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Secondary education

Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

Original poster

Starting Year 11-GCSE2021 (title edited by MNHQ)

991 replies

indy69 · 01/08/2019 05:57

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

OP posts:
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TeenPlusTwenties · 22/10/2019 13:26

Petts Re FM, I don't know much about it as my DD's aren't at that level. I personally would have thought it pointless doing FM unless heading for 8/9 in GCSE maths and thinking about maths A level.

Final exam entries aren't done until March/April of y11.

TeenPlusTwenties · 22/10/2019 13:30

e.g. For this academic year, AQA's entry date is 21st Feb with an amendments date of 20th April.

PettsWoodParadise · 22/10/2019 13:41

Thanks Teen. Sounds like she has plenty of time to decide and I will support her in turning down the extra exam if she still feels that is what she wants to do. The dates and timelines you give are all really helpful.

ProggyMat · 22/10/2019 14:01

Petts I would check with school as at my DD's (Yr11) school FM is compulsory for top set.
Her set have finished the core maths syllabus and are currently working through FM.

overnow · 22/10/2019 14:36

At DS school in previous years only the top set have done FM at GCSEs. But when I asked DS maths teacher about it last year they said they weren't sure whether they would continue with this. DS has moved up to set 1 this year. He has said they are moving at a faster pace than previous years but no mention of FM so far. We don't have parents evening till next term so will ask then.

PettsWoodParadise · 22/10/2019 17:28

Overnow and ProggyMat thanks - the school don’t tend to make anything compulsory- they are unusually quite laid back and all about choice but I will perhaps send an email to the head of maths to enquire further.

ProggyMat · 22/10/2019 18:40

Petts at DD's school FM was taught alongside core maths in Yr10 and was an additional end of Yr10 mock/ exam for top set maths DC.
Some schools may teach FM as an additional lesson -or as extra curricular- in which case it wouldn't be compulsory for DC's to cover FM syllabus in timetabled core maths lessons.

GoodwithRocksandGems · 24/10/2019 06:43

Teen she went from 4 to 5. She had a very difficult yr9 with low level bullying, but she doesn’t help herself by doing the minimum work she can get away with for maths. She is capable of hard work, she spent a couple of hours last night learning English lit quotes.

Hellohah · 24/10/2019 11:53

Quick question, have all your DC doing Further Maths started now?

PettsWoodParadise · 24/10/2019 12:01

Hellohah at DD’s school the FM group are doing an accelerated programme of regular maths at the moment to leave time in Y11 to do FM, there isn’t any extra lessons timetabled. DD currently isn’t planning on doing the FM mind you! It just seems to be the path for the set she is in.

Hellohah · 24/10/2019 12:58

Thanks @PettsWoodParadise... DS's school won't do accelerated maths, he is at a pretty poorly performing school, and last year when they said they'd be doing Further Maths, they said it would only be available for up to 10 kids. They only have one top set, with 35 kids and on a recent presentation evening that set is for grades range of 6-9. I think they did it as an additonal after school lesson last year. Heard nothing but I did assume they'd do it over 2 years and would have started already. Have a meeting at school on Monday for a maths trip, so might corner a teacher and ask.

TeenPlusTwenties · 25/10/2019 16:39

Half-term. Yay!

WhatHaveIFound · 30/10/2019 16:27

I'm not sure how DS is doing his Further Maths. When his sister was at the same school she did Maths GCSE in Y10 and FM in Y11. Now we've been told that DS will do them both at the end of Y11.

It's top set only which do FM.

TeenPlusTwenties · 30/10/2019 16:42

Have been coaxing DD through tiny amounts of geography, English and RE revision this half term. Those subjects not my forte! Trying to work out how to help make helpful revision cards for Eng Lit. Do you organise quotes by character and events and themes?
On the plus side, we've just remade a food tech dish that went wrong at school, and it looks much better than last time, so DD is pleased.

Original poster
indy69 · 01/11/2019 18:59

TeenPlusTwenties look at lit charts which is a free app for English lit gcse. They have organised it pretty well under various heads.

OP posts:
TeenPlusTwenties · 01/11/2019 19:23

indy Thanks. Looks like I might have to drag myself into the 21stC - I don't currently 'do' apps (or data of any kind on my phone).

TeenPlusTwenties · 06/11/2019 18:26

@DinkyDaisy - do you want to join this thread?

DinkyDaisy · 06/11/2019 18:30

Hello!
Thanks!!
Feeling a bit worried teachers going to be fed up with me on parent's evening.
Pushy parent label embarrassing, especially when bit undeserved.
Do need to keep abreast of things though...

TeenPlusTwenties · 06/11/2019 18:38

We don't have parents evening until March.
Do you get more than 1 a year?

DinkyDaisy · 06/11/2019 18:54

I don't think so...
No, think just the one.
Another report mid-January I think. Seems rather close...
Then a third in the summer term.

DinkyDaisy · 06/11/2019 19:34

Mmm- looking at this thread [just a little bit of it] I really do need to pull my finger out with ds...
I have been too slack by half...

TeenPlusTwenties · 06/11/2019 20:17

Dinky Remember a lot of us on this thread are probably of the over-invested / pushy genre either through nature or due to our DC's needs. Quite possibly all your DS needs is a bit of a wake-up and then you keeping an eye on tests.

DinkyDaisy · 06/11/2019 20:44

Thanks Teen.
He is preparing me for parent's evening tomorrow.
Eg, Don't be mad with me if Miss says I should have been doing Hegarty maths. I didn't know til last week I was allowed to do it at home...
Etc, etc...
We are going to have to take a clean slate approach I think!

Toobuktim · 09/11/2019 21:29

Just been catching up on this thread! We don’t get a parents’ evening till next March, but have just had his first term report (which is just teacher predicted grade, target grade and working grade). DS is doing well, currently at or above predicted or target grade - to be fair though he didn’t try at his sats so his current school at every happy as he’s working 2/3 levels above those!
He’s in the top class of maths and started the Further Maths in September - their class moves through the curriculum at a higher pace. He thinks out of a year group of 150 around 60 will be allowed to take Further Maths or will at least be taught the curriculum.

Hellohah · 10/11/2019 08:03

DS having a bit of a meltdown about Maths at the minute, says it's all going wrong! Started the year with same teacher as Year 9 (MR M