GCSEs Summer 2020 (thread 4) -the final countdown

[PostNotInHaste]

Thread 3
Thread 2
Thread 1(year 10)

Hope OrangeCinnamon doesn’t mind me starting another in her absence , feel twitchy without ! Apologies in advance if I have messed the links up.

The last thread ended with discussion of possible school closures, not really what we want to hear at this point - let’s hope things sound more positive as thread progresses.

Leavers assembly here at 12 then 1.30 finish.
No shirt/book signing. They will be invited back at some point for proper celebrations

1984 – George Orwell : dystopia
Animal Farm – George Orwell : political allegory (good for history!)
*The War of The Worlds – HG Wells : early science fiction
Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck : US Great Depression
Lord of the Flies – Wiilliam Golding : dystopia
To Kill A Mockingbird – Harper Lee : US race relations bildungsroman
*Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte : love story (sort of)
*Tess of the d’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy : doomed love
The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini : bildungsroman set mainly in Afghanistan
The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold : ghost story/ thriller
All Quiet on the Western Front – Erich Maria Remarque : WWI from German perspective
I’m The King of The Castle – Susan Hill : Gothic tale of childhood bully
A Kestrel For A Knave – Barry Hines : disadvantaged boy adopts bird
The Woman In Black – Susan Hill ; ghost story
The Great Gatsby – F Scott Fitzgerald : roaring 20s classic
*Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte : family saga, rather Gothic
*Frankenstein – Mary Shelley : classic monster story
*Dracula – Bram Stoker : classic vampire story
Anita and Me – Meera Syal : charming bildungsroman
*Great Expectations- Charles Dickens : classic bildungsroman
*Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens : ditto but also about crime and poverty
The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks : very dark and comic Gothic tale
*Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen : society novel
*Any Sherlock Holmes
The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath : madness
The Go Between – LP Hartley : doomed love
Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier : gothic-style mystery
Kiss Kiss- Roald Dahl : short stories with twists
Saki short stories : dark and nasty!
Faceless Killers –Henning Mankel : crime / mystery
Any Agatha Christie
Things Fall Apart –Chinua Achebe : a tale of Nigerian political collapse
The Colour of Bee Larkham’s Murder – Sarah J Harris : a bit like Curious Incident
Circe –Madeline Miller : the Greek gods and goddesses, reimagined. Great for classicists
The Chrysalids – John Wyndham : futuristic dystopia
The Travelling Cat Chronicles –Hiro Arikawa : picaresque tale as man goes on journey with beloved cat. Tissues needed.
*Gulliver’s Travels – Jonathan Swift : famous tale of a traveller to strange lands
*Bleak House – Charles Dickens ( a proper long read for budding lawyers…)
The Mercies – Kiran Millwood Hargrave . Excellent witchcraft context.
The Gifted, The Talented And Me – William Sutcliffe : excellent engaging light read. Funny.

Invisible Women - Caroline Criado Perez . Good for people who like data, are interested in the gender data gap, or might pursue sociology. Will make girls, and boys, think!
Sapiens- Yuval Noah Harari – the anthropological history of Mankind .
The Body – Bill Bryson . Would be medics must read.

Pre 1914 texts are marked with a *

Ta Da!

Thank you @Piggywaspushed

Ours left today. No real lessons, just lots of questioning teachers on way forwards and shirt signing. I really wished they'd had the opportunity for a leavers assembly or something official to mark their departure.

Shirt signing tomorrow for the Y11's. A handful are leaving for other sixth forms. A current Y11 is in hospital with pneumonia atm/suspected CV so extremely sobering.

Thank you @piggywaspushed.

Lots of confusion here. We are overseas sitting IGCSES. Contacted edexcel and we are waiting for a statement from the exam board today in regards to if international students will be sitting exams.

Added to the confusion - are iGCSEs in the UK being affected in the same way to normal GCSEs? I thought they would but an email from DSs' school implied they might not be. Guess all will be made clear today.

