GCSE support - the final frontier!

[SheilaFentiman]

These are the voyages of the GCSE Enterprise. To support our DCs, bemoan exam boards and to boldly go through the last fortnight like no one has gone before!

Hope today goes well for everyone. Really starting to tick subjects off now! DD's friends buzzing this morning at the thought of last English ever (not so for DD, who is doing the IB next year, so hardly stopping anything, but that's her choice at least!).

I think these threads have done a great job of making space for all of us, with all our (children's) different abilities, efforts and experiences.

@Letskeepgoing - thank you - I'll give that a try. I'm thinking our 'no-mow' garden which is full of long grass and lots of wild flowers etc was not the best idea for our poor boy.

I booked a meal out for Friday as ds very unenthusiastic about doing anything but thought this would be nice, we did the same with eldest ds. He says he is going to have a bonfire on Saturday and burn all his school work!!!

This is it. It was prescription only Fexofenadine until last year I believe. Its the only thing that's worked. I tell anyone with hayfever to try it.

Burning school work sounds good but my kids like to keep everything. They must take after my mum as she presented my school books to me the other day.

Hayfever can be awful, I remember my older son had speech day and couldn't stop sneezing (very loudly) even after taking medication.

My son has been stressed and badly behaved over the weekend. He has English and Latin literature today (which isn't too hard but has high grade boundaries) followed by Chemistry tomorrow morning.

Hopefully he'll calm down after tomorrow when the last three are well spaced over 10 days.

My DC are piling up the book to get rid of as soon as they can.

After today we are over the worse of it hopefully - D1 has two A-level exams and DS has last GCSE that might impact him. Next week DD1 has last exam as does DS - but it's additional maths which he seems to enjoy doing past papers for.

I hope my dd year 8 studies the same plays/books and poem anthology as I have loads of text books!

DS takes fexofenadine, montelukast, eye drops and nasal spray for his hayfever and we’re just about keeping on top of it this year. His laundry isn’t pegged out on the line, we dry his indoors and tumble dry much more of it.

I really feel for them all struggling with hayfever on top of everything else.

Have you stared marking GCSE papers already? I was wondering when it's started.

DD's English teacher is also an exam marker and he says he's started marking Eng Lit papers. I find it a bit weird that some of DD's papers might have already been marked. Presumably grades can't be worked out until all are marked in the subject.

Definitely feel like we're nearly at the end despite a whole spread of subjects still to be completed. DD has spent the last year moaning about the school and has now started moaning about how much she'll miss it!

Ds just keeps telling us how tired he is, his school have kept them in full time and with 1 hour booster sessions after school. He does fairly well academically but he has ASD and dyspraxia and finds it exhausting. He was a bit emotional this morning but I'm so proud of how well he's coping with the stress, we were expecting meltdowns and disruptive behaviour and there's been none. We're going for an early dinner at the village pub on Friday, your fish and chips on the beach sounds much nicer @Letskeepgoing, we are as far away from the coast as it's possible to be in the UK

Our DS is rotten with hayfever as well, but because he's on a strong anti-nausea medication, the only antihistamine he can take is Benadryl and it makes him a bit drowsy and isn't terribly effective, at least this year.

Good luck to everyone today. DS was so stressed that he struggled to even get out of bed, and then he was stuck in the loo for ages with a nervous stomach so we only just got him to school on time.

Bloody disaster here. I drive DS2 to school it's 6 minutes m. His anxiety is horrendous if we get there early. Left at 8.35am

Temporary traffic lights failed so we got to school at 9.08. I am trying to find out if they let him into the exam.

Do yours start at 9.00? Fingers crossed there should be no problem, in that he was late and not 'very late'and the exam is more than 1 hour. See https://www.jcq.org.uk/exams-office/online-forms/guidance-notes-concerning-very-late-arrivals/#:~:text=1.,very%20late%20for%20the%20examination.

Oh no. I'm sorry.

I would think he would be good to take it still.

I remember my friend who was a teacher would actually go and knock on doors on the morning of exams who didn't turn up. I guess there's a window of opportunity where they could turn up late.

They must have contingencies for minor lateness, surely? Fingers crossed

Thank you- school had confirmed he's in the exam. They were aware of the issue and school buses were stuck too, so there were a fair few affected.

He seemed calm so I'm hoping he wasn't too disrupted by it. He read through the guide that was linked on this thread for English, so a bit of extra prep time and he found it helpful.

My nerves are jangling still.

Did they let him in? I think it should be okay, or maybe they’d let him sit it in another room incase he disturbs the others or even outside the hall?

Ah we cross posted ! Thank you for updating, I would have been so worried for your ds.

Btw. Do they not have a session before school? Ds seems to have JIT sessions (JustInTime, or something like that) at there school and they provide kids with breakfast if they want and make sure everyone’s in way beforehand. An hour earlier. I’m finding that so helpful. Ds has breakfast before he goes he seems to wake up starving, but it does sound like the school are putting in a huge effort to ensure no one is flustered last minute.

DD super stressed this morning with tears and frustration. I'm really hoping she gets through this morning. We just need a pass. She's had a horrendous 12 months, with mental health and had alot of time off school. She's trying so hard bless her but gets so overwhelmed. We are currently having assessments and looks like she's getting diagnosed with ADHD after a very long road to get some answers. She's struggled so much so hoping we can get through this bit and she can start any treatment to set her up for college. She had glandular fever too in April so still feeling the effects of that too. I'm so proud of how hard she's tried despite the obstacles but I'm so nervous as she really deserves a pass to get through to do her subject choices in September. Think she's well and truly fed up with the exams though now. It's getting harder and harder to help keep her focused this week. Here's hoping the paper today is kind to them all and good luck to everyone. 🤞Roll on Friday. 4 left to go after today .

They do have early sessions but his anxiety is toi huge for them. He's developed huge issues around change to routine/transitions, didn't attend school at all in January and been on reduced TT since.
He's taking all his exams in a smaller room ans has laptop etc. He has a small collection of diagnoses(!).

Hay-fever also bad here Fexoofenadine no longer cutting it so I'm gearing up to asking for injections for him.

My DS2 very similar. Its a hard slog, I really hope your DD gets enough to do her chosen subjects

“My DC are piling up the book to get rid of as soon as they can.”

All completed subjects have been stuck in a box in the spare room!

Your poor DD, @Woody1979 . My DS had glandular fever in February and hasn't been right since - hasn't been well enough to go back to school at all, horrendous gastric complications, and we weren't even sure he'd sit any of the exams. I hope today's paper is kind to them both.