Current Year 11 - 2 more weeks of exams!!

[Rollergirl11]

New shiny thread!!

@Rollergirl11 @StColumbofNavron I would also love a follow on thread...guess it is Further Education next

Can I join?
DS2 is awaiting his GCSE results. He worked really hard throughout the pandemic and lockdowns and worked reasonably hard with revision for the actual exams. He can be quite cocky about his abilities, I hope he doesn’t get shown up by this on results day.
We have bought him a football shirt and we will be getting him a laptop for A levels as he doesn’t have his own computer/laptop yet.
We did the same for DS1 who was 2020 GCSE cohort and didn’t get to sit his exams.

DS cannot decide whether he wants to stay on at his school 6th form or go to the local college, he has a place at both currently. He was leaning more towards the college but then said he didn’t like one of the subject teachers he met when they visited for the day

I am more nervous about results day than he is.

The school wildly underestimated his older sibling's grades 3 years ago so I am not convinced about how accurate predictions are for this year.

He wants to go his school's Sixth Form and I'm not so confident that he'll make their requirements. I'd love to be wrong but if he's not made it then we have a scramble for another place to worry about.

I'm really anxious about results day. DS is too but he's a bit of a closed book and doesn't want to talk about it but I can tel by the way he is snappy at the slightest thing.
He wants sixth form but we have a place at the local college if he doesn't get it. He'll be gutted if he doesn't.
It doesn't help that we are in the USA in real day (a Covid delayed holiday from 2020). Stupidly I didn't think about the dates when I postponed it twice. So we'll be setting the alarm for 3am 😬

@FiveMoreMinutesPlease we’re the same. In Florida on a delayed from 2020 holiday. Wishing you all the best at 3am Thursday. Asked DD if she wanted to get her results alone or with us looking on but she doesn’t want to discuss it yet which is fair enough.

@Kaftankween snap Florida too.

So no cash here either, but I did for dc1. It started with him working unexpectedly hard for a school project. I then found out it was because "winner" was going to get a chocolate egg".

I don’t do cash for grades and talking to DD there’s only one person she knows who does. She thinks it works for her but DD said she would work anyway, which is true.

she also is very much a perfectionist - she would like to get all 9s which is possible although she says she thinks she probably won’t. One of her friends might though - I think I’d prefer either both of them to or neither of them.

in some ways it doesn’t help that DS just had his A Level results which were two A stars and an A. He got his revising strategy just right for him although it wouldn’t have worked for DD who is rather more of the “do a lot of work” type person.

Will be glad when Thursday is done I think

No cash for grades here. The DC have all worked hard. The promise of cash wouldn’t have made any difference to their effort. We haven’t given any of them cash, but if we were to, it would be purely for their effort that they’d put in - more likely to be for a particular item that they particularly wanted at the time, if that had been an issue. But to be honest, we buy those items anyway and I don’t think we would have connected exam results or effort to that.

I know some families feel it works. I wonder if it can be divisive when there’s more than one child and their abilities differ. They might work equally hard but one ends up with much more cash than the other. That could feel rather unfair.

I If I wanted to give a reward, I think it would be a surprise on the day - having a ski trip paid for or something like that. However, we haven’t actually ever done that. If we were to, It would be something that had never been mentioned until the day and was purely to do with being proud of their effort. In the end, we all want our kids to try their best don’t we…..but they won’t all get the same outcomes from that.

We bought DD a graphics card for her gaming PC and had it fitted the day after the exams finished. It was partly for her birthday as well as working hard because we spent £500 on it.
She has since started streaming on Twitch and has some sponsorship deals from games companies so has turned it into a money maker.

I'm hoping my DS will do this @MrsPnut but he doesn't even have the motivation to do that!

Four more days! DD is looking greyer by the day and having anxiety dreams. I saw the Head last week, who said ‘We’re expecting all 9s and 8s, aren’t we?’, which was news to me, but would be great. A couple of 7s will be fine too.

No cash for grades here, but she has saved up £800 for a MacBook, and we’ll top up to get her the one she wants in time for Sept.

DS has suddenly expressed an interest in this. Has had no previous interest in anything. I guess it's a start.

3 more sleeps - I use the term 'sleep' lightly you understand. I wish people who don't know us very well would stop saying 'oh you'll be fine; all top grades eh?'. We have no idea.

*@Womblesaremyfavouritefood I hear you! I hate that so much. All I hear is - sure ds has no worries, he’ll have done great.
So many neighbours, friends etc already saying that to ds and will ask him what he got. He really does not feel things went well even though he works so hard and was predicted high grades based on mocks etc. He knows there’s no pressure at home but if he’s upset with results last thing I want is him being asked constantly how he did. I think they have all had a hard enough time.

