Year 11 22/23 support thread.

[PritiPatelsMaker]

Does anyone fancy a support thread for the just about to start Year 11's.

I'm not Mystic Meg but even I can see a rocky year ahead of me...

Anyone fancy joining me?

@dig135 DS uses headphones all the time when revising. I've no idea why!

He claims not to be listening to anything (which I rather doubt) and it's to cancel out noise. But he's commandeered our dining room so there's no noise to cancel out (but there is a mountain of crisp wrappers and manky bits of food).

I'll be glad when next week comes and he can knock off his French oral. He gets very cross when I point out that saying um every third word is probably not ideal. Whereas a throaty errr could work quite well.

We’ve set a minimum baseline of 8 hours study time for DS2, with lots of breaks throughout the day. DS1 in year 13 is studying more, which is helping keep DS2 motivated.

8 hours a day?!

DD is doing 7 hours a day, but with her following her school timetable it's not a full 7 hours iyswim. I'm happy with that as it keeps her following a structure whilst allowing breaks. Not sure how long she will keep it up, but I'm also unsure as to whether it is needed.

We went for the approach that they shouldn’t be doing less work than they would during a school week, which would be 5.5 hours lesson time and around 2.5 hours homework/revision.

In fairness DS has responded well to this expectation and has applied himself diligently.

My DD is doing 4 hours maybe a bit more a day which I think is plenty.

However she has regular teary moments saying she's not doing enough.

I don't think she's had one day completely free of revision all holidays.

I think once they start she will be ok but she's just panicked about not hitting predicted grades - more because she thinks she will look dumb than it meaning she doesn't get into 6th form.

DD has been in to school on 2 days for revision sessions. She has had 2 days completely off to do things with friends. She was away for 2 days for an extra-curricular thing. For the remaining days she has done about 5 hours a day following a timetable which I helped her make at the start of the break. I find with GCSEs because of the number of subjects and topics it can all feel a bit thin no matter how many hours are put in and this is really the first time she has knuckled down to revision.

I find with GCSEs because of the number of subjects and topics it can all feel a bit thin no matter how many hours are put in.

There's a lot to learn, it must feel quite overwhelming. Despite the dumbing down narrative, I think the GCSEs are quite hard. Particularly English and French. Ours was about train times and buying cheese baguettes, my son's is social injustice and environmental problems.

Then again, it varies by board. Our school is very sniffy about coursework which leads to a lot of pressure come the exams. Whereas I'm sure employers never look at the exam boards, just the grade. So while school extols the merits of a harder board or paper, I'd be tempted to go with the easier option as other schools do.

But I guess that boils down to whether you value the educational aspect or the grade you walk away with. They also talk a lot about some boards being a better stepping stone to A level but you'll be dropping 70% of your GCSE subjects in any case.

DD has two more weeks of school on a full timetable and I really wanted her to have a proper rest before she gets into the thick of things. So I definitely encouraged her to just do a little every day and take plenty of time to have a proper holiday! I know she would just get tired and weepy if she does too much. 2 hours has been enough time for her to do at least one practice paper a day and also do some note-taking/flashcard making for her weaker subjects.

Once she goes on study leave, she is aiming to do a good morning of work every day, sort of 9-1 or 9-2 with a break for lunch. There will be revision sessions at school and she's also planning to do quite a few of those. I want her to take downtime as I know she's the sort to get wound up and anxious if she doesn't.

That's interesting. What boards are considered 'more academic' and which are seen as a good stepping stone/grounding for A-level?

Hope all the kids - and parents! - are doing well as we head into last few weeks of school. My DD has got very serious and I feel like we barely see her. I keep trying to tempt her out of her room. Hope she doesn't overdo it when it's more of a marathon than a sprint...

DS has been doing intermittent revision, but he's finished all of his coursework, and spent a lot of time prepping for a Scholarship Interview. Also doing his sport as he's been selected for a high-level competition (his last chance, because of age groups). Don't really want to squash any of that! Study leave starts at the end of next week for him.

French oral for my son today. He's very nervous and his stammer (which has been fine for years) seems to be back.

That's interesting. What boards are considered 'more academic' and which are seen as a good stepping stone/grounding for A-level?

I'm not entirely sure, only that school mentions it when parents complain.
For GCSEs, they're doing a combination of Edexcel iGCSE, Cambridge and AQA plus OCR further maths. I think the Edexcel French is particularly tricky relative to my GCSEs (which were an age ago in fairness).

I'll have to ask my friend what board her son is doing for English as I think his is more coursework focused and he gets a few iterations with teacher feedback.

Hope it goes ok @dig135, DD2's is tomorrow. DD1 also has speech difficulties and I remember how stressful both her English speaking and French oral was.

Thank you, not too much stammering he thought. Good luck for tomorrow, always a nice one to get out of the way!