Starting Yr11 Gcses 2020 Support Thread [Edited at OP's request]

[OrangeCinnamon]

A continuation of a Year 10 support thread
previous thread

Last thread was great and supportive as some of us tried to navigate year 10 and some very helpful peeps steered us through.

Hi Can I join you? DS is year 11 struggled in yr10 end of year exams so school have been great at intervening and putting lots of extra help in place, he is in a selective indie school so he does have the ability to do reasonably well I think The problem is that he just can't find a revision technique that works for him, he just thinks writing notes and reading is revision done. he is getting learning support to help him but that doesn't sink in either ! Just goes through the motions - its infuriating ! I'm blue in the face with trying to explain your have to learn from the notes than test yourself with past papers etc but he just doesn't get it. ~I'm really happy to sit down and help him but he's put up a wall of "I can do it!!" embarrassment I think School have now said now 1 hour of homework per night plus 1 hour recapping on all the stuff he's fallen behind on> how do you get the point across that time is running out. He's capable of 6's and a few 7s but at this point all I can see is disappointment for him on results day

Hi Fizzalltheway welcome. Could you make him do a past paper/part of one for you with his current revision technique and then ask him to test another?

I keep on saying to DD that homework wont continue for ever - as they finish the curriculum it should move over to school directed revision tasks then self directed . I hope what I am saying is true ! but it is what I have been told.

I am not seeing a huge change in volume here either Oblimov19, and certainly not the hours that some schools/DC are putting in. I don't think that's to say DD isn't doing any work (whether that's homework, revising for consolidation tests etc) but much is done during school and she hasn't dropped evening/w'end activities (yet). Her social life does need reigning in now and I've managed to persuade her to defer a major music exam to this time L6, to take the pressure off a little, but we are really trying to maintain status quo on stuff.

We have the compounded issue of her going on a 13 day school trip next week. Not ideal, but it's a very small niche type trip/group and the teachers assure us of their checking in, and that the DC will have caught up by latest, Oct half term.

It's more her friends that are putting the fear of god up her on ability to catch up, not the school, who have remained pretty solid in their pragmatic approach to GCSEs. We also do not have the added burden of external 6th form shopping, so unless she really flunks her mocks and at risk of havng to leave, I am trying to re-assure her that they are just that, if they fall short and she under-estimated study time needed.

There's a section for GCSEs where they will input each subject, exam board and grade. Then other qualifications such as F.Maths will be added in the same section but as a different type of qualification, and be listed below the list of GCSEs.

Correction to what I posted last week about the UCAS form:

AQA Further Maths is a level 2 qualification so is listed below the GCSEs.

Additional Maths (FSMQ) is a level 3 qualification so is listed in the section above the GCSEs. If your DC takes this (and doesn't take AS levels) it will be the first qualification that universites see in the format of the UCAS form they receive.

Can I pick people's minds about our 6th form dilemma, please?

DD goes to an indie girls school, which has a co-ed 6th form. She's been happy at the school and it appears to get decent results (more about that further down...) However, the SEN support is virtually non-existent, despite numerous emails/chats/meetings etc, and the head's way of selling the school to prospective students and their parents is to slag off the local co-ed indie across the road...which happens to be where younger DS goes and the other school we are considering for 6th form.

This other school has fantastic support, great pastoral care, strong leadership...in short, I love it and think it would be better for DD.
There actually is a great deal between the two school in terms of results, and actually, we know for a fact that DD's current school's published results are not accurate ( overegged in at least 2) subjects.
None of DD's friends are planning to move for 6th form, and she suffers from social anxiety and a lack of self-confidence, so has said she doesn't want to move either, but has agreed to go to the open evenings at the other school.

How would you handle this? I've tried to tell her that she'll make new friends and might actually be happier if she gets the support she needs; she can see the truth in what I say but is still reluctant to step out of her comfort zone.

She's met you half-way and agreed to go to open evenings and I think it has to be her decision based on how she finds them. I can see your reasons but if she moves and it increases her anxiety then she probably won't get better results at the other school even if the teaching is better.

You say none of her friends are changing school. Is there much socialising between the two 6th forms? I refused to move for sixth form but then did a last minute change of mind in the summer holidays. Socially it was very hard but I knew I wanted good A levels.

There is a sense of competition between the 2 schools but also a fair amount of movement between them and some families have children in both, as we do. They are 35 minutes from our house, so neither of my DCs socialise much out of school.

