Current Year 11 2021/2022 support thread pt III

[StColumbofNavron]

Thread for the parents of DC sitting their GCSEs in about 4 weeks time - eek.

DD said her Spanish oral was fine.

DS (year 13) has at last decided that revision is a good thing. He also was saying that overall GCSEs aren't important but did at least manage to say that to me when DD wasn't there 😂

No idea when shirt signing may or may not take place.

By this time next week DD will be doing her 6th exam.

Thanks @LouisCatorze , this time last year she was in the full throes of an eating disorder so she’s in a much better place now. Hard to know if the anxiety and friendship issues are a knock on effect from that (she’s been battling with both pretty much the whole of this school year whilst recovering) or just standard teenage stuff.

I’ve also been seeing lots of shirt signing last day stuff on social media. Our end of school celebrations take place on the afternoon of the last exam on 23rd June so a good while yet!

Absolutely zero communication from school about what is happening during the exam period.
DD hasn't got a clue what she's supposed to do next week and it's only adding to her exam stress.
Roll on the end of June when this is all over!

Well today was the last day of school, and traditionally known in the school as "muck-up day". Does nobody else have similar? There are legendary reports of muck-up day antics (one famous one was about three chickens being let loose in the school labelled 1, 2 and 4 - so after they had caught 1, 2 and 4, the school went nuts trying to find no 3 which didn't exist).

Of course this was the first muck-up day for three years, and it sounds like it was relatively restrained (and relatively unimaginative) - just water guns (students, but also some teachers, apparently) and people wearing pink balaclavas - although my DD sounds like she was responsible for one bit of creativity - she printed out documents that apparently looked just like what they stick on the room doors when there is a room change, and stuck them on various doors (she apparently got hold of the timetables for each of the years, so she knew who she was sending to what). So all sorts of classes were going all over the school looking for the wrong room (and in one case, for a room that didn't actually exist). She even overheard a teacher saying "funny, I didn't think there were any room changes today" without twigging.

I had a feeling she was planning something this morning, but of course she wouldn't tell me - I just told her not to do anything that the police wouldn't approve of - so I like to think she was safe there.

They were only officially in for the final assembly and were told they would go home at morning break, but that they had an ice cream van coming, so we sent in some money so she could have an ice cream (sounds like there might have been some chocolate as well, but not sure if that came from the school).

After the burst pipe incident, they seem to have decided it was crazy to bring the Year 11s back, so they had study leave yesterday at home as well, so hadn't been in since Monday. And DH commented on how much calmer and better at concentrating she was after a few days not in school. Much better out of that cauldron of stress ( she even got a negative for "defiance" last week, which is pushing it for my DD).

It is nice though to mark the last day (especially as there is no prom) - although some years I believe it has got out of hand. I guess if her GCSEs don't go well (and I am still panicking) she clearly has some other skills that ought to be able to be put to use,

Last day here too, sound like it was a nice send off! DS has now headed out with his mates, expect a fair bit of celebrating then back to the revision timetable as the next two weeks are crammed with exams, bit better spaced out after half term...

DD has whinged about her form tutor for years.
But she was disappointed that she didn't do anything special to mark them leaving. She had promised to bring in sweets or cakes and celebrate everyone who had a birthday over exam period/summer but didn't do that.
They had a leaves assembly on Thursday and then all the year 11 kids from all the schools went into the town. DD said the assembly was "boring" but I think it was emotional and yday she barely did anything, I think she was exhausted.

Hi all. Just wanted to nip into this thread and say hello. Have been following you loads but never posted and concur on lots of issues including the absence of decent study leave (a little way back on thread). At DD's school they go in each day and if no revision session session or exam scheduled for the afternoon they can go home to revise. Not ideal but...

Anyway main point of posting is I'm wondering if other parents have DC doing ridiculous revision at ridiculous times of the day?? Whilst I admire her dedication am concerned DD was deep in biology revision at 11pm last night and was still going at gone 1am when I got up for the loo. She's a night owl and always late to bed and this in my opinion is ridiculous but refutes my concerns that she'll be burnt out. Leave her too it or try and force the issue that it's too much/late...

Hi @marmitecake
My DS is an early riser so would never do this but I used to stay up all night revising for my GCSEs as it was the time I worked best. It was too noisy for me in the day with my parents and four younger siblings. I used to get so much done, it was great!
I was easily able to sleep in the day, so as long as your DD is not depriving herself of sleep, I'd let her do it.
My DS is reluctantly about to start some biology revision now.
Have a lovely weekend everyone

Zighead thank you. I accept that our DC all have their own way of handling revision; your own experience makes me think that maybe I should just leave her to it... however weekdays/the night before exams..absolutely not. Weekend perhaps there's no harm. Wifi goes off at 10 to allow for late revision but in this instance she was working on paper, so irrelevant. Gosh it's so difficult as I don't want to interfere too much but at the same time I don't want her to be rundown or to get ill and she's just had three days off with a stomach bug.

Hi @marmitecake and welcome to the thread. I have similar with DD who has a tendency to pile way too much pressure on herself and do too much. I contacted one of her teachers who agreed that DD was probably doing more than most but surmised that she would probably feel uncomfortable doing less and the stress of her not feeling like she’s doing enough probably outweighs the risk of burning herself out. I have stepped back for the time being but am keeping an eye on her.

