Current Year 11 2021/2022 support thread pt II

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Thread for those with Y10s finishing July 2021 ready for Y11 in Sept 2021.

All welcome.

Second day of mocks here and DD says she is sick from covid vaccine she had on Sunday. I told her to wait until mocks over as she just had covid, argh.

Oh no Silkies, not what you need right now! Hopefully paracetamol and as much water as she will drink will help ?

Thanks yellow. I just hope this does not happen in real things, she is sleeping and hopefully back in tomorrow and just 2 missed but dicey on those two if goes to teacher assessment.

Best wishes for all the DC doing mocks. DS has a couple of weeks more revision till his start. Parents evening this week so will be good to get some feedback from his teachers.
He’s had a complete change of A level choices having been quite certain previously. It’s now a choice between 6 (!) but still has time to decide.

Hope your DD is feeling better quickly @Silkieschickens
What does your DS want to do @PaddingtonPaddington ??

All the best to those who have started their mocks, DS did do some revision over half term but not nearly as much I think he should have done. I actually woke up one morning last week feeling quite stressed about his Drama portfolio (frustratingly his group are not sharing resources they should be with him, I have told him to speak to his teacher about it.)

Think I need to step back, take a deep breath and get some perspective or I am going to drive myself crazy. We have some friends and family going through really tough times at the moment, if the major thing I am worrying about is how well he will do in his GCSEs then things are pretty ok for us really! Things will work out in the end and if he ends up at his 2nd choice sixth form I'm sure he will still do well.

Completely forgot this morning that DS was supposed to go 10 mins early for extra French revision, never mind, we will see what happens with that. Think I am going to drop an email to school to ask about entering him for Statistics as he has covered about 5/7 of the course since September at home (he knew some of it before) and I think it would pose no difficulty for him. Not sure who makes the decisions about these things as I did ask the SENCO but she didn't know.

Is there someone specifically in charge of all this @IThinkIMadeItWorse? The teacher who led our information evening is our point of contact though he isn’t HoY, the HoY might be a good person?

DS has drawn up a timetable of two subjects per evening. One he stays at school for in the study hub and then comes home for free time and then one he has decided in the 90 mins before bed. He hasn’t broken the subjects down but it’s something and I’m going to let him crack on as DS2 needs a bit more supervision.

Another open evening this week and his school towards the end of the month.

At Dds school exam officer said it was subject teacher incharge of entries but think if its outside the norm its Head of subject incharge.

Gearing up for revision here. Mocks in early January. Covid numbers steady, including some teachers. Settled on A levels in Art and Physics we think, plus 'something else'. DC really wants to stay at their school, but that requires top grades so another pressure - yay!! I need to learn to relax!

We got covid numbers for DSs school over half term week and about 6% of school had it that week, normally they have very low numbers. In theory DS should have his covid vaccine today at school, not sure if that will happen.

DD has mocks for two weeks starting 22nd November (DS's 18th birthday!) and then more mocks after February half term. That's what they do as standard in DC's school so not unexpected.

She has been generally revising over half term - is very organised (much much more so than DS...). I have to prod him and persuade her not to do too much.

6th form open evenings are this week and next where we are. She'd prefer to stay at her current school but it depends on whether there are enough in her year for them to be able to offer Spanish which she is very keen on. Also wants to do History and English Literature. Is looking into History and Modern Languages and thinking about applying to Oxford.

So one open evening this Thursday, another one on Monday and her current school's one next Wednesday should keep us busy :)

Hello again, sounds like everyone is in the thick of it! Mocks in Jan here and one early but regular tests are taking all ds's time. Science especially he drags out forever, think he is recovering the whole syllabus! Time feels really short, with a couple of sixth form open eves too. It's great seeing him have some ideas about A levels though.

@zighead you asked about English revision, I read a suggestion to create a word doc for each text with quotes and points on, organised by character and theme.. Ds has not done this. And for Eng lang, Mr Bruff's book or youtube went down well.

DD has gone in today and also went for an early morning run, think its just RE mock today. Have another 5 or 6 school days of this to go.

We had 6th form open days before which is probably just as well as everything is starting to get cancelled here now due to covid though DDs have suggested a round the world finger buffet for all parents, students and siblings. Sounds lovely in normal times but not sure a great idea with covid around.

@MirandaWest DD wants to take English lit and History as well as either Psychology or Philosophy. And her English teachers want her to apply to Oxbridge to do English. Still very early days though!

Dd has 2 Maths/Numeracy G.C.S.E's this week,one yesterday and another tomorrow, revision has been so full on,even been into school 2 days over half term for 3 hrs each day,teachers vern fab,3 weeks and other mocks start.Because they missed a Welsh Oral exam last year they have to do one before Christmas that will count towards 50% of their overall Mark's,revision just seems never ending.

