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Secondary education

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Original poster

GCSEs 2018 (9) Will we get to half term, for never was a story of more woe than this of Juliet and who is Banquo

999 replies

Stickerrocks · 22/05/2018 21:53

Thread 8

OP posts:
sandybayley · 24/05/2018 21:23

I know how much you enjoyed my equipment photo this morning - and the rubber talk that followed.

Here's an inspiring sight. DS1 exam schedule. 15 down, 8 to go.

We do enjoy crossing each one off and counting down.

GCSEs 2018 (9) Will we get to half term, for never was a story of more woe than this of Juliet and who is Banquo
hmcAsWas · 24/05/2018 21:23

Sost I feel for you dgd - it sounds like she is more than capable but just doesn't believe it. Hopefully these will be the last English exams that she will ever have to sit. I hope I am not speaking out of turn but does she suffer from anxiety in other areas - could she do with some help with this going forward? (please don't be offended - its just that my dd has suffered from anxiety and has benefitted hugely from counselling to give her coping strategies and avoid catastrophising - she would get things massively out of proportion and get very distressed). I really hope your dgd nails the exams tomorrow.

Teenmum I wouldn't rule out a grade 7 for you dd in edexcel maths. It was a revelation to me today to see that last year it was 40% for a grade 6 and 51% for a 7 for edexcel higher maths. I had clearly been stuck in old fart 'GCSE ten thousand years ago' mode and had been assuming that a 6 would be minimum 60% and a 7 minimum 70%. I had vaguely read on here that 18% was last years grade 4 and internally went "Nah, that can't be right", but now having been advised of the grade boundaries (and then looking them up myself because I still couldn't believe it) I have realised that my dd's most likely maths grade is a 7 Shock Shock based on her average scores in maths papers

Teenmum60 · 24/05/2018 21:26

I'm very envious @stickerocks of where you live...I do love NF South Coast...was looking at some pics of us crabbing at Mudeford last night.. we also hired a lodge at Avon Tyrell for DD's 14th Birthday and the girls went swimming in a very cold pool in April...such a beautiful part of the UK... I did wave back Grin

beenrumbled · 24/05/2018 21:28

When I got home at 1915 DS was in the garden practising wicket keeping (bouncing ball off wall and catching) 😠

DH was WFH today and said DS had 6old him he had revised for a couple of hours after school. 😕

DS is playing Fifa now.b

AlexanderHamilton · 24/05/2018 21:33

Took Ds to Hans Solo film tonight so only just spoken to Dd

Sostenuto - I know exactly what you mean about inference. Ds is just like that. So articulate & in set 1 for maths but Set 5 for English predicted Grade 2 (which considering he spent two years at a selective school is concerning. He has an asd (as does Dd) & inference is something they struggle with.

AQA Higher maths went ok. Dd was disappointed with her mock (given Grade 6) feedback is always lack of workings out & rushing. The year 11’s were offered a mentor & she chose a maths one. Hoping for Grade 7. A lot of her classmates found the paper really hard especially one question with regards to expanding brackets (or not) Dd thinks she worked it out & her mentor confirmed it sounded right. She thinks she worked most things out & gave reasonable answers (whether correct or not we’ll see)

mmzz · 24/05/2018 21:40

That was then, sost. I do something very different now.

BlueBelle123 · 24/05/2018 21:46

Cherrybun I was very heartened to read what you said about English make a point and back it up, as English is not DS's strong point but he is pretty good at writing history essays so the night before Tuesday's English Lit exam he decided to take the same approach as his history essays - how well it worked we will find out in August.

Good luck everyone for tomorrow, last day of school for DS and quite a few others I believe on this thread, so a momentous day.........we don't have any thing planned I think DS will just want to sleep!

mmzz · 24/05/2018 21:55

Yes, the end of an era. Even if they do go back to the same school for sixth form, it will be a completely different experience.

Original poster
Stickerrocks · 24/05/2018 22:02

Teen but we don't make the most of it, I drive up to Surrey most weekends in the rugby season. You never appreciate what is on your doorstep, speaking as someone Cornish born & bred.

mmzz thanks for the vote of confidence. Sometimes I think that DC can't relate to anyone outside the sphere of their friends, especially when they're younger. The majority of DD'S friends had parents who had comfortable but easy jobs rather than careers. If I had been working in a school, a nurse or something similar she would have been able to understand what I do. As soon as I say a portfolio career with my own accountancy practice alongside professional exam tutor, she glazes over! She would miss all the financial advantages of being an only child of 2 professionals though if I didn't have my career.

Alex Is it worth going to see?

OP posts:
Nettleskeins · 24/05/2018 22:07

Eng lit still going badly...hmm

I've just tried to explain to the umpteenth time to ds2 that Porphyria's Lover killed her because she wanted to leave him Sad And he said, oh but they were getting on well...inference suddenly grinding to a halt..no, [me] that's the narrator's delusion that they were getting on well...he knows she wanted to leave which is why he strangled her, he's just not admitting that she wanted to leave to us. All too complicated...he's mad, she's dead, leave it at that..

