GCSEs 2018 (5 & a puppy, but no kittens)

[Stickerrocks]

Here we go again.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/secondary/3177476-GCSEs-2018-4-already

Stickerrocks I know the anxiety you must be feeling for your DM. I've been through similar. I wish I could say something that would make it easier for you but I don't think there is anything. It puts everything else in perspective though

Oh gosh, Stickerrocks sending you lots of good wishes and positive thoughts and hope your mum is feeling much better soon. Elderly parents and teens are both a great worry.
Sos if you’re reading this, hope you’re feeling OK and are able to go home soon.
DS has a tentative revision plan for next week. A science subject every day followed by the ‘reward’ of something he finds easier. Oh and some art project rescue work!
Last night he announced (as I suspected) that he’s thinking of switching his A level options to English, philosophy and psychology. His father did mock weeping at the loss of maths but I pointed out that if he gets a place at his preferred sixth form he should be able to do maths as well, so that’s given them something to think about! We’ll only know what he really wants to do once he’s got his results, I suspect!

Stickerrocks sending you lots of positive vibes. Its so hard to be stuck between parents needing you and the kids needing you too.

DS1 parents evening went well - all the teachers were pleased with him, and said he is on track to do well - he just need to keep doing what he is.

Interestingly his maths teacher has said the word he has had is that the exam board have taken on board concern from last years papers, and have tried to make the paper more "accessible" (not easier, just easier to understand the wording) - he therefore feel the grade boundaries may be higher this year. This is Edexl.

The mentor for his achievement group said to him that he should focus in bringing his 7s up to 8s and 8's up[ to 9s, and not worry too much or put too much effort into bringing his French from a 6 to a 7.

DS has said he will just keep plugging away doing what he is doing now - it looks like there are only 2 holiday revision sessions he needs to attend, so he is happy with that.

DD back in school today finishing off English coursework - but I guess after today that's 40% of Eng Lang/Lit submitted which will be a huge relief ...
@Stickerrocks Hope things improve with DM today....Its tough when parents live a distance away and their health declines - I was fortunate to be able to take redundancy to spend more time with my parents when their health became an issue but living 120 miles away was a complete nightmare.

That’s interesting rumbled I ve been wondering myself whether people will take much notice of the difference between a 6 and 7 whereas there was merit in trying to get an a if you could in previous years. DS needs to get his a level subjects up s high as possible and pass English and rs but as long as chemistry and biology etc fall somewhere I’m between it probably won’t make much difference as he won’t be targeting top academic uni courses. He still need to work on them to make sure they don’t slip back but will focus more on the other subjects

Sending best wishes to those coping with illness along side daily teen life

Interestingly his maths teacher has said the word he has had is that the exam board have taken on board concern from last years papers, and have tried to make the paper more "accessible" (not easier, just easier to understand the wording) - he therefore feel the grade boundaries may be higher this year. This is Edexl.

So pleased to hear this

Sending love and support to those going through tough times at the moment.
Sent email to godawful school asking for a meeting with the head, email sent Tuesday morning, still no reply or even acknowledgement. Governors are my next stop.

Jufus, try calling the HT's secretary to ask for the meeting to be scheduled. If nothing else, he won't like you bothering his secretary.

If you are going to make a formal complaint, then keep a diary of the time and date and roughly what was said.

I suspect, however, that if what you want is for the HT to fix the most basic failings in his school, such as those you've described, then you will be disappointed. S/He obviously can't keep his staff and he knows this. S/He probably has a very good handle on why they leave, and why its difficult to recruit reasonable replacements, but s/he isn't up to doing anything about it, else they would be doing it already.

Even if the most dynamic, effective HT came in this afternoon, would they be able to turn things around for your DD and the rest of the year 11s?

It’s true Edexcel are changing their maths papers to make them more accessible. This is what they have said they are doing:

“We are using evidence of question performance from our papers to focus on ensuring that:
the early questions on Foundation Tier papers are accessible to all candidates and will be mainly one-mark questions
the common questions which appear on both Higher and Foundation tier papers are all accessible to candidates targeting grades 4 and 5
appropriate language and contexts are used in all questions, so that we are testing mathematical ability only
there is a good coverage of topics tested each series, including those which are new to the curriculum
the layout of the papers is reviewed to make sure diagrams are large enough and candidates have enough working space.
We are also using evidence of question performance from our papers to further refine our approach to targeting questions at particular grades. This will help us ensure that the difficulty of questions increases steadily through the paper so that candidates are able to gain confidence as they work through each exam paper.”

Grade boundaries are likely to be higher than last year even without this as this cohort will be better prepared than last year. Well the ones who have had a proper teacher will be

Noble she is currently on a 4 from mocks, but would like a 6.

She knows when she is doing past papers only to work up to the staples? She should have a look at the ‘aiming for a grade 5 booklet’ here: www.piximaths.co.uk/revision-booklets (it’s for a grade 5 on higher tier). More practice papers here too: crashmaths.com/gcse-practice-papers/

mmzz it's not just staff retention, I have a whole list of things I want to speak to HT about, I may give his secretary a call thanks.

Noble, she would like a 5 rather than a 6. The Maths supply teacher has said they will only be able to access half of the paper so she will be missing out sections, DD is confused by this? They are 2nd set for info.

