Current Year 11 2021/2022 support thread pt II

[StColumbofNavron]

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

All welcome.

DS1 seems to have got into the swing of revision now. He stays most nights he doesn’t do sports at the study hub to revise and then does one/two subjects after dinner. Still seems to have plenty of time for gaming and winding his brothers up so I think he has struck a balance. Official predicted grades are supposed to arrive soon and then mocks in Dec. Revised grades in the new year.

DS2 after a decent set of parent teacher meetings but a terrible
MFL (a 2 and D respectively in French and Spanish since he does no work and Google translates memrise) he declared he cared not and even though the school insist he does a language for GCSE he will be ignoring that and does not care if he fails. Fast forward to last night where he spent the whole evening revising French vocab with me!

Hope your operation goes well on 1st December MrsPnut and hope the mocks go well. I don't really get involved with DDs revision unless she asks for help. DS will be another matter as he does absolutely nothing by himself.

I was expecting school to put a limit on number of exams taken by nope Rollergirl and old school was similar, she was taking 10 gcses plus 1 AS level there and they were suggesting she add 2 languages, one was French which she did to y9 but the other was German which she stopped end y7 so a crazy suggestion. I told DD the German was a not sensible suggestion and she said no to both languages there which made sense as 11 was a lot.

New school she just seems to keep adding them and they seem super relaxed about it though I do wonder if anyone has looked at the total. The school did 9 out of 11 she was taking pretty much the same apart from history taught in reverse order and a few other things taught in different order. She is caught up on that apart from the one history topic so those 9 are fine. The new school do 10 and she could add Economics, that seemed fine as I have an Economics degree and we have always discussed economics a lot and she could catch up the year by herself or drop it if it was too much. Then she overheard school saying about after school gcse statistics so she said I will do that, add me and they did. When she went to that she discovered they did Further Maths after school so she said add me to that and they did. But the qualification was different so they said to her to do both the AS and the GCSE. Then school sent me a message saying does she want to do GCSE French as well teaching herself as she has a French parent so you are a bilingual family - I said no as she has more than enough and we are not a bilingual family, only odd word of French (often a swear word from DH) then DD found out and got herself added.

At first she started mocks very anxious but now she is full of the joys of spring especially about the self taught ones. It will be interesting to see what impact it has on grades though also she has a change of school and teachers so maybe hard to know. She is very keen on doing ridiculous quantities of exams and I don't want to ban her but I do want to be sure it won't adversely affect her in any way. I am waiting to see how mocks have gone though I think decisions are made by school and her. It originally started off as she said she wanted to beat me.

Sunflower I would love to be younger and healthier again as well. Having said that if I have anything will be glad kids are older.

StColumbo Great your DS1 is doing so well.

Dd did her two exams in morning, the SMC and English exam but then started to feel sick so DH went and collected her, it was all her exams done, would imagine may just been the constant stress of it but may be a bug. She is eating and not been sick. Think she has stats and the FM next week which she finds easy so that should be fine. Think tomorrow and Friday she is supposed to have 3 she missed at start but will see how she is. Not sure how close they are in real thing, this is really intense with 2 every day for 2 to 3 weeks.

We filled in the dates in the diary from the links that were shared here and it’s pretty intense, a couple per day at points.

Sending all best wishes for your op @MrsPnut and hope you're able to get some back relief Sunflower.

That is a lot of exams Silkies but she sounds so bright and enthusiastic. The mock results will show the way forward I guess.

Ds found the Senior maths challenge hard today. He didn't attempt some of the harder questions as he doesn't like to risk take! He'd be very happy with a gold. Music was 'fine'. Apparently they get a chance to re-record once his teacher reviews the videos.

No further revision has taken place this week! Hoping he'll start some of the older stuff for history and geography this week and more lit cards.

I did the same earlier whilst DD was getting ready to go to powerlifting. I think she only has two days with two exams though 7th and 8th of June. She obviously chose her options well!

DD has six exams in the first four days so that will be a baptism of fire. Her school do a ridiculous number of GCSEs- 9 compulsory (8 if double science) and 4 options. Plus Welsh Bacc. Plus additional maths for top 2 sets, who have just taken maths early. So if all goes well DD will end up with 15 GCSEs or equivalent. I keep telling her she can give up a couple if she wants or just not opt out of the exams, but at the moment she thinks she can handle it all.

I had a look at the links and its more spread out than now which is pretty much 2 every day but due to volume she is taking there are a quite a few days with 2 on.

DD has gone back in today, said yesterday she just couldn't manage 5th period on top of two exams, not really surprised it is relentless and they are still running after school lessons on top of the two exams a day and normal lessons when not an exam. She's got three to do over rest of this week then stats and further maths next week, stats she finds really easy, further maths she's really good as but they are making her sit the one she hasn't been taught for but its a lower level but a couple of different topics but she will try and race through those before. I hope she has a book for it, I have lost track of what books I got though maths is well covered online.

We got an invite through for online parents evening at the start of December and one from economics teacher to discuss helping her with economics. That is a completely new subject to her so she prioritised it last incase needs to be dropped but she said exam went well. It was only on Wednesday so they may not have looked at it yet. I have an Economics degree so will be easy to help with.

I've just been trying to work out DS's timetable - what happens when there is an exam clash? He seems to have 3 exams on one day (2 am and one pm)

Our Mocks are straight after Christmas. DDs now settled on definitely Art and Physics A levels, and maybe Maths. Been to a couple of 6th form open evenings too which has cemented that she wants to stay put at her current school. And we had a great parents evening too (to my intense relief). Revision has just started for us so a long way to go ...