EllenJanethickerknickers · 24/05/2018 22:13

DS3s last day tomorrow. They had shirt signing and a leavers' assembly today and study leave starts straight after English Lit (poems and play) tomorrow.

End of an era, 9 years of my DSs at that school. How much I worried about which secondary school they would get and the fact we were out of catchment for this one and no sibling policy at all, etc etc. Should we move house, do grammar tests, which school had the best SEN facilities? And in the blink of an eye it's all over. From this Sept one finishing uni, one doing an HNC at college, one at a sixth form.

But the worrying about them never really stops, does it?

Teenmum60 · 24/05/2018 22:32

Good luck to everyone finishing school (Yr11) tomorrow ...

mmzz · 24/05/2018 22:34

Well put, Ellenjane. To me, it does feel like the end of a chapter.

DS2 is still at secondary but when DS1 left primary, so did my interest in primary. I still cared about DS2's progress but I knew what to expect and was just going through the motions really waiting for DS2 to move on to secondary.

I saw a thread headline in "active" this evening. It was some sort of fret about a "gifted" 4 year old child's likely experience of reception class. I thought to myself "probably delusional, but if not then they're stuffed" and moved on because having young children feels like a foreign country now.

JugglingFromHereToThere · 24/05/2018 22:46

Have to check now if DS is doing Porphyria's Lover. Sounds very exotic!
Loving the various advice for it.

Absolutely agree about the sense of proportion around the upper grades.
To me it should be about getting what you need for the next step and then taking it from there.
I feel fortunate and hopeful that that is do-able for DS as he's hoping to stay on where he currently is.

Am very unsure how those grades will actually turn out though, although maybe I should put more faith in both school predictions and DS.

AlexanderHamilton · 24/05/2018 22:57

It was a good film. Very different in feel to the other Star Wars films. Ds really enjoyed it.

EllenJanethickerknickers · 24/05/2018 22:59

I know how you feel mmzz. When DS2 left primary I'd had 9 years of it and had had enough, but then my exH left and I appreciated the daily contact with friends. I was working in a primary school, though. When DS3 left primary 2 years later, I looked for a job in a secondary school as I had "done" primary to death. Now 5 years in 2 secondaries and I'm glad I now work mainly with sixth form. Can't see me moving up to university Grin but I felt some envy of DS1 when leaving him in halls. Don't want to work there but just wish I was 18 again.

EllenJanethickerknickers · 24/05/2018 23:01

I think Deadpool and Star Wars are calling this half term!

TheSecondOfHerName · 24/05/2018 23:01

We're going to see Solo on Sunday.

mmzz · 24/05/2018 23:04

Juggling p's lover is from the love and relationships anthology. I've had the impression in the past that the other anthology, the conflict one, is more widely used.
Not surprising when you try to get 15/16 year old boys to get their heads around the bitter sweetness of a parent realising their child is moving on from them ( "Walking Away") or the coolness of a relationship that's dead but not been declared over yet (Neutral tones)

Teenmum60 · 24/05/2018 23:08

To me, it should be about getting what you need for the next step and then taking it from there

What this forum has shown me is that everyone has different aspirations ..to some parents DC getting a 9 is really important..to others just passing the exam and conquering fears is equally very important...It's all relative and personal.

I'm just hoping it's not my DD's quote on Twitter (after her History exam) that gets mentioned on this forum Blush...excepting any advice - DD has 10 revision days to CRACK History and pass the exam (she got a D in mocks).

mmzz · 25/05/2018 05:58

Good luck to everyone doing Eng Lit part 2 today.

I said to DS that as of this afternoon, he can go back to reading for enjoyment again as he'll never have to analyse another text. Judging by the sour look he gave me, I think that ship has sailed!

It's a shame, really, because I invested a lot of time, money and energy in getting him to love reading, and he did love it until he started to have to disembowel books for English Literature.

Cherryburn · 25/05/2018 06:15

I'm sure he'll rediscover the love once the memories of English Lit gcse have faded mmzz. It's very sad that it has that effect on so many of them though. Something's wrong somewhere if the study of literature leads to a dislike of literature!

DS is knackered. It's been a really long week for him (his worst in terms of number of exams) and as he had his first exam on May 2nd they already seem to have been going on forever. I've never been so happy to see half term, and he definitely needs the weekend off.

Good luck to all in English Lit today. Praying that DS gets an accessible poem in the Unseen paper.

idsisatwat · 25/05/2018 06:53

Good luck to them all this morning. At least that means English Lit is out of the way!

Only maths, Spanish, geography and the sciences to go. Oh and English Lang......

beenrumbled · 25/05/2018 06:58

DS grumbling about the length of the English Lit exam today.

He is going in early for a wake up session for English this morning.

BlueBelle123 · 25/05/2018 07:09

I love how they call them wake up sessions for me it conjures up the image of a half asleep disshevelled teenager dragging themselves in to school Smile

Good luck everyone!