My DD would probably do similar but she often doesn't get out of bed til midday so it's basically a reset of conventional hours.

Second time round for me, Ds1 sat his GCSEs in 2019 and is now at uni. Ds2 is an early riser, made a revision timetable and stuck to it. He just wants to do his best, is incredibly motivated and should, should do very well. He has put the work in though.

He is currently in Saturday morning revision for a group of year 11s who toward the end of year 10 were chosen to cover triple content for science. They finished the content a few months ago and school are just making sure that everyone is revising. They have a 3 hour Saturday morning revision session until the final science exam. He is more than happy to go in and his friends are in there too.

School provide us with a massive info sheet with everything listed from pre-exam booster sessions for both morning and afternoon exams and then where you are meant to be when you come out. I go through it with Ds to make sure neither of us is missing anything. It has all the different groups listed sets wise for core and where you go depending which set you are in and the same for option subjects. I quite enjoy highlighting text.

No study leave here at all. They are all in school until the final science exam which is when they have their leavers' assembly and then sign the shirts session. They then have to be off school premises before lunch time. After this there are only a handful of exams left, Ds's last exam is 27th June.

Revision wise it is down to them how effective it is and when they do it. Ds has always started at 8am because he is up before 6.30am on a weekend. A natural early riser. I am scheduled into his timetable to test him with flashcards but also do as much as we can for English lit as it is his lowest grade.

Good luck to everyone, Ds's first written exam is Monday. One tip, give them a few different pens in terms of barrel shape so if their fingers hurt from one type they can swap in the exam.

I have stepped back for the time being but am keeping an eye on her.
Thanks @Rollergirl11. I'll do this I think. We've said to her "is there anything Dad and I can do to support you in the next few weeks?". Haven't had a definitive answer yet but probably not going on too much about her excessive late night revising might help unless it's the night before.

I have also bought some extra nice foodie bits for the day of the exams and might drop her in now and again rather than endure the stress of buses also.

@marmitecake welcome...I think we have to let them do it their way. Once again though, I'm struck how dedicated the girls are or is it just my DS who was out partying last night & now lacks motivation today

DD isn't very motivated so she bucks the trend!

DC1 went to a school where they did a 'muck-up' for the leavers but it was at the end of Year 13 (as very few left after Year 11). All good fun.

DD has developed a mochi habit which isn't cheap!

Good tip about the different pen barrel sizes @OnTheBenchOfDoom.

Re: help - I think I do quite a lot, too much really and I'd love Ds to be more self reliant as he'd gain more confidence that way. I've warned him that I'm back at work next week so can't break off every two hours to test him but I expect the evenings will be taken over. He's being quite disciplined with revision now, apart from English Lit.

I thought ds was a planner but have come to realise via this and the mocks that he works best when there is a deadline approaching. Definitely not my way but we'll have to hope for the best.

I'm providing nice food and a hopefully, calm environment (not feeling calm myself though). A friend's son has had a serious meltdown so I'm just aiming to get Ds through it all relatively unscathed mentally. The problem is he sets such high standards for himself which, we know as oldies, is not necessary.

Well my DS has certainly not busted a gut today, pretty disappointed tbh. Considering he has five exams this coming week, he's done one biology past paper and watched a couple of Corbett Maths videos and apparently that's him done for the day

DS now on study leave. 6 exams next week and he has managed a couple of past papers and have been helping with biology flash cards today. He’s out with friends tonight so expect a slow start tomorrow. I’m Just trying to support him with saying positive things and not nag him to do more! I’m thinking at this stage either he knows it or not and lots of last minute cramming probably won’t make much difference.

DS did a biology paper 1 and a chem paper 1 today and 30 mins on Spanish reading practice.
Worked out to be about 4hrs and 15 mins work time but still plenty of time for gaming!!

I have no idea how much they should be revising now. DS did maybe 90 mins of biology yesterday and was pretty proud of himself. They do seem to have been doing 5 hours revision a day for several weeks.

Yes @MyOtherProfile there's been a lot of revision going on in school I think now it's just keeping it ticking over.

DS just wants it to start now.

DD did 4 hours yesterday and likely to do the same today. She has 5 exams this coming week, all in the morning.

She seems calmer than I thought she would be. Admittedly we had some light relief last night in the form of an incredibly drunk DH who went to the FA cup final yesterday and returned utterly delirious that Liverpool won! 😂🤪

@Rollergirl11 - that was very considerate of your dh to provide the light relief!! 🤪

The mood in our house is tense. DH stressed as he's trying to do history and English past papers but almost all of the inserts online have sources removed due to copyright. It's making revision tricky. Anyone with a good workaround??

@QueenMabby hah hah, wasn’t it? He’s somewhat sheepish today though.

I spoke to DD about past papers. Here is a link for a website that she uses that has AQA style exam questions for English. Not sure what exam board you need but may be of help…

Language Paper 1 reading practice questions.pdf (arkboulton.org)

Sorry that didn’t work!

arkboulton.org/sites/default/files/Language%20Paper%201%20reading%20practice%20questions.pdf