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Secondary education

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Original poster

GCSEs 2018

998 replies

DoNotBringLulu · 12/08/2017 16:19

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.

OP posts:
Oliversmumsarmy · 01/12/2017 00:43

The sensible course he wants to do is plumbing but if he gets his maths which he should get and a D in English Language he should be able to do his course in 1 year and his Gas certificate the following year.
He is abysmal at English but with a tutor we were hoping he might scrape an E in which case they will take into account his other GCSEs and he might just get on the "fast-track" . If he doesn't get any other GCSEs then he will have to spend a year doing very basic plumbing as well as his resit and won't be able to move forward and will be stuck until he gets the D inEnglish
Ds is also interested in a another career which is what I thought he would do as he is a natural at it but he always said no to it but now he is thinking that he might pursue that career instead as that needs no qualifications to pursue and he could start immediately.

AlexanderHamilton · 01/12/2017 13:43

DD was offered a place today at her first choice school. She still has to get through s funding audition & she still wants to apply to a couple of other places & it's not 100% certain she'll get her A level choices as what they offer is very limited but I'm relieved that she can now concentrate more on her GCSE's & not traipsing up & down the country to auditions.

She will be doing 2 A levels & a Level 6 diploma in Musical Theatre.

BlueBelle123 · 01/12/2017 15:29

Well done your DD, I presume Musical Theatre is where she wants her career to be, where would she head to after A levels?

Love going to the theatre but know absolutely nothing about how you would get in to it, I imagine its very competitive!

AlexanderHamilton · 01/12/2017 17:17

The Musical Theatre diploma is a 3 year course so she'd do that alongside 2 A levels for the first two years, then the third year would be spent completely on the diploma before graduating at 19. (She can top it up to a BA home degree via distance learning if she wants to)

Stickerrocks · 01/12/2017 17:17

A friend had an AL-W scholarship at the Urdung(?) for musical theatre in their leading lady type stream. She had a leading role within 2 months of leaving on a 12 month tour & is about to start another short tour overseas in another role most blond actresses who can sing would do anything to get. Good luck to your DD AH - dreams really can come true.

AlexanderHamilton · 01/12/2017 17:21

Urdang - yes a couple of dd's friends are auditioning there.

Dd still has to audition again for funding - but the school are known for being generous with bursaries so fingers crossed.

Oddsocks15 · 02/12/2017 09:07

GCSE mock results are in. DD got grade 8 in maths and grade 1 in English Shock

Will be talking to the school next week, haven’t seen the English exam paper yet so don’t know where she went wrong.

PissedOffNeighbour · 02/12/2017 09:25

Could the grade 1 actually be a 7 written a bit wrong?

KingscoteStaff · 02/12/2017 09:36

That’s got to be a mis-typed 7, surely. Unless she ‘put nothing on the paper but a large blot’, like Winston Churchill’s Harrow entrance exam!

Oddsocks15 · 02/12/2017 09:41

It’s an official looking typed results slip, school want to make it as authentic as possible

Shock
BlueBelle123 · 02/12/2017 09:49

Surely your DD would know whether its an admin error, there's a big difference between grade 1 and 7.......what does she think?

pipilangstrumpf · 02/12/2017 09:53

I agree, she would definitely know whether she got a 1 or a 7! I bet it's a 7.

LooseAtTheSeams · 02/12/2017 10:02

It has to be a typo! Your dd would have written almost nothing for a 1.

LooseAtTheSeams · 02/12/2017 10:03

Or someone got confused and thought 1 was the top grade!

BlueBelle123 · 02/12/2017 10:05

Yes that would be funny, she may have a 9!!! Well done your DDGrin

Oddsocks15 · 02/12/2017 10:24

English is her weakest subject and maths her strongest, but not expecting that wide range of grades Shock

Hope you are right and it is a typo, in the meantime lots of tears and the reality of whether 6th Form and Uni is going to be achievable

Oddsocks15 · 02/12/2017 10:28

DD blaming teacher Hmm for her poor result. Personally I think it is 50/50. She is accepting of it though, no thought from us or DD that it is s typo.

After a VERY length discussion she has agreed to us contacting the school next week (we are the worst parents and she is fiercely independent).

AlexanderHamilton · 02/12/2017 10:50

My dd is very strong at English but in a recent assessment Dd got a (teacher marked) grade 9 in one part & then didn't attempt to answer the 2nd question as she didn't understand what it was asking donirs possible there was a blip somewhere.

It does sound odd though & I would ask for clarification.

Oddsocks15 · 02/12/2017 11:21

AlexanderHamilton phoning the school next week. As a comprise to DD we have said we give her a couple of days to try and sort out herself but this is too important for us to not step in

LooseAtTheSeams · 02/12/2017 11:46

I teach GCSE English language so pm me if you have any questions after talking to the school. It is the widest discrepancy though!

BlueBelle123 · 02/12/2017 12:12

Oddsocks15 was it Language or Literature, I know at DS school they have hardly done any language, so it may be technique. I agree though you really need to speak to the teacher as it's way to important a subject for you not to be involved despite what your DD way want.

She did fab in maths though!

LooseAtTheSeams · 02/12/2017 12:25

That's true - a lot of schools have had to focus most of their timetable on the literature and hope that the language is OK, but unfortunately there is a lot of technique to learn. It will get better in future years as the KS3 syllabus now covers the skills for the new specification but it must have been really difficult last summer and will still be a challenge this year.

Oddsocks15 · 02/12/2017 12:25

LooseAtTheSeems thank you so much, may well PM you.

Bluebelle123 it was Eng literature, they didn’t sit a mock language paper?? Yes she did fab in maths and I’m currently beating myself up for not giving her enough praise for that result instead of focusing on the negative. But as DH said, hard to ignore a Grade 1 result Shock

LooseAtTheSeams · 03/12/2017 09:30

Oddsocks it would have been very difficult not to have reacted to the 1, so don't blame you! The main thing is to get to the bottom of the problem and build up from there.
Busiest week of mocks coming up for us so once this week's out of the way it's not actually time to relax but it will be easier!

LooseAtTheSeams · 04/12/2017 08:50

And at almost late o'clock this morning DS finally emerged from his lair and wandered around confusedly looking for a ruler and his calculator for the two maths papers today. After initial snapping, I relented and admitted I had a spare ruler and even a spare geometry set! At least he found the calculator...
Younger DS actually packs back the night before, checks planner etc!