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

This whole nonsense about pushing exams back by three weeks - What us the actual point of this? How will it reduce inequality? Those who have coveted the syllabus as normal (as mine have) will just have the extra three weeks to consolidate learning. It’s just prolonging the stress for all.

This GW is beyond ridiculous. That’s all he’s managed to come up with in months?

Cuddling 3 maths exams and 2 English Lang (for DD's boards anyway)

titsy iirc after their U turn, AQA kept unseen poetry, but the anthology is now optional.

Agree this is totally ridiculous and of course it means they will now have four weeks of exams without the usual week off in the middle. The whole thing will just become a test of endurance.

No break will disadvantage those with SEN. Average of 1 exam per day means they will have to have learned everything before exams start and then just a quick refresh the day before.

They've also got to continue with a high level of performance in both coursework & mocks "just in case". The pressure on them will be ridiculous. I admire the Scottish for making the bold decision just to cancel now & allow the kids to complete the full curriculum of work. Shame on GW, he's as bad as Gove.

It makes me almost glad DD has had a MH breakdown, isn't in school, isn't doing any education, and if she gets better in time will be taking a drastically reduced set of GCSEs.
If she were in school I'd be looking hard at exam timetable when they come out to see whether there was anything she could drop.

@Titsywoo Yes she has covered it already. AQA decided that poetry was too important so dropped the post 1900 novel instead. So frustrating.
That’s not entirely true. My DD is doing AQA and they’ve dropped poetry and continuing with Pride & Prejudice. They’ll still have to do the unseen poetry. But don’t study the poetry book. Your school has chosen this option. Maybe they think they need to study the poetry book in order to teach poetry analysis for the unseen poetry.

My yr11 is disappointed that it’s Exams as also thinks she has to continuously give 110%. Im inclines to agree with her.
My yr13 wants exams to go ahead as she’s in a super smart cohort and worried she’d be ranked very low.
Either way, it’s still remains stressful for them both. As we all know nothing is cast in stone and it could all change again!

@TeenPlusTwenties so sorry to hear your DD has MH issues. I hope she’s getting lots of help & support. It’s all so shit isn’t it?

Unbelievable as if 3 weeks is going to do the trick!!!

So let me understand this...delay exams by 3 weeks ( having missed 4 months of school!! I can see the ratio???) but just cram all the exams in a short space of time...so our kids will be exhausted mentally.

So the well being for our kids has gone out the window!!

Speechless!

Donna Referred to CAMHS in May. Still waiting ...

The waitlist is a nightmare teen
If you need support there’s a thread in the general mental health section for supporting our kids.

So, they’ll do all the maths papers and both English Lang & English lit papers prior to half term.? Then all the other papers 7th June onwards? If I remember rightly there’s pretty much 2 papers per subject. So they’d get 6 prior to half term and the rest (14 for my DD) after. So maybe 4 exams a week, rather than 2 every day for several days like my DD1 had.

Today (12 October), the government is announcing the summer exam series will start on 7 June and end on 2 July for almost all AS/A levels and GCSEs.
Results days are Tuesday 24 August for A/AS levels and Friday 27 August for GCSEs so students will start the following academic year as normal

I read it as just one of each maths & eng lang before half term. The point being that if they then got ill they would still have done those papers so could be marked on them, I think.

DD's timetable would have had 1 week with 6, 1 with 4 and 2 with 5 iirc.

Not sure I know what they mean by one Maths exam and one Eng exam before May half term.
Does it mean In April to sit all 3 maths papers, and both Eng Lang papers. Or just sit a paper from each. I’m confused

One maths and one English GCSE exam will be held just before the May half-term, giving any Year 11 pupils who are affected by Covid-19 the best possible chance of still sitting a paper in each of these core subjects. (from DfE announcement)

I take that to mean just 1 paper each not 3 for maths and 2 for English.

So if they were then ill later they would still have those done and thus be able to be awarded a grade.

@TeenPlusTwenties

One maths and one English GCSE exam will be held just before the May half-term, giving any Year 11 pupils who are affected by Covid-19 the best possible chance of still sitting a paper in each of these core subjects. (from DfE announcement)

I take that to mean just 1 paper each not 3 for maths and 2 for English.

So if they were then ill later they would still have those done and thus be able to be awarded a grade.

That's my understanding too. My DD decided to sit one of her A Levels this month but tested positive for Covid. So instead she'll sit 2 out of the 3 exams and get an average grade based on those.

I guess the reasoning is that Covid or self-isolation would take them out of schooling for 2 weeks.

Hi All, Does anyone have a good resource they can share for GCSE double science where there are revision videos? My DS is a visual learner and just reading the textbooks doesn't really help that much

There are clips on Seneca, but have you tried Primrose Kitten online?

@Cuddling57

One maths and one English GCSE exam will be held just before the May half-term, giving any Year 11 pupils who are affected by Covid-19 the best possible chance of still sitting a paper in each of these core subjects.

What does this mean? Are there more than one exam for maths and English?

Maths 1 x non calc, 2 x calc

Eng Lang x 2, Eng Lit x 2

@Titsywoo

We've just had a letter from the school re Eng Lit exam content for AQA. They are dropping An Inspector Calls. DD will be upset. She hates the poetry and the amount of memorising quotes that it entails. Plus she is just better at writing about novels.

If they’re dropping AIC though she’ll still have the novel - AIC is a play

@toffeekiwi

Today (12 October), the government is announcing the summer exam series will start on 7 June and end on 2 July for almost all AS/A levels and GCSEs. Results days are Tuesday 24 August for A/AS levels and Friday 27 August for GCSEs so students will start the following academic year as normal

Thanks for this info but I don’t know how it can be viable with GCSE results being 27 Aug and 6th form starting at the beginning of September. How will this work for students who don’t meet their A level/6th Form offers when there’ll hardly be time to sort out new arrangements?

I can imagine colleges and schools shifting their term start maybe?

Here in Hants schools are officially due back 2/9/21.
If they shifted to Mon 6th that would give a week for sign up.

No time for reviews/remarks beforehand though, which will be a shame for those not allowed on specific courses.