Poor year 11’s seem to have been just forgotten about

[lovelylegs2019]

Hi all just looking at all these changes and updates from Gov and lots of school ages mentioned but having one DS who was due to being sitting GCSES now, it’s just like they are a forgotten school year. He’s looked at the news and is quite angry and sad that it’s just all done and dusted for them. He’s going to college so has no relevant set work I can get him to do! He is busy with various projects & has p/t time in a supermarket. School have been vague on a prom, leavers book or the hoodie. I just feel so bad he’s not going to have any of the normal experiences / rites of passage his older peers have done previously & even not sitting an exam that has a consequence. How are you all dealing with this?

@punxsutawney could you afford online school for sixth form? I've looked into it for ds who's in year 9 and ADHD, so struggles with school - though not due to anxiety.

Marching, we’ve been incredibly fortunate in that DD’s new school has gone to great lengths to include her in the A level bridging work they’re running, so that she “feels part of the family”.
This has included a teams video call from the head of 6th form and the deputy head of academics, and a teams video assembly where the head welcomed the new external pupils by name.
DD’s current school is also offering bridging work, but the sessions clash so she’s had to bow out now.

crazy I don't know whether Ds would engage in his home environment. He is very much, school is school and home is home and they don't mix. He definitely feels that home is his safe space away from school anxiety and pressure. We had been having a pretty difficult time trying to get him to engage with any study or revision before the exams were cancelled. His school had not been supportive either so things were becoming increasingly stressful and difficult. He is on SEN support but does not have an EHCP.

He made one external application to a smaller more supportive sixth form but Ds is unsure. He hates change and I do worry that if I can persuade him back to education then he will go back to the school he is familiar with. Even though he is unhappy there and they have not been supportive enough. He has had no contact from the prospective sixth form so it's difficult to try and encourage him to think about going there.

This whole situation is just so hard for all year groups and their families. Although being a parent of a child with SEN I'm used to anxiety and uncertainty around school. That's been our normal life for a very long time!

Marching that sounds like the school are making a big effort. Very welcoming!

Sorry my last comment was to Also. The school sounds great!

On my school the Y11s are already nearly four weeks in to A level studies so they are seeing it as a huge positive to go ahead with that. Not all will stay at this school but will still obviously be hugely beneficial. The school had also invited in people who have applied to 6th form form elsewhere so a very positive vibe. (Obviously all delivered via Zoom, but still very effective.

Punx, DS is already at the school and the pastoral care is fantastic, which is partly.why DD is moving. She has SEN (ADHD) and they are already going the extra mile for her ( it's an independent school, and we're not actually paying fees yet, which tells you everything about their ethos).

Also they do sound fantastic, the pastoral care at Ds's present school is pretty much non existent. His school experiences have caused so many issues for him including significant mental health problems. I'm a little disappointed too that the prospective school have made no contact as I know from friends they have been supporting their internal students to make the transition.

The thought of sending him back to his present school makes me feel quite sick. I would love him to go somewhere that he will be welcome and part of the school community. I'm not sure though that will be the case with prospective school as it seems external students have not been considered at all in their communications.

They have been forgotten now but what else can they do? There would be zero point asking them to return to school when their course has now finished and some kids aren’t returning to school at all as they are going to college / apprenticeships etc. I think for secondary school’s the priority is to get year 10 and 12 back ASAP.

For the poster who said year 11’s have got off relatively easily and now don’t have the stress of exams - if you’d have seen the crushed faces on some of our children who had been worked for years towards those exams and then they were just cancelled just like that. That’s going to have more impact that you can imagine. Yes I feel for year 10’s and year 12’s too but for many kids they will never have had the chance to showcase their learning and that’s definitely not a positive for my son. When they get their results in August it’s really not going to feel the sale for them. I wish all year 10’s well and I’m sure the grade boundaries will reflect the fact they’ve lost such a large chunk of learning.

Punx, that would have been DD’s experience, had she stayed at her original comp after year 7. In the space of that year, she changed from a happy, reasonably confident pupil to a miserable wreck. Her SEN wasn’t dealt with at all, and in fact she was punished for it.

I’m so sorry you’re finding both schools unforthcoming. Could you contact the SEN team at the new school and ask for transition help, eg to be included in bridging work or at least in contact of some sort with his new teachers?

but for many kids they will never have had the chance to showcase their learning

But they will; if their learning has been demonstrated consistently through their GCSE course, then there will be no issue with their teachers putting forward bigh grades for their actual award.

Unless they have been keeping their light firmly hidden under a bushel for the entire 2/3 years (because only the real thing matters, not homework or internal exams) and their 'showcasing' was always going to be a matter of, 'I'll show them' in the exams?

Oh MarchingFrogs

I know the kids were initially disappointed, feeling their efforts had been wasted. But I think most of them have moved on now and can see the positives. And as Marching says, their grades will demonstrate their abilities in just the same way that they would have done. It's just based on more evidence, which actually seems fairer to me.

My dd isn't in the camp of proper grafters who've given 100% all the way through, so there's a possibility she won't do quite as well as she hoped. But that seems perfectly fair to me. While some of her friends had already been revising for months, she hadn't started at the beginning of lockdown. I would hope that that additional work her friends did would be rewarded!

Anyway, we need to help them gain perspective if they're still dwelling on it. GCSEs are really not that important - no exams are really! This might be a helpful life lesson to all of them. I certainly knew people my age who spent too much time on academic work to the detriment of other things, thinking they were all important. I can still see the impact in their lives today. And academic success doesn't really correlate with work or life success.

The transition to sixth form is a worry in these circumstances - I can see your concerns @Punxsutawney. Dd decided to leave her school and as it's independent we've given notice and lost her bursary. She's now worried that was the wrong decision, but we'll just have to help her adjust.

I completely disagree with year 11s getting automatic acceptance into Sixth Form and College courses, I know of at least two year 11s who will now be going into sixth form who were very unlikely to get the grades if they'd taken exams, class sizes will be larger and they're going to struggle with the work, it won't be good for their wellbeing in the long run.

So have the year 9s OP!