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.

Thank you, Peggy but don't worry. DS2 is now 18 and managed to scrape a C in his English 2 years ago. The one subject he didn't use the scribe for was maths and he got an A for that! My DS3 is taking GCSEs this year and is a very quirky boy who is quite slow at writing but he has no SEN.

Hi sticker no luck for tickets and dgd upset. We tried our best. I had booked hotel ready which was £175 with breakfast then travel costs would have been £150 then spending g money and money for food plus ticket money. All told not far off £1000 we can't do anymore than that and we would have been really strapped to do that. Money talks all the time. We feel we have let dgd down very much

ds2 has ASD and is scribed as his writing and punctuation/spelling are so atrocious. Ironically it has helped him enormously in his communication skills as he now has to master large tracts of analysis verbally. He says he does get the chance to review what he has dictated and sometimes changes sentences or points he has made to make them "read" better. His writing has also improved since he now uses it functionally all the time in a low stress situation (note taking, filling worksheets, classwork) and no-one criticises it. I would hope that next year he won't need to be scribed and can type his essays out if he does A levels. I think they go on developing and improving, it is just that GSCEs are such an axe coming down which can cut you off from the next stage, if there are impairments to your exam performance like your actual writing!

Nettleskeins I thought it was so counterintuitive for DS2 to use a scribe. No, he couldn't write fast enough, very dyspraxic, but making him talk to someone! The horror! I was hoping he'd use a laptop and get extra time but the school thought differently. He didn't use a scribe in lessons and homework was always on the computer so it was a steep learning curve to use a scribe effectively. I hope your DS has had some practice. DS2's spelling and punctuation are actually pretty good so he lost credits for SPAG in the exams by using a scribe.

I really think there is a good chance additional dates will be added. We also got stumped at the final hurdle. In our case Ticketmaster kept saying there were tickets available, but by the time we got through the Recapture tests, they had gone again. DD is also very upset. Have a quick look at the articles Metro & the Mirror are running. A whole swathe of teenagers have been thoroughly let down unless the band does an Ed Sheeran and cancels all resale tickets. Somehow I don't think so!

@hmcAsWas - my DS's EdPsych report sounds very similar!
Top 3% in terms of underlying ability but very slow processing speed and verbal memory/retention and below average writing speed. The 25% extra time has made the world of difference.

Good morning everyone.
One to read:
www.theguardian.com/books/2018/may/29/teenagers-brains-not-ready-for-gcses-says-neuroscientist

Interesting reading, brainmelt. DS3 is a fairly early riser but still a fairly 'young' 15. DS2 started sleeping in at about 17yo. I think my family are a bit late at reaching 'teenagerdom!' It would take a pretty fundamental change to our education system to move end of school exams to 18. How is it done elsewhere?

Totally agree with the Guardian post ...there is such a massive difference in the maturity of an 18 yr old compared to 16 yr old...Kenneth Baker was saying this just a few weeks ago - also in The Guardian...we seem to be stuck in a timewarp

ellen In my country we just sit the exams at 18. We don't have private boards, so everyone everywhere sits the same exam set and marked by the government. In my time there were two common exams, one dealing with literacy and another dealing with numeracy. On top of that, people sat whatever their elective subjects were. The total average grade is then averaged with your school end of year grades for the last 2 years (3 in my time). The result is a number (out of 10 and not out of 9, because that's how sensible we are in my country ) and this number determines whether you get in your chosen Uni course.

In Australia, different states have different Education boards but each state board (government run) sets the exam courses/syllabi and exams. Most courses still involve an element of coursework which is weighted according to whether it is done in Year 11 or Year 12 (final year of school is Y12). The marks are then added (assessment / exam and moderated) and a final score is given (or in some states, a rank). This number is used to determine university entrance after student applications/preferences have been centrally submitted.
Of course the government regularly fiddle with exam specifications etc... just for the sake of it ('don't just sit there, DO something"!)

There are no GCSEs. GCSEs are frankly more like the final Australian exams than A Levels, which are so specialist in nature and more limited in breadth of subjects.

ooops - forgot to mention you take your final exams in all your subjects towards the end of Year 12.

Honestly not sure if most states do something 'basic' for the end of Year 10 in core subjects.

The Scottish system seems strange to me. One of my colleagues sends her son to boarding school up there and he did his first exams last year in 8 subjects in the equivalent of year 10. Now he's doing 5(?) Highers in year 11 and should do Adv Highers next year before going onto do a 4 year degree.

Almost feel bad - but managed to get 3 BTS tickets this morning. Took 30 minutes to be allowed to join the queue, and another 45 minutes in the actual queue! No choice of seat just best available but at least i have tickets!

