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.

[StColumbofNavron]

It does look lovely, but gosh!

[IThinkIMadeItWorse]

Gosh sounds like an eventful trip @Silkierabbit glad you got to go and had lovely weather. Hope you can sort a new school place for your DS quickly and the cancer treatment goes as well as it can go.

Sorry you've got the Covid @CornishGem1975 hope you don't feel too ill and nobody else comes down with it. My DS had his booster jab in the Easter hols so fingers crossed it won't interfere with his exams.

He had his mock French oral today and was told his "conversation was lacking", not surprising as he hates it and does no work. Possibly the only subject he has not been revising for. The real thing is next week so he might look at some before then but he really doesn't care if he passes or not so can't see him putting in a huge amount of effort. I don't see that I have any way to force him so I've been trying to focus on helping with his English as it's much more important. I suspect in his future life it will make very little difference if he gets a 3 or manages to scrape a 4 in French GCSE!

[legosnowqueen]

@Silkierabbit quite an adventure, great pics. Hope your chemo goes okay. Found out today that DS's French oral isn't until 10 May...seeing some of your DCs dates, was hoping it would be earlier so that it was out of the way as he's another reluctant language student...sigh

[Naem]

Snap @CornishGem1975 - I managed to have it too. Just had my first clear lft today (first positive Sunday week ago). I have been hiding from DH and DD (DH got kicked upstairs into DS's room, since DS is not with us, and I have been hiding in the bedroom), and so far they don't seem to have re-caught it (they both had it in January/Feb, when I was visiting my parents overseas - and being super careful, as they are very vulnerable). But it means that I have not been able to supervise or even get much of a sense of how revision is going. DD seems to be doing some, but whether any of it is any use at all, I can't tell, and neither it is clear to me how much time she has been spending).

[CornishGem1975]

Were you poorly @Naem? It seems to be taking ages for people to get negative results!

I've not avoided anyone as I think it's too late - symptoms started on Sat/Sun, I thought I had food poisoning or something and I even tested yesterday but it was negative, so I'm on Day 3 of symptoms. DH has it now and DS. I don't know if my DD has had it before or not, I find it hard to believe having been at school and all her friends have, and she's had several rotten colds but she's never had a positive test.

[Naem]

Well I wasn't too bad @CornishGem1975. I had a temperature on Saturday a week ago - only checked in the evening, when it was nearly 38 degrees, and then couldn't face testing until the next morning - and the first test I did seemed negative, but I left it lying around for about an hour, and then you could see the faint line, so I did another one, and that one was more clearly positive, so I think I caught it just at the point when I became infectious. Temperature was mostly around 37.3-37.5 during the day, and up to 38 at night, so not even that bad and paracetamol kept it at bay, and the temperature was gone by the Wednesday. But I had this sensation of a bit of liquid constantly dripping down the back of my throat. Not very snuffly or a lot of it, but like it was there and it did make me cough a fair bit, and kind of metalic tasting, and today was the first time it wasn't really there and the first time I got a negative test, so I think it was some sort of virus symptom. I think I was suspicious it was covid because I went to help out at a careers fair at DDs school, and it was the riskiest thing (in terms of seeing lots of people - there were people constantly wandering in and out) that I had done in ages. I had wondered if I should, and kept saying to DH that I was going to get covid, and he kept making fun of me. So I guess on some level it wasn't a surprise.

[IThinkIMadeItWorse]

Hope everyone recovers quickly, what do you think about the call for reintroducing testing for exam candidates? We are still getting email reminders from school about testing but I don't know anybody who is still routinely testing twice a week.
www.theguardian.com/world/2022/apr/16/bring-back-free-covid-tests-for-exam-candidates-uk-schools-urge

Also quite glad I only saw this article at the end of the holidays, three past papers each week is surely not realistic for all their subjects? Think they are doing revision in all their school lessons now anyway, www.theguardian.com/education/2022/apr/10/gcse-a-level-revision-easter-holidays-avoid-stress

(Sorry for the Guardian links but thought they were interesting talking points)

[CornishGem1975]

That's good @Naem I am absolutely rancid today and have gone deaf in one ear but it's really only like a rough cold. DD is embracing it and she's not worried about getting it, I think the best case would be she gets it now and misses time off school (she can revise at home) rather than get it through GCSEs.

School haven't told us to test at school, nobody is routinely testing now you have to pay for it!

