Year 11 2023-24

[Maxus]

Anyone else got kids starting year 11 in September?

@Waspie he can accept as many offers as he likes and then make a final decision with results in hand. As I understand it (this is our first time through 16+), this is normal and expected.

We have had a boost here today with better than expected GCSE predictions. Am hoping that the school’s confidence in DD will translate to her having more confidence in herself.

My son seems to have no homework except online maths once a week. He knows he has to do that by the end of the weekend but this week claimed he couldn't get logged in. I threatened to print off some maths work for him and miraculously he managed to log in!

I wish he did have more homework to be honest. He spends all his free time playing Roblox. I know it's good to relax but he could be doing a bit more work. I did set him some revision the last week of the holidays but he really needed to be spoon fed with it (as he can't or won't just work through a revision book) so it was quite labour intensive for me so I'd prefer school to set him some work.

@Waspie
Your poor DS nothing worse than someone saying its easy or unable to understand why you can't work out a maths question. Hoping DS is going to do an apprenticeship. Though after going to sixth form taster evening now interested in A levels. Have suggested he apply for both.

@Marisquita - fab, thanks for confirming. Well done to your DD! I hope that helps her confidence - anything which boosts confidence now is so positive

@Tebheag - I know! I wasn't impressed at DP at all, and he's now very aware of that. That said, if DS wanted him to help he would do so in an instant. They are very close. I think it's just that age where boys start to butt heads with their dads.

Definitely apply for both - keep all options open.

@AmyandPhilipfan I'm sure your son's school will ramp up the homework as this term progresses. If not could you email them and ask them to set more revision homework?

We got an email yesterday that all year 11's would be staying late every other Tuesday to do maths revision with their teachers, and work through past exam questions. I think other subjects are going to do something similar too.

For @Waspie and anyone else dealing with maths woes: at risk of sounding like CGP’s marketing manager (I’m not!) I would reiterate that their MathsBuster digital revision package is really worth a look. DD got a 5 - just about - for maths in her end of Y10 exams and we invested all of £12.99 for a 3-year MathsBuster licence early in the summer holidays. She didn’t stick to her original plan of 20 mins a day but did enough to achieve a real boost in competence and confidence, and school have now predicted her an 8 at GCSE. It comes in both Higher and Foundation versions:

https://www.cgpbooks.co.uk/secondary-books/gcse/maths/gcse-mathsbuster

@Marisquita might have to try that for my son he used to be good at maths but seems to have lost confidence and says he can't do it or over thinks it.

Anyone got tips for Spanish ? he failed that on yr10. Or English? Scrapped a pass on lit though managed a 5 in lang his best grade so far for English.

@Tebheag I do hope it helps. We found the Levelled Practice really good - they start at Level 1 and it builds their confidence by getting them practising techniques on easy questions, then with each level it builds the difficulty while reinforcing the techniques. DD also likes the fact that each question is marked right or wrong instantly, so that any errors can be corrected by practice as you go.

@Tebheag have you tried Seneca for Spanish? Which board/texts is he doing for Eng Lit?

@Marisquita not heard of seneca will look it up. When you say texts is that the books they are reading?

@Tebheag Seneca Learning is a wonderful free resource:

https://senecalearning.com/en-GB/

When you know which texts (books) your DS is doing for Eng Lit, have a look at BBC Bitesize for revision resources. There’s also a lot on YouTube - just search for “GCSE Macbeth” or whatever.

Those are all free. There’s stuff you can buy, too (e.g. CGP do a revision book on Macbeth) but maybe look at what you can get for free first!

@Tebheag We tried Seneca for Spanish last year. Took a while to get used to it but think it helped in the end. For English Lit we used the flip cards from Flipscocards - these were brilliant and not too overwhelming - he was getting 4s all year in lit and ended up with a 6.

Anyone else randomly spamming their teen with Revision Tiktoks? I have been ordered "not to buy all the CGP books just because the internet mums tell you to"....I just want her to get the bloody work done.

I'll take a look at CGP books, thanks @Marisquita

You’re welcome @Waspie - N.B. MathsBuster (unlike their other publications) isn’t in book form but is entirely digital.

Meanwhile I am taking notes from @NellyNutmeg and looking at the Flipscocards which are a great tip - thanks.

@HRTeenageMum 😂lol yes but with Instagram as I don’t have TikTok although DD does so may spam her on there as well. Ordered all the CGP books. At the end of this at least I can say I tried to help. Thanks for all the tips folks.