Mocks at the end of the month here. DD has been doing a decent amount of revision, she tried to do a few hours a day during half term. School have put on a 7th period for them and they can stay behind for an hour each day and attend drop-in sessions in each subject where the teachers are about to assist with revision.

But at the moment all talk is about the rearranged ski trip in Austria that is happening the week directly before Christmas. DD returns on Christmas Eve. The closer it gets the more bonkers I think it is that the school are actually trying to attempt this trip with all the Covid cases with 80 students. So our Christmas could potentially entail either DH or I having to travel to Austria to be with DD is she comes down with Covid and isn’t allowed to travel back! 🥴🤦‍♀️

Austria are still asking non- vaccinated arrivals to self-isolate for 10 days (assuming all the children are under 18) unless the teachers think everyone can travel with those accompanying them and use their vaccination status and negative PCR test results to get everyone through? Seems a bit of a stretch ?

Good luck with that - sounds even more stressful than the mocks!

Dd is back but did not sit the mock, not great news as not at all sure they will count sitting them late and dreading this happening in real thing as she will have to repeat a year.

@yellowstoneranch Austria are classing 15 year olds with one dose as fully vaccinated I believe. But 16 yr olds are required to have 2 doses which obviously isn’t going to happen as not licensed for 2 cuttehtky. Worse case scenario is a PCR test before departure, then 2x PCR out there and a lateral flow test on day 2. Don’t think they need to self isolate on arrival.

But yes I’m starting to get very nervous about it!!

Silkie gosh, that’s a bit worrying. Did she not feel well enough for the mock today?

She said she had a panic attack before the mock but about something different, she said same in y10 mocks at the other school and did the lot late. It's very odd as its two sets of mocks, both times says its unrelated to mocks and also she goes out socialising with her friends all the time, definitely not the typical panic attack child who is scared to do anything.

Just hope she can keep it together for real thing and that they don't get cancelled or she will be repeating the year.

All of this sounds so stressful - hoping they get to Austria and back or cancel soon so at you know @Rollergirl11

@Silkieschickens sending you both fortitude in lieu of anything at all useful, sounds very tricky.

We’ve now seen two Sixth Forms and I’m done - though we still have his school one to go in a few weeks. He went straight for Spanish again so that seems like a 100% along with his history. Politics and Classics not setting his world on fire but I suspect no. 3 will come from one of them.

Hugs to you @Silkieschickens hope your DD manages to get through the rest of her mocks. Sounds very stressful.

Austria trip sounds like a mad idea @Rollergirl11 can't believe they are planning it. Probably tricky for them to cancel.

Year 11 have "stress awareness" at school today which as far as I can tell involves some after school activities, crafts etc and talking about mental health and "balancing their time between revision and relaxation". DS took in a small board game he likes so hopefully he can find somebody to play it with. Mind you in his case I think they might need "kick up the bum to actually do a bit of revision outside of school" day.

@Silkieschickens ahhh poor DD, that must be stressful for her. But given that it has happened both times in exam situations I would guess that it is anxiety to do with that scenario, despite your DD saying not. Could you speak to the school and see if perhaps DD can take the exams somewhere quieter?

Yep the ski trip is pretty crazy. It was the trip they usually have in Feb half term of Year 10. They decided back in March that they were going to rearrange for this December. I guess logistically it can only be then as later in the year they are doing their GCSE’s! I think back in March they thought that the travel restrictions/testing would be better than they actually are! But the school still seem totally optimistic that it’s going to happen and are forging ahead with plans.

@Silkieschickens That sounds really tough for your DD. Mine falls apart a bit in mock exams and has underperformed so far but we are hoping some hypnosis might help.

6th form open evening at her school last night, we saw all subject stands but she has decided to do chemistry, maths and art. Her lovely art teacher told her to put fine art down so she goes in her block but she can decide which she wants to do in may of year 12 and just explore everything until then. She’s doing fine art and photography for GCSE and couldn’t decide between them for A level. There is also an Art, Craft and Design A level that covers everything that she could enter.

We have another open evening tonight, I can see questions being asked in the Art department.

Thanks all. Yes its difficult and I do not know how to solve it and just getting very stressful for everyone. On top of which had a breast lump since May and it has been one thing after another since then and did phone in June but doctor said it was probably nothing, I recently phoned again and the doctor said its almost certain its cancer. I wish I had spoken to her the first time. Am on 2ww referral. Think you have to go alone atm too. Hope she is wrong and its just a peri menopause thing. Wish all of us could be younger again, no exams and no health issues.

I hope Austria gets resolved though 2 weeks there at Christmas sounds lovely though not shut in a room, well unless it had spectactular mountain views. Our schools have said we are next 2 counties are enhanced covid areas now, no idea what those are but seems to mean more moving online and all our fireworks have been cancelled.