I think there's a lot of truth in that article.DS2 is currently in Y8 and will sleep in as late as possible!!
I also agree with the psychologist that we demonize young people for normal behaviour.
Sostenueto oh no, I'm sorry your dgd was disappointed. These ticketing sites are horrible.
Well, DS had three solid hours of science this morning, came back mildly shell-shocked and decided he didn't need to repeat the experience with English Language!

Well done! Have asked DD what's on the revision schedule for the day as the entire morning was spent watching Ticketmaster & AXS queues which we joined before 9!

Stickerrocks your friend's son would have done his Nat 5s when he was 15/16 which is the same as in England.

There are 4 years at secondary, and then you do the GCSE equivalent exams. Before that, there are 7 years at primary school. Scotland doesn't have that funny hybrid Reception year that England has.

In England the age range for starting school is 4y0m - 4y12m (minus a day).
In Scotland, its between 4y 6m and 5y 6m. If your child is going to be 4y 6m in August (when Scottish schools start), then parents can decide for themselves whether to defer them for a year because when they do start school, its more like year 1 than Reception.
So, really Scots do 7+4=11 years of proper school before sitting formal exams and the English do 6+5=11 years before GCSEs.

Previously, the universities in Scotland were geared towards teaching straight after Highers, which you sit one year after NAT 5s (GCSE Equivalent exams), so the honours courses lasted 4 years. I went to university one month after I turned 17, but would have still graduated at the same point as an English student because they do 2 years after GCSE and then 3 at university.
So 1+4, versus 2+3.
However, the Scottish system is more flexible, because if you don't get sufficient points in your Highers, or you just weren't ready to leave home, then you could stay on another year at school and either do more Highers or take something called Advanced Highers (which were called sixth year studies in my day).

TBH the 3 differences are: Reception (what is the point of that?!), more flexible starting points in Scotland and we don't have sixth form colleges. The last year or two are just another school year. We still wore uniform and we were still called "pupils" until we left school and went to university.

Ireland does much the same system as Scotland, except I think the points system is quite punishing for the Leaving Cert (their equivalent of A levels, as it across a range of subjects and has to have Maths in there somewhere And a language) You cannot opt out of the Irish language component unless you have a foreign passport (and UK passport counts as foreign) They sit Gsce equivalent in Year 10 and it is much less important for uni application. Their Year 11 is a transition year where you get some work experience as well as schooling and everyone does the work experience, so small businesses across the board are expecting recruits for that. Seems like a better approach to teenage development. Irish children can go to school when they are 4 or when they are 5, you can choose when you wish to start in Reception Year, and then follow through thenceforward in that year group.
I'm Irish but I live in UK btw!

We didn't try for BTS tickets, but did anyone actually manage to buy any? A friend was online for over an hour, got through just after 10, no tickets left.

Just saw Ggirl27 post.
I'm relieved to hear that some real people managed to get tickets, not just bots / touts.

Speaking of hard-to-get tickets:

We managed to get tickets for Minecon the year it was in London. We only know one other family who managed to get tickets. DH & DS2 went. They each got a goody bag which included some collector's items and a code for a virtual cape to wear in-game. DH doesn't play Minecraft, so he sold his code (just the code, not the rest of the goody bag) on eBay. The bids went up to £100, which covered the cost of DH's ticket.

Am wondering if anyone can help. DD is doing edexcel geography higher paper, and has just been in tears as feels she knows nothing.
When asked what she doesn’t know, the response was I don’t know. But the fact that she’s crying is what’s worrying. As that’s just not her.

She wants to do geography at a level, but now is worried that she’ll fail it. I think she’s predicted a 7 - and I only know that because I saw it on a form at a 6th form college interview. No one is predicted 9s at her school.

So if anyone has any advice I’ll be very grateful!

@idsisatwat - really sorry to hear that.

My DD has a melt down a few weeks ago too and so did most of her friends. Went through the ‘exams went ok’ stage to the ‘how should I know how I did, I am not the examiner’ stage followed by melt down ‘I think I have failed everything stage’.
After a good cry and assurances that it doesn’t matter since she has done her best she got her mojo back. Now we are at the ‘I think I have done OK and some of the exams were really easy’ stage (and we are talking about the same exams that she had declared she had failed a week ago!).

The stress is dreadful for all the DC and sometimes a melt down, some reassurance and cuddle is all it takes. Unfortunately with my DD she has to come to me and won’t accept the support until she’s good and ready.

Feel so sorry for them all🙁

Now not looking forward to the waiting for the results stage!!!

Should also add that she doesn’t cry either - she’s very ‘together’ so it was extremely out of character