Year 11 2023-24

[Maxus]

Anyone else got kids starting year 11 in September?

History exams need to be answered in a specific way. DC spent a LOT of time on exam technique, as well as learning the stuff. Practice was key for us.

DD had an awful cold last week, so didn't get much done. Half term this coming week, so I hope she can catch up.

She's struggled with managing the time commitment for art, and had finally got it together and was ahead with response one. Now she's behind again 😞

Mocks when she goes back next week, so we're back to 24/7 revision and art. She'd refused to stay off while ill because she was worried about missing lessons but I'm certain it's prolonged the cold and she's now got a horrible cough that leaves her breathless.

I know it's a fact of life, and we've all been through the GCSE years, but I'm sad that there's so much stress at this age.

@Gazelda I'm sorry your DD is feeling so poorly, DS had a similar viral thing going on the week before half term, he also kept going to school (dosed up on paracetamol) but cancelled all his sports. H was left with a residual cough which has cleared up now thankfully but your DD sounds worse.

Hopefully once mocks are out of the way she will be able to crack on again and get back on track.

just wondering if you are all sitting with your children to help them revising. My DS doesn’t allow me (although I have a degree in biology and I could help him in all sciences) but I would like to.
should I force him to be helped?
ps: his marks are far from being excellent!

My dc doesn't want me involved in his revision at all at the moment. He hasn’t done as much as I would like. I’ve told him if he needs anything from me to just ask and I’m there. I’ll have to leave it at that I think.

Absolutely no sitting with ds here.

Encouragement, offers of help if wanted (he’s not wanted any!) provision of any books/ equipment needed, drinks, snacks etc only.

No, I don't sit with her though in the evening I'm usually on my laptop doing my work. This week was half term and I had an essay to write so I did that while she worked. She likes DH or I to read the end of unit quiz to her if she is using a revision book. And apparently having me to write out her revision timetable every three weeks (we do it in three to four week blocks) is essential to the process😁

Ah thank you. You have reassured me. Can anyone share their revision plan?

No set revision plan here. I think it’s going to depend on how the mocks go (they start tomorrow)

She made a list of all subjects and the topics within them and we have tried to divvy them up between the days and weeks.

Helping my son with a little last minute revision for his geography mock tomorrow and we spent 8 hours over the half term revising for this subject too. Im so worried about his exam tomorrow. He got a 2 in his last mock 🫣 but he didn’t work hard enough in year 10 and didn’t prep well for the exam. He’s an average kid but I just can’t see how he’s going to pass these things!!

One very run down miserable DD in our household. She has just got a constant cold and I am sure it’s underlying stress as well. She is doing mocks now and next week. I have said power through but seriously she could only manage an hour’s revision last night and had also been to extra revision after school. Really feel for her. Last exam for her for this week though. What ever her results she has tried.

@Sofrustratedwithmyself my DD is on track for 1’s and 2’s. She tries she really does but is just not academic. However we did get a surprise in her last English language mock and she got a 5! Very surprised and pleased for her. I recently received a message from school that she had been assessed and is to get 25% extra in her exams. Now looking back over her school life I am kicking myself as she has obviously needed extra help all along.

My DS has a CGP study skills book, which is really well set out fir this. It has pages in for the best ways to revise for each subject, then there are spaces for lists with a self assessment then weekly revision timetables.

We went to Tenerife at Christmas and got DS to do all the speaking- asking for things in shops, he asked a bus driver for directions etc. It really improved his speaking and listening, and boosted his confidence, as so many people complimented him on his Spanish!

We did similar in Lanzarote with DD1. It tended to confuse the people trying to get you into restaurants when she replied in good quality Spanish.

Good luck to everyone for their mocks!

DS starts his today with his MFL listening exam. About 10 mins before it started his English teacher gave him a detention for not handing in his homework yesterday. He is now in a strop saying he did hand it in and has wound himself up about it just before walking into the hall. Wonderful timing 🙄

DS' language GCSE is mandarin. The teachers at the school took a load of students to Chinatown just before Christmas and they got to practice their mandarin in the shops and restaurants. As pp have said - getting the opportunity to use their language skills on native speakers (and have them understand) is such a confidence boost.

We had 2 days of mocks pre HT (Maths 1, Eng Lit, Business and Spanish)

I took the week off to supervise/help, so revision has been slow but steady. Until last night, I came home from pilates to find DS sobbing and DH calming down in our bedroom.
Full on maths meltdown.
Everyone took a step back, and all was OK.

He's gone out with his mates today to chill for a bit.

I'm a bit concerned as he has an extra maths paper next week to decide if he's doing Foundation or Higher.

He's already doing Foundation Spanish and combined Science, so Maths as well would limit him to a 5 in 4 out of 9 subjects

My son is in the middle of his first week of a two week mocks timetable. He's not stressed about it at all. He was given a load of revision books from school but is not a fan of reading and finds it hard to take things in just from reading a book so I've got him some 'ten minutes tests' type of books for English, maths and science and am encouraging him to work through them.

As my mum pointed out to me, he's found school hard every day of his life with so much of the work beyond him. It's amazing really that he can sit in front of an exam, not knowing what to write for most of it, but not dissolve into tears or start panicking. He just does what he can.

The college course he wants to do can start from Level 1 for which he needs nothing. So while I'm hoping for his self confidence that he can scrape a 4 in the odd subject, in the grand scheme of things it really doesn't matter if he doesn't.

@AmyandPhilipfan your words are spot on in the grand scheme of things it doesn’t really matter if he doesn’t, I say the same thing there are always pathways, choices and this is just a stepping stone in lifelong learning 😊

Yes I think they are so used to Brits ( including us!) not attempting Spanish they were thrilled when DS spoke in Spanish! He was having conversations with shopkeepers about how he should teach us Spanish!

Our next round of mocks has been pushed back a week (were meant to start Monday) I'm not sure if we are relieved or annoyed 😅

@Techno56 how many rounds of mocks do your school do? We only have 1 set which have been this week and I’m glad about that, I’m not sure what the advantage of lots of testing and less teaching / learning is.

They did a set for all subjects end of November, and in English and sciences these were only paper 1.

Now they are doing paper 2 for English and sciences plus another full set of maths at the same time.

I would quite like it to be over with sooner but he will benefit from the extra revision time.

I'd rather they'd done paper 2 in the last set and it lasted a bit longer, but they hadn't covered the content fully at that point so I guess that's why it's this way.

Ah, we’re in Wales so English lit and maths are completely done already.