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?

I tried to get through to Dd that it was better to to stop thinking of art work as ‘Prep and finished piece’ .. better to think of it all as a ‘response’..it’s all valid and will be viewed together.

Thank you. That's really helpful. Some of the pieces she has done along the way are, to my eyes, extraordinary (given that this is her first large-scale foray into painting, especially non-realistic painting - she is very, very accomplished at drawing) but her wish to combine everything that is good in every one into a single piece is causing many tears.

I'm in the process of searching for a nearly new blazer - the sleeves on DD's current one (had from yr7) are ridiculously short now but can't justify buying a new new one...

She's back on Thursday so she is enjoying the final days of "freedom"

I’m v impressed with all tge dc working hard over the summer. We arrived back from hols early am and rather then collapsing in a jet lagged heap like the rest of the family ds has gone out with his mates as apparently he needs to make the most of the last couple of days of the holidays as life will end when he starts year 11!

Ds has just revealed that he 'thinks' he has some history coursework to finish before he goes back, on Weds.

Sigh. It's gonna be a lonnnnng year.

Ds has some maths (he has done some) but says this is just an example of the unreasonableness of his teacher- made even more unreasonable by the fact that she will check if they’ve done it He’s disconcertingly vague about whether any other teachers may have set anything.

Our school is slightly odd in that Year 11 effectively go into 6th Form mode from their mocks, so Mid November. So only 8 more weeks of uniform - hooray! So I haven't bought anything new, but it is getting quite tight and a bit manky now. They do have a long list of what you CAN'T wear ie: not too short, not too tight, no bra straps showing, no cleavage etc etc, but that means most just wear jeans and t-shirts, but not formal, which is fine. They also have a Year 11 common room, and study spaces. DD2 seems more stressed by what she is going to wear than the mocks though

DS2's current school's sixth form is business attire, but at the moment he is keen to go elsewhere, so who knows where he will end up. We are spending some time in the first term going to open days to see where else might be suitable.
Re homework, only the maths teacher and the art teacher formally set any - with maths being only two booklets (couple of hours each). Art was quite a bit, I think, although I am a bit confused as to what was actually set, and what was DS2 thinking he needed to do himself. He has spent quite a bit of time working on Seneca, and I signed him up for Tassomai (both of these came from mumsnet, not school, Seneca he tried earlier as it was free, but we waited until the holidays so he could experiment with Tassomai and decide whether it was worth the fee. The good news is that Seneca is doing his Geography board, which is a relief, at least somebody is).
He has also been trying to work on his French oral questions (the French teacher did expect this, but not exactly formally set). French is the most scary one of all. The most likely cause of meltdown is French. We just had one today, because the oral is not going right. Very few of his classmates are working, I think (except all of Set 1 are sufficiently scared of the maths teacher that they will all do their booklets), but as mentioned, DS2 puts himself under enormous pressure and there was no way he was not going to work these holidays. He took one week off to do a musical theatre week, and then we spent a bit over a week in France (DS1 in respite). I chose France because I figured being there might help a bit, which it might have done. But the rest of the time he has been doing several hours a day (although quite a bit of that is art). In a relaxed fashion though, along with sleeping in, and a fair bit on the computer (he plays some sort of online game in which you control a country and have international relations with others, and another where he runs a budget airline!, he also watches a lot of musical theatre on youtube and the like) so I don't think he is exhausted at this point. We also took him to a number of shows this summer (thank you kids week!), which is his favourite thing to do in the world. But the French (particularly the oral) isn't as far along as he wants it to be, hence the meltdown today.

Can sympathise with all the art angst. I've had it since year 9! At my daughter's school the final piece has to be completed in school in exam conditions so that will be fun (not). She has spent time working in on pieces and sorting out annotations. She loves art but procrastinates then panics and stresses. We seem to have bits of half completed pieces but are also told they do not have to be finished just to show techniques. I am dreading this year. Wishing strength to all!

I wondered if some of you could help with my confusion, I'm Scottish and we just had English as one subject. Am I right in thinking it's split into English lit and English language? Are they classed as 2 different gcse's? To get the magic grade 4 do they need that in both or would either do?

My old standard grades were much simpler!

Yes, they're two separate GCSEs, and as far as I know a 4 in either is acceptable.

