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.

It was the pic I was looking at, so am now confused! Was that the year 10 grades then??

Yes. Thanks. And Sorry : it listed the school and HoY for year 10!

Oh, oops!

Well, I genuinely don't think those mock results are that bad : if he is 'coasting' he can hopefully get his arse in gear and improve. I know it doesn't help you but I am surrounded by lots of distraught students who worked really hard for their mocks and didn't get results like that. That's a far more upsetting pickle to be in.

Your DS needs stern words!

Tried to PM you after and then bloody logged myself out of MN!
In my defence (!) I’m juggling loads of stuff- honestly!!

@Oblomov19, I’m fully expecting to be in your position in two years time with ds! My hope for him at the moment is that he will get a 7 in his best two or three subjects which he could then take to A Level. However lots of schools and colleges allow them to take A Levels with a 6.

No doubt your son is more capable than his mocks suggest but long term it probably won’t make much difference what GCSE results he gets as long as he can move on to the next stage. Lots of boys mature at 17/18. As long as he doesn’t have aspirations to be a doctor or go to Oxbridge, he should be fine.

Oblomov what about sitting him down and saying with current grades he isn’t looking like a natural candidate for A levels, that you know he is capable of much more but it is his life, it needs to come from him and if he doesn’t want to do it then that’s fine and you suggest he looks at other routes? Might help him focus his thinking . As Crazycrofter says, some take longer to mature.

Think I have said before I have an older DD and did not have an easy ride with her. Took her a few years to get sorted but is now loving University and said yesterday she is nowhere done with education and want to do a Masters- this is a child who got 4 GCSEs. I knew she was capable of more but it got to the stage where a combination of anxiety and stubbornness meant I realised I had to back off and let events take their course. It was about damage limitation at one point and just getting enough to not cut off her options.

The more I pushed the more she pushed back and the worse things got. It is incredibly difficult taking a step back but it can work with some. This might not be appropriate with your DS but wanted to put it out there. I really feel for you as know how hard it is and am grateful that DS is extremely different as a clone of DD would finish me off.

Apparently we aren't being given the 1-9 results until January so now they are just getting their old school percentages - of course they all seem to know where the grade boundaries are but I'm not sure why the school are doing it this way.

Most as expected i.e. no work done and English lit a shocker so far.

Thank you All.
As you all say, it's so hard to know what to do. I've already done all the shouting/sobbing/begging/gently cajoling that any mum can do!

My DD is usually 5/6 grade student. Just received my mock results by email... 3’s and 4’s..... I’ve not spoken to her yet but we are not happy with these grades... I’m panicking now that she won’t do well in school.

Isn’ the point of mocks to show where there are areas of weakness to work on for the real exams?

yr11mummy That sounds like a big drop, however be also mindful that they make mocks hard and the marking is tough too to prepare them for finals. Definitely have a meeting with DD and perhaps school when they resume to find out what happened.

My son’s school asks for a 6 minimum in subject you choose at A level, 8 for maths, 9 for FM.

DS has seen his subject leads now so many of the 8’s he got are 9’s (7 of the 8 level 8’s). So absolutely thrilled for him. He worked so hard. The one strange thing though is he got a level 5 in English; when he’s on track for an 8. He’s in set 1 and never had a problem before. He said most of his friends also got 5 when they should be been aiming higher. They have a new teacher so not sure if its him, or if the old teacher was too generous. We have a parents evening next month so plan to speak to him about it, and find out why he’s scored 3 marks under his flightpath mark. He also got an 8 in English lit so definitely seems odd (marked by same teacher). Rather funnily the same teacher has just sent parents evening email (didn’t get chance to see him) to say DD who has a very lazy attitude to school (year 7) is on flight path 8 and capable of a 9. We have teased him (all very lighthearted of course, he finds it funny)

@girlofthenorth - if you think cash incentive would work I don’t see any harm in trying. My son’s father has given him a cash incentive, and it’s based on grade but he didn’t do it to encourage him to work harder as he’s already working really hard. So it was more to recognise his hard work. My parents also gave me a cash incentive. I’ve seen many people on here (I don’t mean this thread but others I’ve seen) don’t really approve but I don’t see why. If it means your child puts in a bit more effort and gets better grades then where is the harm? You could also offer something of monetary value such as a weekend away / holiday (depending on budget). It’s hard to get kids to understand the importance of good grades at school.

@Shimy
We spoke to DD last night and she has spoken to her teachers all who say she needs to do practice papers. We have parents evening in Jan so will get a chance to speak with the teachers.

In a separate note - earlier post I mentioned she got 4,3,3 in higher maths paper and she re-sat foundation paper. Maths teacher messaged me to say she got 5 in foundation paper. DD was pleased with that so are we.

