GCSEs 2019 Support thread 3

[myrtleWilson]

Welcome all - just went to post on thread 2 and saw it was at 999 so quickly did this

Funny, last week I was so desperate for this break, as the exams seemed so relentless, but now I am desperate for him to start again and start ticking them off and getting them done. It is nice to be able to say, three subjects completely finished, but I am greedy for more. Feel like I am counting the days again.

Hi all ..quiet weekend in the bizzey household AKA nothing done !🤣
He went to a friends house for a sleepover
to do "revision" ...with his pants toothbrush
and pjs only !
Doctors rhis morni g as he has dermatitis on his nipples so now on steroid cream .

To be fair this year has been full of hospital
Appoinments and surgery ..and it just never seems to end .

Will be glad when these exams are over and i get my happy boy back 😑

Ds will still only have 3 done by end of next week! 😳😣
A lot of his exams have 3 papers each...

By the end of next week we will have finished five - art, french, English literature (already finished), plus English language and biology

We have to get to the Friday to finish any more - as that is when the last English language and biology exams are. But at least after the English language exam on the Tuesday we can say we have started everything.

hi

just catching up on everyone's posts as not been on for a while. Sorry to hear some dc are suffering with health issues and the sheer volume of it all. I will be so glad when the 17th June arrives!

DD has not been at all well as she was prescribed medication the weekend before exams started that interfered with her epilepsy so it lowered her threshold and we have had a number of fits so hard to get help as she is newly diagnosed and classed as an adult.

She has only managed to sit biology and Physics so far and physics was an hour or so after a fit so not great. I have no idea how she's going to manage next week when there are 2 exams per day as she's so tired all the time. Im hoping she can manage p2 and 3 maths as well as both English language then biology, chemistry and physics. we also have history German and music. No idea how she'll manage.

She's already so upset at missing paper 1 maths as Alevel choice. school have been good but hope they stay patient if she can only manage an exam a day.

Never ever thought we'd be in this position a year ago. just hoping she can do enough to stay on and do levels

Good luck to all your Dc

do A levels

eat wishing all good things for your dd x

thanks for the good wishes. J hope so but at the moment its a living hell as she is giving up because she won't get the four sevens she needs therefore not trying and I'm at my wits end and just told her and my husband they can sort it out .

so crap sorry to come and vent

Please vent here eat

It's so hard💐

I've told dh that I'm expecting DS to melt down next week.

So sorry eat to read your message. I'm sorry you find yourself in this situation. I agree with Soursprout and hope the school might, under the circumstances, look at previous achievement. The hospital also could write a letter of support to the school and examinations board to explain the adjustment of medication and the effect it has had on her health and concentration.

I know how worrying it can be with health issues particularly now at exam time. It's very hard coming to terms with a new 'normal' and how you all just want your old 'normal' again. It just turns your lives upside down. I hope that once they find the right medication, things will even out for your DD but in the meantime, maybe ask the school if there an be some wriggle-room, in grade expectation, under the circumstances. As hopefully her epilepsy will be under better control when the meds that suit her can be found.

The other thing is can the school provide a separate room for her with rest breaks or take the exams at home? Anything that might help just get her through them as comfortably as possible.

Great advice from double

Oh eat, your poor dd. So stressful for all of you. What terrible timing for her x

DD2 has been revising history. Her blood tests came back clear so no obvious cause for all the pain. Going to make another appointment for her to discuss next steps and we'll take it from there. She's having a good day today though, pain is a 3/10.

And DD1 had a minor meltdown and had a go at all of us, but she's better now and this is just one of those things that happens.

Oh eat your poor dd.
And yours too pointythings.

I think the government need to take a look at what they are doing to the mental health of the young people in this country - the pressure is immense and does not actually give us an advantage over other countries in terms of exam attainment...

eat pointy - so sorry to read of your DC health issues - I hope that common sense is applied by schools/sixth forms/future plans.

DD has done maths and history today - seems (to my mind) to be lacking a bit of focus but she slept for 12 hours last night so I think she's genuinely been exhausted. Hopefully, she's caught up on sleep now and tomorrow will be an all guns blazing kind of day as far as revision goes who am I kidding

DD came home from her exam last week and immediately got ill. Cold, sinus problems, not sleeping well. All signs she's exhausted.

