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.

Thanks everyone and welcome FireflyGirl. Sorry to hear you had cancer as well, yes its scary waiting to find out stage and type but at least appointment quickly. DD did SMC, she got 105, so thinks she got Gold and definitely Kangaroo but hoping for Olympiad. She is nearly through all her mocks and doing very well. She is being really kind with me and said not to worry if anything happens to you I will always look after my brother.

Hi, I would need some practical info. My son is in 6th form (private) doing his GCSEs this year. We are not from UK and reading up on GCSE and timings a few questions came to mind.
Is it customary to not have them in school last term/half-term so they can do revision? Does it depend on school or some other factor?
Does this mean that after easter hols they don't go back? Is there some regular check-in process, or they are left to their own devices?
TIA

They do go on study leave at some point yes. Many schools will run revision sessions during this period but will also be expecting some independent revision to be going on. I’m not sure how long they are off before exams start but I don’t think it is an extensive period of time. Someone else may have clearer info.

Different schools have different approaches to study leave so best to ask the school.

DS had a trial for a job at the weekend and was successful so that’s good news. Unfortunately he’s now full of cold (LFT negative) and starts his mock exams and has 3 to get through today.

Sixth form open evening this week.

Hope the mocks go OK Paddington, hard without being unwell as well and 3 in one day.

Still going through mocks here but some teachers don't seem to realise and keep saying to me she can't have mocks still but she does. One decided to spring her English speaking test on her with no warning and just start recording, she also had 2 mocks that day and she knew it was the day I was in hospital for cancer tests. She had a panic attack and had to leave then she missed her late detention as she forgot in and then they put in her isolation all day Monday meaning she missed those mocks and they knew she had just been told I had cancer. She got quite distressed in there but they would not let her see pastoral care and she took more paracetamol than she should and she said no-one noticed. I was so angry with them but could get any staff to speak with me until end of today and they won't help so keeping her off until we get something resolved. Having a meeting on Thursday with them, the pastoral man was very sympathetic and think agrees with me but its the man above him and English teacher. I had English teacher on phone on Monday and she was so horrible, when I said I had cancer and DD maybe worried she just said I am phoning to talk about English, no sorry or empathy.

So have a call on Thursday with them but gosh could do without this. Am at hospital on Friday morning. DD is at least much happier at home and working well and doing a lot more than she would get done at school but it has meant she has not been allowed to do mocks so still 2 or 3 left. They have said if she goes back she has another day in isolation. I am going to battle with them though as I need her to be well cared for at school. I am so annoyed about mocks, she was having panic attacks at start then started getting through them well, now this has caused chaos at the end. I just got told no she isn't doing mocks now, then oh doesn't matter she doesn't need mocks, but she does especially as changed school and govt announcement.

Oh no @Silkieschickens all this extra stress with the school is not what you need at the moment. At least she is working well at home. I hope your meeting goes well and things get resolved.

Mocks underway here, he has two today. He thinks English Lit on Monday went well which is one of his weak areas but that was the one he had done most revision for (with quite a lot of encouragement/nagging from me) so we'll see when we get the results. Science is all next week and I'm not sure he has done much revision but he is strong in maths and science. Perhaps he will learn the value of revision!

Hope everybody else is holding up, feels like Christmas is rapidly approaching (only 4 more weeks of school after this on!) I need to get organised but haven't done much yet.

DD2 should have mocks starting on Monday, except she has come down with covid. Felt ill on Tuesday night so tested herself with LFT on Wednesday morning which was positive, booked a PCR test straight away which came back positive today.
She's lost her sense of taste already though, last night's spaghetti and sausages just tasted warm.

I need to email her form tutor to see what we can do about the mocks.

@Silkieschickens that sounds stressful. The school do not seem to be very accommodating of your exceptional circumstances. Hope your call with them goes ok today. Otherwise suggest the head of year if there is one.

@MrsPnut how annoying. At least they are just mocks and hopefully there may be an opportunity for your DD to do them remotely or when she returns.

DS has done 8 mocks so far this week and another 2 today, then sixth form open evening tonight. His cold seems to be battling on but he’s LFT negative still. He’s changing his mind daily on A level choices so it’s now between computer science, maths, physics, geography, business or economics and biology!

she just said I am phoning to talk about English, no sorry or empathy

That is awful. When I went through similar I found it varied amongst teachers. The leadership were wonderfully supportive but not sure it filtered down.

