Starting Year 11-GCSE2021 (title edited by MNHQ)

[indy69]

Good morning Mums,

My DD will start her GCSE journey this September. MN always has such good advice that I thought we could have a new thread to support each other. My DD has 4 options apart from English, Science AQA and Maths Edexcel. She has Art and History - Edexcel, and Psychology and Economics - AQA. It wpuld be lovely to know what your DC are doing and we could share resources here. I look forward to meeting you all on this thread. We have 4 weeks to go to start of term and a ton of homework to finish. My DD is feeling too lazy to do anything at the moment, but I guess they have earned the break. I will start reminding her next week about the work. Thanks

x-post. Why does Dentistry need high English grades?
Is it as competitive as Medicine?

DD needs to pass Maths, Eng Lang & Science to do the course we are looking at at Level 3. if she doesn't she can go in at Level 2 (which we might choose to do anyway if allowed), but I'd like her to have the option.

Just had a google. Dentistry is tough.

DS feeling a little bit frustrated at the moment. First report of the year received and he's very much regretting picking Triple Science.
Parents evening in December wasn't particularly positive for Science (he was apparently working a good 3 grades off his "target" grade in Biology). So reports come this week and they decided to increase his target for all 3 Sciences ... I emailed school to check I'd got the right report and they've confirmed these changes are right. Absolutely crazy, and now I'm starting to doubt absolutely everything and getting a bit worried :(

I only just found this thread, may I join you ?

@Hellohah - DD has dropped hugely in science this year. I'm hoping it's normal for this stage. It's her worst subject anyway but she tends to get get 5/6's and last term got 3/4 which is a worry. I've signed her up for Tassomai which she is doing every night for 15 mins and hopefully that will help!

Art is still annoying me. The art teacher just told them they are doing a mock art exam in two weeks which is 10 hours so they lose 2 full days of other lessons (the week before the main exam week so lots of helpful in class revision time gone) and they've just vaguely said do an A2 piece to do with your theme. Art really is so much work.

DD is really working hard though which is a blessing. She's suddenly taken note of my nagging and is putting in the hours for revision.

Welcome @gingerchaos :)

@Tistywoo Science is an absolute nightmare I think everywhere. When we went to parents evening, the 3 teachers all explained the whole triple science class were behind because of inadequate teaching in KS3 (they had so many teachers over those 3 years). 2 of DS's closest friends attend a different school, so I'm friendly with their Mum's. Apparently both their DS's 'working at grades' have gone wild, one report will be 7, the next 2, the next 5 and so on! They have no idea how their kids are doing. Hopefully things will improve for your DD (but know, it's not just her).

Wow re: Art. Fortunately DS can't even draw a very good stickman, so there was never any chance he'd take Art. My experience of Art teachers isn't very positive (maybe I'm being unkind) but they all seem to take on such self-importance and have always been a nightmare to talk to.

Hello
May I join too. My DD is in year ten and is finally starting to settle down and take things a little more serious. Regarding science Oxford press have just brought out a set of revision guides by Primrose Kitten including revision, exam practice and interleaving questions which our science teachers like. Not in all shops shelves yet but I ordered from Waterstones today.

Thanks for the welcome.
DS is doing triple science, geography, PE GCSE and engineering plus the standard ones.
What are your DCs doing?

DD (Yr11) started the GCSE science syllabus in Year 9. We were warned that reported attainment grades would drop from those of Yr8 -they certainly did-as they were now working within a KS4 framework rather than KS3.
Could this be the case for those whose grades have dropped from Yr9 to 10?

Can I please does any of your dc study a language? If so do they get tested weekly and can you suggest anything online to help...ds had a test on everything they have learnt and got 35%- so need to pick it up a gear!

Any ideas on line so I can load it onto his phone...assuming he will do it, languages are not his thing!

Hi ginger My DD is doing RE, Geography, Food & Drama as options. No idea really how Food, Drama or Geography are going so far, but RE is going surprisingly well at the moment.