For the higher tier, 50% of the paper has to be aimed at grades 4-6 and 50% aimed at grades 7-9. As she is aiming for a 5/6, she should be concentrating on answering the first half of the paper only (up to the staples). That doesn’t mean she can’t look at the second half of the paper, or have a go at some questions, but that she shouldn’t get panicked if she can’t do them.
The grade boundary for a 6 last year was 40%

Thank you for that explanation Noble, I wish the supply teacher could have explained it to DD in that way. When we are talking about grade boundaries going up this year are we talking 10-15%, or more? Like a grade 6 this year could be 50 or 60%?

noble, if you had to guess, what do you think will be the grade boundaries this year for 8 and 9 in maths?

DS needs an 8. He regularly gets 90%+. It used to be 95%+ or 98%+ (as in forever) but its been slipping back these last few months. Mainly he seems to lose marks for not putting in enough workings, even though he's got the right answer (not just for proofs). He really needs an 8, but if he only makes a small number of mistakes, I'm concerned that he could end up with a 7, which would really scupper a lot of plans.

DD has complained a lot about the style of questions on AQA & says she wishes they’ve would switch to ocr Like her brother’s school are doing.

She’s doing a 2 day revision workshop next week. She loses marks on witkings out too. She’s autistic & it’s like her brain thinks in a certain way & she doesn’t bother to put obvious stuff down.

She’d like a Grade 8, I think a 6/7 is more likely.

DS's report has just come in. Its a good one. It says he is working hard and trying his best, across all subjects (except Geography). The predicted grades are really high - 8s and 9s, with one 7 (in geography). Even the English predicted grades are good. Grade point average 8.3.

I wish this was 23/8 and I was looking at his actual certificate with those grades on it, not just a series of teacher predictions, but I'm really pleased for him. Hopefully it will give his self-confidence a boost and inspire him to make the grades real.

When we are talking about grade boundaries going up this year are we talking 10-15%, or more?

I don’t think so, but it’s really hard to say because grade boundaries change every year anyway, depending on the difficulty of the paper. We know that the paper is being made more accessible than last year, plus the cohort will be better prepared, but the questions could be harder than last year, or they could be easier. I would think only a few percent, but with all the winds blowing in the same direction could be more. I don’t think 10% is likely.
Remember as well that only 50% of the paper is aimed at grades 4-6. If it went over 50% for a 6, that would mean that students would have to answer grade 7 questions correctly to get a grade 6 and that would be a concern to Ofqual about the standard of the paper.

mmzz I think over 90% would still get you a 9. If your DS can’t get a 9, then who could?!

Great news mmzz, good to see all your DS (and your) hard work paying off and nice to know you just need to keep going at the same level.

I'm a bit nervous as DS only needs a small improvement on his mocks to get where he wants to be in terms of grades but although he is working hard and improving I'm conscious lots of others are too - and many who didn't revise for mocks will be revising for the real thing so the overall standard will go up - I guess that's an issue with grades being relative to the rest of the cohort. Is that right or am I worrying unnecessarily.

@Oratory1 Thanks.

About the cohort, I suspect that you and I are in a bubble , giving a false impression of how much everyone else is doing.
Take Ds's school for example. It is a comprehensive. It does really well in the league tables and it is hugely focused on the no one left behind approach.Parents won't move house if they think they can get their DC into this school. They move heaven and earth to get their kids their. Many of the parents have well-paid jobs (and therefore know the value of qualifications themselves). The school itself is a well-honed machine and it makes it crystal clear to parents - who it obliges to turn up to listen - exactly what we should be doing to support our DC.
And yet, despite all this, a surprisingly large % of students in DS's year have done hardly any revision yet, and don't really have any plans to do more than an hour or two a week in the Easter holidays.
If you think how many more students there will be like that, in schools that are a lot less focussed, or successful, at delivering good results.

Maybe I could have just said that for many students, you can take a horse to water, but you cannot make it drink.

mmzz that's excellent news - and very well deserved! He's in a great position for the real thing.
School emailed me DS2's report but I haven't had anything about DS1. It could be they'll email them later today or tomorrow. I have an image of the admin staff sending out emails at prudently spaced intervals!

Hmm - had a letter from school tody about prom.

It will be held in a secret location, we won’t find out where until the night & since it’s exeat weekend boarding will be closed so parents will be expected to collect our children at 11pm in a city miles from home.

We also have commitments with Ds the next day (he’s in a local youth theatre show matinee & evening).

Alexander - I'd be tempted to write back pointing out that the secrecy is incompatible with the parents' need to plan their own lives, so if there has to be a secret location, then the parents need to be in on the secret too.

Someone just hasn't thought this through.

Most parents go to the school st 7pm for photos apparently before they are transported to the location.

I suspect they’ve will just say this is how it’s always done.

mmzz well done your DS on an excellent report, great motivation for the final push!

DS's report which he recently got, three of his subjects were down graded, no reason for it I just think the lack of knowledge regarding grade boundaries has made some departments re-think where the boundaries might fall. DS was annoyed at the time but I've gone on to him enough about how no-one knows where the boundaries will lie and to just concentrate on knowing the stuff rather than second guessing what you think you might get........I think he grudgingly agreed.

Alexander what the reason behind the secrecy.......is it to stop complaints, gate crashers or nosey parents