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?

One exam, with admin charges, was £50. I do think that home educated children should be able to take exams free up to 18 yoa.

I agree with this, the problem is though that state schools don't want their exam results affected by home ed students so we end up left with having to sit them through businesses. We could get bursaries from the local authorities I guess based on us saving them a few thousand by not being in school.

74 more days....

That's scary

There are only 5 and a half (school) days until the application deadline for DS's favourite 6th form, too (7th January). He's done nothing towards his personal statement yet; and his school has to put a reference in place on UCAS Progress before the application can be sent off. It seems like we have bags of time still, but we really don't!

The school has provisionally scheduled revision days throughout the February half-term break and the whole of the Easter hols, all TBA at the moment. Has anyone else's school done likewise?

JustRichmal Unfortunately we have no local schools willing to take external candidates, like Everard said, they are not too keen on running the risk of results being affected.
We will be travelling over an hour away, we have visited theatre they seem very nice.
It would certainly help if the LEA would help with fees, we are paying 3 times more than you suggested per exam

Carrie My DD went back to school but the local FE college now seem to have a scheme for HE kids, though I'm not sure whether it's for all GCSEs.

Carrie, I do think it is wrong. Schools should be putting children, rather than profit first. But they now need the results for their funding. I often thought that if I had carried on home educating I would have put dd into school again just in time for exam leave.

This thread fell off my "I'm on" list, and I haven't managed to coincide thinking about it with being on mumsnet, until now! Going to have to read back to see how everyone's doing

Quick catch up/place marker:
Dd has had a few mock results back yesterday, better than feared so far, which has been good for her. Attendance still crap, she's still just feeling rubbish almost constantly.

We've looked at one other school and two sixth form colleges - she's applied to the colleges, but thinks she probably wants to stay at her school now she's seen the alternatives!

Atia - good to have you back.

I'm so sorry too that your DD is still feeling rubbish and attendance isn't great. We are in the same boat with that. It is worrying when the hours away from school start to add up. We have worked out DS has lost well over 100 hours of schooling in last 9 months. His teachers have pointed out the (understandable) huge gaps in his learning which will need to be filled in order for him to be able to revise efficiently.

In fact, the science teachers said the revision books just won't have the depth required to obtain good results so not to rely too heavily on those.

It has been hugely helpful with the links to Youtube that have been posted here so far, many thanks to those who have posted.

His physics teacher has offered to fill the gaps if we can provide details of the bits he missed but it seems like a catch 22.

I think, for starters, I need to write to each teacher and ask for a list of requirements for each subject to research this end and draw up a revision calendar.

I hope over the Christmas break, she can recharge her batteries and hopefully have a much healthier 2019.

Oh thanks, sending healthy vibes to your ds too doublechoc!

We have several textbooks, not just revision guides - certainly for the sciences and history, plus study and revision guides for all her English Lit books. Quite a few of dd's teachers gave them lists of topics covered as a revision prompt for their mocks, so they were useful. The teachers will all have schemes of work planned out surely, so it should be fairly easy for them to give you all the topics covered so far.

Art is still taking up loads of time here - argh.

Good to catch up with the news from everyone!

It feels like we have hundreds of text books and revision guides! At least you can get a few quid for them when you sell them, higher price than any other books I've tried to sell.

I've told DS that if he is prepared to take the time to list them online, he can keep the proceeds from unwanted revision guides etc. He is quite keen! He has never liked writing in them anyway, so they don't have marks all over them.

Been a while since I've been on here! My 2 have had their mock results, and the 2s and 3s we were expecting have become 3s and 4s for dd and 4s and 5s for ds! Dd has her college audition on Thursday and ds hasn't finished his application.... He wants to go to the 6th form college and do a criminology btec, along with law a level and one other a level yet to be decided..

I've told DS that if he is prepared to take the time to list them online, he can keep the proceeds from unwanted revision guides etc
.
It takes seconds to scan bar codes in an app, then printing out label and sticking them in a box in the porch to be picked up. I was getting £5 or £6 a book, we must be sitting on a fortune!

So the mocks results are back all 8’s & 7’s apart from Biology and Chemistry which were 6’s. His prep for Biology and Chemistry wasn’t great - partly just didn’t know stuff well enough and partly technique- not using key words / needs to practice exam style questions.

He’s doing Edexcel Biology & Chemistry any suggestions as to good revision methods other then past papers/ questions in revision workbook?

Place marking for later on.
This fell off my watch list too :)

Well we are almost there - only art to go tomorrow (five hour exam) and we are done with the mocks. No results as yet, although various teachers have dropped various hints (as in, creative writing was excellently crafted but Macbeth was awful!)
Apparently Xmas is going to be mostly devoted to Art, given that we have done virtually nothing on it all month as the month has been devoted to mocks!!

same here Mrsr8, for 2 dc...

74 more days....

How is that calculated?

I am getting - 31 days for January and March plus 28 days for February and 30 days for April = 120 days, and that is without any for the rest of December and anything in May! DS starts his formal exams on 14th May (although there will be Art before then and also French oral - I don't know the dates for those). If you add in another 11 for December and 13 for May, I get 144 until he starts the exams and as he finishes on June 14th, I get another 31 until he actually finishes (which is what I am really counting down to), so 175 days.

Unless you are counting school days - but often non school days (when revising) is even more stressful than school days! Maybe it is 78 or so teaching days left.

DD2 broke up last Thursday, and has done some revision every day since. Probably 3 hours a day, but at this time of year, and with lots going on, I think that is probably OK. She will also probably do more after Xmas.

We went Prom Dress shopping yesterday for a break, tried on 8, 3 shortlisted to try on again with her friend in the New Year. She was really nervous, as she has huge body issues, so we booked a quiet solo visit, and despite her doubts she ended up looking absolutely stunning in everything, although she didn't feel confident enough to wear some of the more grown up ones. I think she will go for the more subtle, younger looking dress, and I am happy with that.