In general though DD is getting a bit overwhelmed, we have pastoral care helping out, but I suspect dropping Geography might be the way to go at some point. She's a 'grade 4ish' person with some SpLD and the sheer volume of stuff is only just manageable (or not on some days).

proggy DD started Science syllabus in y9 as well. She seems to be about 2/3rds through Biology, half way through Chemistry and 1/3 through Physics so far. (Combined) We've been working with 'flightpath' grades from y7 so haven't seen a drop.
Lowther I've seen some good things re PrimroseKitten. We're currently using the revision guide and Seneca online.

Blubell DD2 isn't doing languages though DD1 did 2 under the old system. She definitely found some online listening which helped her. Was it vocab or grammar that let him down?

Bluebell DD is doing Italian, we haven't been given any online resources, she's doing fairly well, currently working at a 5 and predicted a 6. Her school test constantly in all subjects so it's just the norm for her.

Science is going surprisingly well especially Chemistry and Physics although she struggles a bit with Biology.

Seneca is used in her school and we have the revision guides which she finds useful.

Thank you all.

Ds is taking the usual core subjects including triple science , computing , business , geography and RE

It's the vocab he doesn't know...so will need to work on that.

He is not keen on languages either but it is compulsory in his school

Oh well !

@Hellohah - yes I agree. I got the hump a bit yesterday and wrote an email to the head of art saying how concerned I was and that DD seriously needs some guidance as she has no idea what she needs to be doing and when. All the art teachers are saying different things and it's just a shambles. The kids who have the head of art as their main teacher seem a lot more organised than DDs class.

@Blubell46 - DD is taking french and uses vocab express and quizlet. She's doing very well with it and is getting 7's and 8's.

A small bump as this is getting lost behind all the indie 11+ related threads.

DD is struggling on, had a 2hr Eng Lang exam today, I'm desperate for half term.

Not long now till half term Teen.
DS has both English and Maths "mocks" today. I did offer him the day off as it is likely my Grandad will pass away very soon. He wanted to go in though as he should have PE last period and didn't want to miss that!

Dd has her exams next week and seems to have been revising although I'm not sure how effectively. Her art exam is Thursday and Friday this week. Im still concerned she isn't putting in enough time on her art coursework but the more i ask the more stroppy she gets and she says she knows what she is doing . I guess if she doesnt do well on these exams it'll give her a kick up the arse!

DS has exams, Chemistry today, Maths tomorrow. Titsy it's hard to know if they are revising effectively isn't it? Still, they have time to work out how they are doing it and if it works for them.

DS had parents evening and his physics (or might have been chemistry) teacher said he'd done well in a test and what was different about that one. He was puzzled as he got the same grade as last time and so just said he'd revised so she took it to mean that he hadn't revised for the others

Hellohah sorry to hear about your Grandad, I hope it's peaceful when it does happen.

One more week, can't come soon enough here!

Thank you teenplustwenites for suggesting I come on here

Hi my eldest is in year 10 she's just received her target grades and her y10 exams start a week on weds.

Her target grades were really good she wants higher for history and computer science than she was predicted and seems pretty confident she can do this...

Her only problem is she just never stops bloomin talking!! Teachers have commented on it in the past but she just can't seem to be quiet

Yep roll on half term, everyone needs the break. Lots of exams first next week for DD including a big maths one, sick of the sound of my voice telling her to revise!

Hello all can I please join?
My eldest is in Year 10 and I am not really involved with his school work, he has always done fine with me leaving him to it. However I am starting to think I should crack down a bit, I don't want him to be stressed but I think with a little more input from me his grades could improve.

Hes doing all the normal subjects plus art and photography.

So my DD keeps having regular tests for each subject. Maths and Science have regular tests after every 2 topics. My question is are the grades achieved in these tests relevant as in do they help in gauging what the child can achieve?

I think they are useful for your DD so she can see where the gaps are in her knowledge and work out a plan to revise those topics. My DS has them as well.