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.

On the subject of kids this age... How much does your child socialise? My ds meets the odd friend for a couple of hours maybe 3 times a week. His younger sister is out meeting friends 3 times a day! Is this normal???

I think so. Just different people like different things. DS2 (13) goes out most days for most of the day. DS1 (15) has only ever once gone out with friends ever. He just isn’t interested. He chats with them on discord and online sometimes but he would only go out if there was something very specific he wants to be at, whereas DS2 just goes and ‘hangs out’ with no apparent purpose.

What does your DS1 do all day? Mine would happily play Xbox all day if I let him.

My Ds is similar, Xbox most of the day if you let him. We have a fair amount of visits on at weekends so mid week just chilling and meeting up with friend maybe 2 x a week. Lots of chatting online. We are back from hols last week of Aug so hoping to get him engaged in more revision then

He does go online a fair bit. He has tournaments with his brothers all together, he enjoys a board game and playing card games - we can spend all day on this. He watches videos. He catches up with sports, he follows basketball, American Football and football really closely. He’ll go down to the football pitch with his brothers and play football or basketball. He just isn’t interested in socialising and never has been really. He has a very small group of friends that come from a cultural background that is very family oriented and don’t socialise so I imagine that contributes, but that’s a new thing over the last year or so.

Good luck with that QueenMabby I'm not sure any work has gone on here for either of them. DD has been doing UKMT Summer school this week but has not said anything about it, all I have heard is plans for a lot of socialising. She mainly meets people at weekends and is out for most of the day then. She used to go to clubs in the week pre covid.

DS is ASD and never really socialised unless I organised it so stopped after primary as the kids organise at this age and also we moved areas and I don't know the parents. He will go out with us, went to hairdresser tonight and going trampolining at the weekend but wish he had a friend and he's also gone mute since last lockdown. Hopefully the 2 weeks holiday we have planned will get him talking and going out more. We have been approached by another family with a similar boy so arranging a meet up - first one failed as DS refused and their DS couldn't cope after 5 minutes and DS is quite fussy with friends, he tends to be friends with quiet clever children, quite often they are Asian as they tend to be quiet, gentle and kind with him or quiet ASD but we are in a very white British area now. The children at his school are nice mostly but he's very much on the periphery. He plays football with them at school but doesn't speak, its a nice gentle school though so he doesn't get bullied.

DD has finished the UKMT Maths week now and is doing a bit of catch up work now on history as they teach the syllabus in the opposite order there for history. Though they have said children are only being entered for 3 out of 4 topics next year so she only needs to do 1 out of the 2 she has missed and she did in before in y9.

DS went out to the trampoline place and onto IKEA so got him out the house at least though he found it too busy. DH invited another man and his child, also ASD he has just met but neither of them spoke to each other but at least they didn't argue. The other boy enjoyed it and DS has been invited to their swimming pool, he is but hopefully will be persuaded.

That sounds lovely @Silkiecats

It’s my birthday next week so I am off to celebrate with lunch with some uni friends today. No idea what the DC will be doing with DH, suspect very little but am leaving them to it.

DD has some work to do but not much. 4 hours a day sounds ridiculous

She has mocks in November and February (I think or may be March).

Hope you have a lovely birthday and lunch StColombo, sounds lovely.

Hope you have a lovely birthday @StColumbofNavron and you enjoyed your lunch out with friends.

We are doing ok, not much work going on but he did do some Drama research this morning. Each time I mention schoolwork he says I am stressing him out. I think he is good at ignoring things he doesn't want to do! He doesn't socialise with peers really, happy to stay at home, don't think he really has any particular friends at school but perhaps at sixth form he will find more of his "tribe". We did have some (adult) friends over at the weekend to play board games so he enjoyed that. There used to be a board game club at school which he liked (and he used to go to the Christian Union as well) but then covid so no inter-year clubs - sigh.

DD has gone to orthodontist and will then meet up with a friend. I'm losing track of which friend now, all seem to be male.

Think a little bit of studying is going on now, at least she asked me to renew seneca. She said she has only taken one exam so far at the new school but said she got an 8/9 which is the highest they award and got the highest in the class. She says there is another girl there with same first name as her who always gets 8/9s and is in all her classes and normally comes top and she beat her. She does have quite a bit to catch up as things taught in different orders.

Thanks for the new thread - just catching up.

DS did better than expected in end of year exams so that was good and showed him that a bit of effort really pays off. No work set over the summer from school. DS has been working on getting fit and toned instead! He’s doing a small piece trust course for the next 2 weeks so that will get his brain back in gear.

Hi all, glad I have found this thread. My son's school is useless at communicating, didn't tell even the kids till a couple of weeks beforehand that they were even doing mocks, which they did end of May. Which meant the kids were frantically trying to revise and seemed really unorganised of the school.
Can I ask in a 'normal' school year what years/months do the kids do mocks? I am trying to find out what is standard and what has altered for them.
Also another question, I knew that mocks are usually done in Yr 11 somewhere between Nov and Feb but reading comments on here are they going to be doing 2 sets? Sorry I don't know where to find the info and I am going to email the school asking for some direct and concise information for this next year about EVERYTHING as I am fed up of the kids being on the backfoot and parents hearing from the child, told by the teacher, who is not sure/speculating. Thanks for reading.
Mine did really well after a shit year as his Dad also left while in the middle of handing coursework in. He got 8/9's, a 2**distinction, and 6's for English. He isn't keen on English so is plugging away. For reference he has been going over his revision cards he wrote, spending some more time going through his revision books (as was such as rush beforehand). Doing 2 subjects a day (has designed a revision plan again for it) doing 30m to an hour on each per day, so min 1 hr or max 2 hrs. If something social comes up he catches up. Just trying to get so far embedded in, so can spend more time writing up cards/revising new stuff and tick over on the older stuff. He is great at just doing it, know am lucky on this aspect and chip in to help and check in hes doing ok with it all. Am really glad now his school started GCSE's in Yr 9, it made sense anyways but with this whole situation it means they have had to spread better over the 2/3 years.

