Starting Year 11 GCSE 2021 Thread 2

[indy69]

Just continuing on from thread one. Let's support each other through these difficult times. Here is the earlier thread. www.mumsnet.com/Talk/secondary/3653238-Starting-Year-11-GCSE2021-title-edited-by-MNHQ

I really hope she can @Saffronesque

I feel like I don't know what my dd should be doing right now to be ready for the assessments they will have when they go back. With having done some mocks in December and more planned for March I'm not sure how they can sustain revision for so long. She's completing all her homework and online lessons but how intensively she should be working I'm not sure. Would love to hear what other people's children are doing.

It depends on how 'efficiently a learner your DD is.
Some lucky souls only need to meet a concept once to understand & to be able to apply it. Others, most, need some level of repetition, not least to push into long term memory.
Is she using CGP revision books or similar? She can test herself to gauge when to move on, as there is a real risk of revision fatigue.
Our school likens it to a marathon, where you need to peak May/June, NOT Feb/March. So, if limited teaching going on, I would get nagging questions, slight question marks chased down, French vocab & grammar nailed. Don't expect perfection now, it's building! And if mainly offline school, keep a routine going, with a couple of 30 minute sessions revision every day; lots more later in holidays.
Only my view though. DD has made flashcards etc throughout, so ok at the moment to keep pace.

Sorry for spelling & grammar autocorrects. Autowrongs!

I think 'revision fatigue' is what happened in the run up to the mocks. When schools were closed last March DD used the time to get ahead and made revision notes and for each subject, working about an hour extra each day after online lessons finished, It payed off because when she returned to school in September she did really well in the first set of assessments and pre-mocks, but by the time mocks started in December she was tired and de-motivated and couldn't be bothered revising. She didn't do too bad, but some subjects we expected higher results.

Our school likens it to a marathon, where you need to peak May/June

The question is, when do they need to peak this year?
We have been working towards June with DD (who is only just slowly starting again after MH issues), but if schools have to submit results earlier then we will have a problem...

@TeenPlusTwenties So how exactly do you ensure they peak at the right time- I really don't know how to plan that! What level of work is your dd doing right now?

Exactly @TeenPlusTwenties DD was working towards a May/June exam session and then school were trying to gently shift towards a June/July exam session then it seems no one knows.

I don't think it is only my teen who is sensitive to the unknown. She is hugely resilient but her Achilles heel is the unknown or sudden changes. She can plan for the absence of detail e.g. an interview, but she has plenty of other knowns she can latch onto e.g. date, format, broad context to frame her expectations. There doesn't seem to be much of this other context at the present time and it is putting her in a bit of spin.

This stop, start, maybe, possibly, not, definitely, hopefully, a bit, some parts of, is so so so bewildering. There are no decisions, just evolutions of thought. I appreciate that it is hard to make decisions when the virus isn't on a defined course, but if like some of the other devolved regions (much as I don't like the leadership in all of them) they had said 'we will do this' earlier on it would have hugely helped, it would have provided focus and certainty. Our children in England have had no focus or direction, only uncertainty, rumour and maybes.

And that uncertainty continues.

Freek DD is averaging about 30mins per day total right now. She did 30mins independent work today for the first time in months. I am hoping that by Feb half term she may be fit to sit an English or Maths paper over 2 sittings of ~ an hour each. She needs to be able to show something to know she'll at least get a grade.

However, assuming you were asking normally, what we did with DD1, who did GCSEs towards the end of the old system, was phase revision with milestones & breaks. So now would be 'work on stuff you didn't understand in your mocks', then there would be 'learn stuff you didn't need for mocks' then 'refresh stuff' and then final learnings with practice papers to check'.

This year, who knows, as the whole thing is up in the air.

Thanks @TeenPlusTwenties, that's useful. I suggested to my dd that she revisit her notes over the next couple of weeks and see if she can add to them and improve them and add any new content she has since covered. She's done part of a maths paper today which was set for mocks but she missed which the teacher has asked them to do at home. Does this sound like we are on the right lines?

Honestly Freek, I'm not the person to be asking. DD isn't doing school lessons, has dropped to 4 GCSEs, and I have no idea what is happening right now.

@PettsWoodParadise

I totally agree with you.

Unfortunately when it comes to exams our leaders don't seem to be leading, but muddling through. I think kids would just go with the flow of what ever was decided, but it's the not knowing for them that is really tough.

DD's school seems to be carrying on business as usual.
Just repeated emphasis that the best thing a student can do to help themselves is to keep engaged and working hard.

Same at DS’s school, keep going, keep working hard, don’t take the foot off the pedal yet as things aren’t set in stone.

DD's school is very much business as usual. If there were no announcements to say otherwise you would assume they were still sitting the exams as normal

We just got the mock results mostly 7 with a couple of 6 thrown in. I hope my DD will have one more set of mocks for a chance to improve. She missed the 7 by 2 marks each so was gutted. All in all the results were ok but I know loads of students struggled with online learning and that has certainly impacted their mock results. Hoping that they will get another chance to do better by March.

If the end results for the cohort are lower than the previous years, do you think there will be an adjustment to bring them in line with previous years? I don't see how they can justify a whole year having lower grades than they might otherwise have got in different circumstances and consequently facing disadvantage.

Yes I agree @FreekStar .
It would be disgraceful to mark a whole year group with lower grades through no fault of their own.
It will drastically affect their life chances.
Surely people in power would kick up a fuss?
I am viewing it as it will be different than last year as in it won't be full teachers predicted grades. Instead the children will have to produce evidence of what grade they are working at through mini exams, and then they will be adjusted to reflect average grades from previous years.
Let's hope they get this right this year.
I have been getting stressed out about it!

I’m guessing you’ve all completed the consultation and your DCs too. It’s predominantly about the mini assessments. It’s pretty much agree/disagree but there are some comment boxes too. Our and kids opportunity to make know what we/they prefer.

I have completed the consultation and have encouraged other parents to do so as well. Does anyone know when they are going to come up with answers?

A Schools Week article seems to say we’d be notified W/c 22 Feb which means DD won’t feel remotely motivated to revise over half term like she probably should be doing:

schoolsweek.co.uk/ofqual-boss-admits-teachers-face-heavier-responsibility-in-exams-replacement-plan/

These mini-assessments. Are they 'whenever' or on fixed days?

I am under unbelievable amount of pressure for DD to take a school-day out in May (assuming she is even well enough which is another matter). I wasn't keen before, somehow I feel it seems even less reasonable now, if school might be doing their own assessments around then. Rock and hard place.

No one knows teenplustwenties The consultation is asking if they should be optional or compulsory, if the latter then how many, in May, in May/June, or in June. If teachers can go back over the whole 2 year course or just the last month, 3 months, 4 months etc. Asking if school have them ahead of time so they can choose which & when to give. They’re asking lots of questions about what students, parents and teachers want. It’s definitely worth you & if she’s up to it, your DD completing.

I got half way through completing the consultation and paused because I just don' actually know what I'd like to happen- but whatever is going, want clarity ASAP.