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

Good to hear about the bully moving away titsywoo.
Teenplus... have you got a reintroduction plan yet? Hope first day goes well.

Re set texts, I contacted school today to ask and was given a list which included all the elements.... poetry anthology, inspector cals, shakespeare and dickens, so I don’t think decision has been made there yet.
Apparently history are dropping the normans, and carrying on with history of medicine.

I think they are going to need to have consistent marks in homework, plus the 3 sets of mocks the school have already scheduled to get good CAGS.

Still getting into some kind of routine here and arguing the toss over which bus to take to school. Sigh.

@UncomfortableSilence... I know it's easier said than done, but hope you're looking after yourself. Not sure if sleep is through worry or being dragged from pillar to post, but when my Grandad was poorly and we had the DNR conversation, I used an app to help me sleep and bought all that SleepWorks spray for my pillow.

DS told yesterday they are dropping the Elizabethan England section in History, apparently there is a tricky question about a house that comes up... No idea what he's talking about 🤷‍♀️

DS has been told today they aren’t allowed to take their books home, everything has to stay at school to quarantine for 72 hours so they have no books to revise/work from which is spectacularly unhelpful!!

Oh and @ihearttc that’s harsh! My younger child has that rule but as they’re not a GCSE or A Level year it doesn’t matter!

Thanks Hello, that's kind of you, I'll look at the app and products.

Iheart Do you mean exercise books? That's a bit much DD is having to use lined paper in lessons, she can't bring her folders in to school but can bring the paper home so she can use it to revise plus we have most subjects text books here too.

@UncomfortableSilence

Yep they have to leave their exercise books at school, which is quite honestly ridiculous!! They have to be quarantined for 72 hours but they obviously have the same lessons within the 72 hours so the 72 hours start all over again!!

One week in and there's been a confirmed Covid 19 case at DS's school. It's not his year bubble so we're to carry on as normal

It's been quite a change and he's spent more time in PE kit than her has in school uniform. There's no locker rooms so they have to carry every with them between lessons and lunches are spread in the school so it's one week cooked lunch followed by one week complete crap cold lunch.

DS's school all have exams at the end of this month to assess where they're at. Then mock GCSEs in January.

Blimey WhatHave I Found.... already? There are a few cases in primary schools round here but not secondaries yet as far as I know.

My dd yr 10 is scheduled to go on an extra curricular residential in October and I am rapidly losing faith that it will happen. Which will be a huge disappointment to her.

Both are struggling with the one way system at school.... if they need to find a teacher it’s a lost cause, there are no lockers, and therefore nowhere to leave her laptop overnight. I am dreading her leaving it on the bus.
Lunch is 15 mins.
So an entire year group queue up, get food and eat it in 15 mins?
I have given them packed lunches.

I know ISBN111 , i hoped it might be a little longer.

Thankfully each year bubble have their own section of the school including bathrooms & entrance. So the only cross infection could be between siblings, teachers and transport.

Mad that your DD only has 15 mins to eat lunch. My DS would struggle with that too as he's always been a slow eater.

Wow, your school sounds better adapted than ours!
The one way system involves going outside quite a bit, but there is still one student entrance and one set of toilets for the whole lower school.

It's a biggish school and they've spent money over the summer putting in extra bathrooms. DS has one lesson in a very small classroom that according to my DD used to be a storeroom!

Got an email from my ds school and they have confirmed they have dropped the modern text and will be learning the poetry.

Have been told that compulsory is both Shakespeare and unseen poetry, so even though my ds is not happy, I understand why they have dropped the modern text and focusing on the poetry.

First full week nearly over!

Hope I can join. I have a year 11 DS too.

AQA have released guidance on the compulsory bits and poetry and shakespeare will be compulsory.

www.aqa.org.uk/news/changes-to-2021-exams-for-gcse-english-literature

Feels very strange that Edexcel and AQA can have such different approaches for English.
AQA now seems like the 'harder' option. I have heard some teachers stating that they will change to Edexcel for this year!

Somehow feels this has suddenly become more difficult... A WHOLE PAPER ON POETRY.

DS is going to be overjoyed 😂😂

Thanks for that link. At least it means the ridiculous length of the papers is reduced. Also it's nice to know where we stand.

Oh no how do I break that one to DD She will not be happy!

Well the BBC got it wrong when they announced that poetry had been dropped. It does seem strange to have 2 different approaches from the exam boards

I’m quite confused - are the boards doing 2 different things?

Are your DC’s schools telling you this info as parents directly or is it coming via your DCs?
We’ve had NO communication from the school about what’s been included. I don’t even know what board DD’s school uses!

Oh well, first week over and it was a great one. So that’s good.

That's frustrating - DS has done both Jekyll and Hyde and An Inspector Calls, so one of those is now wasted... And he now has his work cut out to do the poetry and Shakespeare this year, which will both now effectively be worth proportionally more!

DS was told yesterday. They hadn’t started an Inspector Calls, so it works out for him as he is doing AQA

Hi aspermylastemail,

My ds school sent us an email

AQA have just updated their website saying that they are now reviewing the changes for English Lit announced yesterday. You really couldn’t make it up!