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.

@PugInTheHouse I had to break it to DD that her and her friend were not going to be able to get Harry Styles tickets as both dates in England clash with exams. She’s not so bothered but her friend is quite upset.

I think I might look at festival tickets as an incentive to work a bit harder. She takes after her father and is easily distracted.

@MrsPnut we have had the same conversation in our house about the Harry Styles concert. It’s on the Saturday and she has her Chemistry exam on the Monday followed by History and Physics that week too. I think DD has decided herself that she doesn’t want to risk not doing well but her friend is desperate to go and is putting the pressure on DD a bit.

We had DD’s online parents evening on Thursday evening. All went well, her teachers are happy with her mock grades, as are we. We have to attend an interview with the leadership team next week to discuss her plans for after Year 11. Should be straight forward as DD is planning to stay on at the school for sixth form and she’s clear what A-levels she’s taking.

It’s a shame that they don’t really do work experience anymore. I realise that lockdown put paid to that last year anyway but I don’t think they really do work experience how they did when I was at school. I remember doing a week in my local Barclays Bank!! It was sooo boring and completely put me off working in a bank. 😂 I suggested to DD why doesn’t she go in to work with her Dad one day in the half term but not sure she’s going for it.

@MrsPnut @PugInTheHouse DS will sadly miss Ed Sheeran as he has an exam the next morning & it's not a local gig so needed an overnight stay. He's being quite stoic about it. He now needs to complete his application for 6th form, although it's at his current school the same application process applies to all, this will be followed by an interview. I feel he should complete the first draft himself but me & DH will review it, as he's not used to selling himself...interested in the approach others are taking to this though

@legosnowqueen luckily Ed Sheeran for my DS is 30th June so all done by then. My friends DS went to one of the big festivals during his exams, missed the ferry back Sunday night so went straight to his exam on the Monday morning. He got an A* I guess preparation is the key, in an ideal world you shouldn't need to do much the night before I guess lol.

Re college DS didn't even need to do an application, he just filled the basic info but then had to do a music audition. I did a whole CV type thing for him and they didn't even look at it!

For sixth form applications here school helped them all draft their "personal statements". I must admit I also checked it and made a couple of small suggestions. The school insisted that the applications should be in before Christmas (although the deadline was actually the 11th Jan) so that they could all be checked by staff over the holidays. Not many schools have sixth forms here and there is a centralised application system which seemed to work ok.

I have now booked appointments for "guidance meetings" at both the colleges he applied to in the first week of Feb, they are both doing them virtually and suggest that a parent should be there as well so that should be interesting. I am working on my list of questions! They insist they are not interviews but we shall see what happens. Certainly at the one with higher grade requirements there seems to be a disconnect between what we were told by the Maths department at the open day and what their website says you need to study Further Maths. It seems ridiculous that he may not be allowed to study Further Maths there because his English is weak!

Alternative 6th form application done. It was just a basic application which asked for predicted grades and which A Levels he'd like to take. Had to upload his last report as not all of his mock exam results are in yet.

Got first maths paper and English Lang back today and both very good. Really surprised at the English result as he struggles a bit but maybe the extra time is making the difference despite Ds saying he didn't really know what to write during the exam. Said he waffled! Still waiting for English Lit, Music, German oral and maths calculator results.

Next stop predicted grades report early Feb and A level options evening with parent/child interview then 6th form application deadline for his own school at the end of Feb.

Ds still not sure which third A Level and AS to do yet. Definitely wants to do Chemistry and Physics but not sure whether he wants to do Maths. It doesn't come easily to him really but it would go well with the other two A levels. I wouldn't really want him to do it unless he got an 8/9 as I've heard there's a big step up from GCSE to A level in maths. I worry that Physics, Chemistry and Biology might not be facilitating should he decide to do engineering for example at university. Trouble is that he still has no idea of what he wants to do so I can't work backwards from uni course admissions if you see what I mean.

I got ds My Chemical Romance in January 2020 and the dates have been postponed twice, typically the new dates are during the exams. Looking at his exam timetable he has two days of no exams after the concert but I'm still not sure whether it's a good idea

Goodness - many dcs with concerts! My ds is not big with the music - just random stuff on Spotify I think but no interest in bands etc.