@PurpleMustang
My DS has his mocks at the end of November and that is when the year 11 always have them at this school. Think they keep January for the year 13 mocks. Hope you are doing okay as it sounds like you're having a difficult time?

@PaddingtonPaddington
My DS is doing a small piece trust course too, is it the cyber security one? Hope my DS enjoys it as otherwise he will be grumbling for two weeks.

Mocks at the school I invigilate at and my DS's school do mocks in nov/Dec for paper 1 and them in March for paper 2.

Small piece trust cyber security course is fantastic. My son did it after yr 11 (on campus) and 12 (online)and is now off to uni to do cyber security. He missed his grades but they have taken him on the strength of his personal statement showing commitment to the subject by doing the courses.

@zighead yes DS is doing the cyber security course too!
Glad your DS liked the courses @Dragonfly101 DS is thinking something computer science oriented and this is definitely something useful to put on a future personal statement. Great that your DS has got his chosen uni course

@PurpleMustang different schools have different dates for mocks. DS will have them in January (assuming they are the same as when DD did them)

Ds did the Cyber Security course too! @Dragonfly101, can I ask what uni course you would recommend for cyber security?

@Lightsabre

Ds did the Cyber Security course too! *@Dragonfly101*, can I ask what uni course you would recommend for cyber security?

DS is not a straight A student so he did not look at any of the top academic type university's as he wanted a more practical course with a year in industry. He chose Bournemouth as their cyber security management course fitted him best. He also applied to Plymouth, Brighton and Hertfordshire and got offers from all. They were all slightly different in course content some like Bournemouth pure security others just had optional modules. He loved Bournemouth when we visited and spoke to a computing student there who really persuaded him it was for him. They have a 'war room' where they practice cyber attack and defence. My son's priority was also to be at the seaside or close to home (Herts).

Thanks @Dragonfly101, sounds brilliant and glad your son is enjoying it.

Ds doesn't know what he wants to do yet so the virtual courses and internships are a great way for him to see what piques his interest. I think he will end up doing Physics, Chemistry plus one other undecided A-Level, possibly maths but he's not mad about that.

@Lightsabre
No problem. He starts in September so I hope it lives up to expectations.
Good luck to your son.

Welcome Purple I believe DDs mocks are Nov and Feb. She is very good at knowing when things are, school normally just tells parents a couple of weeks in advance. DS would just look at me blankly. Sometimes schools website says. Sorry to hear your DH left, your DS sounds like he is doing amazingly well.

Paddington Hope your DS enjoys his course and good he is getting fit. DD goes out for a walk / run everyday whereas DS has just exercised his finger on his ipad and TV remote though hoping he will move more on our holiday.

Zig Hope your DS enjoys the course as well.

Dragon Congrats on your DS getting into Bournemouth. Think That's a very employable course and will be nice to be by the seaside.

@PurpleMustang Our school usually does them in January, but this time they are doing extra, in case they need to use them as evidence again, so will be Nov and Feb.

All is well here (except I sprained my ankle badly at the weekend and now need to go to London for work and hobble around instead of strolling and enjoying the freedom). DD seems to be getting on with work, having spent the start of the holiday in a social whirl. Her PD portfolio certainly seems to be filling up. Not sure any English or Science is happening.

Hi all, hope no one minds if I (re)join in (was on the thread a year or so again under a different user name).

DD is doing no work over the summer. She did well in all her end of Year exams, except one subject where the discovered she had no notes for the stuff they'd done in lockdown and she couldn't remember what it was. Hence didn't revise it. I'd worry about schools routinely asking students to do stupid amounts of revision!

DD tends to meet friends about 3 times a week. She has a physical disability so that limits what she can do (and although her friends are great; they sometimes plan things she can't access).

Historically her school have mocks in November (all subjects) and February (core subjects) but last year that went out the window so not sure which will happen this year.

Have the results of the Ofqual consultation on changes to the syallabi for next year's GCSEs been published yet? DD is keen not to have to study Frankenstein in English Lit and will also do well if the controlled condition piece for Art is dropped (she is a perfectionist and cannot "do" Art to a specific time frame).

My older DS did the Cybersecurity course for Year 12s and really liked it. Shame it has to be virtual this year.

@UserStillatLarge oh Frankenstein is brilliant! I had a lively Twitter debate with someone recently who wrote a blog about how terrible the creature was. I gave him my full opinion on why he was wrong.

Welcome, welcome back and hello.

None of the DC are doing anything school wise but they know crackdown is coming as we go into y11, 9 and 6. Tbf only year 9 DS really needs it but trying to approach as all of us knuckling down.