Year 11 2023-24

[Maxus]

Anyone else got kids starting year 11 in September?

We have received the mocks results.
our school did them before half term so it looks like we are ahead of everyone 😞
what would you give more importance at the moment? Predicted grades or PPE (exams) results? My son has decent (all passes) and some quite good in predicted but he has failed English in mocks. Is this extremely worrying?

@Thesunisshining888 Failing Eng Lang in mocks is a cause for concern, especially if other things are passes. I would be getting the paper back and making sure your DS understands where he lost marks. It could be he hasn't answered to the mark scheme, but is quite capable of doing so, or (as in my DD1's case) he has some blind spots that make that GCSE really difficult. You really want to get that into a pass. (We threw everything we had at DD1's Eng Lang, she got a C in the end, but only because she had good Controlled Assessments, she was still about D/E grade on the actual paper.)

Otherwise I think I would look more at mock results than predictions. He should be able to achieve at least the mock results in the actuals, and possibly more, but it depends how hard he worked for mocks, and how hard he works for the proper exams. The main thing is to learn from the mocks. Was it lack of revision, lack of answering technique, misunderstanding the question, stupid mistakes? Use that information to guide focus.

-@TeenDivided thanks. Yesterday he was telling me that he thinks he is struggling to write PEEL paragraphs. We have parents evening tomorrow so it will be good to speak with the teacher but we haven’t got the test back yet.

@Thesunisshining888 they've got 4-5 months to pull those grades up, don't worry too much yet.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-67438619
For those interested. Being consulted on.

Very interesting @stubiff , I think they may have been a bit shocked by last years results. Also if Wales and Scotland haven't gone back to 2019 standards then it would seem fair.

This will come as a relief to my DD, physics is her nemesis. We're a week into mocks, she's had 8 this week because of time table issues, shattered this evening & glad it's a downward slope next week with only 3.
Day off tomorrow, she's planning to slob around😁.

Hope yours are all going well with exams/revision.

Thanks for sharing @stubiff

I wish they’d said before!! My DD has sat all her mocks and spent ages memorising physics equations. They were given the June paper with no formula, and have very annoyingly stuck to the same grade boundaries.

DS announced this evening that if he hasn’t done well then all the revision was pointless. He’s only really done a very full of week or two of revision!

Wow that is quick!
We have to wait a month they where sat as proper exams writing exam number, same length of time as exams etc.

Our school did similar for some kids was all the ones who had grades of 4/5 as wanted to encourage them to try foundation as they have found it gives them a better chance to get the pass ! They also mentioned when you get the results it does not state if you sat the higher or foundation level paper.

So the "raw data" results for some of DDs has started trickling in end of last/this week. And it's not good. 8/40 on a history question for example (this was a paper we were optimistic on). We've had lots of tears. I feel so shit for her as she's working so hard.

There is a compulsory results evening in school start f December and it's going to be so hard for her to receive what are likely to be hugely disappointing grades and hear how fantastically well others have done. I know she need to get more resilient as life will thrown much shit their way but still.

Just a thought .. if she knows her stuff (and can remember it), could her mark be because she doesn't quite know how to answer or what the question is asking? Certain with History there is a sort of formula in the way you should answer, and it is quite specific. Same for some Eng Lit.

Thanks pancakes. It could be, we're hoping they will go over the paper initially as a class and then be able to bring home with the marking scheme so we can sit and go through it with her.

I know some marking schemes are available online @tellmewhenthespaceshiplandscoz . I downloaded a physics one for my DD not that she bothered looking😐.At least they have a while to address where they've fallen down. Horrible to see them upset when they've put the graft in.

My son is not happy about the fact that they are going to be given formula sheets again this year. He believes/has been told that they push grade boundaries up.

Mocks all over here. DS is optimistic but had a bit of a freak in his English language paper which isn't ideal. He thinks he maybe messed up about 20 mins of the exam. The others he was happy with. Results in two weeks time.

He has text this morning to say he's re-thinking his third A level choice. He is set on History and English Lit. and had been considering Government & Politics or Philosophy & Ethics for the third. He's now thinking biology to keep the degree options wider.

He's got a taster day at a local school sixth form on Monday. We requested his subjects for this day while he was still thinking of only essay based subjects.

Oh that's horrible, your poor DD.

I agree with @Aaarghthepancakes though. There are ways of answering questions to maximise marks. My son's classes have been looking a this while doing the past papers because the students were getting lower than expected marks on questions they thought they had done well in.

Thanks folks. To top off a thoroughly shit week she's been told that she hasn't been invited to the Christmas Rewards Trip (even though she has 100% attendance and way over required behaviour points needed) because "spaces are limited ".

Ahh well. She's learning early that sometimes it feels like the Universe is laughing at you

Thanks for replies though, and to OP for setting up this lovely safe space to sometimes feel sad but also share some camaraderie!

@tellmewhenthespaceshiplandscoz There's definitely a knack to answering History and English questions, also does she quote the source? My DD will answer the question but not back it up with quotes, I've tried to explain to her how not quoting loses her marks.

I'm feeling under prepared for my DD's next step, the local colleges had very few open days which we were unfortunately away for and the secondary have barely mentioned their sixth form, only impressing on them that it has high grade requirements so they better put the work in at the GCSS info evening.

What a horrible thing to do. Your poor DD. It s clearly telling her that it doesn't matter how well behaved you are or how good your attendance is, they only really care about results. Is it an Outstanding school? My DS's is and I get the feeling its the same there. They haven't bothered with him as, even though he works hard and is well behaved, he doesn't get top marks. I feel that haven't helped him at all. Its been more' Oh he doesn't cause any trouble so that's enough. We'll put in the bare minimum of effort to get him to pass.

Cactus** yes that's a good point and something we'll definitely check for when wdd Ed hopefully get to look at the paper

Angry** yes they are. I had thought the same but put it down to my increasing cynicism. But I think you are right.

It's so frustrating isn't it? When we were looking at schools, I didn't just look at the outstanding grade, I looked at the progress 8 and value added to make sure it was the right decision, but they have just let him coast imo. Every parents evening its ' oh he's a pleasure to have in the class/he's so lovely' but I took my DS2 to parents evening and he came, and some of the teachers didn't recognise him! He'd been there 3 years! DS2 is much more academic and is doing well but I suspect the top groups are pushed, the bottom groups are pushed to get a pass but the middle ones are just left behind.

Wow that's awful. I hope they felt embarrassed on that evening.

I imagine it's really hard with a sibling who is doing well, must add pressure to him and you as well.

It's rubbish at times