Year 11 2023-24

[Maxus]

Anyone else got kids starting year 11 in September?

If mine was still at school til Friday I think we might both have collapsed in a heap 😱

Science sounds great! How was English?

He failed English only got a 3.
Finished today and was given mock timetable for February mocks. Starts 1st of Feb.

We are February too. Feels very soon already.
I can’t believe I have to do all this again with DS2 🤣🙈🙈

@Panic71 I have 2 yrs before doing it all again with DD2 but that will be so different as she is nothing like DS.

Oh dear. Lots of tears here this morning (not all of them from me!). DD has mocks starting on 3 Jan and has insisted on revising “her way” which so far as I can see has left her miles behind but with a small number of very beautifully designed revision cards covering about 3 topics. Now she’s in bits because she wants a Christmas break but it’s all going to be ruined because she can’t stop thinking about how much she still has to do. Send help!😫

@Marisquita oh dear that sounds so awful mocks on the 3rd of January wishing her good luck. . We just applied for 2 6th forms today.
Though not looking good with a teacher predicted grade 4 for English. Better than the mock 3 though !

Sit down and help her timetable what time she has left allowing for a 4/5 day proper break.

Each 45min (or whatever) session to have a clear goal, not just Chemistry, but 'properties of ionic and covalent bonds' not just History but '10 points on the Treaty of Versailles and 5 reasons why it lead to WWII' (or whatever).

Done for Christmas yesterday. It's been a long and stressful term.

We had a letter with important dares from school. Revision starts in school 8 Jan, mocks 18 Feb, which weirdly is 2 days before half term.

DS has a dental hospital appointment on 18 Jan, which is freaking me out. He has a rogue canine wandering in his gum, which needs to come out. I'm hoping they will do it in one of the holidays!

@Marisquita I echo what @TeenDivided says (who always speaks a lot of sense). Make a very clear timetable and stick to it. Also, if the subject teachers have suggested certain topics to focus on then that's useful too (school intranet, friends in class who remember hints from the teacher etc). Our A level mocks start 4 January so I do sympathise.

@Marisquita oh that's tough to have mocks on 3rd Jan, my dd's the same insisting on doing it her way, you have my sympathies

Mine is good for getting themselves organised and plans for revision. Absolutely not the same for the next so reading these tips in preparation for them.

Sending strength to those that need it.

Hope everyone manages a reasonably stress free day tomorrow and the teens aren't grumps.

@Tebheag @TeenDivided @Aaarghthepancakes @CactusPeach @Littlebluebird123 thank you all.

What’s frustrating is that I did sit down with her at the start of the holidays (way back - she broke up on 7 December!) and carved up the entire syllabus in all 9 subjects into 45-minute mini-topics. We then marked up the calendar so that she had enough slots to accommodate all the topics, plus some spare capacity and time for exercise and rest and Christmas and what have you.

She wouldn’t let me allocate mini-topics to slots as she Did Not Need To Be Micromanaged. So there!

Ah well. We’ll make the best of it for mocks once the Christmas festivities are over, but I am seriously thinking I may need to take a month off work to supervise the runup to the real exams. She’s bright and perfectly able to do well, but she needs high grades for her chosen 6th form and has a marked tendency to rabbit-in-headlights syndrome when the pressure is on.

Wishing you all a peaceful and grump-free Christmas! 🎄

Merry Christmas to you all DS was up at 5am yes the one doing his Gcses in 2024 😂.

Hi folks
please can I join you , I have a very stressy dd heading into mocks in next few weeks
she is already prescribed anxiety meds
she’s bright and confident in many ways but really anxious about tests / exams
I am literally dreading the next few months ahead
yet working real hard on being supportive, non pressurising
and surfing the emotional rollercoaster!!

@Bumdrops that's hard. She sounds a bit like my DD1 who is now safely and happily at university doing a degree carefully chosen with a criteria that included no final exams. We paid for CBT sessions for DD1 and I think that's what got her through her A levels. (Didn't do GCSEs as COVID year group). Also got her into a small room for the exams which was a massive help with her anxiety, she hated the large hall.
DD2 who does GCSEs this year is thankfully more pragmatic, hates revision but will do it and coped with mocks which were thankfully before Christmas and had the results before the holiday which was also a relief. A sensible way to do things. She has round two of mocks in February but just core subjects and mfl so not too bad and viewed as more practice.