To get the magic grade 4 do they need that in both or would either do?

As far as tge government enforced retakes either is fine. All of the 6th forms here seem to be insisting on a 5 in language to do A levels though.

Now I'm a bit worried. My niece (lives with ous) has chosen Art as one of her option subjects. She starts year 10 on wednesday. She loves art, but is also a little perfectionist...

Hi all

Seneca is brilliant. For sciences, my son uses www.my-gcsescience.com. It’s videos and questions.

Does anyone know if there is a vides for AQA geography gcse 9-1

Keel, exactly - this is coursework, not the final exam.

DD dances seriously during term time, and also does DT Textiles (another heavy coursework load) so bigger Art projects are holiday things. Essentially she does all the homework in other subjects she can possibly manage during the week, does Art / Textiles coursework and any longer homework at weekends, and just about keeps her head above water. Mostly...

She has learned to be less perfectionist about other things but she doesn't compromise in Art. At all. Ever.

Can'tand Sproutcheers wondered if different schools/exam boards had different systems. Sounds like it's all similar and stressful for our kids. Think I'll be needing plenty of this

I've just had a look at Seneca - it has ds's Geog board, although not History or Spanish. I've signed him up for Tassomai for science as well as have heard good things.

Took ds out for lunch today and we had a really good chat, about exams and revision and sixth-form and girls. It was lovely, actually. He is such a fab young man and I am so proud of him in so many different ways. I must remember that his intentions are good, and that he needs boosting and encouraging, rather than nagging and catastrophising, when I feel frustrated at his lacksadaisical attitude to work

Soursprout the mean score for his grades - he’s doing 10 so it’s just a case of adding up the 10 results and dividing it by 10 - if that score is 6.5 or higher (plus min 5’s in Eng and Maths and min 7’s in subjects he wants to study) he can stay, if it’s lower he can’t! He should be fine BUT you never know ...

... he’s currently at a party to obvs it’s me doing all the worrying at the moment

Hi
I'm in. DD starts Y11 on Wed. She has completed a RS GCSE short course in y10 and completely surprised us by getting an 8 as she struggled to get a 4 in the March mock. Hopefully it bodes well for the future as she wants to study medicine.

As regards activities , she plays in a brass band so practises 2 evenings a week for 2hrs and will be doing her silver DoE award this year. I am hoping to get her to do her volunteering with the junior sports teams so it can happen during term time.

She wants to stay at current school and needs 4x7s plus English and maths. She had two essays over the summer one on Macbeth and the other on Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde as well as going over her german as y10 mock was not great.

She is bright but disorganised and forever making notes and flash cards rather than getting on with it. I am hoping she will start to practise questions more. Hoping to get some good revision ideas and how to revise.

I am sure its going to be a full on year as we don't have a Welcome to Y11 evening but an intro to 6th form evening. It all seems so fast!

Would love some revision ideas for English lit as it seems so huge!! definitely would like this to be a forum for everyone where we can share angst as well as good ideas and resources :)

I also was very nervous about DS2 choosing art, as I had heard horror stories about it taking over one's life (and this was before the new GCSEs). It is also the subject that I can help him with least! But DS2 was adamant that he wanted to do it, and so far it has been OKish. He has spent most lunchtimes and breaks and any free period he has had in the artroom - his original idea was to do art at school, and the other subjects at home, but that hasn't exactly worked out and this holidays there has been quite a lot of art at home (which was a bit tricky, as art is not exactly something you can do on a small desk or the kitchen table, when other people keep needing it). I can see though that it is a good thing to do when one just can't settle down to other work.
What board are other DC taking? He is taking Edexcel, I discovered recently (having thought he was taking AQA), shows how completely not on top of the Art I am. I wonder what the differences are. He apparently gets told some topic (beginning ofJanuary), and then has a certain period to produce some work on it (I think about 6-8 weeks), then there is also a couple of days exam, but I gather it is all over by the time the other subjects starts their exams in May. With other subjects I feel reasonably confident reading the specifications (even biology, which I dropped in favour of physics and chemistry as soon as I could), but with art I am clueless.

*Bimkom I think the boards are roughly the same as we are AQA and it sounds like ours. There are also sketchbooks and annotations for those as well as for the study sheets. As you say at least it's more or less finished with by the time the other exams start in May which is good.