[StColumbofNavron]

We aren't quite at the end of this thread yet, but I had a panic and made Thread Part III.

My belief is, that it is MN etiquette to finish the existing thread first :-)

www.mumsnet.com/talk/secondary/4534261-current-year-11-20212022-support-thread-pt-iii

[Rollergirl11]

Sorry to hear all those suffering with Covid and hope you are fighting fit soon!

Thanks for the links @IThinkIMadeItWorse I really wish they would bring back free testing for exam candidates. It seems crazy to me that people just have to guess. As for doing 3 past papers per week per subject every week until the exams, surely there won’t be enough will there? DD has already done all the past papers for her examining board she can get her hands on for 3 of her subjects.

[CornishGem1975]

My DD just said she's got more mocks coming up. WTF? The actual exams are just a couple of weeks away!

[QueenMabby]

3 past papers per subject per week would equate to nearly 60 hours of work - impossible! Think they just mean 3 per week total. DS is at least doing more than that so that's reassuring!

He's taking tomorrow off and we're going bowling so that'll be good. DH took him to get his tux rental for his prom sorted out today - he looked so grown up!

[QueenMabby]

Oh and I'm sending get well vibes to all those with covid!

[CornishGem1975]

The worst part of us having covid is my DH who obviously has it worse than everyone else

[Rollergirl11]

@CornishGem1975 surely not?! What could possibly be gained from doing more mocks so close to the real thing?

@QueenMabby yea you’re probs right, I hadn’t really thought it through. 😬🤪DD does that and more too so not worried on that score.

[CornishGem1975]

No idea @Rollergirl11 I think it's just science but even so, it feels pointless.

[CornishGem1975]

DD has just tested positive so that's that, at least it will be out of the way!

[IThinkIMadeItWorse]

Hope she recovers quickly @CornishGem1975 as you say at least she will get it out of the way. Hope you are feeling better yourself.

[CornishGem1975]

She's fine, just a bit of a mild cold. Think she's kind of glad to have it now too.

Hopefully she won't miss too much school but luckily she's very disciplined with revising and doing about 5-6 hrs a day at the moment so she can keep that up.

She's merrily signing away to herself drawing chemistry mind maps right now

[legosnowqueen]

Sorry to hear about all the covid cases too, we've had a few false alarms over the last month but all tests were negative surprised I didn't catch it at Manchester Airport, DS finally can have his second vax on Saturday so hopefully that will see him through the exam period. More mocks seem crazy at this stage but I do recollect that the government's plan did recommend a set of mocks every term...

[Naem]

Sorry to hear you were not feeling great @CornishGem1975 and that your DD now has it. I now have had two negative tests over two days, and DD and DH tested negative again yesterday, so looking like we are in the clear. DD has her second Covid jab booked for Monday (as she was due to have it the week after she got Covid in late January), so hopefully that can now go ahead as well.

[aramox1]

I don't dare read that guardian article! Ds is doing maybe 2 hours a night, don't know how he could do even one past paper per subject a week. Maybe they're assuming kids are on study leave? Ours are still setting homework so there's even less time to do free rein revision. Stress has just kicked in big time and ds is being thoroughly unpleasant. It's a struggle!

[QueenMabby]

@aramox1
My DS is doing three hours a day (still on school hols here) six days a week with one day off. That's enough for him and he's still getting through plenty of past papers. During term time he was doing one hour on top of whatever school set him so usually a couple of hours total.

I think each child has a different line between productive work and too much to focus so it's about finding the sweet spot I think.

[legosnowqueen]

@QueenMabby @aramox1 my DS has done 3 hours a day for most of the Easter break (except for during our few days away). There has to be a balance, & he was exhausted by the end of term so needed to rest & recharge. Hope he can get into a good rhythm of home work plus an hour or two after school when he goes back next week...although he'll still be doing his kickboxing classes twice a week after school, at least until the actual exam period. Have a good weekend everyone!

[zighead]

DS is pleased with how his Spanish oral went but I think is starting to lose the will to live with revision in general. Not a great time for motivation to be low .
He's told me this week that he knows no English literature quotes and isn't planning on learning them either. Apparently he has more important stuff to learn. I must admit I'm starting to feel quite blasé about them all. I think they have too much build up these days. When I did mine in 92, we did our mocks in March/April and then just carried on revising for the real exams.