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

DD has been given a timetable for her second set of mocks to take place in March starting on the 10th, either in school or remotely I assume. She is burying her head in the sand with it all and no thinking about what any of it means, something my husband seems to be able to do as well whereas I'm a constant worrier. I expect she'll spend half term catching up in her Art which she's been told the final piece needs to be completed by 18th March - why they're sticking to that deadline considering the amount of school time lost I don't really understand.
We've also had the exam entry statement letter through, to be confirmed by Monday.

DS isn’t going to do any revision over half term. He has some Media work to finish (they changed their Media GCSE at the end of Y9) to a BTEC so he has still got some coursework to submit but apart from that nothing. He is absolutely exhausted and still getting over Covid I think as well.

He hasn’t even done any mocks, they were supposed to be at the start of January. The grading of the work constantly is a bit strange but at least I suppose it gives us some idea of what he is working at.

Yeah to Stormer’s DD and friend!

Thank you very much NotDonna but you have a typo there - rightful congrats go to @Titsywoo

My DD has an academic scholarship to a 6th form, which she has accepted, and there are no stipulations on the grades she needs to get. In theory, anyway

DD has a second set of mocks on line from first week back after half term, so no let up during half term break. She has a day off today and still fast asleep! She says that she will make some revision timetable but is just glad to be off screen for a while. It was all getting too much. Looking forward to slightly warmer weather so we can get daily walks in.

Oops... yeah to @Titsywoo’s DD and her friend! 🥳. Yeah to all our DC to be fair. It’s pretty crap right now and they’re ploughing on. Hopefully half term will give them a bit of a breather.

That’s meant to be a giddy ‘yay’ titsywoo and not a grumpy teen ‘yeh’ btw.

It’s looking promising!

And this little snippet too

Ah that looks promising. I wonder when we will find out about the “mini exams” then?

Possibly tomorrow, the leaks usually happen 24/48 hours before the proper announcement, but I’m so happy they’ll all (apparently!) get back to school in 3 weeks.
My DS will be a def yes for the mini exams, he won’t opt out, he just wants any chance to sit an exam, he prefers them to continuous assessment.
Not like his mum

DS wanted to sit the proper exams but I think at the moment he’d rather not do them if they were voluntary. His grades at the moment are decent enough and I think he’d worry that they’d be pulled down by an exam especially as this first real exam he would ever take.

Oh I would love them back in school before Easter. The online learning dd's school is providing is really good although not the same as being in. But I think they need to be in school with their peers, that social interaction is so important.

I was coming on to say the news is reporting more positively about going back to school on the 8th too. I'm happy for my freedoms to be limited to facilitate this. Especially for year 11s!
I think the ideal scenario would be own teacher assessments and optional mini exams - a whole range of different types and the children get the highest grade they achieve in any of it. So for example if they get a 7 in one type but 6s in others then the 7 is their final grade!

I personally don't like the idea of optionally exam...either we don't have it at all or everyone has it. I just feel it wouldn't be fair.

Either one has it pros and cons but this in between doesn't sit well in my head. Hey ho, that is my opinion.

I agree Blubell - all or nothing (no one)

Plus it’s another thing for the students to be anxious and self-critical about - what to do for the best? Did they make the wrong choice when they see their peers who made another choice do better? Were they cowardly or lazy in letting their general fear of exams dictate their choice not to opt in? (Not how I’d think now of students, but I could imagine the 16 year old me worrying & thinking harshly about myself in such a situation)

If the system isn’t optional, at least a layer of anxiety and self-blame is removed.

I’m wondering if it’s optional for the school or optional for the individual pupils.

Even if the school decides, I don't think it is fair...if my ds school does the exams but his friends in other schools don't.

Stop making layers of confusion...just make it one decision for all schools.

I initially assumed it was optional for the school rather than each individual pupil.

Our school has actually told the students that the optional exams are another chance for them to up their grades so it is a win win for them.

What happens if they do badly though and their grades go down? That’s my biggest concern.

No way my daughter will take the exams if she doesn't have to. She's dyslexic and hates exam pressure. Has already done her mocks so will be hoping for similar grades to those.

My DD is the same @treeeeemendous

I'd like to take DDs mock results and run, but I suspect her school will
Insist she sits more exams.

@LynetteScavo I know.

If you look at dd's grades on end of topic assessments she is consistently achieving the same sorts of grades.

When it is amalgamated into a big exam where she doesn't know what the content will be she panics. She struggles to retain all the information and how to use it to answer the question which she sometimes misunderstands.

However, she passed all of her mocks including English language which is the big issue.

She is going to college in September to do a vocational course. She can't wait.

Morning all. Happy half term.
The piece in the papers about the 1:1 sessions with all yr11’s and yr13s to discuss their ‘target’ grades seems slightly odd. Maybe it’s to enforce schools to give some amount of feedback where that’s been lacking. Feedback at DD’s school is good but reading other threads that certainly isn’t the norm. I don’t think too much can be read into these ‘target’ grades though. What on Earth do ‘target’ grades even mean? All targets are going to be aspirational surely? Then isn’t that setting the teachers up for when they can’t evidence those aspiring grades? Don’t really see the point. I wonder how larger schools will manage this 1:1 too. Sounds very time consuming. I do like the idea of honesty and transparency but not sure how well this will work. What do the rest of you think?

Our school does 1:1’s every year with every year group (150 pupils) and they share them out during the week between the head, 3 deputies and the head of year.
So a 5 min chat per pupil, 30 pupils per teacher and it seems to work ok.
They’ve done it for my my children this year online with Microsoft Teams, so think it would go ok really.
Maybe they’d up it to a ten min conversation and add in Form tutors as well if required.