Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Secondary education

Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

GCSEs 2018 (4 already)

999 replies

Stickerrocks · 24/02/2018 20:56

Following on from www.mumsnet.com/Talk/secondary/3152060-GCSEs-2018-3

OP posts:
Thread gallery
14
Teenmum60 · 06/03/2018 12:26

They can go with a friend now - they changed the rules last year. Not sure whether its good or bad but it helps quiet types.
My dd not sporty but she loves high ropes/abseiling/skiing etc
It's not for everyone but I have not heard a back report back - one of DD's friends did the program last year and it was lovely to see them crowded around a open log fire with a few playing guitars and singing - yet they had only met a few day's earlier.

Sostenueto · 06/03/2018 12:43

Its what my dgd needs to bring her out a bit teen she is so quiet and retiring ( not at home or with her friendship group) but she has promised that next year in 6th form she will try to socialise more as I don't think there will be many of her friendship group at same 6th form as some are going into drama and the arts and dgds school specialises in math and sciences rather than the arts and is popular and over subscribed for that reason. One of my main huge worries about dgd going to uni. I'm an extrovert, she is not. But once she makes new friends she will be fine but may take a while.

Oddsocks15 · 06/03/2018 17:41

maisypops DS handed it in on a sheet of paper, apparently teacher had books for the whole class. DS says there is no particular place to put homework on teachers desk. He went to see her at break time today. Apparently they went round and round in circles as to where his homework could be. Not really sure how it was left, all I know is thankfully DS did homework on laptop so has printed off again to take into her tomorrow and didn’t attend the after school detention (not sure whether the non attendance was agreed or not?) - He does have the teacher for a lesson tomorrow so I’ve told him to speak to her again as his detention could get escalated if is non attendance was not agreed.

He has the makings of being a politician for arguing his point! This teacher did comment to me at parents evening that she enjoys the debates she has with DS Hmm

sos my DD is introverted and going. I’ve heard mixed reviews but she is keen so she is going!

mmzz · 06/03/2018 18:09

Just to add another idea of how to put together a study timetable, I made one for DS on a spreadsheet.
First I listed out all the subjects and then within each subject, I took the topic breakdown from the revision guides, and next to each entry, Ds made an estimate of how much time he would need to revise it.
Then it all got added up, subject by subject into:
time required
time done
time outstanding
DS updates this every day with his progress.

After that, the time still needed got summarised in a table, and the number of required 45 minute revision sessions were calculated, per subject.

Finally the revision sessions were put into slots on a calendar in another tab of the spreadsheet. I used conditional formatting to colour them in. These are counted to make sure that DS has sufficient time, according to the estimates.

He's currently due to finish revising 10 days before the first exam. He won't, of course, but this way he's building in time for finding that something needs more time than estimated, or being ill for a few days.

I've been using spreadsheets for work since 1991, so i know my way around them. But this was still a big body of work (bigger than I originally thought, tbh). I'm consoling myself that it can be used for Ds2 in a couple of years time.

GCSEs 2018 (4 already)
GCSEs 2018 (4 already)
TheSecondOfHerName · 06/03/2018 18:34

mmzz that is a thing of beauty.
Colour coding based on conditional formatting? I may have fallen in love with you a little bit.

Stickerrocks · 06/03/2018 18:44

Latest mock biology result is worse than last time. 22/55. She was predicted 8+. I'm going to blame friendship traumas, whereas DH is blaming a lack of work.

OP posts:
Teenmum60 · 06/03/2018 18:45

Seriously impressed....mmzz

I think you definitely deserve a 9 for revision planning.

Teenmum60 · 06/03/2018 18:48

Stickerrocks better in a mock than the actual exam and in good time to correct...

slinkyme · 06/03/2018 19:03

Mmzz that is seriously impressive. I am tempted by excel format but fail when it comes to conditional formatting. May have to do a quick intro to this. It really is a work of art.

mmzz · 06/03/2018 19:05

Thank you, both. It works for DS.

Stickerrocks, that's a bit worrying. Maybe they made the exam extra hard to date then onto revising more? Why does your DD think she dropped marks?

Stickerrocks · 06/03/2018 19:48

The 2 triple science groups seen to have wildly different marks. The resident genius in DD's class only got 35 and the lowest mark was 13. Back to my recurring theory that despite having great teachers, nobody really knows how to mark these things.

OP posts:
mmzz · 06/03/2018 20:00

I think you are right, stickerrocks

Sostenueto · 06/03/2018 20:04

mmzzwonderful work! I take my hat off to you! Cake

Sostenueto · 06/03/2018 20:15

Tonight mixed news from dgd. First the good news. Just before half term dgd sat last years English language papers. Today she got back paper 2 and had scored 56/80. 70%. She was so chuffed! For someone who only achieved a 5 for language in mocks its a vast improvement! Just got to wait for paper 1 mark to see overall score. I shall get her a little treat tomorrow for doing so well!
The bad news is the Spanish test was really really hard and she's still Angry because they only got a days notice. I had to stifle saying well maybe a tad more revision needed because she was so elated about English and I didn't want to spoil it for her.
Tbh think the DC should be almost ready to have stuff dropped on them at this stage so near to exams and be able to cope with it. The idea is to revise every week from year 10 what you did that week, little and often, little and often to retain over a long period of time. Its only my opinion really.

BlueBelle123 · 06/03/2018 20:21

Well I am seriously impressed with your DS mmzz if he is coming home doing 3 x 45 min of revision each night and 5 x 45 at the weekend and intends to even work Easter Sunday Shock

Sostenueto · 06/03/2018 20:21

stickerocks I tend to agree with you too!

BlueBelle123 · 06/03/2018 20:24

Sostenueto I think very few children have been working steadily since the beginning of year 10, DS certainly hasn't.

Sostenueto · 06/03/2018 20:24

mmzz does your ds have lots of homework? Dgd finding it hard to do as much revision as she wants because of the massive amount of homework she is still getting.Shock

Sostenueto · 06/03/2018 20:25

True bluebelle including my dgd!

BlueBelle123 · 06/03/2018 20:25

Stickerrocks Ds's lowest mark is biology and he is always going on about the ridiculous marking.

Sostenueto · 06/03/2018 20:37

I think teachers are being over cautious because of the complete lack of information they have to hand and rather than over estimate they are underestimating which can be a good thing, but can knock dcs confidence badly too.

Teenmum60 · 06/03/2018 20:41

Sostenueto well done to dgd in Eng

Well DD has done 1hr 30 minutes of revision for Organic Chemistry tonight which was homework but she was very keen to move it from the Chemistry Revision chart to the diary for today...so I think our little system will work OK (I hadn't taken into account revision homework BUT DD has!).

Oddsocks - glad your young DS was OK today!

DD seems to have a lot of smaller tests going on at the moment.

Thankfully she said they had moved onto some recent Maths past papers and they seem easier than some of the older papers.

Teenmum60 · 06/03/2018 20:45

I'm thankful that DD is sitting IGCSE's because the teachers are comparing the mock results of last years cohort with their final results and seem happy with their predictions from mock to final for this year's cohort because of this ...not so easy with the new 1-9's.

Sostenueto · 06/03/2018 20:54

Thanks teenmumFlowers

Oddsocks15 · 06/03/2018 20:56

mmzz wow seriously impressive Smile

Well done to your DGD sos