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.

No worries Quair

The UN requires translators in French so it's not useless! It's not all about business. But there is certainly nothing invalid about an MFL degree.

Translators and interpreters also work in courts, the civil service, war zones, subtitling films and TV programmes...

When I went to an Open Day last year the man there made the very valid point that yes, all business might deal in English, but it is much easier to fleece a person if you claim not to speak their language fluently! Plus, also big companies based in the UK but with main business or branches abroad (eg Santander) may want staff who they can easily send abroad, who know not just the language but something of the culture.

There is definitely a massive shortage of homegrown qualified MFL teachers.

In addition to which have you ever seen how much a machine translation mangles languages!

The up and coming uni languages are Japanese and Mandarin.

Thank you for the reassurance Piggy. That is what my anecdotal gut and personal work experience would indicate too...

I've been using machine translations (and real life translators)for 15 years.

I have to say that the machine translations have come a long way in that time. 15 years ago, the output was barely intelligible but now it is quite good, as long as the writer keeps it simple. Today, the main issues are when the writer uses contractions and idioms.

Sixth form entrance exams coming back up for several of DD’s friends - huge relief we’ve not had to do those, particularly with DS wrestling with his UCAS form at the same time.

23 months between DC seemed such a lovely gap until this year...

Remember I posted that DD had agreed to go to DS's school 6th form open day but was pretty adamant she wouldn't move?
Well, she went ...and she loved it. We had a follow-up meeting with the ALNCo, who appears to be everything her current school ALNCo isn't, so DD wants to apply.
She'll apply to both schools, as DS's school won't budge on required results, which include a 5 in maths, which could be the deal-breaker if DD has a bad day that day.
If she stays at her current school, she'll do drama, English lit and classical civilisation; if she moves, she'll do drama and English lit, but can't decide between history, geography and psychology. Her first choice would be psychology, but she needs a 7 in either maths or biology, which isn't likely.

That’s good news Alsoplayspiccolo

Taster day for DS yesterday, he liked it a lot so now has an entrance exam and quite a drawn out application process. End if the month and the local open evenings start, he needs a good local option as back up.

I've got both, Kingscote, plus a university entrance exam.
The deadlines in our house are:
tomorrow: UCAS (DS1)
this month: personal statement for sixth form application (DS2)
30/10: MAT (DS1)
December: Entrance exam for DS2
December: (hopefully) interview for DS1

It is all a warm up for next May!

DD has to apply for her year out at an overseas university (doing one of languages mentioned earlier in thread). I’m not doing a timetable as don’t want to see it written down

Hi everyone hope that i can join this thread!

Ive just posted a separate thread asking about exam leave study periods which might have been better for this thread 😀

Anyway, DD’s mocks commence straight after half term and she advised me today that she has made absolutely no notes for english language or literature so is needing to make grids etc for Macbeth, Animal Farm and a load of non fiction 😬. DD is dyslexic, finds English difficult and I think has just stuck her head in the sand.

Should she just focus on English past papers at this stage as it will take too long to make notes? She effectively has one full day to prepare for each GCSE she is sitting.

Newhouse76
I think the grids for Macbeth and Animal Farm would be a good use of her time, as she can then use them to revise next May/June.

I'm not sure that practising English Lit past papers will be that valuable if she hasn't yet learned some possible quotes (and the techniques evidenced in them).

Because making the notes can be time-consuming, I'd suggest focusing first on the things most likely to come up (main characters and common themes).

What are these grids of which you speak??

The Eng Lang exam is all about technique, part of which is practice, but also understanding the somewhat opaque wording of the questions. The teacher should be schooling her in this. Tbh , I'd be quite relaxed about the outcomes of a mock so early in year 11... there is quite a long way to go!

Piggywaspushed
For each main character / theme, DS fills in a grid/table. Each row is a different point about that character / theme, and there are columns for the point, the evidence/quote, the technique(s) and brief notes on the analysis. I think there's also a column for context.

Newhouse76 might not be talking about that sort of grid though. I don't know.

Oh, I see. Tbh, that sounds a bit boring and I can see why he is procrastinating! (sorry, for calling him she before! Just been reading another thread about English revision!)

Does he have any study guides? he might prefer to read through those and make some notes/mindmaps afterwards (or indeed fill in the grid)

Oh, I am so confused by different posters here!!!

piggywaspushed the notion of grids threw me too
Newhouse76
How did she do at the end of Yr10 mocks/ exams?
Have you seen her full mock exam timetable and what guidance has been given by each department about what papers/amagamation of papers to expect?

Thanks everyone - this is so helpful!

Yes the grids are as Tumbleton describes might be an idea to crack on with some of these.

Yes ive seen the mock timetable -mocks will last a fortnight, with an exam each day, 2 exams on some days.

DD is predicted 7s, with an 8 for Theology.

Perhaps i need to encourage her to take it easy, as these mocks feel quite early. Some girls have been talking about studying 12 hours a day which is a lot

Burn out is a real issue and , yes, since she is so able if she is a bit chilled, that is a more mentally healthy approach!

She might prefer mindmaps , in my opinion...

DS2's school uses those grids too for English lit. Take AIC, for example, with the grid you discuss the theme of gender across Sheila, Mrs Birling , Gerald etc or you can discuss Sheila across the themes of social responsibility, gender, youth etc

DS finds the grids quite helpful. He also does quizzes on Seneca to consolidate knowledge (has been revising this weekend for a Macbeth topic test).

I'm not sure that GCSE content and technique is interesting. Subjects can be interesting but not when contained in that way

Went to a revision session at DS's school that was actually really interesting. The main take aways (for me) were that online resources are so good these days they should absolutely use them (back in the Dark Ages when I did exams you only had your school books and the text book so a key method of revising was summarising notes and making flashcards - I am therefore dubious of DS sitting in front of a computer and claiming it is revision - but it turns out it's all in the "what he's doing").
The other point was that little and often is good - so I'm now encouraging DS to revise in 20-25 minute spurts - which it turns out he's much more prepared to engage with and he'd much rather do 4 revision sessions of 25 minutes than 2 of 1 hour.

DS has 2 lots of mocks and is starting out after a "relaxed attitude" so far. The plan for November mocks is therefore to cover understanding the material he's covered so far which may mean his grades are not amazing, but hopefully will be a good foundation. For Feb mocks it will be looking at applying it.

DD also using grids for English, see photo example.

@Alsoplayspiccolo useful info. DD has been using 3 different online apps at about 15 mins each daily (ish) and doesn’t seem to be complaining too much.

I’ve never heard of the grids. DS keeps telling me he’s on top of things and I’m trying to balance being “supportive” with not putting too much pressure on him.

We’re going to a college open day at the weekend. It could be a bucket of sick with a textbook in and he’ll declare it better than the school 6th form. He’s ready for a change, which I was too at that age but I want him to make good choices