Year 11 2023-24

[Maxus]

Anyone else got kids starting year 11 in September?

I invigilate GCSEs and every year without fail we have at least 1 student who sustains an injury either just before or bang in the middle of exam season almost always boys getting broken limbs playing football!

Back when I was at sixth form I met a boy in my English A Level class who'd had appendicitis and missed all his GCSEs. He'd been allowed to do A Levels based on his predicted grades and then sat English and maths GCSEs, I think, the summer of Year 12. Not sure if similar things happen now.

Special consideration for illness, yes. But there is only English and maths in November.

Am I right in thinking you can sit if ill and get special consideration or if too ill to sit they will base result on other exams provided a certain % for that subject is actually sat?

Yes. The relevant info is on pages 6-8:

https://www.jcq.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Guide_to_spec_con_process_2023_24_FINAL.pdf

Any other DC doing taster days at college in July? Dd doesn't want to go as she is quite firm in her subjects but i am very keen for her to go just to get a feel for college

DS has just informed me he is dreading going back to school on Monday 🥲 He's never been an I Love School kinda kid, but he's never hated it.
The sooner these blooming exams are over the better.
He just looks rung out and miserable. He's had a decent Easter holiday, been out with us and his friends, but he's had enough now!

Yes I think it’s going to be a tough few weeks, dd is done at this stage really, not enjoying school much at all. I really hope she has a good time at college!

Last stages now is how I'm trying to sell it to DD. She's did her MFL speaking exam on Thursday and has art this week. At least once the art is done that's one quite big time pressure subject done. She's trying to keep in mind the long summer holiday that she will have from mid June to September. However she also has a horrible cold so not great this weekend. I encouraged her to go to her sports club yesterday as I thought it would do her good to see non school friends and she was glad she'd been. Breaks are important. Leaving her home alone today as we're taking DC1 back to university.

@Philandbill yep Art at the end of this week for us too, I cannot wait until it’s done! Then Spanish speaking on 3rd May before the rest kick in.

Roll on the 20th June!

@dinomirror - yes DS has induction days in July for the places he has applied to. Unfortunately choices 1 and 3 are on the same day so he's going to go to option 1. He is sure on his subjects too but it's a chance to meet the teachers, head of year, other students who will be in his classes, spend the day in the new place and get a feel for it. He's looking forward to them.

My dts have their taster day in July but are likely to be out of the country in DH home country (plus point being able to book flights out of school holidays!)
I assume it doesn’t matter if they don’t attend? Both are pretty confident with what to expect.

Our induction is at the end of June.

Big heard anything about DS taster days yet.

Good luck to anyone doing their art gcse today, hope all goes to plan.

My DD has a few conditional offers, as her school has advised students to apply to multiple 6th forms. Taster days are all in June for those, however my DD doesn't plan to go to any, as they're pretty much back-up choices. Her top two choices are her own school and a selective grammar which hasn't made her an offer.

PS. She will likely end up the grammar's wait list, as her predicted grades qualify her for it (minimum score is 56 across best 8 GCSE predicted grades). She didn't have enough predicted 9s to get a conditional offer. The school is making cond offers until end of April.

Good luck to the artists!

@anoukis - interesting about the selective grammar your daughter is applying to still making offers. DS has a conditional offer for a selective and they were offering on between 68 and 70+ points (from top 8) for external students (depending on subject choice). They offered based on grade predictions, school recommendation and personal statements. They usually do interviews but they had had too many applications to process to have time to do interviews. Good luck to your DD. Stressful to have that hanging over her as well as revision.

Yeah, deadline for offers is apparently 30th of April, but I'm guessing my DD's predicted score isn't high enough. The subjects she is choosing are very popular in that school so competition on those is fiercest. It's a shame, as she's predicted 9s in her chosen subjects (2 sciences and maths) and quite in a few others. Her History, English Lit, and Art predicted grades aren't high enough... I'm guessing conditional offers were all 9s with a few 8s but not really sure.

