GCSE supporting - to half term, and beyond!

[SheilaFentiman]

Making a new thread to support half term revision and the set of GCSEs afterwards!

Ds has tonsillitis :( well better now than during exams.

Yep! Dc really hasn't got back into the flow of things here yet!

DD is back to revising after 3 days off

She had a sore throat for a couple of days and felt very run down.

I'll just be happy she passes tbh because up until her mocks she wasn't exactly taking much notice of her lessons.

I did sow the seeds that I'd done badly in my mocks but then revised solidly up until my exams and passed with decent grades. No idea if that sunk in but it's exactly what she's been doing. The schools are a bit more supportive theses days though.

If DD fails she can retake her exams and will just have to follow a different path

Her friends are doing all sorts of different courses post GCSE or doing apprenticeships. No one judges each other because they're all academically different and lots have been ill, physically or mentally or suffered horrendous home lives. Some DC have had to move schools so that's had an effect. It is what it is and further education courses take this all into consideration when offering places. Workplaces I'm sure will take this into consideration as necessary, not all I'm sure but I suppose it's dependent on where they apply etc

@TripleDaisySummer - I have a plan b for him but he's barely engaging with it as we both know it's really not what he wants. He needs an average of 6s (across 7 subjects) for either of the grammar school 6th forms he's applied to, and that's all fine EXCEPT they need also need 5 in English Language. And that's the sticking point.

The plan b I have is a couple of non-grammar schools but even they need a 5 in English Lang in order to do Physics A level. I imagine we could probably blag our way into one of those schools with a 4 in English (and assurance that he is literate) but the grammar schools won't be lenient.

Local colleges are just awful, one way or another. He's so bright at his chosen subjects (Physics and Maths) that it would be a shame to dumb down and not do A levels. He will be really disappointed and unhappy. I think he also still needs a school environment (with a SEN dept) rather than college .

@TeenDivided - yes it could be fight/flight. But we've been over it all so many times, he's had support, we've talked it through, supported, sympathised, acknowledged. But still does nothing.

@filchards if he's really bright he'll get the grades for maths and physics

My DS was really good at those subjects and did absolutely no revision at all. He got 9s for those subjects because he liked them, turned up to lessons and did the required homework but that was it. My DS got lower grades for subjects he hated but they were good enough and he went on to do his A Levels.

What I'm saying is don't lose heart as he'll probably be fine if it's subjects he knows and is interested in.

Internally I was really frustrated with DS and encouraged him to do past papers. I think they did them at school as part of their revision lessons anyway. He just got really angry with me and said the subjects were easy and that that he knew them.

I realised any nagging of mine was counterproductive and that I just had to trust him. Which I did and he did fine. He could have done better in other subjects which annoyed me a lot actually if he'd done the work and revision but this was covid and they weren't overly motivated

@filchards FWIW I understand. You are doing your best for ds. I hope the penny drops for him soon.

@HappiDaze - he'll probably get 8/9s in physics, maths, further maths, comp sci. But if he doesn't get a 5 in eng language, he won't be able to do what he wants to do. That's the whole issue. For the sake of an hour or 2 a day for the next week, he is going to make things difficult for himself. Silly boy.

Another one whose ds will be very lucky to scrape the lower end of his Art predicted grades. Not even within sniffing distance of aspirational grade how much the grade boundaries may move, if at all.

Sigh, is this the government de-prioritising creative degrees at university?

Thank you @LighthouseCat and @SummerSazz for the tips on grade boundaries and how to calculate the final grade.

Placemarking really but DD has gone to a friends to revise (!) ah well - hopefully they will get lots done, I think it's too intense to keep up the mammoth sessions for over a month so it's all good and will be good for her MH to see friends and have a change of scene.

In a way it's reassuring that others are feeling the same re the art raw score. No one in DDs class got a score that will get them a 9. That's odd isn't? My DD did about 3 hrs revision for her RE GCSE last year. Got a 9 (as did most of her friends; quite mixed academic ability). I'd estimate DD did around 200 hours of art. I know she's not Picasso. But it's GCSE art (and she is actually v good at art imo). Just seems like not all GCSEs are equal (but then I guess I was naive to think they were!)

