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?

Sounds awful but I'm glad there are other kids out there not recording and other mums worrying!! Let's hope they get their shit together in 2019!!

Revising. Revising. Not recording ffs.

Ds has mocks starting on Monday. True to form, he's done really very little revision. I've just got home from work and asked him what he's done today - he said 'an hour of Physics' and I reckon that's probably an exaggeration

I don't know. Part of me thinks, well if he crashes and burns in his mocks that might teach him a valuable lesson. But he wants to go to a competitive local sixth form and at this rate he's not going to get the grades. He is young for his year and just been diagnosed with poor working memory so none of this helps with motivation and focus. He won't listen to me re: revision techniques etc and just rolls his eyes if I suggest that maybe he needs to knuckle down a bit more.

I am quietly not always that quietly tbh really rather worried now.

Roll on August 22nd and then at least it's done one way or another!

Sorry, meant to say not going to get an offer in the first place, let alone the grades for 6th form!

Without wishing to sound too gloomy - can anyone offer words of wisdom/advice on what happens if ds really doesn't get an offer and/or grades for A-levels at 6th form? He's applied to 3 but they are all oversubscribed (he has interviews next month for two of them as they are colleges, not schools).

I'm posting here on the back of the other thread about Art GCSE. My DS1 is doing Art but he doesn't seem to spend any time at all on his portfolio. He'll reluctantly do homework for his other subjects although he keeps getting detentions for not handing in homework but I don't see any effort going in to his portfolio at home. As far as I can tell he didn't do any revision (in any subject) or practical work over Christmas. He's taking Product Design as well so I assume there is some level of practical work required for that as well as for Art. What level of work are other year 11 students putting in at this stage?

@StuntNun, our DS2 is doing loads of art at home, but I would say that this is mainly because art is his default activity. Bearing in mind that for art, quality is just as important as quantity, is your DS attending any kind of in-school art club / portfolio clinic?

The DT I would worry about, unless the new spec is far less onerous than the old one. DS2 isn't taking DT, but DS1 started and was eventually 'coerced' by the school into dropping it (to this day, the HoD probably wonders why his phone call to me on the subject was met with tears of gratitude rather than indignation) due to his failing completely to keep up with the practical work involved.

I would drop an email to the individual teachers or the Head of Department to voice your concerns and get their take on the situation. It may be that more is being achieved during school hours than you think...

My son is doing Design Technology (I think AQA) - it’s 50% NEA and 50% exam.

I would think your ds will have had the question for the NEA and should be a fair way through it? The NEA isn’t just a practical piece but needs to show research / design etc.

StuntNun has he done his mocks? My ds did his before Christmas and quite rightly (IMO) has done nothing over the holidays.

My DS has been doing quite a bit of art over the holidays, but he is apparently very slow at producing (and a real perfectionist when it comes to art). Prior to the holidays, he was doing most of his art at school, in class and break. Painting at home is a new thing (he did a bit over half term at home, but that was the very first time, and we had to work out where it was that he could even paint at home, without him getting in our way, and us in his)

Mocks here start tomorrow and DD is stressing out massively. She has worked hard over the holiday but there is a clear divide in subjects she does well in and those that she struggles with... so am worried that a bad day at the office on a "struggly" exam will impact on her "good subjects". Gah I hate mocks and am trying to reassure DD it is an exercise in learning about pressure and how best to revise and there is still a way to go...

Oh no! I had a phone call from DDs head of year about 40mins into this mornings exam. But concerned she was going to tell me DD had broken down but turned out she was just chasing a response to a letter

DS is using Tassomai. He seems to like it, although combines it with Seneca and other sources (he mostly likes Tassomai for doing quizzes on public transport and when out and about on the app). We are using it for Sciences (AQA) and for French. The French gets much less used, and I am not sure it is worth it (except that we were throwing anything we could at French - French was a 4 in February, but he just got a 7 on his mock, which is amazing - and he says it might even go up a little bit, as the teacher has said that maybe they will do the listening again, somewhere where they can actually hear, i.e. not the school hall - he only got 50% in the listening, but he says that is because he was guessing half the time, because he couldn't hear).

He got the only 9 in chemistry and an 8 in biology. Not sure if Tassomai was a factor or not, but maybe. Haven't had a result for physics yet (and physics is his weakest of the three).

Can anyone suggest any online help for Computer Science OCR board? My DD has the most useless teachers and I am trying to find some help for her.

@marmite - craiganddave

Well first two mocks were super hard according to DD and her friends... Roll on tomorrow!

How did your dS get on Mrsr8 ?

Oh no those poor stressed children... I've tried to reassure DD to treat it all as a learning exercise - how she copes with real stress (her school have done half termly/termly/end of year exams since year 7 so on the one hand she's used to it but on the other those tests have become "routine" rather than formal iyswim?) and where her knowledge gaps are....

We have a parents evening in Feb to discuss mocks/plans for GCSEs etc. Have just realised though that it is the night of a gig we have tickets for... obvioulsy am prioritising parents evening working out the timings to get to the gig too