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

bluebell i think taking away the oral exam is one of the proposals that ofqual have consulted on. Like Ineedaholiday i’m not clear whether the results of this consultation have been published, so it’s likely but not yet certain that the practical elements of many qualifications have been reduced.

Sory to hear about bad day, titsywoo, hope things settle down soon

Teen a cat sound great! How did it go? I’d love a cat but my dc are allergic.

Hope you get to know what the plan is for your dd before Tuesday.

Thank you ISBN111. Yes i think you are correct . Thank you

TeenPlusTwenties bet the cat is gorgeous

DS1 goes back tomorrow and I think is getting very nervous, not about Covid but about how hard they are all going to have to work. He had to get up very early this morning as he has got his first football match of the season today so at least he’ll be prepared for tomorrow!

The cat sounds lovely. Our cat died just before Christmas (he was 19) and then just before lockdown we got a new kitten which had been dumped in a box outside a cat rescue place! He is honestly the cuddliest cat ever, think he realises he was abandoned and is just so grateful to us for rescuing him!

Cat was lovely. But displayed some behaviours they hadn't seen before, so now they and hence us aren't sure.
Maybe it's all too much just as school restarts.

Can I hop on here please? Need to get my head around GCSEs 2021. Eldest is about to go off to university with her CAGs awarded A levels and I've now got a y11 and y10 to look to.
Y11 received her GCSE English language this year as they sit in y10. Usually they'd be straight into extra y 11 revision sessions over lunch and after school. This year they've gone back hoping just to keep school open. First day in school here. Hoping there's not too much "look at what you haven't done" talk today.

Hi all,

Hoping for a better day today for DD! After she calmed down she did tell me a few good bits ( a big one being the girl who bullied her in year 7-9 gone to another school!).

I'm not understanding exactly what is happening with the guidance/proposals/ofqual situation. The things that were put forward (dropping one text from Eng Lit, speaking from French etc) - are these not definites? It's not even clear from what the teachers are saying - her history teacher has said they will be dropping one topic yet her french teacher has said they don't know if the speaking will go ahead or not and art is still acting like the exam will be happening .

I'm so pissed off at the art dept but I'm not sure how to sort things out without getting their backs up. Anyone here have a DC doing art as I'd like some advice. Thanks :)

@Titsywoo as far as our school goes DC have been told only portfolio is being assessed so my DD is busting her balls to get it perfect. She did loads of work over the holiday.

Thanks @indy69. Can I ask how much she has? I'm very worried about how much DD has done. She is a huge perfectionist and one A3 piece took months. The school have been massively vague about how many pages she needs and what she needs to have in there to get the marks. They also spend the first half term of year 10 doing something completely irrelevant so they didn't start the portfolio until November last year.

@Titsywoo I have sent you a detailed pm

Hello all, long-time lurker, FT poster on this thread. Have a laid-back Y11 DS who (thus far) has been good at pulling results out of the bag at the last minute, but would have benefitted from a reality check from a full set of mocks to see if his ‘technique’ holds up under pressure...he’s at a newly-established (state) school - 2nd year intake - so no exam track record, and he has 90% new teachers this year (suspect due to having to staff up sixth form for first time), which is not a good start. He just about did required work under lock down - nowhere near normal, but better provision than some schools, and literally nothing over the summer...English tutor has focussed on poetry so that’s likely to have been a complete waste of time and money (apart from the cultural enrichment, of course)! Reading today about possible cancellation of exams - just hope they make a decision soon. As Bette Davis once said - buckle up it’s going to be a bumpy ride! Good luck to all DCs returning, especially those who are anxious.

@user1485813778 I'm not sure the tutor was a waste, DS came home yesterday after his first English lesson back and was told they were dropping Jekyll and Hyde. He was not happy, he wanted to drop poetry :(

Hi Hellohah,

Am with you....my ds was so annoyed - he wanted poetry to be dropped but they have decided to continue and drop a book instead!

Not happy - the thought of learning 14 poems and trying to understand them!

If unseen poetry is still going to be mandatory (I can't work out if it is or not) then it potentially makes sense to keep poetry and drop one of the other texts. The skills learned in poetry are what you need for the unseen section.

Hi, Oooh yes/ if the unseen is mandatory, then yes it will be better. All a guessing game at the moment

I did say that it made sense to drop the book as opposed to the poetry.

He has now got his fingers crossed that they drop Medicine in History (it's the one they haven't covered any of yet - so makes sense, although I'm not sure if there is one section they need to keep, like they've had to keep Shakespeare in English).

I need to check with DS what his school has said. They spent all lockdown studying poetry so I can't see them dropping that. They haven't studied Shakespeare or Inspector Calls yet, so I assume it will be Inspector Calls that gets dropped.

I think Shakespeare is mandatory- ds with AQA and have just read they have submitted to Oqual and hope to hear mid September!

DD was back yesterday, so far so good accept she's not happy there's no panini at lunchtime

She's done some decent revision both nights too so long may that last and she said she is trying to do her very best in her homework in case it's CAGs again next year.

Yep Shakespeare is compulsory so they are focusing on Macbeth now, they are dropping the Poetry I believe, I'll ask the Head of English in my school about the unseen.

Had some terrible health news last week about my Dad which even though I haven't told the full prognosis has really affected her they are very close so worried going forward as she's an anxious girl at the best of times

He has now got his fingers crossed that they drop Medicine in History (it's the one they haven't covered any of yet - so makes sense, although I'm not sure if there is one section they need to keep, like they've had to keep Shakespeare in English).

DD said they were told today it's Germany that's compulsory.

@UncomfortableSilence... Really sorry about your Dad's health news xx

Hi,
My DD is in year 11 and will he taking GCSEs next year - can I join you?

Edexcel have made Shakespeare and post-1914 literature compulsory.
There’s speculation over whether AQA will do the same. Decision should be mid-September. DD is hoping she can drop Great Expectations.

Edexcel English info

Thanks Hellohah and apologies for the bad spelling in that last post, sleep has been in short supply the last week.