My heart agrees with you and says let her choose, but my head says that she'll do better if she moves - not just academically but life-skills wise. She has fallen into a pattern of only doing things if friends are doing them, so I think she'd get a huge boost from overcoming her anxiety about change and realising that she CAN do things on her own.

The other school offers several chances to visit and see what 6th form life is like, so it should give her a good idea of whether it's for her or not, and I need to trust that she'll keep an open mind.

My original post should have said there isn't a great deal between the 2 schools, in terms of results.

My advice would be to keep both options open for now. Would you have to pay deposits, or can she keep both doors open and choose after results day?

I think we'd have to pay deposits and be committed to fees before results day, unfortunately.

One thing to bear in mind is that they hit the ground running at the start of Year 12. Straight into curriculum, trials for sports, auditions for music and drama and a faster pace in lessons, not to mention an increased focus on independent work.

If your DD relies on her current friends for support, it is quite an ask to cope with the demands of Lower 6 AND a new school AND the (sometimes tricky) development of a new friendship group.

The other reason that we have decided (after much consideration) not to move DD for 6th form is that she felt that if she had a wobble about A level subjects - struggling or wanting to swap - she would rather have teachers around who knew her well and might give her the benefit of the doubt!

That's a really useful post for me Kingscote. My DS has the option of 6th form at his school or go to college, he has an EHCP and I will have to fight for him to stay at school as it is independent. He really wants to stay at school and I totally think its the right thing for him to do but we have an excellent college very close to home and I am going to be "encouraged" to send him there, so those reasons are useful for making the argument to stay put.

I think it does very much depend on the child. Dd was very keen to move for 6th form. I don’t think she had a particular incident at her old school but it was all-girls & quite old fashioned. Plus not strong on the subjects she wanted to do at A Level.

Ds 1 on the other hand did not even want to look elsewhere. He very much likes staying in his comfort zone.

Ds2 is very ambitious so I could see him looking to move if he felt another school would suit him better.

Food for thought, Kingscote.
I think that's how DD feels - that she knows the teachers and they know her. That said, in at least one case of potential A level choices, the teacher in question isn't great and treats DD's SEN as a limiting factor, rather than actively helping her to meet her potential.
She's made huge leaps in the last year and I'm hopeful her progress will continue to be exponential as she matures; I'd hate for the teachers that know her to think of her still as the shy, quiet, struggling child she started in year 8 as.

Well that's the other side of the coin, piccolo - some children will want a chance to 're-invent' themselves. DN jumped at the chance to stop being the 'silly, nice-but-not-terribly-hard-working' one.

DD has been seeing an English tutor for the last few months. When I picked her up from today’s session she said I think DD has slow processing and you should contact the school. Anyone have any advice? Should I contact tutor, year head, senco?

I'm in awe of the discipline some DC are showing. DS is one of those whose course load does not seem to have picked up since last year and who also is not doing any specific revision yet. Surely his school will start pushing revision soon? As of now, DS and his school still seem pretty relaxed about things,

To cap things off, he suffered a pretty bad concussion last weekend in rugby requiring him to be off school for a couple days and he is still suffering from headaches. ARGH!!! He remains unstressed and laid back, but my stress levels have definitely increased!

I'm beginning to think schools should cease rugby in exam years. DS's U16 school team is currently decimated by injuries.

PaddingtonPaddington, DD has slow processing as part of ADHD.

In her case, the SENCo at school was able to assess, and she was awarded extra time in exams as a result.

Yes, my ds is the same, Alsoplayspiccolo: I would contact your SENCo and cc HoY/class teacher asap, PaddingtonPaddington, as I know access requirements are going in fairly soon for our school, but d/k when the cutoff is.

Thanks @Alsoplayspiccolo and @AndwhenyougetthereFoffsomemore. I’ve contacted DDs tutor and he said he’ll come back to me soon.

Dd is on a campaign to get us to agree to her dropping Latin. We think the school would allow it as others have done similar.

This would leave her with 9 GCSEs including a language, 2 sciences and 3 humanities. Are there any downsides to this? How many GCSEs are others doing?

I’m inclined to agree with her as it will leave her with two double lessons free a week to do homework and revision. And she finds Latin hard.

crazycrofter
I think 9 GCSEs is plenty. Our local sixth forms only look at the grades from the best 8.

If she decides she wants to apply to university, then how much they look at GCSE grades varies between universities (and then varies between departments within the same university). The ones that do look at GCSE grades use a scoring system. Some use Progress 8 (which only looks at the grades from 8 subjects).