What type of school is it? Grammar, independent?

So sorry MrsPnut about your DDs covid. Hope you can stay clear and they can do something re mocks. DD sat some of hers late so might be possible.

Spent 2 days in talks with school, been quite stressful, but now are getting a solution put in place and lots of support so worth it.

Yes Firefly you do get some strange reactions though I think some people don't know what to say. Another one at school wrote sorry you are unwell at the moment, which seemed more appropriate for flu than cancer but at least was trying, appeared quite fake as I had mentioned English teacher saying she only cared about English (and not my cancer's effect on me and DD). But since that man was nice so his was just writing too quickly. Most common seems to be everyone survives these days or similar though one said that and then added my sister also has it at stage 4. That has a 22% 5 year survival rate. Back to hospital tomorrow, got to do dentists as well now before treatment, non-stop fun here.

Good luck with all the mocks, DD has 3 to go still but finally over on Monday with any luck. One is a repeat for physics as the first mock was different things to what she has been taught as changed schools but that is sorting itself out. I will be very glad when she has one set finished. The teacher I spoke to said in teacher assessment last year they had to grade them as what grade they were end y11 and it was continuous assessment not just mocks and he said mocks don't matter that much but think they do esp for DD who has changed school. Now one set nearly done feel more relaxed even if she has gone down a bit with changing schools. Get results early December officially though think they are already marked. Apparently sixth form applications are predicted grades only and not mocks which is good as all hers are 8s and 9s. Her absence record is terrible with covid and anxiety but hope there is leniency this year. Hope they don't send in her lates and her behaviour record isn't perfect either.

Sorry to hear your DD has been hit with covid @MrsPnut hope she's not too ill, the rest of you don't catch it and the school can find a solution for her to sit her mocks.

Sounds like quite a range of choices @PaddingtonPaddington - did he like the sixth form? It must be quite tricky to decide if you are good at and interested in lots of things and the choice makes such a big difference to the kind of further study they can do after A levels, so a big deal. I guess there are advantages to our DS having such a "spiky" profile! Quite glad all the open evenings here were early and out of the way now.

Glad to hear the school are putting some support in place @Silkieschickens our school have also said that it is not mock grades but predicted grades which will go on the sixth form application. Hope all goes well for you at the hospital (and dentist) tomorrow.

Still haven't heard back about entering him for statistics, I'm now wondering if I need to email the head of maths/head of year and plead our case. We're going to teach him the material anyway as it will help when he gets to sixth form so seems silly not to sit the exam.

He's about half way through these mocks now but all of science to come next week (they are only sitting half the papers so it's not been too intense), at least they have a teacher training day next Friday so a long weekend to look forward to.

Sorry for all the stress and unresponsive schools. Really glad @Silkieschickens school are actually trying to find solutions. Really just not what you need now. Wishing you the best and in our prayers (normal in our culture in case that reads as fatalistic) for the op.

We had an online sixth form talk about our school last night ahead of the actual open evening next week which was a great touch as we have strict slots so it has given us the opportunity to ask all the mundane admin type questions so we can focus on the subjects. It’s quite lucky as DS1 has a no stem and no creative stance so he will be all language and humanities and really just needs to decide between Politics and Classics. Or perhaps we go down the 4 and drop one route. They were quite positive about this last night.

We also got first set of predicted grades last night and they are brilliant, but I could see from his face he is a little disappointed. Absolutely no need to be at all. I’ve tried to tell him but he is also questioning the logic - e.g. the challenge target grade in a couple of subjects is less than what he is currently achieving, so presumably no longer a target.
Anyway, they will be revised again in the new year post mocks and they will get him into any sixth form and don’t close off any unis so I’ve told him to relax. He was delighted though that Spanish was a fab grade as he definitely wants to take it at a level but won’t do it with less than an 8 (his own boundary).

DS2 is coming to options time in the new year and we had ruled out art because he is lazy (though very good) and just wants to jump to the finished piece. At parents’ evening his teacher waxed lyrical about him but he didn’t change his mind. Then he had another art teacher as cover in an unrelated lesson and apparently she came over and she said that the dept have been discussing potential students for GCSE and he should definitely pick art and they think he is great. It’s lovely because this teacher doesn’t know him and has only seen his work so he feels really boosted and I think that was just what he needed.

