GCSEs 2018 (14): the aftermath

[mmzz]

Following on from www.mumsnet.com/Talk/secondary/3275972-GCSEs-2018-13-Untwisting-our-knickers-lucky-for-some

Have a good summer, Teen. Speak to you in 2 months time.

... and thanks for all your recommendations this year. They've all been good ones. Thanks also for helping me to find out what Ds's new school will be like.

Lol Terf My DD1 is another child "most likely to be PM". Perhaps our children really will all meet up one day ... in the Cabinet!

Terf I'm sending my best friend silly postcards every fortnight at the moment with the odd bunch 9f Scilly Flowers by post thrown in for good measure.

mmzz Behaviour issues. Of course the teachers aren't responsible, it's an issue with the pupils & their parents. However, it makes it very difficult to recruit teachers into a challenging school and retain them, especially when there is an outstanding one next door. Hence the predominance of supply staff and poor results.

At the same time, it must be very hard to engage in school if you are moving home on a regular basis, getting food from the local food bank and have mental or physical health issues within your family. If your parents didn't enjoy school, don't value education and don't see an end result, the children are more likely to see it as a pointless experience themselves. Then if the teachers are on a constant merry go round with many supply teachers and ad hoc cover, the children won't build the relationships or find that sparking enthusiasm which ours have. It's a no win situation.

I agree with every word of that, Stickerrocks.
If I was a teacher, I'd want to do good, but I not a living saint so if I got abused on a daily basis by students, SLT, parents, the media, politicians etc, and all the while I'm struggling to actually teacch, I'm fairly certain I'd decide to either use my degree elsewhere or get a job in a school where behaviour is less of an issue.

What i was getting at though, is that one or two disruptive students ruin things for everyone, so maybe rather than filtering out the top 25% by ability, it would be better to filter out the bottom 25% by behaviour and apply comprehensive teaching principles to the other 75%?
What you'd do with the disruptive segment though, i don't know. It seems to me that no one knows and that's why they leave school with low prospects now?

I think the problem is splitting them at 11. If you kept them together until 13/14, then it should be possible to move a group into a more trades/technical training which would avoid kids being prepared for exams that they can’t access and therefore misbehave.

This evening DS2 asked me to print out the material for the pre-A-level Maths course he'll be doing over the summer.
He hasn't even taken his last exam yet!
He says he wants to bring the material with him when we go on holiday.

After tomorrow afternoon, all of his friends will be finished, so they've planned a day of D&D. Hopefully that will encourage him to relax.

Today DD went to the seaside, played crazy golf, ate fish & chips and had a swim. Meanwhile I had to commute to meeting to discuss feedback & exam results. I wonder who had most fun!

Prize Day tomorrow!

Incidentally school have backtracked & results can now be emailed.

Good luck to everyone doing German tomorrow. Are there any other subjects still to go?

Dd is quite chilled out about it. She's done a good few hours today. It's traditionally her best paper and only 25% of the mark. Also she's decided she doesn't even care about German anyway

It feels like everyone else finished a lifetime ago.

Last exam tomorrow 🎊🎈🎉🎈🎊

Last day of uniform for ds1......😭😭😭

Photo day tomorrow

Cake and banner to sort out too......

Good luck with German tomorrow and FM paper 2 as well. 🍀

Terf agree with what's been said - cards mean a lot.
Teen have a fabulous summer and we'll catch up on results day!
Be careful of your assumptions about disruptive children. I've taught Y6 in placement. One lot were so well behaved. The other lot were challenging. The challenging group wrote by far the best essays at the end!

So I'm a terrible mother (but in the eyes of DD a great one), got last minute tickets and took DD to see her beloved Johnny Depp in concert again tonight in London - second time in four days! She LOVED it. She's worked really hard under the circumstances at School From Hell so I wanted to treat her. We revised German in the car all the way to London. Just got home, exam at 9am, eeek!

Last day today !!! Good luck everybody !!!

Good luck those doing German, FM Maths and Statistics - plus anyone I have forgot!!

Teen see you on results eve

Break a leg to all those with last exams today.

Have a great summer Terf. I admire your discipline

Gah Teen have a great productive summer.

Terf sorry to hear about the family illnesses.

Last exams for DS today - German and further maths Then DD has her final A level tomorrow and we are exam free finally 🎉🎉🎉

Forgot to take the last day of school in uniform photo though!

Ah Jufus you sound like a lovely mum! That's a precious memory your DD will have forever - and has probably given her a boost to get through her last exam!

Good luck today for German 🍀**
Nearly the end for everyone now?

DD has 6 friends coming to camp in our garden tonight to celebrate the official end for all of them

Good luck everyone with exams today! Nearly at the end - thinking of the DT candidates tomorrow as well.
Jufus you are a very cool mum!

Jufus I reckon she'll remember "that time mum took me to a concert the night before my last exam" for the rest of her life!

All the best for everyone doing an exam today. Last one for us and the last day at this school with some very good friends, because a couple of them are going to other sixth forms. But it's prom next week so at least they will have a good final bash.

Good luck today everyone.

final exam today - Statistics.

Then the countdown to results day.

DDs prom is tomorrow and I haven't shortened her dress. She only decided to go last minute.

Best of luck to everyone today.

I can confirm DS1 has done exactly as I expected and taken to sleeping late and gaming. I'm WFH today so will send him out on some errands and put him on dog walking duty.

I may also insist on a bedroom tidy.

End of school BBQ tomorrow. Very low key affair but the big excitement will be the arrival of girls! It's a boys school which admit girls for 6th form. Will shake things up I think.