Year 11 2023-24

[Maxus]

Anyone else got kids starting year 11 in September?

@TeenDivided Physics is my DD nemesis. She did a paper last week, put her head on the table & said "I just want to end myself"🙄oh the angst!
@wonderstuff Birthday during mocks here too

DD is ruminating & catastrophising, I've told her it's not the end of the world if it all goes tits up! No-one died. It's so hard to find a balance, I'm mostly leaving her too it & providing snacks & tea.

I'll be glad when it's all over. Feeling for you all if kids will struggle to get to college, are you allowed to do resists along side other courses? Seems particularly regressive if that's not the case.

@WhineyVaginey Roughly speaking you have to resit Eng Lang / Maths if you don't get the magic 4. However for A levels and level 3 courses they often/generally require you to have passed both already. So in that case you need to do a Level 2 course for 1 year whilst resitting before progressing to level 3. You can't generally retake anything else.

In theory they can do Level 2 functional skills instead of GCSE resits, but in practice that will be up to a college as to what they offer. Where DD2 went if you got a grade 3 for GCSE you had to resit the GCSE. Which sadly is why DD is now 19 and has no L2 qualification.

It's the silly mistakes a lot of the time. Maybe I think it's because I'm not great at maths either. I think 3 papers is excessive. Surely 2 is enough? I'm going to get him to do an entire paper over half term just so we can spot how he's doing.

Thanks was surprised to see how low they could go 1 year it was around 24% for a 5.

Not only has DD got mocks directly after half term, her school are also doing sixth Form open days and taster sessions early Nov.

So she's feeling pressure to decide her next steps at the same time as exam angst. Which feels very unfair, although I understand it's necessary timings wise. So much pressure on them though. Lots of hormones racing around doesn't help.

We have exams for selective 6th forms during half term! And some more in the couple of weeks afterwards. No mocks until January, fortunately. Hope everyone gets some sort of a breather over the half term break.

Actually 7 is required for maths and chemistry at the college we're looking at but 6 in psychology and Spanish with 5 or more at a 4 or above the basic entry for A-levels/level 3 study. I got 4 Bs and 3 Cs back in the day but got good A-Level grades, granted I did do humanities.

Nothing wrong with humanities!

Nothing at all, but entry requirements do seem much lower than for science subjects. Dd is definitely cleverer than me!

Birthday during November mocks here too I have no sympathy though as I'm a June birthday so spent every year until I left university having exams on my birthday!

DS is at a science day at school today and has another for psychology tomorrow.

We've done three college visits so far with three more to go. DS really liked two of them and wasn't as keen on the other, although he loved their English Lit syllabus compared to the others.

Thanks to those who have given me advise on EPQ. DS is now saying he'd rather do two similar A levels than an EPQ, e.g. Ancient History and Classical Civilisations plus his favoured Modern History and English Lit. So starting with four but he would have the option to drop one of these before the first half term if he wished.

From the visits we've done so far it seems fairly standard to have two sessions at each subject per week. Each session of 2.5 hours. I seem to remember having 6.5 hours per subject per week when I did A Levels a million years ago.

The funding is for 5 hours per subject and they should be expected to do 5 hours per subject again outside class. In one 6th form ( DS's first choice) they have 10 hours guided learning where they work supervised but on their own stuff.

First round of mock exams started today for DD. She has done very little revision. I'm trying not to nag or fret. I will be v curious to see how she does

Choose 4 to start here too - DD wants to do Eng Lit, Politics, History & Latin, with the choice to drop one .We have a 6th Form A level open evening at her own school tomorrow.

How many hours this week (half term) are your children revising?

Ds's school have said max 3 days rest but to do some work the rest ofvthe time. I'm getting DS to do 2 hours a day, but he has mocks last 2 weeks of November. He reckons his friends are doing 40 minutes to no revision (!) but I know some of their parents, and would be surprised if that were true!

DD is doing around 4 hrs a day Sun-Thurs and then has exams on Friday.

My DD is doing 7 plus hours a day. Her choice- and she needs 7/8 in the exams to get into her chosen sixth form. Her exams are next week.

One of DD’s possible sixth forms requires 6 GCSEs at grades 8/9 and the rest not below a 7😫

DD has been doing anything from 20 minutes to 1/2 hrs a night for a couple of weeks, more at weekends.
Blimey @Marisquita those are such high grades to achieve. Just checked DDs school & I thought these sounded quite an ask.

Gosh our 6th form isn’t as strict as that.

I’d worry about a 6th with such high entry grades, we have one locally that kicks out anyone not getting at least C grades in mocks, it’s an awful lot of pressure. More inclusive ones near us still get a decent number of kids into Oxbridge and medicine courses. What’s the attraction of these super selectives?

Our school has these requirements for A Level subjects too.

DS still not started revision but they have been doing regular class tests.

Thanks @Angrycat2768 I hadn't thought about funding, but that makes sense.

Interesting about A level acceptance grades. The colleges we've been to have been sort of standard, but subtly different. They all require a 6 minimum in the chosen A level subjects, except maths and further maths. For Maths the minimum GCSE grade is 7 and for further maths the minimum maths grade is 8.

However they differ on general grades - one wants 5's in maths and English plus 5 other passes over 5, another wants 6's in maths for STEM subjects and 5's for others. The last wants 6's average from the top 8 GCSEs.

We are going to the super selective grammar open evening next month. They want 56 points from the top 8 GCSEs if taking 3 A levels (7 mean average). 60 points from top 8 if taking 4 and 64 if taking 5 (very few do this and one must be further maths).

l should have said that we are not attracted but put off by the 6th form with sky-high entry requirements. DD has to move as her school doesn’t have a 6th form - the one with silly requirements would have been high on her list, but we are now not sure whether to apply there at all. She’s capable of very good grades but doesn’t thrive if undue pressure is heaped on, and personally I much prefer a setting which values them as whole people and not just a string of grades.

It’s a headache, though, not having an option just to carry on where she is. We really need to get this next step right.

So interesting how 6th form grades differ, must have an impact on the number of children going on to study Alevel compared to vocational education, I wonder how different regions vary. So glad we’re in Hampshire. Dd is set to get good GCSEs but for DS currently in year 9 it’s going to be a different set of decisions as he’s likely to be more marginally qualified for 6th form. Although he’s had an awful time of it at school and we’re moving him to a small independent after half term, we’re hoping he’ll do much better there.

Choices here are large 6th from college, technical college or agricultural college. We’re between 3 towns so have some choices but for most people there’s one of each of those centres that are easily accessible.