Year 11 2023-24

[Maxus]

Anyone else got kids starting year 11 in September?

My DD2 was at the agricultural college @wonderstuff , other DD went into the New Forest. Spoilt for choice round here!

I think some of them ( in my area anyway) know that they can attract private school kids who's parents want to try and game the system for Uni by going to a state sixth form, but I think Uni's have got wise to it now anyway.

Has anyone used this ? https://products.parentguidetogcse.com/the-gcse-toolkit
. My child is struggling with organisation and knowing where to start. I tried to find him checklists for each subject but it was hard to match to the correct exam boards. This has the checklist but it’s quite expensive.

The cgp guides are good, especially for science.
A parent on here devised a revision planning system based on agile programming a few years back which is now sold commercially. Can't remember its name offhand though. I'll try to remember.

@SM33 This is the one I was thinking of: https://thestudybuddy.com/originalmethod/

home page here:

https://thestudybuddy.com/

Note I haven't used it. But it ran on similar lines to how I helped my DD1 plan 8 years ago so I think it sounds useful. No idea on price. You buy a pack for each subject/board.

Thank you, I will have a look

Well we're still on half term here & as with every half term DD has come down with a stinking head cold. I'm sure she saves them up for breaks!

Bashing away at the revision, I can't believe the amount of stuff they have to remember. My menopausal brain writes a shopping list, forgets to take the list shopping.
The A level evening went well, she came away really enthused & excited but also anxious about hitting needed grades.
The Study Buddy looks like a really useful. DD has taken over the dining room table & seems to have sorted a revision method that works for her, so I'm not interfering, for once😬
Elderly mother is up & down with health issues, work is really busy & elderly cat needed teeth out! Worrying about movjs/grades/revision methods is proving to be quite the welcome distraction.
Hope you're all having / had a good half term.

Are any of the DCs doing Art GCSE? I am finding this subject the biggest nightmare at the moment. DS does nothing for ages then goes into a full melt down because suddenly all this work is due in and he's got nothing. As someone who did Art to A level, I can't bear it, I won't to help him but he 'wants to do it himself' and so I have to sit back until panic mode hits and then take all his stress while trying to direct him the right way. This is the only mock he has prior to January and it's doing my head in! God only knows what it will be like in January.

Yes mine! It's a bloody nightmare! My DS is a talented artist and loves art. It's the ' This blue line I have randomly added to my drawing of the 50p building in Croydon represents Caravaggios use of shade' ( I'm not artistic as you can tell) which he never stops complaining about! I have no clue if he's exaggerating, but art is now his least favourite subject. It's also taking up tons of time.

@Angrycat2768 Yes, my DS is talented and creative BUT only in the art he likes, then he takes hours getting it perfect. GCSE art is so prescriptive and boring now compared to when I did it, he's just not engaged with it at all. It does take tons of time up - mostly with me and him arguing about what the hell he's actually meant to be doing followed by sulking and then the actual work. Also I seem to be spending a fortune on it. They also don't seem to actually teach them how to paint / draw or show them different techniques, they just seem to think they all know how to do everything. Sigh.

Tell me about it! I took him on a trip to the National Gallery at half term to try and re re enthuse him ( we don't live in London!) I agree it is the prescriptiveness of it. All the GCSES seem to be designed to be some kind of endurance test. If you enjoy something its clearly not difficult enough so they'll suck the joy out of all learning. Well done Michael Gove!

I think you've the nail on the head, it's just miserable tasks to complete each week to satisfy a tick box. Well, if you have any tips on how to get us through this without losing the plot I'm all ears! 😂

If only! All I could say is that it's nearly over, then he won't have to bother with GCSES again ( as long as he passes!)

Oh god yes. Art is causing stress for the whole household! The frustration is that it's her least good subject. She's predicted 7-9 in all her others, and a 5-6 in art.

I'm of the mindset to slack off the art and concentrate on achieving the best she can in the others. She wants to spend all day every day perfecting her art in the hope she can raise her grade.

All this is making me think that their are subjects to avoid and subjects to go for when selecting GCSE courses next year for my younger DS!

Avoid music and 3D design also!! Thought the coursework would make it less stressful - spoiler, it does not 😅

And french. Speaking exam will make us all cry before the year is out.

Any insight into btech sport, business or food tech gcse?

My DD started food tech GCSE pre pandemic. There was a fair amount of theory in terms of food groups, nutrition, how gluten works etc. Then there would have been some devising taste tests, and cooking the same thing with variations.
You would probably have to be willing to shell out for lots of practices at home for the main practical, but we didn't get that far as DD didn't return for y11. I think it was a good, interesting, useful course. (Eduqas)

Actually I just remembered something. DS was saying the teacher didn't have time to teach perspective 🙄 so I found a video from the National Gallery that DS found really helpful that gave him some good ideas. I get Clickview through work and got it through there so not sure if you need to he a member but many schools have a clickview account. There may be some other videos.

I think I've opened a can of worms here - sorry! 😂Any of the coursework subjects seem to be a time swamp, thing is you want them to be able to do something other than straight forward academic subjects but they've made those subjects tedious and stressful. @Panic71 I think the PE / sport ones are also quite time consuming because you have to play a number of competitive sports and record you matches etc. we didn't do that but I know a few who have.

@Angrycat2768 thanks for the tip, I haven't heard of clickview but I will take a look. I'm trying to encourage him to try a screen print (looking at an artist who uses this) apparently his art teacher doesn't know how to do this. I know I was taught this doing my O level (old) but I can't afford all the equipment needed to do it at home.

@JustHereWithMyPopcorn it may be worth looking for the National Gallery website. Clickview may he able to be accessed through your DS's school email address, but it depends on whether the school subscribes

Just had a look at studybuddy, it looks good but does seem to over complicate stuff. I say this as a teacher...what we did with DD was go through the ex boards specs as they had headings and they always correspond direct with CGP revision booklets and worked our way thru them. Otherwise you can overwhelm the child and yourself!

My method for DD1 was:

. Write down the topics for each subject
. Get DD to estimate time for each topic
. Include extra for exam practice
. Work out how much study time available
. Adjust study time or revision estimates until things fitted

. Allocate each study slot a subject, allowing for mix of subjects, and whether subjects needed to be done when fresh etc

. A week ahead allocate actual topics to the slots

We worked in phases for revision e.g.:

. to start of y11 (cards written for y10 work)
. to y11 mocks (Jan)
. from mocks to start Easter (things that were poor in mocks)
. Easter to end (things not in mocks, prioritised by exam date)

My DD is currently doing her mocks. She has made a list of all topics for each subject and stuck the lists next to her desk. She made a timetable with equal weighting for each subject and has ticked off completed topics after each revision session. She also spent about 5 days just doing past papers. It seems to be going well, as have a visible reminder of all topic areas seems to focus the mind.