@tickingthebox73

I've just been trying to work out DS's timetable - what happens when there is an exam clash? He seems to have 3 exams on one day (2 am and one pm)

How many hours total exam time? I can’t remember the number - 6 hours? but if under a certain amount then DS will be kept in isolation and then complete the third exam after a break otherwise can apply to move the exam to the morning of the second day but kept under supervision.

I remember I had a gcse clash one time and had to spend the night at a teachers house, not sure if they still do that. Had a great time - I remember the teacher was much posher than my family and drank bottled water

@tickingthebox73 most parents and students won’t have looked at the dates and will usually wait for the school to publish so I wouldn’t worry the school will address it, probably as @PaddingtonPaddington says.

DD has just been given her first set of target grades by new school which is pre mocks, its all 8s and 9s, for 11 subjects and further maths has not issued but that her strongest subject (she is doing AS and gcse) but after school and French have not issued but that is self taught. Very happy with that. DD is a bit miffed maths and stats have target grades of 8 when she has done two exams in each at 9plus but all looks great to me. Will be interesting to see what mock grades are, they do not issue them until 2 December, DD thinks tgat is as that is parents evening

Well done to your DD @Silkieschickens sounds like she is doing brilliantly at her new school. I hope your appointment today goes as well as it can, thinking of you.

DS had French speaking yesterday which he failed (not a surprise, the teacher said he could pass if he worked hard but he is doing no work!) He also did the SMC yesterday, he said there were four questions he didn't do and one he wasn't 100% sure about but he seemed fairly confident about the rest so fingers crossed he has done well. He said he thought it was a harder paper than last year. The main thing is that he enjoyed doing it, I think there were only 3 from his school who did it.

I must admit I haven't looked at next years exam timetable in detail yet, need to get a diary or planner for next year and check all his exam boards and write them in (yes I am that old fashioned!) Did you see the DfE are advising schools to do three sets of mocks! www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-59251962 I expect we will hear the results of these mocks at parents eve in early Dec, they have said they will also use them to give predicted grades for the sixth form applications so fingers crossed.

OMG three sets of mocks @IThinkIMadeItWorse 
These poor kids. It's just too much!

They vary so much from school to school too. My DS has a proper 7 days of exams only, full papers and then you'll hear of a school that does the odd tiny topic test during normal class time. Hardly comparable!

Hope your appointment goes okay today @Silkieschickens Your DD is doing so well, glad she seems to have settled in to her new school.

I keep meaning to check the timetable for next summer but it'll be hard work with the different exam boards and a mix of GCSE and IGCSE.

My DS has his second sixth form college taster morning tomorrow and then I'm hoping he'll have decided where to go and what subjects to choose provisionally.

Have a good weekend all!

I've told DS1 to apply to both sixth form options and then attend the taster days in the summer if he is offered a place and then make the decision on where to enrol on results day. This seems to be the norm around here (North London).

Thanks Its and Zighead Unfortunately it is cancer but they are operating fast and will have treatment plan next Friday. I am half reassured by speed, half omg why I am being prioritised. Even sounded like surgery may be on Friday but think I misunderstood that.

Got back to DDs English teacher messaging that DD and her had fallen out over speaking assessment as she assessed DD with no warning. And DS ehcp needs a review senco said.

@Silkieschickens so glad it is getting seen to quickly.

Sorry to hear that it's cancer @Silkieschickens but glad you're being treated quickly.

Sorry to hear your news @Silkieschickens but it does sound like they are acting on it promptly which is good.

The system for sixth forms here is that you can hold all your offers until results day so no immediate decisions needed (though DS does have a preference.) It's strange how it varies so much over the country.

Sorry for your news Silkie but it sounds like they are completely on it so sending hugs and positivity your way.

I think DD is literally just applying to her school sixth form. She did the rounds of 3 of 4 others but school sixth form is he closest and the best for grades in the area so it makes sense to her to stay on.

Still 2 weeks until her mocks. I think both her and I wish they were sooner to be honest. Still don’t know what’s happening with ski trip although think it’s fair to say that Austria is completely off the table given that they are introducing lockdown for the unvaccinated on Monday. I just wish that school would call it all off instead of trying to seek alternatives.

I'm surprised that they're pushing ahead with any trip @Rollergirl11. Unfortunate timing but I'm sure the kids will have a good time especially if their mocks are out of the way.

Sorry to hear your news @Silkieschickens - wishing you all the best with your treatment. It sounds like your dd is very bright, sociable and enthusiastic so I'm sure she'll do well. One less thing for you to worry about hopefully.

We thought we'd take a look at the Kings Maths School for ds in London. The science courses look good but he's not a genius mathmo' . Will need to find out if they can do sciences with maths as an AS.

Just found this thread as suddenly GCSEs feel very real so joining you all for the journey.

We did the 6th form open evenings and ds has decided on his choice and A levels. Relieved it's done!

@Lightsabre & @IThinkIMadeItWorse, ds thought SMC was difficult. It was the first time doing SMC so would be happy with Gold.

Ds did really well in Yr10 end of exams but school did assessments after half term that didn't go as well for him. In physics, which is usually very strong he seems to have lost exam technique so that will be a focus area. It has made him realise the need for revision for Mocks and GCSEs.

@Silkieschickens, I went through similar and had the same emotions..pleased they were reacting so quickly but it also feels concerning. I am sure you will be in safe hands.

Welcome @Fireflygal!