Gcse 2018 (10) The one with half term

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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.

Best of luck to everyone today! DS1 has a day off today before geography tomorrow and maths on Thursday.

He's doing 10 exams this time with one sat last year. It feels an OK number and in truth he's been able to keep up extra curricular stuff (rugby, cricket and D of E). Only the cricket has been impacted by exams but all his club games have been scheduled to start after exams finish - it's useful that DH is the team manager

Talking of different approaches, there is an AIBU about letting my Ex take my son our for a posh lunch the day before his GCSEs thread. The crowd universally said YABU, so the OP trotted back in and said she's positively laid back compared to "some of those GCSE threads on other boards". We all have different approaches, but at least we all care. The majority of posters on that thread were firmly of the "GCSEs don't matter" or "it's too late to do anything anyway" persuasion.

Oratory A GCSE in those subjects can rarely reflect real talent. We don't have any artistic or musical genes in our family, but it would be great to have the opportunity to study music, art or drama from an untalented perspective, almost taking a critique approach. Perhaps that is the route for those GCSEs (my school offered History of Art at A level, but I don't think there are any other similar papers), so the talented students can do a practical version more relevant to their skill.

mmzz I can only work out your approach from what you write on the thread, but I can see that you know a huge amount about specifications etc and that you know in detail what your DS's revision timetable is. So I conclude that you're far more directly involved whereas I seem to be at the least involved end of the spectrum - which is not to say I don't care, it just seems to work for DD and me.

There's absolutely no judgment being made (people jump to conclusions quite wrongly (and far too quickly!) whenever one mentions different approaches. I specifically said approaches will and should differ according to different DC and I've no way of knowing if my approach is 'better' - I certainly don't claim it to be).

Yes it's far easier being on the last of eight DC taking these things and it does put the reforms in perspective.

Sostenueto (sorry, lots of crossed posts which I hadn't read before replying to mmzz) you misunderstand - I'm not saying the reformed exams are easy at all - they're definitely not, they're seriously challenging - I'm saying instead that the previous exams - especially for those many, many, many DC whose schools took them as linear with no retakes - were not a walk in the park. And yes I fully agree about the politics involved and the casting aside of the less able - a disgrace.

I'm less involved than you, Goodbye...

And then there are the actively sabotaging or no-sympathy parents out there.

I think we all have different styles of parenting because all our children are different! It's like the baby books - you can read as many as you like but in the end you go with what works.
I don't know if anyone else thinks this but DS says he's found the actual exams less stressful than doing two rounds of mocks. Cynical me thinks this may have something to do with him being better prepared for the real thing!
Anyway, DS hasn't got any exams today but I wanted to send out a massive 'good luck!' to the historians and anyone else doing exams today!

What's does an actively sabotaging parent do and why?

parents who are abusive emotionally or physically or druggies or even tell their kids not to try, or do loads that results in an unstable environment.

"Don't get above yourself, only swots work hard at school."

Loose yes that was what I said at the outset, about different DC.

And also lljkk, we both have to admit that we've involved enough to be on this thread and contributing! :)

I think I take different attitude from most ppl on this thread because I are different. I've had the over-achiever & the stubborn under-achiever & now I have the very disorganised kid & finally I'll probably get an ordinary kid to finish off.

How I handle them wrt revision, academics, exams says everything about me, not them.

*I am.... love MNHQ not really for giving us no edit facility.

Firstly good luck to all the DC doing papers today!!!

@TeenTimesTwo - your school will probably let her drop one if you push hard enough. DD dropped a MFL in year 10. She’s dyslexic and there was only a very slim chance of her scraping a C/4 and that would have involved dedicating a sizeable chunk of revision time. I waited until she did badly at her Xmas exam then politely explained that all of her results would be impacted by the school’s insistence on her doing the subject (which in turn was affected by government policy for all DC to have at least one language) plus the stress and impact on self confidence. When they realised that all her grades could fall and impact on THEIR league tables they gave in.

....I appreciate that this may impact on Uni apps but I am sure that with a bit of explaining (personal statement will include overcoming dyslexia to succeed).

So in essence they will probably give in to your request after she has start. As for what does she do with her time - she goes to the library and self studies. The first few months she did an online touch typing course too.

Hope that helps
Ps - When working out ‘points’ Unis def only include your 8 best grades

DD's history exam today is only an hour and a quarter, which seems incredibly short, but she's clear that that's right and not a typo on the exam sheet. She's doing edexcel. Are all history exams today this short?