@LighthouseCat - DD has been listing to me the GCSEs she thinks would have got her a higher grade for a fraction of the amount of work she has put in for Art. I have to keep reminding her that at the time of choosing the GCSE options nothing would have made her go for those other subjects as she just wasn’t interested in them at the time. Now it’s all about the average grade she needs to get into the 6th form she would like to go to. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

DD has had a couple of days off here. We went to Spitalfields market yesterday and she bought some earrings. Today she has been to Covent Garden with the boy she is going to prom with. She is in school tomorrow for a Spanish revision session.

I am printing past papers and leaving them strategically on the kitchen table 😬.

He needs an average of 6s (across 7 subjects) for either of the grammar school 6th forms he's applied to, and that's all fine EXCEPT they need also need 5 in English Language. And that's the sticking point.

We have similar with DS though the issue we face are all due to school issues with English department - singled out by inspectors with school in special measure as especially dire.

English Lan and RS are both very hard to revise for though - little direction from teachers - little interest from DS.

Seneca has a course for wjec board so DS has done some of that lucky it's him as I can get him to work I'd be fucked if it was DD1 as you just have to leave her to get on with it anything else is counter productive.

Don't think mine are enthused by plan b - but it is what it is they get the grades or they do plan b and take longer to get where they want possibly by a different route. It does seem to have taken the pressure of DN a bit more though.

DD was predicted 6/7, got a 4.
I've been led to believe from a friend who is a teacher that scores are lowered because they missed having as much work in their portfolio due to lockdowns, isolations, year groups being staggered and strikes. That's apparently the threshold art teachers have been told to provisionally score on. Don't quote me but that's what I was told.

I really do hope it means it doesn't go any lower if it's independently checked. DD is unbothered but it's annoyed me as the first indicator of why this year group will be shafted when the previous two were graded up due to Covid and it's knock on disruption.

Glad my DD isn't the only one wearing docs to prom. She has a septum piercing (which she has managed to keep tucked up her nose for an entire year at school without it being spotted) and wants a nose and helix piercing done the day after exams finish. She is trying to decide whether both nose and septum showing at prom is too much.

Anyone else's child going into school in half term? Mu child is going in tomorrow for History revision and then in Wed for Eng and Maths.

@Circleoffifths you are right about hindsight, and as I've said to my DD, she is actually really proud of parts of her portfolio and final project. Art pushed her out of her perfectionist comfort zone and that's no bad thing.

@ReformedWaywardTeen like your DD, mine is over it too which is good but like you I slightly worry about what the final grade will be, and if we'll see a similar thing across other subjects this year.

Mine wants their hair cut like a scene kid from MySpace, dyed green and black and then wants nose, top of ear and lip pierced

I've said Ok to the hair, but not the piercings, because I reminded them as someone who wants to work with children, that's not going to work eventually and will cost lots for not much time with it.

I got a scowl then told what tattoos they plan at 18 🤦

How to revise with tonsillitis? If he can watch Harry Potter surely he can watch a short vid on homeostasis?

@ReformedWaywardTeen I'm quite relaxed with piercings - I had a load when I was younger and you would never know now. The only one I have said I wouldn't like is the big holey ear ones which she would never have anyway.

I think it's a very different attitude now - I had a mid life crisis eyebrow piercing at 50 and no one at work has batted an eyelid. I don't work in a creative industry either. I have colleagues with nose / various ear piercings and tattoos and no one says anything I am aware of. I don't think that would have been the case 20 years ago.

Only for choir practice before their Eisteddfod performances later in the week!

I like your style 😆

Mine has sessions every day this week.

So with the AQA one which is out of 96. If for example the course work they got 70 and the exam 50 you multiply 70×1.5 and then add the 50?

@Letskeepgoing - the weighting is different for AQA. The weighting is at the bottom of this page. The portfolio mark you multiply by 3 and the exam by 2 to give a total out of 480. https://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/art-and-design/gcse/art-and-design-8201-8206/scheme-of-assessment#:~:text=Each%20component%20is%20marked%20out,total%20mark%20out%20of%2096.