Gcse 2018 (10) The one with half term

[Stickerrocks]

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/secondary/3256691-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

Oops. Can't remember how to link nicely, so this will have to do.

Peggy

That's rough - thank goodness you persisted and fought her corner and she now has rest breaks and a prompter....but no extra time? Her school sounds slap dash and indifferent

I don't profess to understand what the requirements are - I got dd tested privately by an Ed Psych for dyslexia in Y2 of KS1 (none of the teaching staff had flagged it with me or even noticed an issue in her Ofsted outstanding primary school , but I knew otherwise). It involved a couple of hours of extensive testing and she was found to have high cognitive ability (i.e. much higher than average) with significant processing issues and working memory difficulties (much lower than average). The Ed Psych report typically makes recommendations on how the child's needs should be met in a learning environment.

Post primary, at her subsequent school the Learning Support Department are excellent and have a member of staff who is trained and accredited to do the full gamut of testing. Dd was retested in year 10 to review access arrangements - so she has extra time and use of a pc plus she does her exams in a small group (3 other students) to minimise distraction.

It really shouldn't be a lottery whether or not your child with spLD gets the support they need. For further education will she be staying at her school for sixth form or moving on to a sixth form college?

@mmzz -don’t think that’s right about extra time. My DS has a high IQ but gets it as does a friend’s daughter who is extremely bright. I’m not sure of the exact criteria.

Just seen your later post Peggy about processing speed hence no extra time. The cuts offs can seem arbitrary when you are on the wrong side of them

Morning all

Sostenu how is fussy pup? I have a very fussy sleek (part Bengal) tabby cat who will only eat dried food, left over Sunday roast and tinned tuna! Also a rotund ginger cat who will eat anything.

mmzz dh took ds to Moss Bros to hire a suit for the prom. I am surprised at how much it cost - ds chose a Ted Baker chequered blue one and it cost £100 to hire. I wasn't expecting it to be that expensive, around £70 or £80. There are perhaps cheaper options.

I hope everyone has enjoyed half term, it has been over in a blink. Ds has been in every day for revision sessions, the last one today is History. I don't know if the teachers get paid for coming in for extra time - I am very thankful to them either way. The school has pulled out all the stops.

I agree results day seems a long way away and even feels a little surreal after that he's enrolling at 6th form. He's going to a very big 6th form and I need to buy an expensive bus pass - it will be a 40 minute trip to get there.

Next week is busy with 2 exams on Tuesday and 2 on Friday, 1 exam on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. After next week English and Maths will be finished and they slow down for the following 2 weeks.

@RosieLig DS gets extra time too, and had a high IQ too. I was just trying to say that it's not the difference between the two extremes that qualifies him for extra time, it's the fact that over 85% of 15 year olds can write faster than he does.
Maybe you are right, however. This is just what I was told by learning support when they were assessing how to support DS's learning disability.

Dd is going to the same 6th form as your ds Lulu (don't be creeped out - I know via Sticker )

hmc & Lulu only because DD may end up at that mega 6th form warehouse as well (if she doesn't go to the other one). They both have such a HUGE catchment area.

If DS gets the sixth form place he has a conditional offer for, it's going to cost us upwards of£2000 a year for a train season ticket (that's after the student discount). Tbh I don't dare find out the exact number. It might be more like £2500 for half an hour each way.

HMc you did the right thing with the independent assessment. I didn't get one done because school had been helpful with older DC. Then the extra time regs changed so it is harder to get extra time.

82% of kids can write faster than her.

By the time i found out what the plan was (no plan), we had 2 weeks to go

Thing is, because of my job, I should and do know about processing speed. I had got a bit used to my kids' spld and didn't spot the impact of the new regs.

DD is off to college in September to do a BTEC diploma. I think linear A levels would do us both in. Colleges and unis are great with spld in our experience.

Dd and dgd busy watching the stick man on both seated and standing queue on ticket site for bts. I hope that dd manages to get tickets even if it will take all day! They are currently halfway up both queues. dgd never asks for anything but lots of dropped hi ts about the group and reward for GCSEs dropped. I will be so gutted if she cannot get them either through demand for tickets or price of tickets remaining.

Wow - so many posts ...@peggy - sorry you have had such a fight to get your DD suitable exam concessions.
Sost - glad interview went well...

Dd also seems to be having a mini splurge on Maths and felt the first paper didn't go too well...She is at her DF's now - past paper results for paper2 were looking good..I have asked her to speak to DF about some questions she struggles with because he has A Level Maths but not sure whether she will.

Interestingly DD described herself has lazy last night .. another coaster through Yr10 and she;s probably just realising that the exams are important in the context of her decision to go down the medicine route...however it was nice to see some self motivation she's now hoping to get an A in Physics (first mention of an A ).