I've come across some actively sabotaging parents. They may not have done it intentionally, but it's comments like "don't you worry about that, I never got any qualifications and it's done me no harm", or bandying about words like "swot" and "geek" when a student gets down to some revision. Or the mother of one of my daughter's friends who is totally transparent about the fact she thinks her younger daughter is a lot less clever than the older one. Which is very likely to become a self-fulfilling prophecy unless the younger one is very determined to prove her wrong.

Cblue The school were reasonable with DD1, so I hope we will find something that works for DD2 too. I don't care about unis, that's extremely unlikely to happen. I would just like her to get her 5 passes including English and Maths and Science as that opens up access to level 3 animal/conservation courses at college.
When DD1 dropped History she had to keep quiet about it so as not to encourage others. She had to go to the 'inclusion unit' to work.

I'm kind of hoping they have an option block that says 'extra maths & English' in it as that would be the best solution all round. Anyway there's 6 months to go before I have to really think about it.

Yes goodbyestranger only 75 minutes today. Doesn't seem long enough to write down all the dates DD1 has been trying to cram in. Just hope some of them stick!

God nervous today about History. He loves it and wants to study it at Uni. Praying it goes ok. He messed up his timings and ran out of time last time. It’s the one subject he really knows inside and out. 🤞

Good luck to everyone today!!!

Ps on the parenting - I am definitely very involved. Wish I didn’t have to be though! It’s really interesting to see all the different approaches. I don’t think there are many actively sabotaging - I’ve worked with families with the issues you mention and the vast majority want their kids to do well. They may hinder them but not “actively”.

Yes only one hour 15 here. There’s 3 papers so that must be why...

Good point that dcs are different even within the same family - mine certainly are!
Meanwhile, I am more nervous about the students I teach than my own DS this week. Tomorrow I’ll be there to say soothing and encouraging words to them as they go into the exam room - and these are not 15 and 16 year-olds!

Loose - Your students are very lucky to have such a lovely teacher.

History today too - 1hr 30 minutes but just two exams. I'm also nervous ...DD really struggles to write fast enough and her writing gets bigger and bigger has the pressure mounts.

Good luck to all of them sitting History right now. For Aqa it's Germany I believe. I asked ds if he felt prepared, he said 'yeah' which is a good sign, he'd be stressed and kicking something if he didn't feel prepped!

I have to say the school is doing everything they can to prep them....3 hours of History revision. Ds knows his material, he has struggled with exam technique. All crossed.

Re parental involvement. I think it can vary by subject too.

I'm hugely involved in English. To the point I could probably tutor it next year

I have a degree and MA in English lit so I do have some background. Dd has always found it a struggle and is hopefully limping towards a 5 in language. I'm doing whatever I can to get her there to avoid resits.

I'm not at all involved in any other subjects apart from occasional testing the night before if required.

Bishop same here, I am more involved with English, although ds didn't seem to know Jekyll & Hyde very well....I did some 'sticking plaster' Jekyll & Hyde talking through the revision guide and linking themes to quotes. I hope he gets a 4 or 5...

I'm very involved with DS1, but much less so with DS2, even though he is younger. It just about what each child wants and needs.

I know about the timetable and the exam board specifications because I built the timetable spreadsheet using my excel skills. It ended up taking a lot of time, but started off as just an hour's work on Saturday last Autumn. DS didn't know where, or when, to start with the revision for the mocks, so I suggested he list out what he needed to know for the mocks and make a guess as to how long he needed to revise each part. Then add it all together and break it up into manageable chunks. 5 minutes later, it became obvious that he was hazy about recalling even the names of the topics he had been studying. He has dysgraphia, so his workbook gets used infrequently in school and his electronic notes were all in a jumble.
So, I googled the specification for each exam, and copy pasted them into a spreadsheet.
After the mocks, DS asked me to modify the spreadsheet to actually map the work onto a calendar, so I did that (took 3 days because at first, I couldn't work out how to do it so that he could keep changing it easily).
Then at easter he started to panic that he wouldn't have time to learn everything and do all the homework etc. Also, he could only see what he didn't know, rather than appreciate that he already knew a lot. So, I made more modifications, often going back to the spec to check some facts rather than relying on DS's often hazy description of what he thinks the teacher may or may not have told the class.

It turns out that the specification is really useful, but I don't know if something else would have made me look at it if I hadn't been for trying to build that spreadsheet.

I feel like I am having to justify myself here....

No justification required mmzz, it sounds organic - that's how things so often are.