Y11 2023-24 continued

[Techno56]

New thread for when the other one fills up, I need somewhere to panic away from my son 😁

DS is concentrating on the poetry as its his weakest area of lit. He says he knows Animal Farm really well and he thinks he did well in paper 1 so it'll be a shame if the poetry pulls his mark down. He also says English language is easy so I hope he's not being too complacent there too!

DS was up at 6.30am and out the door at 7am for rowing. Got back at 11ish had some food and is currently revising An Inspector Calls.

Was such a relief to get to Friday, we are all frazzled. Dd is taking in all in her stride and I honestly couldn’t be prouder. She seems well prepared for everything except for English and RE, RE we’ve accepted is going to be a poor grade, she’s had several teachers and just not gelled with it. She is getting fed up, but it’s won’t be long now until she has a lovely long summer right?!

Maths she says had one question only one kid in her class understood, I said that’s to be expected, he’s probably the only person who’ll get a strong 9, they need to put some super difficult questions in. Geography she had a bit of a wobble on one q but quite happy, science was alright.

taking it easy this weekend, can not wait until half term!

Parkrun first thing for ds then he’s been asked to play cricket this afternoon- he’s taken his notes for English Lit so we’ll see how much he does. It’s the one he’s most confident on, the poetry in particular as it’s something he just ‘gets’.

This week he has 5 - French writing and Physics are probably the ones he’s least looking forward to. He did far better in his PE coursework than he expected so may make a bit more effort…

We have agreed a complete embargo on GCSE chat today, and DD has gone off to drama club for a bit of normality.

Fortunately she has already finished Eng Lit (IGCSE so different format from GCSE) but there will still be plenty to do for 4 subjects next week. Just not today!

DD has been on the treadmill, cooked lunch for everyone and said she’s planning to do 5 hours today and 4 hours tomorrow.

She’s also decided to take a study day off on Tuesday when there are no exams at school.
Not sure if I have to tell a porky or just be honest about her absence?

Cookies are awesome!

DD has just sat down to do 2 hours of physics, followed by English lit. Tomorrow is French followed by English lit.

I’m going to watch Gardener’s World before the inevitable flashcards appear!

I am currently hiden away in the conservatory behind an airer full off clothes hoping DS is revising he did start this morning before going for an eye test. He has managed to have papers and books in nearly every room so not surprising he had misplaced his poetry!

I’ve just been debating exactly the same thing about Tuesday!

DS has an orthodontist appointment on Tuesday, so that's my excuse for not sending him in.

We have just had post HT plans, no going in unless for warm-ups/exams. Teachers will be available for drop-in sessions, and they can use the library to revise if they want.

Leavers assembly on 6 June.
So, as of Thursday, we are pretty much done with Y11.

Those poems are also about conflict

I've realised that now after spending 3 hours reading poetry out loud 😁

That sounds ghastly, frankly. I hate the poetry section!

I was saying to DS that I did war poetry for gcse and hated it, but actually reading them now as an adult, they had much more significance. He was getting really worked up about it and saying he wadnt revising it at all, and was just going to concentrate on Animal Farm, so I read them out loud and discussed themes, quotes etc. I only got through about 6, so hopefully that's enough! He can forget about it now and do Animal Farm tomorrow, which he loves.

Here are 15 poems which are not connected, except by proximity in a book.

Oh, and then you have to write about some you've not seen before, just for good measure.

Agree its ridiculously OTT for 1/4 of a paper!

DS said something about nature and conflict. he has been busy reading them and memorising parts after finding his book then got Electronics and lord of flies revision tomorrow.

We have Inspector Calls but Love & Relationships for poetry. Just so many poems! And unseen could be, well, anything!

Argh computer science! We've been watching YouTube videos all afternoon and now ds is having a go at some questions. I am not hopeful.

DS has Love and Relationships and an Inspector Calls. He hated poems, particularly the unseen stuff, until we sat down and went through some together, and he realised that actually, he's good at it. What I love about English Lit is there really is no right or wrong, as long as you can back up what you are saying. You can read anything you want to into a piece of text, you just have to say why. I loved English, whereas for DS maths is more his thing, so he's had a lot of extra help with the former.

No revision today - she had a sleep over last night with friends for their birthday then slept most of today. Now up late watching a film with dh and I’m annoyed as I think she needs an early night!

I envy those of you with kids doing revision.
Dd has done nothing all day and I have to bite my tongue.
She is skipping her usual Sunday morning activity by choice as she plans to work tomorrow, but if we get 2 hours that will be a miracle.

I am so relieved that we are NOT trying to do English lit this weekend (I pulled her from the exam due to her massive and disproportionate stress over it - she's autistic) it is allowing her to think about Chemistry and Computing which she needs to do work for and both of which are A level choices.
So one positive at least.

@JessyCarr we too agreed yesterday was a 'no talk about school' day. She did revision and we took her out to buy prom shoes and to have tea afterwards, so good mood at end the day.

Full day of poems today, I was so rubbish at Eng lit I am not help whatsoever.

DD has been on study leave since 8 May and for her it is the best thing. She is very self motivated but stresses after the exams if she thinks she has made mistakes. Being stuck in a revision class would be worse for her, she needs to come home, cry, be reassured by us, then crack on with the next subject!

DD has 11 exams done (including 2 mfl speaking) with 13 to go, so by the end of this week will be way over half done thank goodness. This week is better for DD (so she says) Eng lit and lang, Physics and French and German writing papers. Still one every day but she is ploughing through.

Positive thoughts for the revising kids today.

It's interesting how the study leave varies. I am Scottish and a million years ago my study leave started before the exams started (although I did go back to school straight after the exams to start the Higher syllabus). My DD is still going into school until half term, leavers day is Friday and she's on study leave for the last two weeks. She said that there were some kids on early study leave but it was 'the disruptive kids who don't get to go to Prom'. Not sure how accurate that discription is though.

@bluefineliner your entire post could have been written about my dd! Same exams this week too. It’s definitely a better week!

I think she may sleep in today, as she didn’t yesterday. I’m going to go to the gym and leave her to it. One thing that has been a relief since the exams started is that she doesn’t need any nagging from me. She’s such a procrastinator usually but this experience has taught me to back off from now on as she works when she needs to. I only became like this with my A levels, I did t bother at all about my GCSEs.