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.

@Rollergirl11 school are refusing to give any grades at all, but based on 2019 i can see those are from 4 to fail. Luckily there's some 6-7s too. School not offering extra revision sessions but one teacher is doing something every fortnight. The general idea seems to be sink or swim. (Back in y7 I thought ds would flourish with the independence, turns out not at all). On the other hand when teachers do give advice it's like they think the kid only has one subject! Finding it all a bit stressful tbh, so glad I'm not actually doing them myself! Much sympathy to the covid-struck :( ds's school has loads of teachers off, again, and kids. Going to get his second vax this weekend and cross fingers.

Unless I have read it wrong it looks like the advance information for the exams are starting to trickle through

www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/science/gcse/chemistry-8462/changes-for-2022

[quote GhostTypeEevee]Unless I have read it wrong it looks like the advance information for the exams are starting to trickle through

www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/science/gcse/chemistry-8462/changes-for-2022[/quote]
Typical @GhostTypeEevee - Chemistry is one of our very few non-AQA exams!

DD thinks there's a bit of ambiguity in the wording of the most recent (7th February) guidance!

I’ve not bothered looking at any of the guidance as I’m assuming school will be on the case.
I’m annoyed that the media are just going on about how generous the grades are going to be as it devalues the exams and also they aren’t explaining that it’s in comparison to pre pandemic.

I’m quite cross about the media coverage too, these children have had half of their time at secondary school disrupted and in my opinion have coped brilliantly with everything that has been thrown at them.
DD’s English teacher is on long term sick leave at the moment and so the head of department is teaching two classes together in the auditorium. They are seeing it as a big adventure which is helping.

It is very annoying how they worded the headlines "more generous grading" but actually harsher than 2020 and 2021. I've had a quick look at the advanced information, seems more useful for some subjects than others. We will need to get our heads around the statistics info as we are teaching him that at home.

We had our first "guidance meeting" with the sixth form which I thought went well and she seemed very positive but then shortly afterwards we got an email to say that DS would not qualify for Further Maths as he is predicted a 7 in Biology and his average grade score is not high enough. Also it is not possible to do Further Maths as one of three it has to be a fourth (even though in the meeting the lady we spoke to seemed to think this may be possible.) It seems completely batty to me that they won't let him study Further Maths because he is not brilliant at Biology and struggles with English! (Both because he is dyslexic - I don't think they like children with SEN.) I feel like she lied to us in the meeting if I'm honest, all the talk of being "flexible" and considering him as an individual but then "computer says no". It is their loss, I am sure he will do well at the other huge sixth form here.

How annoying @IThinkIMadeItWorse I would be very cross about that. Surely it's only his maths result that matters when considering Further Maths? Is he hoping to study maths at uni?
Anyway it's their loss, at least you have another option.

My DS1 is doing further maths in year 13 now at his 6th form. I think the requirement was you had to get a 7 in maths to be able to do it.

Yes @IThinkIMadeItWorse - what the hell has biology got to do with further maths??

My ds has been told by his school that he's not a candidate for further maths a level despite getting an 8 in his mocks!! There's no logic.

DS's mocks results are nearly all in. He's done really well and I can see what a confidence boost it's given him - he's definitely a carrot and not a stick sort of child.

This is all ridiculous. DS1 has a 7 and the Sixth Form tried to convince him to take Math Studies AS. He declined, he is strictly languages and humanities from here.

My DS has to get a 9 in maths to be allowed to do further maths A-level at school but the sixth form college will allow him to do it with an 8.
It's all getting a bit real now, we've had confirmation of last day in school for the year 11s, which will be Friday April 29th and the official exam timetable

Do all schools finish before the exams? We haven't heard anything from DD school about finishing early although we have been given the exam timetable.
Eldest DD stayed at school until the middle of June last year but obviously they didn't have exams so it was a little bit different.

Think it varies from school to school @loobylou44
My nephew who goes to a different school stayed at school right up until the day before his first exam.

Happy half term. We have no plans other than next weekend being chocka with DS1’s
16th birthday. Mostly just lots of meals with family and some bowling.

School have specified from now the expectation is 3-5 hours a day of revision. Apparently they have done timetables.

Have a lovely half term everyone. We have a few days away in Scotland as have to grab time away when I can now with the cancer treatment and the weather forecast is dire (strong winds, hail, sleet, rain) but do have hotels with indoor pools and allowed to swim and DS (asd) loves heavy rain/sleet/hail etc. Will be a change at least.

DD had couple more sixth form interviews so all done now. I think DD said their school does not break up pre exams but plans seem to change every 5 mins so just see what happens. She wants them to break up early.