I do think it's so sad that DCs feel that there is pressure on them, there seems to be so much competition from peers etc about results but in many schools from the heads as they want their tables to look good. Even on this thread most of the requirements people have discussed are 6s minimum and many 7/8s so in reality not a true reflection of the norm even though everyone is super supportive on here.

There are so many options available to DCs at age 16 I feel the GCSEs are so outdated now. For them to be causing sleepless nights and severe anxiety is awful. My friends husband put so much pressure on their DS1 that he was distraught when he didn't get the results he needed, I have never witnessed drama like it, same happened with his A levels as he had set completely unrealistic expectations of him, it was so sad to watch, my poor friend was devastated to see her son so upset but ultimately the damage was done by her DH before she could bring them all back into the real world.

I do hope the DCs can all enjoy the next couple of weeks before college without too much stress.

Found my ds up since 6:30 this morning doing his bridging work, I guess he is anxious.😅
I am off work today, will take days to M&S to choose suits for six form.

Found my ds up since 6:30 this morning doing his bridging work, I guess he is anxious.😅
I am off work today, will take ds to M&S to choose suits for six form.

We've not had any work to do through the holidays. DS changed his a level options around 2 weeks ago and we still haven't had confirmation that they've been accepted. We do have an enrolment day next week and staff will be on hand during results collection so I'm sure it'll get sorted.

He's beginning to feel a bit nervous now, whereas I've calmed down a little 😆

I'm feeling a strange mix of calm and impatience.
DS has now decided that he wants to go to the sixth form which has lower requirements so that has taken the pressure off a bit.
I was fretting a bit when he was still to decide but he seems pretty settled now.
The really academic one makes every student do an EPQ and he really doesn't want to do one so I think that was a big part of his decision.
I think he will do fine there and probably get more support, they seem much more supportive and encouraging whereas the stories I have heard about the more academic one is that it is very "sink or swim" (also their communication has been miles better).
There won't be so many doing Further Maths but says he doesn't care about that!

Realised this morning he had only done about 2/3 of the Chemistry summer work so he is having a look at that this morning.
Also he hasn't started the Physics yet (but he's done all the Maths and Further Maths so he's not too stressed about it.)

Hope everyone else is hanging on in there, not long to go now!
I'm a bit jealous of those who will find out by email at 8am on Thursday, DS has to go into school between 10 and 12.
I'd love to join a follow on thread, will it be in Further Education?

@Purple24 We're allowed to change options on enrollment day (after results so that makes sense!) so I'm sure it will all get sorted. I know our school aren't replying to emails over the summer break.

@IThinkIMadeItWorse I'm also impatient. DD just wants to forget about it, and poor her, I keep banging on about it! DD needs to finish off her pre-learning this week. We're still toying with Core Maths so she's doing the learning for that although she's not sure she wants to do it...I think it would be worthwhile given she wants to do a science degree.

I'm feeling impatient now too.
We're actually away doing something really nice tonight and tomorrow which will hopefully provide some distraction but I'm kind of wishing it away waiting for Thursday if that makes sense? I need to focus on enjoying the next couple of days!
I'll have to brave the uniform shop next week. It's always a nightmare as the only shop that sells our school's uniform is in a popular tourist destination and it's always absolutely heaving at this time of year. I have still got DS1s 6th form uniform and whilst the jumpers are slightly bobbly they'll do for DS2 for now so I thought I'd leave the shopping til the rush is over. But I can't find any ties unfortunately so I will have to fight my way through the hoardes. I wish they would start doing online ordering but its a very traditional shop. It will probably take me 5 mins in the shop and an hour to find a parking space. Still, it will be my last time as I don't see DS growing much between now and next year.
That's a bit of a sad thought actually as it's been an annual ritual since my eldest started year 7 in 2009.😥

Ds needs A’s in maths and physics to do them at A level. But B’s in his other subjects. He has consistently achieved this but exams were awful and some courses weren’t even finished.
Also CCEA “helped” by allowing the omission of practical elements rather than anything from the actual exam. He’d actually rather have done these bits. It’s going to be a long week!

I’m glad that all the 6th forms here don’t have uniform - although it may mean that DD will be hopeful for some new clothes/shoes!

We’ll be at school on Thursday morning for 8am - if it’s like DSs A Level results last week then there will be some parents lurking in the car park and then they will let us know how they did. I was able to talk to one of DSs teachers to thank him so will hopefully be able to do the same for DD

I’m still feeling fairly calm and DS not nervous yet. As far as he is concerned it’s still a while away!
He is hopefully going to do some more bridging work this afternoon.

All sorted for clothes - he has two suits and an assortment of shirts and I’ve been and bought the sixth form tie. We have even ironed the shirts ready, as I gave him an ironing lesson as I have no intention of ironing his shirts. He has a couple of non iron shirts so I imagine he will mostly be wearing them!
I would also love to join a sixth form thread if anyone is intending on starting one.

Three more sleeps 😬