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.

Oh I absolutely loathe testing DS, so you have my sympathy @Lightsabre Hope the rest of his exams go okay.
DS had his mock Spanish oral today which he was dreading but thankfully he thinks it went alright. Parents evening next week so I guess we will find out then.
Have a good weekend all.

Glad your ds Spanish went ok too @zighead. Is your parents evening online? I quite like that format - not as much chaos!

There's some talk on another thread that the Govt might be releasing details of what material will be covered in the HCSE's a bit early. No idea how they can make exams fair this year when so many have missed so much education. Ds English teacher was off for 3 weeks with Covid at a crucial time - not her fault of course but he struggles with English so it has been a setback for him.

I wonder if it's too late for an English tutor?

Yes it’s online again @Lightsabre I was dreading the first one online and thought it would be awful but actually I much prefer it and I’m sure the teachers must love it.

I’ll check out the other thread. I’m not sure how or what can be done to make it fair

I’m sure it’s not too late for a tutor to be useful but it might be tricky to find one. Hopefully he’ll have done better in English than you think.

Ours is online at the end of the month. I 100% prefer online, however, I feel that this particular one - the last before they leave, with predicted grades etc should be in person. It’s just feels there is a lot more to discuss/at stake than ‘he’s doing great’. I can’t quite explain it, just feels like it should be. Anyway, it is what it is. I believe they are starting their internal sixth form applications in school and we have another meeting which I think is with the head of sixth form at the end of the month to talk about options.

Online here too, and I guess I've seen school for the last time. Odd! Ds in mid-mocks, says they're'ok'. He's doing lots of 'revision' but I suspect a lot of distraction too. It's hard to get the balance of independence right, too much interference makes him angry. Just doing sixth form applications but no predictions yet! Thinking he should use his y7 target ones which seems random.

Mocks started today for my DS. Maths paper 1 this morning and I think Spanish this afternoon.

Theoretically he’s well prepared - he’s certainly been revising I’m just not sure how productive his revision has been! Christmas was a bit fraught as his uncle (my dbro) got covid at the end of November and has been in hospital since and spent the run up to Christmas in an induced coma on a ventilator in icu. Fortunately he survived and is recovering but it didn’t help the stress levels!

We also have our parents’ evening online. Next month for us. It works better than in person from a purely logistical perspective but I prefer seeing the teachers in person.

@Silkieschickens - glad the op went ok and hope the post op feedback is positive.

DD had mocks in late November/early December - she's had nearly all her marks back now. She's pleased with her results (as am I) and I'm glad her revising has been paying off.

Suspect she did more work over the holidays than year 13 DS who had mocks last week and this but they are very different...

She's going to visit a local secondary school on Thursday for their 6th form taster day - she'll probably stay at the current one but good to explore different options.

DS1 has got most of his results back now and he has done better than his current predictions, which are due to be updated apparently. Particularly pleasing is that his weaker two subjects have gone up.

DS started mocks today for 2 weeks with full papers with covering everything learnt so far. English lit and maths non calculator today and were ‘ok’ so off to a positive start.

DD’s school pastoral worker has just phoned to ask permission for DD to have counselling. There was a space available and they asked the Sendco if she could use it. I’m really pleased and hopefully it will help her. I’m in month 14 of treatment and whilst she has been coping well, we are a bit worried that the wheels might come off soon and so close to the exams we need to do everything we can for her.

That's good news @MrsPnut and hope she finds it helpful.

Ds in the thick of mocks. Seems chipper today but has English Lit and Music tomorrow/later this week for which he hasn't prepped as well as he should. Sciences and maths went ok. History he said was so-so. We had a letter today saying parents won't get predicted grades until 7/2. Deadline for back up sixth form is the end of Jan so I'll just have to submit his end of yr 10 report instead. Sixth form Options evening also in Feb. Ds still not sure about third A level or AS level.

Thanks QueenMabby Sorry to hear about your brother.

Not too much happening schoolwise, they are entering for FSMQ Level 3 with DD teaching herself though may be an issue if goes to TAG and we pay £40 for entry was expecting a lot more.

Got my surgery results back, it has gone into lymph nodes and so more surgery then saying 6 months chemo then radio then hormone tablets and no summer holiday Think I will hide on a remote island instead.

@Silkieschickens so sorry to hear about your health problems. Strength to you and your family to get through this together.

DS2 getting results back this week from mocks he did before Christmas.

Sending love and strength to those going through tough times with health and family health. @MrsPnut that’s proactive of the school (though ages really). Will she take it up do you think?

DS1 hasn’t got back to revising yet because he is ‘waiting for all of his results’. He is stalling basically instead of getting on with what he has got.

He did his school sixth form application so we are done now as he only had one other option. In our case we didn’t have to put predicted grades on either form, I assume that when they ask for a reference the school will provide. I think he will stay because he used the answers to the external sixth form for the school one and said he wanted to make it better.

Pleased for your DD @MrsPnut, hope she finds it helpful.

Sorry to hear that you are facing more operations and treatment @Silkieschickens, thinking of you.

Also thinking of those who are in the middle of mocks. When I suggest to DS that he could do some revision/extra work he is very reluctant and only really completing work which is set as homework, sigh. He is still working steadily on Statistics with his dad so that is something. His school have sent off the sixth form applications so waiting to hear about "guidance meetings". Don't think school included the Statistics GCSE (obviously they can't really give him a predicted grade as he is studying completely independently) also they didn't mention that he is doing Add Maths. I asked about this at parents evening and apparently some in the class decide not to take it so they just email the sixth forms later to confirm which ones are doing it once it is certain. Hey ho I guess we will see what happens.

