GCSEs 2018 (2)

[Stickerrocks]

Pre-empting our 1000th post.

DS would have loved to have seen that match live, Nettleskeins! Your DS is very lucky. Tickets are too expensive for us.

I helped DS make a study timetable to take him up to the exams at the weekend. It's only a first version and will change but at least everything needed is listed out now and a time is set aside for doing it. It's a lot of work.

First thing on the timetable, before any work was the premier league matches and the England matches.

Thankfully the world cup only starts on the day of DS's last exam otherwise it would be a huge distraction.

I didn't pay for the ticket, friend's Dad had a freebie through work, we are Brentford supporters normally Ds was in good form when he returned, slightly high on Fanta, but managed to get up this morning and do lots of last minute revision on obsessive Victorian romantic relationships (The Brownings)

Ds2 is also planning his timetable around football matches on tv, or shall I say, he has made a timetable FOR football matches on tv. I could look into a more integrated version..

DD's school have an exam timetable on their website, so I downloaded a copy a while back. and regretted it when I saw how few breaks she has. She has 2 exam free days until she gets to Add Maths, when she has 4 days running up to it.

but there is a week off in the middle of the GCSEs for half-term. It makes it all drag out a bit, but I think it will be a welcome opportunity if the studying isn't going that well in the fortnight or so before the exams.

The GCSE and A level performance tables are out for last year's exam takers. DS's school has come high on all measures for both GCSE and A level, but I still want him to get a place at the 6th form college.

DS1, DS2 & DS3's school:
Attainment 8: 63.5
Progress 8: +0.53

DD's school:
Attainment 8: 68
Progress 8: +0.81

The schools are supposed to be of a similar standard; the boys' school has a higher proportion of pupils with SEN, so that might explain the discrepancy.

According to the figures, 55% of the pupils at DD's school have English as an additional language - I work there and this figure sounds about right.

Yet only 27% of the pupils at the boys' school have EAL. As they come from the same families as the girls (sibling admission between the two schools) I find that figure a bit low.

Those progress 8 are good - Second....looking at the figures for our area makes me realise why we had no option but to go the private education route !

Dd has just messaged me from school in bits saying she is a failure as she only got 3 and 4s in her mocks. She is predicted 5 and 6s in most subjects. I have tried to reassure her she is not a failure and she still has time but I really feel for her at the moment.

Wifeymumfor your did. She not a failure and I know she will be fine. Mocks are not the real thing!. When she is calmed down you will be able to sort out what happened. Exam nerves etc and maybe new revision methods. Chin up, no one is a failure while they try!

54 for performance 8 and 90% grade 4-9 in dgd school, 2nd in league for state schools.

Sorry scrap that got it wrong lol!

Thank you Sos, parents evening tonight so we can at least get an action plan in place.

I expect it was a lot of nerves wifey my dgd suffers badly with exam stress. Voice your concerns at parent evening and good luck! P.s they mark more stringently in mocks normally!

0.64 for dgd school apparently well above average and in top %12 of countries state schools. 2nd in our area.

Sost what state school came first in the league, of your DGD's was 2nd? Did you just mean in your county?

wifeyhun there's still 3-4 months to go before the exams and she can use the mocks to work out what she should focus on between now and then.

Teenmum60 We are lucky in that there are several very good state schools in our area. Unfortunately getting a place is not straightforward, but thankfully all four of mine are now at secondary so that stress is behind us.

Dd's progress 8 was 0.20, but I think that was because they are girls so the achievement is always quite high when they come in at 11yrs (girls tend to be better at writing at that age), and ds1's was 0.77 (brother school, with same siblings) Ds2 school which is co-ed and in a different borough entirely had only 0.29 but it historically gets much better results than ds1's, so I am taking it all with a pinch of salt. Their grade 5 scores varied wildly too, I think changing from a C to a High C has affected the outcomes a lot, ds1's percentage achieving A*-C has historically been incredibly high, whereas the same no achieving 5-9 was much lower (and of course it was specifically in English and Maths, whereas previous scores were aggregate of all the subjects)

Statistics are a very crude indicator, although I'm glad the progress 8 has been brought in, as it benefits the efforts the teachers are putting into Ds2. Previously he would have been one of those borderline C's that no-one cared what he got as long as it wasn't a D. Now they push him to get 6's.

Interesting to see how some of the Super Selective Grammar schools in Surrey all have high scores and are in the top 50 - when they have chosen the cream of the crop- Harris Academy schools also have done well on progress 8.
It looks on the surface to be a fairer way of reporting ...I know my nieces ex school was a top 30 school in England (super selective grammar ) but drops down to top 200 in Progess 8

It is really hard for the teachers though I guess. You have a child who would be happy with a 6, and is getting a 5, but from their Year 7 scores should be targetting a 7/8. What does teacher do? Encourage them to raise to a 6, but give up on the 7 and move onto the child who is at a 4 and needs a 5? It is so difficult to know who to give the resources to.

Which brings me back to the fact that motivation needs to come from within, teachers can but remind the students what they could achieve. But they cannot be help accountable for it or have performance related pay on those grounds.

Yes mmzz just in our county.

Dd had to re-sit her English paper As it's been lost!!! The school had just assumed it was one of the exams she missed when she was ill.

wifeyhun - Hope your Dd is OK ...schools set the mocks so dependent on the policy you could find that they apply strict marking...also what DD has found from her mock results so far has been so beneficial - Biology - she was two grades lower than predicted - basically she mucked up allot of answers on one paper - not answering the actual question asked and not using keywords (she will be wiser when it comes to the proper exam) and French - Resilience - I made a request to drop French 6 weeks ago and after a meeting with school DD was asked to persevere until after mocks (she got an E at the end of the summer exams). Just got mock results back and she's 3 marks of a B - she's turned the results around in 3 months (Probably the most rewarding result because it has caused so much heartache).

A few high's A* In DT ,8/9 Computer Science (new exam so unknown) and A in English and a low in History D - but only a few marks off a C - so that will be OK if she focuses like she can - all the rest B's -I think she was probably two confident with Physics- so again lesson to learn.

Maybe a glimmer of hope that DD will consider English Lit A level ...