DS's results are dribbling in so I am not sure what deadline his teachers have to work to. He only had science, maths (got a 6 which is a relief as DH is a maths teacher and it can be painful!) and RS (high 7)back. And his music exam which was a car crash but to be expected as they had no teacher for such along time. He hasn't been given a grade but does know he got 29/70, apparently one of the best marks! His new music teacher is lovely but I am also going to take his marking cautiously since I am not sure he has ever taught GCSE. That is the first music test DS has done since beginning GCSE!

My school is one of these schools that withholds mock results until a special 'day'. I hate it and so do the students. It also doesn't reflect if there is NEA in a subject which is silly.

Is Flight Path the same as what we have, Minimum Expected Progress which I think comes off the SATS results with possibly a CATs test score taken into account as well? DS has one number for that right the way down the page so it seemed a bit shit to me so i’ve been ignoring it.

We had the whole withholding results thing and it was very unhelpful in deciding who to see for Parent’s Evening that evening, felt sorry for the teachers.

Exam time for entrance exam next month came through yesterday, thankfully we won’t have to get up at the crack of dawn to get there (2 hours away). Over Christmas he is going to have to make decisions about where he wants to apply to locally and get application in.

You can journey over to Staffroom sometimes and see some teacherly derision aimed at flightpaths, which a lot of schools have abandoned! Not the same as MEGs, which don't change but in the same spirit.

My DS's school has the same grade for every subject as well but my school fine tunes them for each subject. Neither system is perfect and both have disadvantages for teachers and performance management, I can tell you!

Teachers have my total respect (with a few exceptions). It really annoys me what I have seen them put through over the last few years. We have final expected grade which is the one I work from and seems more sensible. With DD I remember looking at her predicted grades and thinking I would be delighted if she got anywhere near them then over time she got further and further away.

DS very different and so far seems to take exam stress in his stride, hoping this continues. I am nervous about his entrance exam and finding it strange that next September he could be away during the week if things go well for him.

Darbs that is interesting as DD got a 4+ (so nearly a 5) in Eng Lang - doing Eng lit in Feb mocks - and she is normally a 6 and her cousin in a different school also got a 4 and is a 7 normally so perhaps there was some harsh marking or maybe the paper was super hard. Either way DD is crushed and came in to our room at 2.20am in a panic saying she couldn't sleep as her eng grade (and history grade - normally a 7 and she got a 5) was so bad she wouldn't be able to stay at her school and do sixth form - they want 6 in core subjects to stay on and 6 or definitely higher to do a subject at A level. She wants to do history and eng lit so now is crying and panicking about it.

Last day today and I wanted her to chill at home as not much sleep but she insisted on going in as more hassle than not with catching up with work. Also more importantly it was secret Santa with her friends group and didn't want to let down the girl she had been allocated by not showing.

I feel sad that some of our kids are upset and worried, especially at Christmas time. Dd did well in English language (9) and ok in English lit (7) but is upset about the 4 she got in physics but is refusing to put in any extra revision as it’s not a subject she needs.
Dad’s school is offering after school revision sessions in most subjects starting in January but only wants to attend the maths sessions. Other than her physics she has nothing to really stress about but is still stressing. I will be pleased when it’s all over, she’s guaranteed a 6 form place for her 4 subjects (English, Maths, computing and History) but I don’t want her to get too comfortable and not put in the effort.

If DCs are at schools doing 2019 exams AQA as mocks, the grade boundaries for Eng Lang were fairly forgiving and for Lit they were harsh.

This probably reflects the fact that the Eng Lang papers were a bit tricky (paper 1 certainly was). Lit was not easy, mind, depending on the texts studied! Animal Farm was notorious!

My DS has been given a low 6 for Lang and is a bit put out. His Eng teacher is leaving and she has been very lazy (in fact both his teachers are leaving). The students feel she gave one girl top marks and then the rest of the class got 6s. I told him to bring paper home but he forgot so can't yet judge this... English marking is very very difficult to get 'right', if such a thing exists!

He still ahs no history, Spanish or music grade even though he school keep hassling him to make his choices for next year. Ironically the subject he ahs got a 9 in (business) is the one he can't select for A Level. Grr , silly option blocks.

All in all he has all 6s, 7s and one 9 (and then music which might be a 4) so can't be too unhappy !

Mocks all done here won't be getting results until they go back DS says it was a mixed bag some were easy some hard we shall see I suppose. Then we have parent/teacher evening end of Jan so any blips will hopefully be discussed and sorted around that time.

Piggywaspushed
Thank you, that is reassuring. DD has recently done some English mocks using papers from summer 2019. She found the Language paper doable but the Literature paper awful.

DD is revising now...might suggest past papers. Rather dreading the whole thing.

annofcleavage sorry your DD is so stressed. I would expect similar from my daughter if she doesn’t get the marks she’s hoping for. Its so difficult.

Dd came home yesterday saying “her teacher has said to make sure no one is going on holiday during the Easter holidays as they all need to spend it revising” I think that’s a bit harsh, we usually go away during the Easter break, we haven’t booked anything yet but seems a bit off that teachers are telling kids they can’t go on holiday.