He finished his mocks yesterday and is straight back on timetable today - it's going to feel strange for him!

No applications needed for our 6th form although he has applied for an academic scholarship. I wouldn't have put him in for it (I think he's probably borderline at best) but he asked to apply so we did and he has an exam for that coming up. A week off first though with revision at all - and he's very excited for that!

Hopefully if it's still feasible to go he's still happy about going with his mum

I did think that Harry Styles was out of order to cancel his gigs and then to choose a stadium tour, with more expensive tickets and dates slap bang in the middle of GCSEs. Must be lots of gutted year 11's.
Thankfully the two gigs that were postponed for my DS have new dates of April and first week of May, so no difficult decision to make.

DD has got 5 Seconds of Summer and Louis Tomlinson gigs in April too as well as UK Drag race tour. It’ll be a busy month all round.

If only we could ever get Liverpool tickets then I am sure DS would be wanting to go irrespective of exams. Alas, football is difficult to get a ticket for unless you are a season ticket holder.

We have Parents’ Evening tomorrow and Sixth Form guidance interview on Saturday so a busy week.

Will be interesting to hear all of the feedback on here about sixth form guidance.

I am a bad parent - my daughter has GCSEs following week too but we bought Harry Styles tickets today. No chance she would miss it.

@cupoftea2022 I don't think a gig the week before exams is an issue at all, they have to have some sort of life I think. DS is going to see Queen on a Friday in June and has a Monday morning exam. We will stay over for the gig so back Saturday, straight to cricket, only issue for us is whether he needs the whole Sunday to revise for the exam so may need to keep that free. Its really hard to know this far in advance I guess what prep they will need.

My DS will be performing at gigs the day before a lot of exams and also playing cricket for between 7-15 hours a weekend plus once during the week. I have told him if he uses the rest of his time wisely then he can do what he wants, it he isn't revising enough in advance he'll have a very boring May/June!

I took DS2 to see Queen a couple of years ago. It was phenomenal. The efforts to make it feel that Freddy is there was touching.

We have waited since June 2020 to see them! It's been rearranged twice.

I got replace my Billie Eilish tickets then realised it was the middle of GCSEs for my DD but then she announced a date afterwards so I sold the first lot to friends and got those instead. Now we have to delay going on holiday so she can go to the bloody concert 😂

@Netaporter

I got replace my Billie Eilish tickets then realised it was the middle of GCSEs for my DD but then she announced a date afterwards so I sold the first lot to friends and got those instead. Now we have to delay going on holiday so she can go to the bloody concert 😂

I did exactly the same. Then DD had a big falling out with the friend she was going with so now I may have to go. Should I dye my hair green, do you think?

@HelloDulling most definitely 😂 just realised Stormzy has been rescheduled for Mother’s Day too. So fuck that also. 🤣

No summer concerts here but several days with two exams on. Ds has done mocks but school now say they won't give grades only %s! I ended up putting his y7 targets down on his sixth form applications. He's pretty chilled tho refusing to do anything outside games and work. Don't we hear content details soon?

8 Feb I think.

It's all about balancing priorities isn't it. In my exam days I always tended to last-minute cramming as well as continuous (ish) revision so it's hard to acknowledge that might not be the best strategy for all! DS has a very good memory but can skimp on detail if rushing & I understand at the higher level the grade boundaries are so narrow that a few extra marks can make a real difference. DS has a 6th form taster day on Monday, sadly online but he is looking forward to it. He has decided on most but not all of his A level subjects - based on reading Economics at uni he is looking at Maths & Economics. The third & fourth subjects are still to be decided - he is looking at an 8 or 9 in Business at GCSE if all goes well & loves the subject but many of the unis caution against 2 A levels that overlap, as economics & business potentially do, & prefer a third A level with essay writing key such as Eng Lit or History or Philosophy. So I think he will choose one of these & perhaps take Business as a 4th AS...potentially dropping that if the workload is too tough. It's a hard decision for him to make.

@aramox1 I think the reluctance to give grades may be based on the messaging that grade requirements will be tougher this year than in the last 2 years...