In terms of any advice - I totally agree with everyone else about ensuring that your DC's understand each topic as they go along. I also think really understanding the subjects that they have chosen is important ...I pressed the school to do a public exam for an ICT related subject...they chose to go down the route of Computer Science and the two are totally different and within a few weeks DD was demoralized by how the content was mainly theory.

DD has revised consistently this week although I could see it wasn't going to be easy combining revision for 2 exams of a weak subject (History) with revision for Maths and English which are more important exams.

Well! Think dd at top of queue for tickets...fingers crossed!
Hello teenmum nice to see you! Yes loads of posts which is great but hard to keep up! I have learned so much on this thread and such nice people too!
I will be glad when exams are over to get back to some sort of normality. And its been so sudden to see dgd grown up in such a short period of time during the exam season.

Peggy can relate to your posts about extra time; as I mentioned in the A level thread, my ds1 was not getting extra time in Gsces at all, until I pressurised the school in Year 12 (he has dyspraxia but as his handwriting was not noticeably slower than most students this didn't translate into a "difficulty", although he had considerably difficulty writing for long periods and difficulty organising his thoughts etc) Ds2 has always had extra time due to his EHCP.

The Progress 8 measure will do something to stop schools just trying to get passes for their students, although in some cases passes are a really important achievement and can mean the difference between a college course or not (I'm thinking the benchmark 5 Cs of old, now translated into 4s and 5's) Ds2's starting point was I think artificially lowered so his predicted grades (with a scribe)now will give a major boost to his school's Progress 8, and that is as it should be.

Sost we've been in the queue since it opened & have got absolutely nothing so far. I've even been out to get my haircut! Tickets are already being resold on Ticket master for £990 each. Let me know if she succeeds.

One young lady I spotted on Twitter logged in on 23 PCs & got 2 tickets!

I've just got in on Ticketmaster. No tickets available.

hmc small world! Or not maybe as Sticker says very large catchment with several large nearby towns.

Only 40 minutes Lulu? To get to the "other one" DD would have to be on the bus at 6.55 and home at 6pm. If she ends up with your D'S she only has to leave at 8.

Sticker I'll check on that. Another parent told me 40 minutes, maybe I have that wrong. I have some experience with the bus company, not impressed - they stopped the school bus.

Not very long at all by train though, but he would walk for 20 mins from station to college and about 25 mins from our house to station. Bus stop is just 5 minutes down the road.

My DD was trying to get tickets for her friend, but no luck. We’re evil parents because we’ve said she can’t go to the o2, as it’s too far and too expensive. So her and friends have emailed bts asking them to come to Manchester.

I don't think it's the bottom 15% on speed get extra time, it's more like a standardised score of 85 on a normal distribution where 100 is average. That would be a much smaller % than 15%! More like 3%. The tests they have to go through were pretty thorough at DS2's school. Hence, his writing and typing were much too slow so he qualified for a scribe, but didn't qualify for extra time as his processing was above the cut off. This is a child with ASD who has needed 1:1 support full time since age 4.

I commented on the grammar school thread that lots of DC at the selective school I work at seem to manage to get extra time but I was very surprised my DS didn't qualify. I do wonder if it depends on who performs the test and what vested interest they may have. But that might be sour grapes. Using a scribe is quite a difficult skill to have to suddenly acquire, especially in an essay type subject like English. Getting his thoughts out verbally has always been a very difficult task for my DS2 as his communication is pretty monosyllabic, much more so than your average teen!

Anyway, boys are with their dad this weekend. DS3 has a music revision session at school today. IME teachers do not get paid for any after school or holiday sessions they put on, and I'm extremely grateful to them for giving up their own time for these. I do understand that they need to meet targets for their performance management but I still think it's above and beyond.

Don't worry Lulu you're coming from the opposite direction to us and it probably is 40 minutes.

Her school sounds slap dash and indifferent
Yes

The Progress 8 measure will do something to stop schools just trying to get passes for their students

Let’s hope so.

Thank you so much for listening to my ranting. It’s not just the grades it’s the self esteem and mental health.

I’m burnt out after 3 bright dyslexic/ADHD/ASD DCs going through nice state comps. DC4 is in y7 at local independent. School rang asking if they could screen for dyslexia. He has extra time already. They have end of year exams, a revision timetable (to fill in), practice papers to do over half term.

I never expected to be in this position and I know we are lucky to have option.

Thanks again. Back to gcse physics with DD. She has P1, B1 and history Russia and History USA to go.

Ellen
I’m sorry your DS hasn’t got extra time. Using a scribe is different as you say and arguably more stressful if you have ASD as you have the extra interaction going on and have to deal with all that extra sensory/social information.

Definitely some strange clampdown on extra time rather than other support. Michael Gove. I blame you.

Gutted! Dd got to front of queue and while she was filling out firm you have to do was informed all tickets from £64-£200 sold out. Unfortunately she could not afford higher price be cause you have to add on fees hotel etc. Money talks again