Year 11 2023-24

[Maxus]

Anyone else got kids starting year 11 in September?

I've forced the issue of revision this week. Actually he hasn't been as resistant as I thought he might be and has got on and done it. He was given a load of revision books by his school and I've decided to focus on just maths, English Language and science. Generally the books have a page of information then a few questions at the bottom so I've been printing out the page, cutting off the questions then sticking them both on a double page spread in an exercise book. It quickly came to light that he's not actually reading the info before attempting the questions but even when he does, particularly in English, he can't always find the right information to answer the question. Maths isn't too bad but in maths I think his predicted grade is a 3 whereas in English it's a 4. I cannot see him getting to a 4 based on the work I've been marking this week from him but we'll keep plugging away in hope!

@MiniMidiMaxi I have been pondering the same thing DD is 16 in September and has been pestering for a part time job since she was 14. Not pushing revision until DD is back at school. I would just get into loggerheads with DD and DH if I did.

My DS is also hoping to starting working this year happy to let him work if grades are affected then he will have to stop working. Though will delay him starting till after his 1st set of mocks have been done.

We’ve just discussed it and he’s going to start to apply for some jobs, I’ve just been helping him put together a (very short!) CV! It does feel like it might be a little easier right now to get that first bit of experience than it has been in the last 10 years or so, and I’m not sure how long that’s going to last. The retail temp jobs for run up to Christmas have already started to appear!

@Gazelda i always thought NCS sounded great, but I’m confused how it works now it looks like they’ve changed it from a standard 4 week programme, can’t really make sense of their website.

Hope no one is caught up in the concrete issues!

Aaah DS still not finished his homework !! Only 3days till back at school too. Dreading this year😥

My dd does explorers, they let the teens lead the activities week to week and there’s been opportunities to join national and regional events too, she’s not done any but has had chance to spend time with working huskies in Sweden, do a ‘monopoly’ trail in London and learn to scuba dive at a local school. Week to week they take turns leading and do cooking outside, play games, there was a big water fight in the summer.

DD has also done duke of Edinburgh through her school.

Well crikey have just helped DD go through her mess of a box of school work and quite frankly I am overwhelmed with the amount of stuff they have to learn. At the moment I feel at a loss at how I can help but on a positive her work is now organised into subjects and her revision books are in some sort of order now.

My DS is starting y11 too.
no homework apart from sport studies (seriously?!?) and he will not do anything extra unless set by school. We have argued all summer!

Took me a while to remember what times we needed to all be up in the morning! Dd decided to reorganise her bedroom this afternoon and then remembered she did have 3 whole science papers she was supposed to have done!

No idea how we’ll all manage tomorrow. I’m a teacher so first day for me too. I never sleep well the day before term starts, always worried I’ll have forgotten how to teach over the holidays.

Hope next week goes well for everyone.

Good luck all for the start of term. DD starts a little later today. She actually tidied her bedroom so small wins. Realistically we are looking at level 1 courses for college but as long as she tries her best. She is not academic and does struggle. No learning needs but has always found things hard so we will see. Anyway going to get the first day done and then see what homework she has. If none will look at some revision stuff for her.

Good lukc to your DD today @Midnightstar76 , DS was meant to start back on Weds but they've pushed it back to Thursday to accommodate some building work that needed to finish.

Joining. Starts back today!

Joining too. Starting back on Wednesday. DS didn't get any homework apart from Art ( which he didn't do!) but I set him a revision timetable and got him to do an hour a day. His Yr 10 mocks weren't great, but he has worked really hard over the summer from the books. If he doesnt improve, I don't know what else to do eith him He did do maths genie as his maths is stubbornly at a 3.9, and he said that helped. I'm trying not to stress too much about it.

Mine had mocks in the last couple of weeks of summer term so no results yet. Hopefully we'll get them fairly early on.

My last one to go through Y11, you'd think that with 3 older ones I might have an idea how to do this now...

Nothing set over the Summer which he was pleased about as students who were felt to be in danger of not getting the grades to stay on for Sixth Form were given very detailed work plans. He's rested and grown up a bit.

Last year was a key one for him - after an inattentive ADHD diagnosis, he finally got the right things in place to to manage his atrocious handwriting and focus issues, teachers are looking out for him and he now knows what attention should feel like. His grades all jumped up so he's in a good place.

He's also starting to think strategically about what he needs to work on, let's see where that goes!

Hi, got DS2 starting year 11. Also have a year 13 and a year 6 so going to be an emotional summer!

Yippee DS homework all complete. School have had a problem with timetables so kids will have to wait till school to get them.
Hope all your kids have a great first day in Yr 11.

My dc is also going into year 11. I’m hoping he will take revision seriously as he can be a bit complacent. We’ve agreed that he will look for a part time summer job once gcses are done.

In my area the local employers won't take part-time/student staff until after their GCSEs.

DS had quite a lot of homework over the summer. He's decided to start revision for his November mocks next week. We've designed a weekly revision timetable and collated as many past papers as possible, Just got to get them printed off now

Well small victory DD did some English language revision. I did sit with her and we did a mixture of different things for 20/30 minutes. BBC bite size, Mr Bruff and some reading of revision book cpg. Will set her some maths to do when she comes home from school tomorrow without me and my input. Have just ordered her some Sociology revision guides. Will sit and structure a timetable with her at the weekend.

No homework set over the holidays here. Ds2 goes back tomorrow so he is busy washing his hair in preparation. He's allowed to wear his pe kit to school this week because of the heatwave but he is determined to wear his prefect hoodie with it!

DD started back today, had a pretty relaxed summer with only one Eng Lit essay to hand in & no homework.
She's planned a revision time table as her school holds mocks in November. She's doing 3 languages & I'm just hoping she can keep up with it all.
She sets high standards for herself so I'm just hoping she doesn't make herself into a pressure pot.
Best of luck to all yours as the new academic year starts.

DS started back today and said it was a boring day - not sure if he was expecting fanfares and ribbons?! 😂