Thanks all, she is very keen to take up the offer and has taken the signed paperwork back today. She's had open access to student support all along and her favourite teacher also has a counselling qualification but it's different talking to someone that has no connection to home of school.
The don't usually offer it to children that aren't SEND but the SENDCO has known DD (and me) for years outside of school.

I also told the pastoral lead all the ideas I had suggested to DD for helping her with revision and exam prep that DD has ignored. She's going to suggest them instead and DD will probably think it's the best idea ever.

I'm not sure if we are having another parent's evening, ours was in early October but we are due 2 more sets of mocks before May.

@Silkieschickens Sorry your results weren't better news, it is a long slog but it's amazing how quickly time goes once you are in the routine of treatment.

We have a parents evening (online again) on 25th January. It's fastest finger first to book the appointments at 12pm this Friday...

Also had the A level option blocks for this September for DD's school. I think she's going to want to stay there but will wait and see.

Ah @Silkieschickens that’s a shame about the lymph etc. I hope you get your op scheduled in quickly and that the dcs are hanging in there.

I have to ask your collective advice re: motivation and encouragement.

For reference, my ds has just been offered a place at Oxford for September. Bright and lazy, with a fantastic memory. All 9s at GCSE. He sailed through GCSEs.

Dd is a different kettle of fish, with a very different skill set. Predicted 4s-7s, if she worked she’s capable of mainly 6&7s. She’s just got results of mock-mocks (main ones in March) and has 3s-5s. My problem is that she’s relatively happy, because she got more than some of her friends
She is intending to go into 6th form for sociology, English etc, and knows she needs 6s but is unconcerned. Thinks she’ll ’be ok’.

My question is this: How to encourage without saying that she really isn’t working as hard as she needs to? I want to be careful, she’s sensitive and tends to see herself as ‘shit’ because she compares herself to her brother, and yet she also can’t be bothered to do much at home. She told me her grades and I was disappointed as I know she’s capable of more if only she’d work - she was relieved.

I’m asking for an hour 4 nights a week, and one or two at weekends. So not the world…

Any ideas? I’d pay if I thought it would work, but she’s tired in the evenings, although not too tired for netball.

That sounds very reasonable. I’m afraid I have no words of wisdom. DS1 is just a grafter and if he got grades less than what he wants he would work harder.

I am watching with interest though as I have two others and I’m already aware that this will be an uphill struggle with DS2 because he is lazy and will do the min to get what’s needed and DS3 just struggles.

Does she have any goals or ambitions that she couldn’t achieve if she doesn’t get the required grades? Why is she so confident about Sixth Form if she knows it requires 6s? Have you got a parents’ evening coming where perhaps hearing it from her teachers might help? It’s really tough, you have my sympathy.

I wish I had some ideas or words of wisdom. DS is very reluctant to do schoolwork on weekday evenings, I think school takes quite a lot out of him (he is autistic). He does do some on the afternoons when he is home earlier (his timetable is such that two days he is home earlier and three days later.) He will do a short burst of Stats (about 15 mins) with his dad most days, he is studying that independently so needs to keep it up. He tends to leave the majority of it until the weekend (he's in his room now doing his Physics homework). Maths and science he is quite happy to get on with, other subjects he needs more "encouragement" (nagging!) He often struggles to know where to start unless he has very clearly defined tasks. Fortunately next year he will only be doing maths and science so that should suit him better.

I think looking realistically at options for next year with her predicted/mock grades and also feedback from teachers is the way to go. She needs a backup plan if she doesn't get the grades to do what she is planning. Ultimately the motivation has to come from her but it must be very hard to be in the shadow of a brilliant older sibling. I think with all the disruption they have had the current year 11 have had a tough time.

Thanks @IThinkIMadeItWorse, I agree that it’s difficult for several reasons, that why I’m indecisive about push/don’t push. I like your idea of asking her to come up with a plan B for if/when she can’t get into 6th form. The only real option is a FE college her df teaches at, she’ll do most things to avoid having to go there .

IME the majority of parents on this thread have engaged, motivated dc so I’m hoping for some advice as how to achieve that. Maybe it’s just their genes, certainly was with my first 🤷🏼‍♀️

In my case it is a certain amount of who he is. His brothers are an entirely different ballgame. I think the plan B sounds like a good thing to try, particularly as you say she won’t be keen on it.

What about starting with 1hr each evening and keeping weekends free to start? So a definitive line between school week and leisure time? Or even 20 mins (apparently how long we actually concentrate fully for) x2.

Hello, joining this thread after lurking for a while. At DS's school they brought forward the 'usual' January 2022 mocks to December 2021 & will do another set of mocks in March, also in the summer term - in case the exams don't go ahead. DS studied hard for the December exams & I was happy for him to have a break from studying over the Christmas holidays, after a stressful year. However, he has lost some momentum I think, are other students constantly revising even when the mocks aren't imminent?

No, DS1 hasn’t revised since before Christmas for his mocks. He said he was waiting for his grades so that he can see gaps so apparently is starting Monday. His revision largely consisted of staying at school in the study hub until 4.30 and an hour or so before bed. His timing winds me up as I think 9pm or whatever is too late to start but he is doing ok and I’m just trusting that he knows what he is doing.