TBH I prefer our current school which is a 10-min walk from us and has great teachers in 6th form. The grammar is a boys school with a mixed 6th form. My DD was lured by her best friend to apply to the grammar. None of them got an offer though - they are applying for the same subjects a with similar score - so maybe they'll end up together in their current school :) The grammar had over 1400 applications for something like 100 external places.

Well done to your DS!

DD went back to school today and straight into Paper 2 mocks for the sciences (they only did Paper 1 mocks before). She’s worked diligently and seems to be in good heart about it all, making time for cooking, baking, the gym, cuddling the cat and WhatsApping her friends. She needs 7s in everything and 8s in A level subjects. Induction days are in late June and she’s looking forward to meeting new people. Hope everyone’s hanging in there!

That's interesting - DS has applied to 2 "outstanding" sixth form options (which get good results) and got 2 offers- but the minimum grades are far, far lower than PPs are describing, 48 points + for one and 5s for the other one.

I guess it's nice for him to have the definite offers, but I suspect he is less motivated than if he thought getting into sixth form would be a challenge.

It might backfire, as he tends to be far too laid back anyway.

Its really interesting how all areas do it differently. Around here there are no 'points' -only grades and sixth forms are seen for the less academically able

6th forms seen as for the lesson able?

Do you mean 6th form colleges as opposed to 6th forms in schools?
Or in your area are the colleges seen as better for A levels than schools?

(Genuinely interested, here in Hants it is all colleges anyway)

When I was growing up, my area had X 6th Form College and X College of Further Education. Two separate organisations. All the school 6th forms had shut a year or so before I started secondary so everyone went to either of these colleges. One was for A Levels and one for vocational.

I live in a totally different area now and there's one college spread across two campuses. A Levels are mostly at one campus and vocational another but some of the vocational subjects are taught at the A Level campus. My son needs to decide between two subjects each at a different campus.

There are also at least two schools I know of who have their own 6th forms, but these aren't particularly seen as better than the college, just some kids prefer the school environment. I definitely would have done. I hated college.

I don't know how the schools' 6th forms do it, or the college for A Level entry, but for the vocational courses you can enter at Level 1, 2 or 3 and that's not decided until the enrolment day which is after the GCSE results come out. But you apply for as many courses as you want before that, get an unconditional offer on them all, then make a firm choice on enrolment day and your GCSE grades determine what level you're put in.

At the beginning of the year I was hopeful my son would start on at least a Level 2 course but now most of his predicted grades have come right down from 4s in Year 10 to 1s after his recent mocks so now I'm assuming he'll start college on a Level 1 course. But then he hopefully won't find that too difficult, which is how he's found school every day of his life.

But at least it's fairly clear for him and he doesn't have to worry about certain grades for a certain course. His brother in the year below at the minute wants to do A Levels at his school 6th form. I don't think A Levels are the right path for him really but if he wants to do them he'll have to really push himself as at the minute I think he's predicted mostly 5s with a few 4s but I've tried to gently suggest that he'll find the courses too difficult if he can't get at least a 6 in the subjects he wants at GCSE.

There are two 6th form colleges which are very very popular and where most academic students go
6th form (attached to school) is where most who still want to do A-Levels but didn't get into the 6th form college/didn't do as well as expected go
FE college- for BTEC, T-Level etc

In our area all secondary schools are outstanding or good. Even though their 6th forms aren't truly selective, they all have minimum required grades for certain subjects (e.g. min 7 maths, 6 sciences, min 8 Add Maths, etc).

They also have additional general entry requirements e.g. "at least 6 GCSE passes, with at least 3 subjects grade 6+, and English and Maths grade 4+".

The local colleges have similar requirements, but those requirements are lower than for all the local schools 6th forms (e.g., average of higher than grade 5 across all GCSE results).

We have 2 grammars - single sex up to year 11, but their 6th forms are mixed - and they both have high requirements e.g. minimum 8 maths, 7/8 sciences, etc. And the minimum cut off score of 56, to be considered for admission - for one of them and I think 60 for the other.