Ds a bit upset today. Had his Yr 11 interim reports and he got a U meaning underperforming for English Lit and language. He's getting 7's but his teacher has upped his challenge grades to a 9. He's struggled with the essay subjects and now has extra time so I'm hoping that will help but I think this challenge grade is too high. I discussed it with the teacher who said it's intended to motivate but it's just had the complete opposite effect! If she'd put an 8 he would feel that was achievable and now he feels like he's going to disappoint. His mock for language is in 3 weeks - only one he has before Xmas unfortunately so he'll have to try and step up.

DDs school is sorted after 2 days of talks. Unfortunately not great news at hospital and either stage 3 or stage 4. More tests to find out.

@Silkieschickens so sorry to hear about the hospital appointment. Praying for you that it will be better news after the next lot of tests 🙏🏽

@Silkieschickens so sorry to hear of your diagnosis and hope the next set of tests get done soon. It must be a worrying time for you all.

@Lightsabre that’s annoying. It sounds like the teacher had good intentions but seems to be pilling on pressure instead.

@StColumbofNavron good luck with the open evening

First set of mocks finished. Next set in January. Sixth form open evening was good. It really helped DS make a choice so doing the application this weekend and has chosen Maths, Physics, Computer Science and Geography. They all start with 4 and can drop one if they want to after October half term.

@Silkieschickens, so sorry to hear your news. I had a series of "bad news" appointments, ever turn was negative and it feels bleak but slowly, after investigations/treatments some of the appointments started to turn more positive. It takes time though.

Do you have family support? I felt I needed to focus on my children and let the family & doctors could focus on me.

@Silkieschickens sorry to hear the news was not great, take care of yourself. Hope the next set of tests can happen quickly and show a clear way forward for treatment.

@Lightsabre sounds like the teachers have done the opposite of what they intended! Hope he is not too discouraged.

@Silkieschickens sorry to hear this. I sincerely hope it is as @Fireflygal says and also that you have lots of support.

@Lightsabre that’s so disheartening. They do seem to be under so much pressure. Back in the dark ages I had to fight tooth and nail and get EE in my science exams for them allow me to sit the intermediate paper where I got the CC which was sufficient for my next step. If the school had their way I would have failed.

Thanks everyone. We do not have family support as one family abroad and other elderly and very bad with autism etc so no real contact. But there is a very good cancer support thread on here, two very kind women with similar have made contact, there are support lines, both schools will support kids, financially fine and can stop work, its just getting medical treatment but hospital is good one. Very worried for my youngest if i die but am trying to put things in place.

So sorry to hear your latest news @Silkieschickens. I hope that the follow on tests happen quickly. Glad you have the support on the cancer threads. Sorry to hear you have also had a difficult time @MrsPnut.

@StColumbofNavron glad to hear your Ds has great predicted grades. Hopefully that will give him confidence going forward.
Hoping those of you with dc's that have sat their mocks can relax for a bit now. The syllabus is coming to an end for a few subjects now in Ds school.

Thanks to all for support too re; Ds. We had a busy day yesterday so no revision done unfortunately just homework. Ds visited Kings Maths School 6th form in London for a taster session. It was very inspiring and the teaching is exceptional with lecturers from Kings College, access to facilities there etc. If you have a very maths focused child and can get to Waterloo then it's definitely worth a visit i'd say but the entrance test is soon. The lessons don't start until 9.30am. However, there's only a choice of a few A levels and ds thinks he'd like to carry on with Chemistry which isn't offered. At least we have a decision on one A level so that's progress!

Official personalised mock timetable out today and DS1 was down for Foundation Spanish which is odd as it’s his one 9 prediction. Anyway easily sorted, but he was deeply offended for ten mins.

DS only has two more exams tomorrow and then this set of mocks are done! Thankfully they are maths and physics so he is quite relaxed about them. As far as he has indicated to me they seem to have gone reasonably well (apart from French.) They have a teacher training day Friday so a long weekend to recover.

Just logged in to get his SMC result and he got a couple wrong so he got gold and kangaroo, he got gold and kangaroo last year so is a tiny bit disappointed but he enjoyed doing it before (and did very well) so I think he will enjoy the paper next week.

Thinking of you @Silkieschickens - as you say the hospital is world class so you are in good hands. Hope everybody else is doing ok.

@IThinkIMadeItWorse, Same as my dc! He was disappointed as regretted not filling in an answer at the end as that would have got him to next stage. He hasn't sat the SMC before so I think it's brilliant and it's all good practice

@Silkieschickens, I'll check updates for you on the support thread and wishing you all the best.