raised the question on why a teacher should be changed 1/2 way through a GCSE syllabus and showed my disappointment- I think they realise there will be a pointed finger at the school if grades are not achieved). Fortunately I think DD will be OK....I dont think the new Chemistry teacher is a bad teacher - she's just not as inspiring ... Cant help with Geography not a subject DD has taken...

Just had a letter arrive from school, they want DD to attend extra lessons for French and English. Not surprised as are her weakest subjects.

Can I conclude from this she hasn’t done too well in her mocks which she has just sat this week??

DD says she isn’t going to the French lessons as they clash with Science support she attends (which I didn’t know about until now). Letter says “your child must attend”.. Told her she needs to talk to French teacher and had my head bitten off.

Too early for ?

Oddsocks15 - so glad is not just me that gets my head bitten off - certainly not too early for . My dd has gone into town to try on prom dresses today (even though prom is not until the end of June).

Charlmum60

I get my head bitten off all the time about the smallest of things... That or word conversations

Where do you get all the past papers? Are they online or are they sold in hard copy packs on Amazon etc?

If it’s geography you can do both! AQA have specimen papers on the website plus past papers for the last few years. On Amazon you can get CGP practice papers and workbooks. Also be aware that teachers can log in and get extra materials from the exam boards that aren’t on the website so you can ask the school for extra ones. DS1 has been doing this for maths.

Is it too early for by the way?
DS went into school this morning to do some work on a composition for music. Came back earlier than expected because not allowed to stay unsupervised for afternoon. Fair enough. Suggested art coursework, prep for programming exam or filling in the bloody form for the other sixth form he likes. I know the deadline isn’t for s couple of weeks but school has to do the reference and send it off so I’d rather not have a panic! Oh, and some kind of revision timetable!
DS not doing any of these things despite apparently agreeing that at least one was a good idea.

Ds1 took the night off on Thursday and promised he'd make up for it today - so should be 5 hours. Got up at 11am. Did 30 mins of work. Stopped for lunch and is currently on the sofa watching re-runs of Sherlock on Netflix.

I had melt down with my DD last night and told her she could now sort out her own sixth form arrangements (or sort out arrangements with her dad)...its me that is having to arrange all the visits and evenings and she looks at some options with so much negativity (she doesn't want a school sixth form but doesnt like some of the college options). I know her dad would definitely prefer dd to stay where she is....so I had numerous apologies last night and this morning. I think most deadlines are OK (apart from current school) she still has visits running into December - a taster afternoon next week and I'm going to ask her dad if he will take her to the Bham Uni open day on the 25th because they have several courses which may appeal - might give her some focus.

Open evening for sixth form at DS1’s school is on Thursday

We went to the first sixth form open evening last Thursday. Have another two this coming week and another two the week after. Ideally we'd like Dd to go somewhere else for sixth form as she's been in single sex education from being 4 so coed would be our preference. But it will depend on the subjects and how everywhere looks.

She really liked the school we visited last week. The drama and film studies departments were really impressive, and the drama department is held in high esteem through the city. However they don't do Computing which is dd's other top a level choice (that and drama). They used to be part of a trio of schools where you could work between the three sites but due to many of the city's schools opting for academy status these have fallen through from this year onwards. It may be possible to do an informal arrangement where she does 2 subjects in one school and guests at a second for her third subject, so we are looking into options. And we will see what the other schools offer too.

I'm really impressed with all these schools that are running support classes. I'm not aware of DS's school doing anything like this, maybe once the mock results have been analysed they might start offering it.

Our school has extended the school day by an hour for extra sessions. Some are targeted for specific groups of high or low achievers, some are open to all and some are drop in sessions. Nobody is forced to go, so there is no disruption. The biggest issue is working out how to manage clashes and squeeze in 10 subjects across 5 days. Staff are also giving up their lunch breaks for drop in sessions. They are fantastic.

DD had her first 6th form interview today & was (unsurprisingly) given an immediate offer. They have almost 2000 spaces to fill. We did have a row in the car though as she forgot to take all the paperwork she needed and it was all my fault, obviously!

We've got through a week of mocks. On the way to school Friday he asked me if I knew whether the maths paper is calculator or non-calculator.....I had no idea but gritted my teeth as I did remind him to check the evening before. He said his calculator didn't work and he couldn't find the other one that works. I worried about it all day at work. I shouldn't have...it was in his bag!

Good luck to all revising for mocks. I would like to obtain sample papers and when I can last year's English and Maths - I did find a sample paper on AQA website about Jekyll and Hyde & Macbeth. My plan is to work on his revision timetable next weekend with him.

Well done to your dd Stickerrocks, bite sized chunks for us.....letting the dust settle a bit from the mocks then will remind him about 6th form app.

@lulu Last year's English and Maths are only available to teachers as they are reserved for use as mock papers. Your DS probably saw them last week.

Past papers:
Edexcel http://qualifications.pearson.com/en/support/support-topics/exams/past-papers.html?Qualification-Family=GCSE

AQA http://www.aqa.org.uk/exams-administration/exams-guidance/find-past-papers-and-mark-schemes

If there's a little lock at the side then you can't have them unless you are a school.

Some progress on sixth form application - most of the form is done for the joint favourite. He doesn’t want to go to his own school’s sixth form open evening and I’m starting to think we’ll just bung the form in.
Current A level option selection is maths, computer science, biology and psychology. He can’t do computer science at the sixth form college but they did suggest an EPQ in programming instead.