Am joining for the ride! I have a laidback DS whose predicted grades aren't stellar (4's, 5's, couple of 6's) and, to be honest, his results could go any which way on the day. He has no clue about what he wants to do afterwards so working out options and preferences may also be tortuous. My fingernails are likely be non-existent by this time next year. Hoping we can all support each other through whatever is ahead.

Had parents information tonight overloaded with information. Lots of past papers and revision guides etc been loaded up on Google class rooms Going to start maths past papers this week. Maths teacher said 36wks till exams aaah !!

BBC Bitesize do some fantastic podcasts that are about 10 mins long. They're very well written and presented. We listen to one each morning on the way to school (30 min drive through rush hour). It feels relatively painless to do a short burst followed by whatever music DD is currently into.

I learned about photosynthesis this morning!

We're going for the 'little and often' approach. With a variety of techniques and tools.

Checking in, so great tips, like the flip so cards, dd is struggling with English, despite being really good at it in primary and reading regularly, her school seems to have really dropped the ball. Love the look of the maths busters too, ds in year 9 struggles with maths, my invest.

Was out with mothers of my dd’s friends last night, we have decided we need a regular surviving being a year 11 parent support group. Our dds seem to be secretly doing homework, late night online homework group seems to have formed. Whatever works I guess.

Open evenings for college next week, I had hoped dh would take an interest but he’s not able to get home early enough, dd is set on her college (in Hampshire, no school 6th forms, just huge colleges) but undecided on A level subjects, Spanish (that she was really upset at having to take for GCSE) is a certain, psychology (which I think isn’t what she thinks it is but I know nothing), chemistry, statistics and biology all in the running. Last time she was asking questions like ‘is there lots of writing’ idk, I don’t remember how I decided, seems like such a big decision!

Thanks to @NellyNutmeg we now have the Flipscocards for An Inspector Calls and Macbeth, which are excellent.

Lots to think about here re possible sixth forms. DD has a firm favourite but any offer from there will demand very high grades, so I am keen to build in Plans B and C!

I'm really stressed out about GCSES. I'm really doubting myself on everything, including DS's school. It's very academic, and I knew that, but they seem to have let him coast, while they concentrate on the top and bottom. I did bring it up in year 9 and they said ' don't worry, we mark harshly'. All his school reports are all ' Oh he's so lovely, a pleasure to teach' but I'm wondering if that's just because he shuts up and doesn't draw attention to himself. He was really good at history and art, and now all his predictions in both those subjects are 4/5. He is top of his class in Spanish and consistently gets the highest marks in his class by some way but when I asked if he could try a Spanish higher paper, they sprung it on him with no warning, and he got a 4. He has no sen, has a supportive home environment, we talk to him about his work etc etc, but his predicted grades aren't enough to get him into the school sixth form. I'm so stressed out by it. Anyway, now I've got that off my chest, we've put a plan together of revision he is going to do over the week. I'm thinking of ditching my beloved day off to work 9-2.30 so I can sort the revision/ homework out and still have some time to do all the other stuff. The revision is things like ' Do one question on the history of medicine' so he has smart targets. He has 7, so as well as his homework( he's getting lots) he will do that, tick them off as he does them and then have new targets. He has spent today doing art, and he has been put into extra lunchtime classes for art. The next mocks are in November, so we'll see if that works. I'll look into thst CGP MATHS course. He's been doing maths genie, which he likes.

I'm in Costa because I turned up to my click.and collect too early, and just impulse bought them!

following here on @Marisquita advice! Already seen lots of good ideas.

DS and I made a revision timetable last weekend and he has been revising every day - or doing homework (which seems to be mainly revision based anyway). He is determined to get good grades in these mocks to apply to sixth form's with.

We have two open evenings this week. One an outlier (literally - miles away and he'd need to get a seat on the college coach to even contemplate going there). However this college has an excellent reputation and offers all three of the third A level choices DS is considering. It also has a great rugby team and associations with good universities in the county.

The other is DS's preferred choice at the moment. It's a 20 min bus journey from the next village. It runs only one of his third choice options but he would like to take this subject. It's a school sixth form rather than a college, but it has historically taken a lot of children from DS' school. DS also has friends who started there this year.

As I've said to DS these open evenings are as much about ruling out what he doesn't like as deciding what he does like.