Y 11 2023-2024 thread 3

[Techno56]

For when the other thread fills up tomorrow as we all discuss English lit 2 😁

I might also suggest we do a clearance of the stuff she doesn’t need maybe that will be cathartic !!

Thanks. We don’t do things by halves in my family. My dad died in what must have been half term when I was dd’s age as I didn’t have exams that week…

I started feeling sad this year in a way I haven’t for years in about February. Comparing how old dd to how old I actually was back then. The ED has been quite the distraction and the date passed with hardly a thought in the end because of dd. Funny how life turns out…

I am getting support thanks and am working on getting dd to accept some too. I’m on the ED threads as well etc and have an appointment with CAHMS etc.

I'm sorry @Mummyoflittledragon - this must be a really tough time for you and your DD. Well done for getting support.

@Mummyoflittledragon I’m really sorry to hear that. Are the school able to make any adjustments?

Thank you 😊. The school have been great. She’s actually at private school since year 9 as she wasn’t coping at state secondary. They offered dd half time breaks including breaks to eat something if dd really needed to. Dd refused. She has always been obsessive about not being different from anyone else so that didn’t go down well. And she’s always been someone, who wants to get her work done. In lockdown she often wouldn’t eat until she’d completed her work. And she had a lot of work… not that there was an ED then. She just wants to blast through til the end.

I came downstairs this morning and DC (who is an early riser) said they have thought of a slightly different approach to revising that they will find more manageable and should be good enough to work towards what they hope to achieve.

By total coincidence, I ran into BIL today whose son, also a diligent student with high standards, is doing GCSEs currently, and BIL said his son also 'fell apart a bit' at the end of the week - I think having a let up in the middle can suddenly cause you to crash a bit.

Good luck for your DD finding a way through @Mummyoflittledragon

I’m turning into a bore 🤣
I spent some time looking at past AQA language 2 papers and made a prediction for q5.
Im thinking social media/mobile phones.

DD having weekend off from studying too.

She'll be in school on Tuesday and Friday for revision sessions and a group session with her tutor on the Sundays before the Maths exams.

DS was so perky on Friday (no exam for him that day) that it actually felt like the weekend had started early. No revision on the Thursday evening either (after 2 exams that day) so as of today he's not done any since Wednesday night. So yes, I'm a bit concerned that his momentum has gone and it'll be hard (for all of us!) for him to get back into the routine. He has one exam a day next week...

This weekend has been mostly about lolling around watching SciFi and painting miniatures and tomorrow will see a day of board gaming with friends. He wants to attend revision sessions on maths and history on Tues and Weds, leaving four full days to revise to his own schedule. I'd better encourage him to fill in his revision timetable for half term, having suggested to him he leave it blank to begin with, as he wouldn't know what to focus on, back then!

Thanks ☺️

I'm so impressed with all these extra revision classes at weekends, during half term & early morning pre-exam warm up sessions that I've seen mentioned on this thread. There's nothing at all like that offered at our small independent. The only extra thing on top of classes, which basically stopped at the first May Bank Holiday, have been lunchtime 'clinics' which were 20min drop in sessions for those who needed help on a particular subject. Maths was so highly attended that DS didn't bother going if he needed help on a tricky area as he knew he'd not be seen.

It's fantastic that so many schools are laying on extra teaching & revision provision & I'm wondering if in the main they are state or independent? Are the teachers paid extra to work out of hours to provide the sessions etc. Regardless I'm envious - I think at this age guidance & structure is so helpful unless your 16 year old is very switched on & in control of the exam landscape.

Yes, nothing extra at our (super-selective) state grammar school. Just study leave from day one! I guess they hope the kids are self-motivated enough to revise independently. My DS would definitely benefit from compulsory revision - he does as little as possible!

We're state school. They held classes in the Easter hols, 3 consecutive Saturday super classes and the subject teachers have been in early for every exam too. They've also been putting on science practicals demos online for them too.

The indys and grammar schools possibly think their co-hort is more motivated and, if selected, more academic than your average (or lower) state secondary school.

Ours is 3 tier, state, but by far the best high school locally and always oversubscribed.
They have a fairly mixed bag of kids, so some will need more support than others.

We have had 8am Rise and Revise since after October HT for Maths English Science and History/Geography.

Maths and MFL drop-in after school.

7/8/9 sessions for maths and science

lunchtime drop-in for specific maths queries.

Nothing on weekends or holidays, which is fine with me. None of it is compulsory.

The kids have been for 8am warm ups on morning exam days, and they have been in school their usual hours up to those week. Study leave for the next 2 and a half weeks.

It's all worked for DS as he does need focus, but I can see it would be too much for many and too structured for ithers

We have had extra lunchtime and twilight sessions since Easter and will have revision sessions after half-term during study leave. I think they have been hugely helpful.
I don't think there would be a budget to pay overtime to teachers to do this. They have fewer classes due to gcse and A Level study leave and put the classes on then I think.

Revision classes offered in Easter holiday and this half term. After school revision sessions since January. Study leave has just started, they went to classes as usual after/before exams for more revision - usually a mix of half the lesson taught and half independent revision with teacher support if requested. None of the holiday or after school classes were compulsory but DC encouraged to go if teaches felt there was a particular benefit or need. It's a pretty large comprehensive with a city wide catchment (faith based) with a very, very mixed intake, both academically and socially.

Just want to take a moment to thank all the incredible teachers that are sacrificing their own holidays to prioritise the children.

There is such a lot of negatively towards teachers and all of this is forgotten.

After school sessions since September at our very mediocre (in terms of results) comprehensive school! Before exam sessions. Nothing at weekends or holidays (thank heavens!)

We don't have study leave, and we don't do weekend or holiday or breakfast revision. We used to but it's expensive to run and the students who needed to come never did.

Breakfast sessions don't work when you've got a vast proportion of students reliant on the school bus.

We do have after school sessions from January and targeted sessions in the school day, plus a collapsing timetable from the start of exams.

My DD's school does study leave after half term too.

Also, they dismissed all year 11s after their Eng Lang 1 paper on Thursday at 11am, and now my DD's attendance record shows 3 authorised absence sessions for last week. (NB. we have an app where we can see absences, timetables, and school reports). Are schools required to record all study leave as authorised absence?

I second this!
So pleased DD has got some focused sessions this week!

Yes, because students have to be in school until the last Friday in June of the academic year in which they turn 16

Thanks Mrs Hamlet, that seems a bit odd to me giving that all authorised absence is included in school stats (and individual student stats). As an example my DD had 100% this year - only 1 day authorised absence due to an Oxford visit in October, rest will all be authorised absence due to study leave that all yr 11 students were granted.

Is the government doing that to prevent / discourage schools from granting study leave then?

Sorry for being slightly off-topic.

PS. It would make more sense to me for the govt to report unauthorised vs authorised splits as well, when they publish school stats...

Our school has been running extra revisions sessions for several months. They run before school, after school and during the holidays (Easter and now). The school is in an incredibly deprived area so the students need all the help they can get. It’s amazing that the teachers are stepping up to help out.