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. Congrats on SMC results Its and Firefly DD also got Gold and Kangaroo, at 105, got highest in school, beating all the sixth form.

Getting some mock results in, at least I am guessing they are mock results, rather than just random grades, full results out early December. A few are a bit lower than before but to be expected with changing schools, syllabuses etc and order taught in and a few new subjects.

Aargh - Covid has hit! In the middle of revision so that's on hold. :(

Oh no!!!

@Diditreallylookawful
What bad timing for you! When are the mocks due to start?
My DS started his today and I know he has a few friends off with Covid. Honestly wondering if it’s ever going to go away.

Well done to all the kids who did the SMC. My DS normally does it but there was no mention of it this year. Perhaps too close to the mocks.
Have a good weekend all.

Mocks aren't until January, but she'd got into the swing of it. Unfortunately she's really poorly and can barely move so everything has stopped. Plenty of (2 metre distant) TLC going on.

Awww sorry to hear DD not well. Hope she feels better soon and the rest of you avoid the lurgy. It’s good that she has plenty of revision time before the mocks, I’m sure she will be back in the swing of it soon.

Sorry to hear covid has struck and hopefully she’ll be on the mend soon. There’s quite a few teachers and pupils off at DSs school at the moment.

DS mock results were good and the next set start after Christmas and are full papers so more involved.

Oh no @Diditreallylookawful hope your DD is soon on the mend and the rest of you don't come down with it. We seem to know loads of people who have it at the moment and we've all had a cold this week but negative LFTs so we are carrying on with things.

Well done to your DS @PaddingtonPaddington hope he is pleased with his good results. Think we might have to wait a while before we get results here.

Frustratingly still not heard back about Statistics entry but we did have an email from school inviting those who speak a 2nd language at home to enter for GCSE! That seemed to be sent by the languages dept so I think I am going to try and contact the head of maths and DS maths teacher next week and see if that is the path which gets a response!

Sorry to hear about your dd @Diditreallylookawful - hope she's turning a corner. Well done to your ds @PaddingtonPaddington - nice to know you're on the right track.

Exams start on Wedn here. With all the new restrictions and cases rising I’m not sure if it isn’t going to be bumpy ride.

We have finally seen his school sixth form and I can tell he likes it best, but he said he is still going to apply to the standalone sixth form too. He has decided that if he stays on he will do History, Spanish, Politics and Classics with a view to pick between Politics/Classics. He was really concerned about the ability to drop a subject but they’ve talked about it in form so now he is feeling happier about the idea of starting with 4.

Mocks are nearing the end now - 13 done and 5 left. Drama tomorrow, physics on Wednesday and then finishing with RE, History and Geography on Thursday.

DD is unsure between staying at her current school and going to a different school’s sixth form. She wants to do Spanish, English Literature and History. No one in her current school in year 12 is doing Spanish but her Spanish teacher said this was the first time that had happened in years.

Good luck everyone going through the mocks. We are one down next in February and results from these ones are being given mainly at parents evening on Thursday. Some results for apart half subjects are appearing on the parent site but no idea what these are. School said only predicteds go to 6th form which are all 8s and 9s so that's good.

They said if it goes to teacher assessment it will be continuous assessment from whole year and it is grade estimated they will be at end and they need to show an upwards trend as well. Bit disappointed to hear that as was hoping to relax a bit with one set of mocks done but looks like at least another y11 set are needed and they need to be up on this one. Just never ending pressure.

Think DD has made a decision re 6th form, re A levels she knows she wants Maths and Further Maths plus two and says latest is Economics and Psychology, but it does change all the time, only constant is the Maths. Economics goes very well with that and she started the gcse in y11 and its my degree so she has some idea of that. No idea where psychology came from or why but if she wants that then fine.

Glad to hear about the second vaccines for 12-15s and 16 plus, hopefully mean they won't get covid in final exams if they happen.

Mocks finished and results expected this week. These grades will be used for the predicted to apply to 6th form. Now she's fairly confident in her chosen 3 subjects of psychology sociology and biology - but her preferred college substantially ups the entrance criteria if you want to take a science subject. So while she'd like to take biology she's considering perhaps a non science A level instead where she'd comfortably achieve entrance grades. In a dilemma of whether to do this in order to get into preferred college or stick with the science and go to 2nd choice college.....

@Silkieschickens That's interesting about the teacher assessment using assessment from the whole year. Ds had extra time in exams but this is really hit and miss in class tests due to time restraints but this could adversely affect him if they use the unit tests too.

Yes I was surprised by it too Ghost especially the continuous and need for an upward trend, I would hope they could take circumstances into account and had thought getting through one mocks would give us back up but looks like much better to have two and marks rising. Though if it goes to TA maybe they will publish how. More of DDs grades are in, slightly down from old school but fine for getting on A levels.

DS is mid mocks at the moment and seems to have lost all impetus to revise I will be very relieved come Friday evening, when they are over.

He also has a maths aptitude test next week, which decides on whether they are allowed to do the A-level in the school sixth form. Is that a common thing? Never heard of that before, thought it would go off their gcse result.

School have also decided that no parents allowed into school for the rest of term because of the new variant so sixth forms choices evening and Christmas concert online only. I'm quite pleased about this but I suspect some parents will be disgruntled.

I think sixth forms if you don’t already attend might be not that great online but if you are part of the school then less of a thing. I know ours does lots of work with the kids attending.

At least he started revising Zig that is more than my DS does, a sloth has a higher activity level at home. AFAIK our sixth forms just take on predicted maths grades, no tests. Glad we had 6th form open evenings in the summer.

Our parents evening is online which I much prefer though appointments keep getting cancelled as a lot of pupils and teachers are coming down with covid, hopefully we will avoid as had in September / October. Only 2.5 weeks to go.

DD is having to sit her mocks this week instead of last week because of her having covid.
School are on high alert anyway because I have surgery tomorrow so they are doing loads of pastoral work with her and have said that she just needs to try to get through them so they know where to focus the next few months work.

Hope your surgery goes well tomorrow MrsPNut and that your DD can get through her mocks OK.

Hope it goes well on all counts @MrsPnut.

First mock today. He is up early in order to eat breakfast and get to school for 8am last minute revision. They had a self organised revision session on discord last night - sounded very focussed and not at all light a piss about (which is likely what me revising with friends online would be).

Covid has struck here too- missing one mock but the rest are in January. Ds feeling quite low, poor thing, and tho he is pretty self-contained he's finding the prospect of isolation hard. It's his first as they didn't have any last year, luckily. My suggestions that he use the time to revise not very successful so I'm making soup instead. He needs good predictions for sixth form so can't afford to mess up the mocks- ugh!

@aramox1 DS3’s year (y6) have 4 cases and I am really desperately trying to keep DS1 away so he can just get these done. Hope he is better soon.

Thinking of you @MrsPnut hope all goes well today. hugs to your DD coping with mocks as well.

All the best those doing mocks now, I had a real sense of relief when DS finished last Thursday. And lots of get well wishes to those with covid at the moment, isolating is hard! I think there are lots of other bugs around at the moment as well which doesn't help.

I emailed DS's maths teacher on Monday about sitting Statistics as an extra GCSE and got a reply from the head of dept that afternoon saying he will look into it. Fingers crossed they will let him do it, though if exams are cancelled and it goes to teacher assessment then obviously he won't be able to get a grade. Pleased just to have had a response after my previous emails received no reply!