Had my second cancer operation and now a Valentines oncology appointment, lucky me, recommending 4 to 6 months chemo, radio and 10 years hormone therapy atm but seeing if there's anyway can avoid chemo and trying to get them to send to US for a test to see if any benefit from it. They think all the cancer is out from surgery.

Half term here too but no plans as I'm still at work. Not sure whether DS up to much.
Hope DS has a great birthday @StColumbofNavron Is he likely to do 3-5 hours revision a day? Seems rather a lot
Hope you enjoy your break in Scotland @Silkierabbit Sounds like the second cancer operation was a success. Is the chemo just in case they didn't manage to remove all the cancerous cells? Hope you are feeling as well as can be expected

@zighead I’m not sure. He is on track so I am not going to interfere too much. I think 3hrs given we have no plans isn’t too much. An hour in the morning, afternoon and evening so he can do other things in between. Im mostly going to let him manage as long as he is doing something.

Half term for us is the following week. DS has been doing revision most evenings but we'll pull together a timetable from half term through to his mocks (second lot) which start on 14 March. We're having a couple of days in London at half term but apart from that he can do the 3-5 hours...I wish his school would be as explicit about the requirement @StColumbofNavron - although of course they may be with the students. We had to sign DS's exam entry form this week which brought it home how close we are to the exams now.

We now have competition for attention/time as DS has recently acquired a girlfriend. At the moment they are seeing each other one evening & one afternoon a week & she's a lovely girl so I'm hoping DS can manage these competing priorities. She's in the year above & is at a local college so not a distraction while at school at least!

@Silkierabbit hope you enjoy the break, after what must have been a gruelling time.

Happy half term all.

I'm hoping my DS will do three subjects a day for 40/45 minutes at a time. I do think at Easter that they should ideally be doing 3/4 hours a day but it just seems a lot this early on.

Thanks Zig I have my first talk with the oncologist on Monday, just discussed with surgeon so far but I think chemo is used either before surgery (if her2 positive, I am negative) to shrink the tumour before surgery or after surgery if the Predict breast model shows an over 5% benefit over 10 years. Mine is 6% benefit, and there's 3% risks of serious complications like heart failure, sepsis, second cancer etc so a 3% net benefit. But the model the NHS uses does not split by type of breast cancer and my type lobular some research studies have found does not respond well to chemo and some have shown no benefit at all just the risks. But idea is after surgery to clear up any cancerous cells surgery missed around the body and reduce reoccurrence. In the US for my results they used to do chemo but they have now changed to doing a oncotype test as too many women were having chemo with no benefit and then only doing chemo if that recommends. The NHS only funds this test for no nodes positive (I have one out of 25 removed) and 3 to 5% benefit but my surgeon is seeing if they will make an exception. Otherwise you can pay £3,000 or so. They have also offered me a place on a trial with 50% chance of having this test funded as I suspect they are testing whether to shift to US system here. I will also have radiotherapy which reduces reoccurance risk and clears up cells around the breast and arm area. A CT said I am clear around the body and surgeon believes I am clear but its hard to be 100% certain.

Happy half term everyone, DD has various things planned this week but I’m not involved. I’m impatiently waiting for a phone call to give me an appointment. It’s at a different hospital so my doctors can’t even chase it up.

We have another week until half term. DD planning a few hours revising with a friend tomorrow. I have made fudge for her to take with her

School sent out the exam timetable on Friday but nothing about their last day before exams. I think they remain in school right up until they start.

We have half term this week. DD is doing a little bit of revision, not too much. At the leadership interview the teacher said she should hold off doing hardcore revision until Easter but DD thinks that’s too late and I’m inclined to agree. But I’m not worried about her not doing enough. If anything I’m concerned she’ll do too much and burn herself out!

Both DC’s have various things planned this week. DD going to Camden market tomorrow. She also has a day of work experience on Thursday that DH has managed to sort. She’s shadowing the deputy editor of The Sunday Times for a day so she’s very very excited about that!

Silkie I hope you manage to get the funding for the test. Sending positive vibes your way.

It's half term here and after letting him have the weekend off I'm trying to get DS to do a bit each day. I was thinking of aiming for about 45mins 3x per day but so far he has spent about half an hour staring at his English language past paper and not writing anything! I have told him to see what he can do in the next 15 mins and then he can take a break. We have some plans towards the end of the week so I was really hoping he could get going quickly but with English especially it is a struggle.

He now has an offer to do the A levels he wants to do (including Further Maths) at the other huge sixth form so is planning to go there. I think he will be fine wherever and perhaps the less academically pressured/more supportive environment will suit him.

We have heard nothing from school about study leave or exam timetables though I have worked his out myself from the exam board websites. Have just heard from school that he will have the chance to have a go at the Physics Olympiad in March so that is great.

Thinking of @MrsPnut and @Silkierabbit hope your appointments are arranged quickly/go well and you can get the test done Silkies.