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.

Ah I see.

@MrsPnut @zighead My DD has also signed up for NCS. There were two options she considered, one starting early in July and one starting 15th August, which is the one she chose. It means that GCSE results day will be the Thursday of her second week of NCS. Luckily our school gives its results by allowing log in from 6am on the day, so she can do that and then go off to NCS. I suppose it is one way to take one's mind off it, but I am not sure that she realised when she booked it.

There must be loads of providers, so I would assume that the chances of my DD and yours, MrsPnut being on the same course are quite low. We are in London.

I think there are a few set dates for the programme, ours is run by the community arm of our local football team. We are in hobbitshire, nowhere near London.

Some of you seem to have received a lot of info from schools about the plans leading up to and over the exams period (and then for Results Day). We've received nothing yet! I don't even think the exam timetable we got a few weeks ago is necessarily the finalised version!

Am I right in thinking that Results Day is very late this year? Isn't it literally a few days before they could be starting their sixth form journeys?

I think it's Thursday 25th August @NewModelArmyMayhem18

We still have no details on results day and although we know our last day in, we've not had much further Information.

Yes, just before the August BH weekend @QueenMabby. I was a bit shocked that DD is expected to whizz from getting her results to potentially enrol at one of her sixth form options the same day!

I think that’s normal (ish) procedure for the exams and then enrolment. I think they have just been earlier for a few years because of Covid but this is about the right time. I’m personally pleased as hoping to maximise the time away and it looks like we’ll get 4 weeks.

We haven’t received any info yet either. I too thought that Results day seemed late. DD will be going in to school to get hers and then straight off to Reading festival for the bank holiday weekend. I guess she’ll either be celebrating or commiserating!! 😂🥴

@StColumbofNavron

I think that’s normal (ish) procedure for the exams and then enrolment. I think they have just been earlier for a few years because of Covid but this is about the right time. I’m personally pleased as hoping to maximise the time away and it looks like we’ll get 4 weeks.

Yes, you are right, results day is back to normal this year - always last Thursday in August I believe and enrollment for 6th form is pretty much the same day.

@NewModelArmyMayhem18 We've had tons of detailed info from school about plans for May, June, July, It's one thing they are quite good at. Saves loads of parents contacting them constantly I guess!

@CornishGem1975 that's good for your DC and other pupils.

I'm champing at the bit to find out what the plans are. Not least because DD doesn't concentrate well revising in a class surrounded by others. So I'm really hoping that they're allowed to go on study leave sooner rather than later!

We have had great communication about exams and study leave but no mention at all about the sixth form induction day, which is the first week of July and their process for results day.

We've got a 6th form taster day in June - no idea when. Seems odd timing bang on the middle of exams!

GCSE results day is later this year than last year but last year was early.

It’s a typical thing for GCSE results to be right before Leeds/Reading - they can either celebrate or drown their sorrows I think.

Yeah; it's back to pre-pandemic. It was 22nd August in 2019.

I guess I'm very out of the loop, as it's a fair few years since DS did his!

@CornishGem1975

Yeah; it's back to pre-pandemic. It was 22nd August in 2019.

But 25th August is even later even than 22nd August. My DS did his GCSEs in 2029, and there was a full week before they started back at school. With my DD getting her results on 25th August this year, she is actually has to be in school for Year 12 on the following Friday!

[quote NewModelArmyMayhem18]@CornishGem1975 that's good for your DC and other pupils.

I'm champing at the bit to find out what the plans are. Not least because DD doesn't concentrate well revising in a class surrounded by others. So I'm really hoping that they're allowed to go on study leave sooner rather than later![/quote]
We are gutted that they have abolished study leave this year. They had it (in the same school) in 2019 when my DS did his GCSEs, but they have taken the opportunity of two years of TAGs to cut it for both GCSEs and A Levels. There is a petition circulating amongst the parents, but knowing the way the school operates, they are on a hiding to nothing. Problem is that Ofsted doesn't like study leave. In keeping with their disciplinarian, boot camp type view of kids, they don't believe Year 11 or Year 13 are old enough to revise sensibly and will just waste the time. Which might be true in some of the more deprived, challenged schools, but they tend to have a one size fits all approach. But when Ofsted says jump, our school says how high, even when matters were working well and in my view they would be better leaving well alone. I liked the old system, where, while there was study leave, the teachers were in the classrooms during their regular timetabled lessons and often ran revision classes, and the student could choose to go in and revise there or get help, but could also choose to revise in the school library or other library (which is what my DS used) or at home. My DS felt he revised better if he had to get up and go somewhere, so he went to the local library - felt school was too disruptive. My DD however is not being given that option.