So Saturday and Sunday she rested, properly rested. Back at the revision yesterday and thankfully feeling better.

Ds in school for revision tomorrow 10-3pm, he’s only got 4 exams left next week so officially leaves school 7th June! I came home today to him sorting out his room with a pile of old school books and notes which he proceeded to burn in the garden incinerator.

Oh eat definitely use here as somewhere to vent. It is and going to continue to be so hard on all of you. It is just awful watching one's child fit - when there is just nothing one can do ( we have buccal medazolam, but our experience with that is it just puts him to sleep and when he wakes up he fits again until he gets it out of his system, and his fits do generally self resolve). My DS1 (not the DS doing GCSEs) has been fitting since he was six months old, but one never really gets used to it. I didn't realise a 15/16 year old would be classed as an adult, surely their brains aren't adult just yet. And if you are in the system already they don't kick you into the adult areas until 18. Are there any epilepsy support groups out there? My DS1 has such an abnormal brain that there was never any point us accessing the mainstream support groups, which are likely geared at normal people with epilepsy, not kids with complex special needs and epilepsy on top. But the best sources of information, in my experience, are other people who have or are going through what you are going through. They tend to know the latest drugs and the right questions and how to find your way through the system, and most of all, they understand. There was a mum at my (normal) kids primary school who had epilepsy, but I have lost touch.

School revision day again for ds.

He is helping me with a vllu tary group tomorrow til after lunch so he will ge revising later and he's out with friends on Friday.

Pointy sorry to hear about your dd, hope she has lots of good days. Double and Bimkom thanks for the advice and good wishes from everyone.

school have given her a separate room to do her exams but she now feels this isn't fair as she wants to be like everyone else. unfortunately everything is wrong and she can't have a life or do medicine anymore and it doesn't matter what I say , I'm wrong or manlupitive . Her consultant has told me on the phone that she can up her medication to get some control but because she didn't speak she won't do it. Unfortunately as she didn't have a working diagnosis until after her 16th she's classed as an adult with no reference or anyone to chat to.

I keep trying to get her to focus on getting control like she had before this recent period and then she can go off and do what she wants as soon as she can get a long period free from seizure.

All support groups are a long way, away but all aimed at adults or very young but nothing for teens or early twenties.

She had a fit early morning in sleep so hoping she gets up soon and we can at least watch some videos

eat that all sounds so worrisome and exhausting. I feel bad now for what I'm about to post is so trivial... apologies!

Its a WWYD question... DD was shattered after last week and had the weekend off, went out Saturday night - fine with that. Didn't really work on Monday but did sleep 12 hours that night so now refreshed.

Worked yesterday but not intensively. There was chat about her friend having a 'gathering' at her house tonight - about 5 mins from our house so was relatively relaxed. This has now changed to someone else's house (not someone I've met) 1/2 hour drive away. So what would have been a 7 -10/10.30 round the corner has now morphed into 5 - 11.00 (public transport plus getting ready at another friends house) and back home by 11.30.

I've spoken with her this morning asking if she thinks she's revising as much as she could do this half term (she agreed not) and reiterated my point that this isn't a practice run at GCSEs.

To her credit she has done a lot of work before the exams started but my worry is that whilst that work is in her memory bank it needs topping up this week otherwise she runs the risk of turning over the exam booklet and seeing a question, knowing she knows it but not with fluency (if that makes sense - she'd have to dig deep for the answer etc)

So am conflicted, I know she needs a balance between work, rest and relaxation. And I don't want to be "that parent" who isn't letting her socialise but on the other hand I'm not convinced she's got the balance right in her head....

WWYD - let her go to gathering or not?

Gosh, its tricky isnt it?

I think it's the change of venue that would bother me at short notice tbh.

I don't think ds did as much at Easter as he should have. He won't admit it but I think he agrees now!

Yeah the change of venue does change my thinking about it.... Plus DD in the past had form for "bouncing" me into things... So saying she's out until 9pm and then at 8.45pm texting and asking to be picked up at 10pm instead, we've had many a discussion argument about her lack of thinking about other people. To be fair she has stopped doing that and she only just heard about change of venue today so I know its not her moving the goalposts but it does irk somewhat!