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.

My DD is trying to learn the quotes @zighead but she says they're just not going in. To be honest, she'll get a 5 anyway I think so I don't want her to stress over it. She's putting her effort into her sciences which are the A Levels she wants to do and also trying to push her maths grade up.

Sympathies on the English Lit quotations front, having similar struggles here. I'm so glad that DS school dropped the poetry components for English Lit I can't imagine him being able to learn quotes from 15 poems as well! He does find English a challenge (dyslexic) but has been plugging away, not sure how much is going in. When I did English A level (a long time ago) I could take the books in! Mind you my English GCSEs were both 100% coursework so no end of year exams for those. I think I had about 10 exams at the end of year 11 (science was continual assessment so end of unit tests counted towards your grade), DS has about 24 exams between now and the end of June!

He has his French oral on Thursday and then Drama performance exam on Friday this coming week so feeling very real now. He has just showed me a booklet of French questions and answers he's meant to have learnt but he hasn't. He hates French so much, really looking forward to never doing it again.

@CornishGem1975 my DS also wanting to prioritise his sciences. I'm just going to leave him to it I think. Although he is optimistically still expecting to achieve a 7 in literature. Seems rather unlikely I would have thought!
Good luck to your DS for the French oral and drama performance (or break a leg I guess!) @IThinkIMadeItWorse

DD still testing positive so no school this week until at least Wednesday/Thursday which she's actually really annoyed about. She wants to be in. She's going to get up and revise today in line with her usual school schedule though.

3 weeks today till the first official exam! DD still doing her 2 hours per day. She has her Spanish speaking tomorrow which she’s not looking forward to apart from the fact that she will never have to speak Spanish again ever! Her words.

Sorry to hear your DD still testing positive @CornishGem1975 . At least this means she shouldn’t come down with Covid during the exam period. As a household we have never had Covid. It will be just our luck that DD comes down with it at this critical time!

I think ds was glad to get back to school today! He needs to get his head back in the game and being in the school environment will do that.
Dd is away this week so he knows I'll have plenty of time to be on his case if he's not revising!

I had completely fallen off this thread, but it has just sent me an email.

DD just home from school. Today is our first day back after Easter, and she had to hand in her Art and Product Design work in its entirety. She’s been awake since Friday, I think, but it's done. She’ll get her Art grade tomorrow, which the adjudication may change, but that’s unlikely, apparently. The PD is only 50% of the final grade, but she should get that this week too.

I've got Covid, so trying hard to keep away from her and also DS, who is very anxious about being ill.

Eeeek!! I have just realised that because DS only has biology on a Monday he only has two more biology lessons before Biology paper 1 on 17th May! Pesky bank holiday! He was a bit grumpy after school today (probably because he had French last period) but has done a bit of seneca revision this evening. I've just offered to do some flashcards with him but he wasn't keen.

Welcome back to the thread @NancyJoan hope you recover from the Covid quickly, and hope your DD is better @CornishGem1975 Our school have sent out the LA guidelines today basically saying to only stay home if you have a temperature and even if you have a positive test under 18s only need to isolate for 3 days. Fingers crossed we can get through the next two months (another eeek - DS will be finished in two months time as his last exam is 24/06!)

I wrote a long post last night, then lost it!

We had a y11 info evening and apparently study leave is no longer allowed as dictated by the DfE, but exam leave is permitted i.e. coming in only for exams. Either way the school seem to have a very good plan.

First week all exams bar two option subjects are in the morning and they are on timetable as usual for the rest of the day.

Second week, staying in school is optional but teachers will be in class for the timetabled lessons if students want to stay in school and revise with teachers.

After half term, they just come in for exams though he strongly suggested it’s best for the DC to stay in school and use the facilities/approach teachers if needed.

DS1 happy with this and said he will prob take advantage of timetable to revise whilst it is being offered.

Presentation evening confirmed and sixth form taster followed by enrolment assignment masterclasses (these are
optional).

Exam results emailed to the boys first thing in the morning on 25 Aug and then they get given a form group slot to go in and pick up paper copies and enrol if they are staying on.

There was some talk previously here about English and the dept shared some very good slides about how to help with this and the differentiation between the way to answer lit vs lang. if anyone still is concerned with English and happy to PM some non-identifying stuff from the slides.

I'd be interested @StColumbofNavron DS struggles with English and a lot of it seems to be about knowing what they are looking for in each question.

I can't seem to add screenshots to PMs. Maybe anyone who is interested drop me your email in a PM and I'll pull the salient info. It is for OCR and AQA but some of it is good generic advice.

@StColumbofNavron

I will PM tonight.
I can't do it from the App.
Thanks for the offer.
DC needs a huge leap in English from a mock score of just 2!

In the meantime before we all give up anonymity in the name of English GCSE grades let me see if I can take and reword some of the stuff and post it here. Although pretty generic, not sure it is ok for me to screen shot the slides and share when they aren't mine.

Ds has his German oral today. Said it went 'fine'. Hopefully will get more info after tea.
Would love the OCR English info please @StColumbofNavron .

Glad German oral went 'fine' @Lightsabre That is such a teenager response isn't it! 
Seems like everyone is after the English tips @StColumbofNavron so if you work out how to post them, that would be appreciated.
My DS only has two days left in school and has his first exam a week today Actually can't believe they are here!

DD seems to be OK with school things at the moment. Her first exam is Spanish oral which I think is at some point in week beginning 9th May. First written one is RE on 16th May which is under three weeks time!

I did my GCSEs in 1992 and my English was 100% coursework. Think we had to give in 10 essays and got two grades out of it. Also had to do maths coursework but there were exams for that too

DD just home. 105 out of 120 for her Art. Don’t know what grade that equates to, but sounds good to me. One down!

Info: what if your child gets covid during exams? www.mumsnet.com/Talk/secondary/4537578-info-what-if-your-child-gets-covid-during-exams

This other thread might be useful. Hopefully none of our children will need it!

Brilliant result @NancyJoan - congratulations to your dd. Grade boundaries are going to be a bit difficult to gauge this year but I think that would be an 8/9?

DD did her Spanish oral today. Her teacher commented that it went better than her mock so she is pleased and relieved that it’s now out of the way.

Ignore my previous message. My head is all over the place. He has three days left at school and first exam is English language on Thursday May 5th.

That’s what I think too. Which is great, as it’s one of her A-levels.

I know they say don’t wish your life away, but I just cannot wait until 26 June, when dd’s GCSEs will be over and so will ds’s A levels.

Neither are doing or have done any revision and it’s really stressing me out.
Ds has an Oxbridge offer and thinks he can pull it out of the bag last minute.
Dd is in the 456 range and with just a tiny bit of revision could be 678.

I could weep - but the more I suggest it the more she digs her heels in.
I’m just hoping school is getting something out of her.

Definitely counting down to 27 June here as its when DDs GCSEs and my chemo ends roughly though have 2 weeks cancelled atm of chemo but at least can get more things done again now. So have ordered a Maine Coon kitten which arrives on 14th May. Hopefully he will keep DD happy through her exams, she has first French tomorrow and then its 16 May to 27 June 33 exams yikes. Just leaving her to it unless she asks for help as she is very good at doing everything by herself. DS, oth, in y10 is the opposite and looking at change of school / revised EHCP. She goes down to the Maths School on Friday for an offer holders session.

www.mumsnet.com/talk/secondary/4534261-current-year-11-20212022-support-thread-pt-iii?reply=116890932

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