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Secondary education

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

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Original poster

GCSE mums!!

42 replies

Ron1984 · 12/08/2020 18:08

Are you doing anything for your DC to celebrate the day??!

OP posts:

Louise91417 · 16/08/2020 11:04

I am absolutely dreading thursday..iv been so stressed about it so can only imagine what my dd and all gcse pupils are going through...its a bloody shambles...fingers crossed and good luck to them all

frustrationcentral · 16/08/2020 11:20

@NCTDN

I think it's such a shame for those that can't even go into school. At least in school they will have support of the teachers.

I think this is such a shame too, and I don't understand why something can't be done? DS is able to go in - on a timetable, split into houses. Ok he can't hang around and celebrate with mates, but at least he can see teachers etc

itsgettingweird · 16/08/2020 13:13

@NCTDN

I think it's such a shame for those that can't even go into school. At least in school they will have support of the teachers.

Sadly they can't go in. It's a drive through type system. Stop, collect exit.

So they get to pick them up and that's it but it is better than lots are getting.

NCTDN · 16/08/2020 16:19

At least they will be able to see teachers if they go in to collect, even if from a distance.

HPFA · 16/08/2020 19:01

DD's 16th birthday is on Wednesday! She's going to an Escape Room with friends on Friday.

itsgettingweird · 16/08/2020 20:30

@HPFA

DD's 16th birthday is on Wednesday! She's going to an Escape Room with friends on Friday.

My ds is 16 on Wednesday too! He's going Segway with my dad!

boredboredboredboredbored · 16/08/2020 21:45

Dd and I are off to Cambridge for a girly night on Friday with dinner at The Ivy. She's worked so hard over the past 5 years and I want to mark the end of this as she's not been able to mark it in any other way!

lljkk · 18/08/2020 10:31

I do congrat DC on whatever they did well in or at least didn't bomb at.
I don't celebrate the results otherwise. I find this morally distasteful, tbh, but I guess it makes sense to other people in their families... are there people who find it easy to celebrate even if you perceive that your DC underachieved or made feck all effort? I wonder how that works one year to the next if you have high & low achievers in the family. Anyway, I do celebrate with something like a take-away pizza (not ordinary for us) at the end of exam season which is a relief moment for me us all.

Panicmode1 · 18/08/2020 10:35

It's my birthday on Thursday so we have booked a restaurant and will go out regardless. DS did really well in his mocks but did not want to 'celebrate' results for exams he didn't take - so he's going out tomorrow with some of his friends for a 'haven't we worked hard lunch' before the results come out the following day. We will congratulate him on his hard work on Thursday night, regardless of the results (although after yesterday's announcement I'm feeling much less stressed about it all). His selective grammar had already said they would be exercising a lot of discretion in whether or not pupils were allowed to stay on for 6th form and had made many fewer offers to external candidates as a result.

Alsoplayspiccolo · 18/08/2020 11:03

llijkk, are you saying that you find it morally distasteful to celebrate effort alone? Ie if a child tries their best but the result isn’t stellar?

Darbs76 · 18/08/2020 15:19

I’ve ordered some well done cakes from a local cake baker that I’m collecting tomorrow, going to get a congrats balloon too. We are going for a meal and I’ve bought DS an Apple Watch I’m going to give him. His dad (my ex) is giving him what I consider to be a large sum of money, but it’s for his future. Regardless of grades he’s worried his arse off for the last 5yrs of secondary and doesn’t ever ask for a thing. Plus it was his 16th birthday last week for which he was alone most of the day as DD needed a blood transfusion due to a first period gone crazy!!

Darbs76 · 18/08/2020 15:24

That should say he’s worked his arse off not worried his arse off!

lljkk · 18/08/2020 21:35

If we're celebrating effort then we would celebrate in May/June. That's when they did the effort. But I'm not celebrating academic effort in a big public way, either, tbh. If DC achieve and work hard, they do that for themselves and the natural consequences, not for my response or a family song & dance. My eldest was a slacker & 2nd DC was (is) a high achiever. I had the choice to make their differences into a sibling rivalry issue or to simply mark the end of exam periods as something we all had to get thru, a mutual shared experience we could breathe sigh of relief about regardless of effort put in. I guess some families don't have such differences, but it was my personal minefield to avoid.

RosiePosie15 · 20/08/2020 15:11

DH and I haven’t organised anything for DD or bought anything for her. She tried to organise something with her friends but most were on holiday. She’s spent most of the day in her room so far.

mbosnz · 20/08/2020 17:09

We've had a lovely day. DD got results we're thrilled with, but also think they are fair and reflective of her effort, and ability.

DH took the day off, because we were worried about results and wanted to be fully available if emotional support were needed.

Instead, DD remembered the financial incentive scheme we set for her first set of mocks, and seriously depleted our bank account, lol, then we went on the promised trip to Waterstones to buy her a copy of Sense & Sensibility and whatever else we could all chisel out of the Bank of Dad!

It turned out that Itsu had just opened up, so we had our first Itsu hit for lunch, and spent the rest of the day just chilling. . .

Celebration tea, chicken in a creamy onion sauce on a bed of tagliatelle, and an affagato, with Frangelico to follow, as she decided she did not want to venture out. (She's taken to lockdown a leeeeedle too well. . .)

mbosnz · 20/08/2020 17:12

Oh, and we celebrate effort, and are lucky, because both girls work their arses off, and whatever results they get are well deserved and earned.

We believe DD did earn these results, despite not sitting the exams, because she had, in the last two years, to deal with relocating to the other side of the world, coming to grips with a new school, entirely new curriculum, at a very different level of depth and complexity to what she was used to, and has treated every mock like the real thing, every single test, every single lesson, every tuition session.

snitcher · 27/08/2020 20:35

Mbosnz - what a lovely last post. If you did relocate from Nz as per your user name then that is amazing

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