Year 11 depression, glandular fever and GCSE grades

[Sunnywithchanceofshowers]

DD like so many others has had an awful year. We are now in a new lockdown and unlikely to go back to school before year 11’s would normally break for study leave. Prior to Covid she would have been getting good grades in everything. On the current trajectory i don’t think school will have enough evidence for her to get anything. She has some good grades from the November exams. At the moment I can’t get her to do any work at all. It is all too hard and too much. This is the same for the subjects that she likes and already has a good knowledge of. In recent mocks she couldn’t manage to write much at all.
I have little experience of how best to help with depression. Is it best to keep pushing for her to work or to let her stop schoolwork and accept she is going to have to resit? I will be talking to school and her GP tomorrow.

What's the glandular fever? Has she been diagnosed with that and depression?

DD had GF when she was 14 and she spent a good 3 months mostly in bed as she was exhausted, she wasn't suffering depression though and I didn't force her to do any school at all. In fact school were fabulous and put her on part time when she eventually went back, it was the year before exams and no covid to factor in but my view that her health and need to rest to recover is more important than school will always be the same.

She ended up doing a couple of Nat 5s and highers in S5 and more highers in S6 so overall wasn't affected other than possibly spending an extra year in school that she didn't really need to do. She then got offered places at her 2 top uni choices.

I have an email in drafts ready to send on Monday.

it is asking per subject

• do they have enough current info to give a baseline grade
• when will we be told the baseline grades
• what is the minimum extra assessments needed to get a grade

(School have said that at some point the pupils will be told their grades and it won't go down after that, or something similar)

DD has been ill (MH) and has not provided work since then. We have only kept the 4 subjects she had done a significant amount of the syllabus in.

Yours has November mocks, that should help surely. What if you reduced to key subjects only, would that help?

is she getting any help for the depression?

The depression isn’t yet diagnosed and is my theory at the moment- it's so hard to get a GP appointment. I have been blaming the Glandular fever, but the sleeping 20 hrs a day, weight loss, lack of interest in anything and the feelings that it’s all hopeless make me think that. The Glandular fever was diagnosed (blood test) before Christmas. She wasn’t so bad for the time she was back at school, but every lockdown she goes lower.

I was wondering about reducing to key subjects- unfortunately one of those is the one she seems to have the biggest issue with.

The minimum extra assessments question is a good one. I’ll ask that- if we could make it seem less impossible to her it would help.

By 'key' I mean what she needs for next steps.

I am seriously considering abandoning maths for DD because we won't get her back up to a pass in the remaining time, and if she fails she'll have to retake anyway. So instead of the stress of trying we could focus on the remaining 3 and have a hope of a grade 4 (or even a grade 3 would be better than nothing).

So if Eng Lang (guess) is the biggest issue, maybe ignore it, do what else she can, and accept Eng lang will have to be 'resit' once she is better?

Have a look at both the website "not fine in school" and the Facebook page.

It is full of resources, advise and support. One of the main things is don't pressure your daughter into attending school. When you are scared, anxious you are not going to learn.

Big hugs x

Thank you so much- much more useful to ask you all than lie awake worrying all night.

I am a teacher - in my school we are of the opinion that there is no point withdrawing any child from any subject now unless they would fail - any grade based on evidence to that we do have is better than no grade at all isn’t it?
We have students who were unable to take November exams or performed badly in November exams due to Covid isolation and we may have similar in the assessments they sit in the weeks leading up to June 18th. We will use data we do have from year 10 and 11.

I would expect a diagnosis of Gf and how this affects her current performance can be taken into account by the school to award grades based on the good assessments she has sat.

A doctors note may help with this.

ImpatientAnn Thank you, that’s helpful. I’d like to make it more manageable in her head so that she feels she can do some of the work whereas at the moment she’s getting so upset she can’t do any, if that makes sense.

The guidance is a bit woolly/not all out yet so schools are interpreting as we go. In a usual year your daughter could apply for special consideration from the exam board with a medical note so if she underperformed in exams her medical needs would be taken into account on grade awarding but there is no special consideration this year - the school themselves will decide on her grade based on where they believe she is at that point in June.
In my subject we are not doing long exams as they would sit in a normal year, we are breaking it down into shorter assessments over 4 weeks which are more manageable for the students.
Ask your daughter’s school for their plan and if this could be an option for her due to her medical needs if they are still planning to do longer assessments for most students.

Awful, glandular fever can really knock you for six.

Has she been able to express her wishes?

She’s been burying her head in the sand and saying it will be fine. I was hoping to talk to school and have options to simplify it a bit. I do want her to decide ideally, but at the moment she would like to pretend none of it is happening.
It helps a lot to know what to ask school. They are really helpful, but i think I’ve been hoping everything would work itself out too, whereas now it suddenly seems like it's nearly too late.

It isn’t too late at all. There are many children who have done nothing over lockdown for various reasons - lack of IT a major factor. I would put money on her school offering revision lessons before any assessment. If she can get anything out of these she has a good chance in doing well in the assessments with the older data and medical diagnosis to back this up if it is lower than expected.

@ImpatientAnn I have just talked to school who have just said most of what you said. Including offering one to one help when she feels up to it.
I am a bit overwhelmed that in the midst of this awful time and faced with the gargantuan task of shepherding all these teenagers through to the end of exams that they can find the time to show this level of care to my individual child.

That’s great news. So pleased you’ve had your mind put at rest.

We do care about them all and appreciate what a rubbish year it has been for them.

I've been in contact with school re assessments for my DD.
They have been great.

They have agreed a 'bespoke' assessment timetable, to be done at home. Some under school invigilation, and others not. Flexible as to how DD copes when we start doing them.

It's her best chance of salvaging something from this year.

That’s good news TeemMinusTests DD is a bit better in herself and stopped lying in the dark for 20 hrs a day, so I’m feeling a bit more hopeful

Stopping lying in the dark is a start.

The thing that is slightly annoying for me, is when the government pushed the GCSEs back to June, DD 'gained' a month to recover in. But then when the abandoned exams and went to teacher assessments she lost it again (and a bit more).

Never mind, health is more important. Being able to attend college in September is our main goal. (Just filled out the child benefit form saying she'll be there fore 3 years.)