Year 11 2023-24

[Maxus]

Anyone else got kids starting year 11 in September?

🤣 Easy after the first 100.
Thought he was AQA but will double check when he is home.
Edited as I cant spell 😂

Think you mixed me up. My son is struggling with English the rest he will pass except for Spanish.

Oh yes probably. Sorry!

School 6th Form evening last night. It was quite positive. DS actually engaged more than I expected. He had a plan of which subjects he wanted to see and did ask questions.
Grade wise 🤞 we should be OK if he continues to improve.
It was also nice to see parents we don't see as much of as we did and hear them all have the same concerns

A positive parent's evening is always a welcome lift gingercat02, I'm glad your son is engaging. We have parent's evening immediately after return to school. I'm hoping DS might have had time to think and be a little more positive about things.

We had another discussion about his negativity yesterday. Frankly it's wearing me down. I'm poorly with (I suspect) Covid and he's in this little self-centred world of "poor me, if only the school were better I'd be getting 9 x 9's" which is really hard to take. Particularly as some of the advice he's been given is that he needs to revise more effectively, but he has ignored all of the advice on how to revise given by the school. The school is so crap that it's even set up a micro-site on it's website with loads of revision guides, advice, videos etc. I mean can you imagine going to such a shit school?!

He has nothing in his life to feel sorry about Hopefully he's just tired and the home truths I told him yesterday, coupled with the school break, will filter through his stubborn skull and improve his mood and outlook. Fingers crossed.

He has nothing in his life to feel sorry about Hopefully he's just tired and the home truths I told him yesterday, coupled with the school break, will filter through his stubborn skull and improve his mood and outlook. Fingers crossed.

Waspie I think you could be right, they are all so knackered at this time of year anyway so throw mocks in and it's compounded.

I'm currently pondering how to get the balance over Christmas of a break which she absolutely needs and starting some revision too as I don't think she's comprehended just how quickly February will come round.

My year 11 are too tired to fight me. They did an 18 minute question in silence this morning. Poor broken things.

DS has said that he is going to have the first week of holidays to relax and have fun with his friends (and also complete the rest of his sixth form applications). The second week will be starting on revision again. This seems like a reasonable plan to me. Would something like that suit your daughter tellmewhenthespaceshiplandscoz?

MrsHamlet - excellent! I have so much respect for teachers; I genuinely have no idea how you put up with it. I would either be a gibbering wreck or on remand for multiple counts of GBH before the end of September.

I may have slid down the wall in dramatic fashion when one of y10 asked me the same thing which had been asked and answered several times in the lesson.

I love my job :)

Yes, I think we'll do similar. I've also accepted and am trying to embrace the absolute fact that in order to keep momentum going until summer I am going to have to prepare to probably be seen as The Bad Guy for the foreseeable

Can I also just take this opportunity to give a huge shout out to the teachers on this thread - thank you for everything you do , o think you are bloody marvellous ❤️

Got parents evening next week noticed that you can ask teachers questions prior to the meeting so I asked a couple of teachers for a copy of the mock papers see if we can spend time working where he can improve ! Really hoping next week goes by fast as my kids are shattered!

I second this thank you.

Had parents evening today, DD did better in maths than I expected her to as she's always struggled with it, but 3's and 4's across most other subjects, her teachers are confident she can achieve 7's if she applies herself and the school does a lot of extra guided revision classes which helps, I think much easier to have the teachers guide them through it and make sure everything gets covered, it's a bit overwhelming otherwise. The issue is going to be how much she engages though, with the extra class each day it extends her school day to 5pm which is tiring and she's not one of the super motivated students.

They have more mocks in February hoping to see slightly higher grades then.

And also, thank you to the teachers, I really admire you teachers for what you up with and feel grateful to you for wanting the kids to do well. Lockdown and school closures confirmed that I couldn't be a teacher 😂

Heartfelt thanks to all the teachers from me too. DD has got her results back, did much better in physics & maths than she was expecting & is delighted with that. I think it's proved to her revision works.

Just hugs to everyone who's struggling. I really hope there is proper thought out reform of exams for future cohorts. Children taking up to 27 papers is beyond ridiculous.
There has to be a better way that serves highly academic kids & those who struggle with the pressure of 'all or nothing' exams.

Merry Christmas to you all.

3s to 7s is incredible if they can get the students there. The staff sound really positive and aspiring which is lovely. I guess so much is mindset and exam technique.

This thread is so reassuring. We're all facing similar things.

Mine is doing ok. Was a little disappointed in mock results for a couple of things but nothing below a five so really think they're being hard on themselves. What do I know though??

Someone shared this website
https://www.my-gcsescience.com/

Does anyone have any experience of using it? I studied in Scotland so completely different exam board/set up.

I want to be able to help with biology in particular. I don't think the content is the problem, it's answering it in the specific way.

Any help appreciated.

@Littlebluebird123 my DD is using that science website and finds it really useful. She likes the fact that it has the videos, the quizzes and the exam-style questions all in one place. She hasn’t needed any help with it, so that’s all I know I’m afraid!

@Panic71 I think it's more 3 to 5 or 6 and where she got 4's the teachers think she can achieve a 7. When I asked her history teacher if that was really achievable he was confident and said he's seen students raise that much in a shorter time frame but it really depends on how the time is used, it can be enough or it can go in a flash and be nothing. I think they're also taking her class work into consideration in whether it's possible. The thing is, I'm thinking okay it might be possible in one or two subjects, but several? The school does provide a lot of resources and they've been doing an hour of revision classes each day since just before half term plus have Saturday tuition available on an invitation basis so we shall see.

They have more mocks in Feb so hoping to see slighter higher results then 🤞🏼

Does anyone have any useful websites for French? In particular French writing. Thanks in advance

Seconded! Thank you lovely teachers

I have sent the science link to DS as I think he might benefit. He is thinking of Biology as his reserve/alternate A level so really wants to target a good grade.

Best wishes for a peaceful and relaxing Christmas to you all, and your students. The first half of 2024 is going to tax us, and our year 11's

I've just remembered (forgot as it's been so long in the waiting list) that DD is having considerable dental work done from Jan to remove milk teeth that aren't budging coz adult ones above are impacted and brace to.correct an overbite.

I bloody knew it would end up timed for this spring/summer We really could do without that.

I better increase my wine subscription ..:

@tellmewhenthespaceshiplandscoz oh no your poor DD hopefully it's over half term not during an exam.

@MrsHamlet sorry panicked after seeing DS report thought I could send a screen shot of English teacher comment but didn't work. Sounds like he is struggling more than we thought in English. And teachers feedback wasn't impressed.
Even his Electronics where he got a 4 said it was marked hard so no bother him getting a 5! Not much use all 6 and 7s maybe 8s for rest if he fails English.

Thanks, hopefully they may be wiggle room to work around stuff

My DS is shattered can't wait to break up Friday. Had a really good online parents evening. Even got called a success and one of his favourite pupils by one teacher as he had really improved in separate science scoring 7s in mocks. Seems to have given him a push as he started planning extra revision over Christmas break. Fingers crossed we don't fall out too much over his English. Hope the rest of your kids are doing well.