Good luck to them on their last day. We were not expecting this so soon!

This is surreal isn't it?

We've still got the actual exam timetable up on the fridge. Can't bring myself to take it down.

Piggy, thank you.

Ds (as well as dd in Y9) have decided not to go in today. DS on the spectrum and is taking the idea of behaving now as if he might have it and preventing spread seriously, and dd agreed that if she went in she'd hug everyone and that's maybe not the best right now. Various plans being made for delayed celebrations, and his mates who are going to school are going to FaceTime him at break :-) xx

Lovely letter from school just picked up (sent yesterday afternoon).
They will have a virtual assembly on the day they get their mock results
Leavers assembly /shirt signing reunion in November
Prom hopefully in September and hooefully exam results day in August.

Some lovely words too ....I cried

I’m buying dd1 the A level English lit text books and French study guide, plus enrolling her on an online French course to improve her French. Any suggestions anyone? (something a bit more structured than Memrise / Duolingo - don’t mind paying)

Miranda, same here. I've got a zillion study site tabs open on every device but can't bring myself to shut any of them. I was half way through making notes from Science with Hazel's "whole of chemistry paper 1" for DD when the news of exams being cancelled came in - I keep feeling I need to finish them.

Have a look at MOOC's - run by the top unis ( harvard etc) you can do them for free but to get the certificate it's 99 USD. They have lots of subjects and unis like them. Does anyone have any idea about what is going on with IGCSES sat at international centres - edexcel board - we are so stressed trying to figure out if they're on or off.

Received latest report for Y11 DS. I spent 5 mins worrying about a core science subject that hasn’t reached the minimum grade requirement for him to stay at his current school to do A Level with the additional dilemma whether we should give notice or not to leave in the circumstances.

Then came to my senses - it’s not hugely important right now when we are experiencing difficulties in buying basic essentials all over the country. I’ve finally convinced DH to stop going to the gym this week - his head was in the sand when he actually committed to an expensive minimum independent gym membership contract only a fortnight ago when he was forced to stop air travel for work. He’s still resistant to curb everything but this is what we ALL need to do. Can’t wait for the school day to be over. We need mandatory lockdown outside of essential key workers/services.

DD's school sent out an Email saying they would not be sending out the normal snapshot (with predicted grades) until April. A good move on their part until they know what's going on.

We've still got the actual exam timetable up on the fridge. Can't bring myself to take it down

And me. I’ve got two in GCSE year. We spent all of last weekend setting up folders, making up revision timetables, and cleaned out the dining room so they could work separately.

It is trying to keep them motivated isn't it. My DS has literally said he is going to work out and chill :-). We have now agreed that he will work on his A level subjects up to the end of June. Then have the summer off. I think his school gives lots of papers for the A level maths pupils as they don't want them switching off.

I am just hoping the grades given are fair. I think predicted grades is better than mocks as everybody has done them at different times etc. My DS had done his French oral and also his history assignment so I'm sure those sort of things are taken into account. Poor teachers!!

Can't bear to take anything down or put anything away yet! Had email last night to say don't come in today, so not even a last day, which DS was gutted about. He's doing Eng Lit, history and French next year, so will buy what we need and keep on top of French definitely. His sport is still continuing at the moment so that's some level of normality in his life. No word on delayed or cancelled prom/exams/results yet from school.

DS is doing Maths, Geography and RE A levels. he agrees he needs to keep his maths up. Seeing as my mum and dad are both ex maths teachers and 70 and 71 I feel there could be some way for them to collaborate on this (they still mark A level maths papers, although not this year of course).

@Piggywaspushed is that list for A level English? DS is taking that so would be useful to get him started on some reading.

Sorry, hadn't read the previous posts, looks like it is. That's a lot of books!

I'd be happy with the FFT and CAT score assessments for DS's grades, they are great. I think he peaked at 12/13 years old!