Are we ready for a GCSE’s 2019 thread?

[KittyMcKitty]

If so I’m in.

DS (my pfb) will be going into year 11. Mocks after half term. Crossing my fingers for him - needs average point score of 6.5 (across all 10 subjects) to stay for 6th Form.

Anyone else?

Crikey they don't hang around, do they?! The one DS looked at last night has been receiving applications since 3rd October, they don't seem to have specified a closing date. They start interviewing internal applicants from 21st January until 1st March, with external candidates being interviewed on 26th January. I'm guessing it will just be a case of sending the application and then waiting to hear back some time in the New Year. DS still has a few more 6th forms he'd like to see though, I'm quite glad he's keeping his options open at this point in time.

Do you have good transport links there?

@mushrumpmania can school advise re grades on applications?
We got notified about this whatever it called day - 26 June - that all pupils must be available just in case.
It's just before prom, so I expect majority won't have disappeared on hols!
Homework still coming thick and fast and starting to mess up her timetable for revision. It all helps, but the worry is she'll miss some topics.

flatmouse yes re predicted grades, according to another parent on the 'schoolname-for-parents' Facebook page! Not even thinking about Prom yet, but DS has suggested a teacher has proferred the idea of paintballing. What, in a Tux? I asked. Yup, think so! he replied, so I thought: Not on your Nelly! And that's where we've (firmly) left it for now.

Soursprout oh that sounds much more promising than the last place you visited! Always good if they run taster days too, I think. Re choosing subjects, I think nothing's set in stone still for most kids really, don't know if you agree? DS swore that his were Biol, Chem, Engl plus Phys as his 4th option, then he decided on Maths instead the other night - eeek! Not his strongest. I'm sure your DD will make her choices once she's spent time shadowing some of the current Y 13s taking the subjects. Exciting times!

Thanks for the congratulations. Didn't do anything special - I confess it didn't even occur to me until people on here raised it, and we were all too tired. Should bear in mind for if he does get an offer.

Glad to hear other people are finding promising sixth forms.

DS had another meltdown over French oral on Thursday (may have been stress waiting for the response from sixth form as well). Other than that, not sure how the revision is going, but it is clear he is pushing himself very hard. My sense is that most of the homework is actually forms of revision (from what I can tell on Show My Homework) - certainly Geography have put up revision materials for the mock, as have maths. English keeps giving quizzes on various bits of the literature they are/have studying, but I get the impression that is also revision, in that they are supposed to have actually studied them last year and the year before. I guess there is a risk that they will get him to revise aspects he knows, and he will have less time to revise parts he doesn't know. I don't have a clear picture on how much of the syllabus is still to be covered in their various subjects.

Mocks start Monday for DD2 - she has to do double mocks for French as she is sitting Higher as well as Foundation. She's been revising, but is a bit despondent because her English teacher, whom she loves, is leaving after Christmas (for very sound family reasons but still).

Had open evening at the school's 6th form, which is on a separate site but part of the school - it's very likely she will go there, it is a very good 6th form and DD1 is doing very well there. We're no further forward with A-level choice though - having ruled out English Lit, it is now back on the list after the open evening. We had this with DD1 too - she got 'headhunted' by a lot of subjects, so a lot of selling going on, and DD2 is in the same boat. She needs 6 for everything but realistically will get a lot more than that.

pointythings good luck to your DD in her forthcoming mocks.

No idea how much of the syllabus might remain to be covered by DS, he seems to think they haven't finished all of Science yet, maybe it's another thing we could find out at next month's parent's evening. This weekend we've been concentrating on getting his UCAS profile finished so that he can begin making his applications. It seems like suddenly, there's an awful lot to do.

A couple of people have mentioned the potential expense of travelling a bit further from home to their preferred college, it made me wonder if student travel passes were available in all areas? We can buy them from the county council for kids aged 11-16 (think they cost around £300 per year at the moment) but I haven't checked yet if there's anything available for 16-18 year olds.

@pointythings - why is she doing higher as well as foundation for French? Is it because she isn't (or they aren't) sure which one to put her forward for? Seems a bit rough to have to do double mocks.

Our 16-18 can get pass which means they pay price of

School and DD want to get a baseline for where she is - they want to put her in for higher but want to know 1) how solid she is on the basics, and 2) what they need to target for Higher. She won't be doing both for her second round of mocks, just this one, and she's on board with it.

I am so glad we do not have the additional stress of finding a 6th Form as well as doing mocks - Good luck to you all.

Also, I have just realised, I think, that some of you are doing a full set of mocks now, and a further full set of mocks in February, is that right? And you have to revise fully for both? How are they continuing to learn the subject in depth, whilst doing all that revision?

Our stress at the moment is the devised Drama exam this Friday. DD, is, as expected, carrying the group, and getting very anxious about all the things still to do. She is having anxiety attacks, crying, not sleeping, and has got herself in a right state. Also hormones not helping. She is on Kalms, which may or may not be helping a bit, but anything is worth a try. Hopefully once this week is out of the way, she can concentrate on revision for December mocks.

flatmouse that sounds quite good. I've found out now that ours can get a pass for £400, the bus company doesn't list >16 fares on its website so I don't know how this compares.

pointythings our school did similarly with Maths in the end of term 1 tests.

OlderThanAverageforMN DS is doing the 2 sets of mocks (Nov and Feb). I don't know if they've covered the whole syllabus in all subjects yet, but he says they definitely haven't with Science; and although he's been taking Separate Science tuition at school, he thinks the mocks results will determine which students the school puts forward for the separate GCSEs, and which will be doing the Combined. Trouble is he's lazy and immature, he hasn't yet bothered making a revision timetable to my knowledge, and he's bright enough to achieve grade 4 or above in all but 2 of his GCSE subjects without having to slog, so the outcome of his mocks might serve as a wake-up call to him. His exams start the week after next.

I'll keep everything crossed for your DD in her forthcoming Drama exam. Hope the Kalms will do some good, poor girl. x

DC's school has 1 'full' set of mocks now.

They then get practice papers later in the school year, to fit in with where each subject is, but don't have another 'full set of exams' until the real thing.

Last year, they cobbled together mock papers which omitted parts of the syllabus they hadn’t covered.

I wish I knew details like this about DS's education

Last year, they cobbled together mock papers which omitted parts of the syllabus they hadn’t covered.

Having asked DS, I gather that is what they are going to do for those subjects that they haven't finished. Apparently Maths will finish "on Monday", which seems really precise - biology has a topic and a half to go (whatever that means, and I am not sure if that includes or doesn't include the extra parts for triple), physics has a topic to go (and then there are all the triple bits), and geography is absolutely ages away. English they haven't studied for "the hardest question", and I didn't quite get about the other parts.
Our mocks are still three and a half weeks away though, so maybe at least some of the subjects will be close to finished by then