It doesn't fall on a particular date - it's always a Thursday and 1 week after A level results which are normally the 3rd Thursday of August, so I guess it just depends on how the calendar falls that year.

My DS will be doing GCSEs next year and it looks like his results day will be 24th Aug. 2024 will be 22nd August again.

I confess that with DD being my youngest, I can't wait until we are out of the school system. Hopefully by the time I have grandchildren, the pendulum will have swung against the borstal type schooling endorsed by Ofsted (I think the pendulum is starting to swing already, but too late for my kids). Luckily our school, at least when it is not coming up against a specific Ofsted view, is pretty sensible, but it does and did much better when it is given its head, and does not feel required to follow every Ofsted whim in the fear it might lose its outstanding rating.

If you look at previous years

2018 was 23rd
2017 was 24th
2016 was 25th

So it falls at the same time each year! Not necessarily ideal so close to end of holidays but just the way it is!

That's still a week off isn't it anyway @Naem sort of. I feel like it was pretty similar when I did my GCSEs in 1997. To be fair they will have been off since c. 28 June so I can't feel too sorry for them :-) I also think that there is perhaps some merit in getting back into 'learning' mode for want of a better expression rather than spacing it all out too much.

We still haven't heard about study leave. I do see why the one size fits all might be employed though. At the end of the day a less affluent school might need this more and those more fortunate can perhaps flex to accommodate more which might not be the case elsewhere. I see it as a bit of a leveling tactic.

We're not having study leave before exams. They are expected into lessons and school as normally until first week of June, and after that they only need to come in for exams.

@StColumbofNavron

That's still a week off isn't it anyway *@Naem* sort of. I feel like it was pretty similar when I did my GCSEs in 1997. To be fair they will have been off since c. 28 June so I can't feel too sorry for them :-) I also think that there is perhaps some merit in getting back into 'learning' mode for want of a better expression rather than spacing it all out too much.

We still haven't heard about study leave. I do see why the one size fits all might be employed though. At the end of the day a less affluent school might need this more and those more fortunate can perhaps flex to accommodate more which might not be the case elsewhere. I see it as a bit of a leveling tactic.

Well it was two weekends, rather than one, plus several more days, which does feel like a significant difference. And at least with my DS, there was no question what A level subjects he was going to do, and it was highly unlikely he would not get the grades to do them (in the end all 9s in sciences and maths). But with my DD, we might well be running around like headless chickens if she doesn't get the grades to do what she wants to do. It could well be touch and go. She got the 7 she needs to do maths in her mocks (so she just needs to do that in the real thing to be allowed to take it for A levels), but she only got a 6 in biology, and she needs a minimum of a 7 to be allowed to do the A level (as well as a 7 in one of the other sciences - which she did get in her mocks). And, it is not clear a) whether either of her third subject choices will be running at the school at all (the school won't run a subject if there is less than 3-5 who want to take it, and currently there are 2 for Geography, including her having put it as reserve, and 1 for French). And b) while I am fairly confident about her French results, barring some unforseen disaster, she is strong in French (9 in her mocks), she only got a 6 in her mocks in Geography, up from a 4 in Year 10. And there really isn't anything else she wants to do if neither Geography or French are offered. So what do we do if the results aren't what they need to be? Drop out of the year? Start the one or two A levels that she is allowed to take? It feels like an impending car crash. And we will have to work this out in a week!

That is exactly the sort of situation that enrolment is there for, to talk it over with the teachers who will have seen it all before and be able to suggest alternatives to think over. You can usually chop and change a little
In the first half term at least. It’s tough. Is an extensive amount of time to mull it over any better, particularly if she doesn’t feel good about it? Of course, you know her best and maybe that is exactly what she will need. I expect it’s just about practicality really, they go with the momentum of the results and get started. Hopefully she will get what she needs @Naem, all the different possibilties are mind boggling aren’t they.