I made a new revision timetable for my son to start yesterday. He made one at school back in about October and hasn't done any revision. I've taken out all subjects but English language, maths and science. His big issue is knowing what questions are asking of him. So my approach to his revision (bearing in mind he goes to subject specific revision sessions at school as well) is to print out past papers, let him tackle them but as revision, so if he needs to look things up he can, and then go through the answer scheme with him to teach him how he should have answered the questions. Then hopefully by May he should be so used to completing papers that he won't just sit in front of them and do barely anything, which I think happened in a few of his mocks!

He was not happy I was making him revise yesterday. I said it's only for a few months and if he works hard but still fails at least he knows he tried his best. Whereas if he continues gaming all hours of the day and doing no work it will be all his own fault if he fails. I also pointed out that so far it's been me putting in all the work involving his revision and I'll have to continue putting in the work by going through the papers with him and I felt he could put in a bit of an effort. I've also timetabled plenty of breaks! He didn't stick to the timetable very closely but he did do a bit of work. English is his real problem but I got an A* back in the day so I'm hoping that by going through the papers together I can give him a few pointers on how to put together a paragraph for the longer questions that will get him a fair few marks.

Shocked after leaving DS to chill over Christmas he is actually revising today got his plan all set up for the rest of half term week too !!
Happy new Year to you all when it comes

I’ve told my DS he really needs step up his revision now. I’m disappointed that I have to push him so much.

He needs a 6 in maths as he has his heart set on Computer Science. But he’s only working at a level 4 at the moment and the school are confident that he will get a 5, but they’re recommending he does the foundation paper. He can do the higher paper if he works hard now for the next mocks and I provided past papers for him to do in December. He hasn’t even completed one 🙄. If it was me I would have done it straight away.

I’m annoyed with the school as they’ve never given much homework so he thinks 2 hours a day (which I think is minimum) is a lot.

I’m helping him with a revision timetable today and then I’m resigning to leave him to it. I’ve told him it’s up to him if he regrets it later.

@HoppingLady There is/was a BTEC Extended Diploma in Computing which could be an option perhaps if he ends up with the 5 for maths? (I don't know if it has turned into T Level).

DD has put together a revision timetable for herself, she's quite grumpy about how much she has to do, she wonders why I am not bringing her up in Norway or Denmark where apparently children can do as much or as little as they please (Youtube said so, must be true). I've apologised for raising her in the UK, obviously a huge failing on my part!

I am lucky as she is on track and although not thrilled about the work at least motivated to get it done - her 6th form destination is lovely and she's looking forward to leaving her school.

Thank you, I have seen this and of course there are always other routes which can be taken. If he does his best and gets a 5 then that’s fine. However I don’t feel he’s putting much effort in so far and I know he can do better if he puts the work in.

Can I join you? We’ve had fairly plain sailing with dd until now…. She works really hard and predictions were 8s for everything. Summer exams were all 5s but teachers all said they’re not worried, she just needs to learn exam style and next mocks will be better. Those were November and her English went down to a 4 with 5s and 6s (one 8).
she’s revising but not effectively and got a new English teacher in September who answers questions with “well you should know that!” We’ve arranged a tutor once a week but it’s heartbreaking seeing her struggle to reach her potential.

A “friend” at our nye party last night was going on about how many days until GCSEs etc and dd just went upstairs while I said goodbyes before rushing to hug her because I’d said “we’re just going month by month in this house” but the dc kept going despite seeing dd upset. The friend is year 10 so not in the pressure zone yet. I’ve never in my life wanted to tell a 14 year old to just fuck off and leave my dd alone at 1am this morning (obviously I didn’t say that and politely smiled while changing the subject).

anyway, I think the next 6 months are going to be really emotional. We’ve booked a summer holiday so we all can escape in July.

sorry for the long post. It’s helpful venting. Next mocks are after half term. Roll on Easter 😩

That sounds so like my dd - it’s all been relatively simple until now but mocks showed that she isn’t where she wanted to be. It’s tricky as well because there’s no risk of her not getting into sixth form so there’s no motivation there. We promised to not discuss it over the holidays, but will need to sit down and make a plan when she’s back at school next week.

well done for not biting last night !

@BeingGrownUp dd will likely be fine for getting into sixth form but her chosen subjects are tough ones so I really want her to go in with confidence. Her friends all seem to be breezing through so I can’t speak to anyone in RL. It’s so hard to know how much to encourage without breaking her.

The party dc was obnoxious all night. She won’t be invited again.