Y 11 2023-2024 thread 3

[Techno56]

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

It has always been the case. We simply don't give study leave any more, and this is one of the reasons why.

DS school just have an hr revision class either morning or afternoon before exam. No half term revision classes they also only did either 30 mins revision class after school prior to Study leave starting. DS said a couple of classes he went to was just 3 pupils there in the last couple of weeks. He is currently doing past paper clac 2. Did the first calculator past paper this morning. Then got tomorrow off then back at it Wednesday.

DD back on it today and has done some biology and now into history.

She has a biology revision class in school
tomorrow. There have been classes offered each day over Easter and half term but you have to pay for them and I’m already bankrupted by her maths and physics/chem tutor (due to poor teaching), so she had to be very selective and just choose one or two so this is her second. And no point her doing the maths given they’ve not offered her any intervention despite the fact she has missed her target on both mock exams and I have asked for help but all the interventions for her class have been 8-9 level whereas she is 6-7 (target of 7-9).

Many of the other revision sessions also cater for all levels so she felt she would do better on her own. It was irrelevant as to do all of them would have cost about £500 which I had not budgeted for on top of the tutors so not an option.

There was never any question that dd wouldn’t take study leave in our mind, luckily the school have turned a blind eye and nearly all the pupils have taken it regardless .

Back on it today too. Geography all the way today given that she still has two papers left. Will be interspersed with some maths past papers as the week goes on.

Steady ramp up though. Think she’s done about three hours today and chilled for the rest of it.

Presumably this is an independent school? I've never heard of state schools charging for revision sessions.

We record study leave as authorised absence but there are different kinds of AA including study leave (x on our registers), illness (I) etc

No it’s a state school.

I’m in two minds about it as it seems fair the teachers should be paid more, and obviously it’s much cheaper than a tutor which many people won’t have been able to afford. But it’s still quite a lot of money tbh, and we were told about it with a week’s notice to book and pay. And I’m a single parent and really have to budget carefully, DD’s tutoring has been paid for through other sacrifices. I couldn’t pay for these sessions as well, although no doubt had dd really wanted them I’d have borrowed from family. But she was a bit ‘meh’ about most of them.

I just looked and all her absences have been recorded as study leave, despite there being no study leave!

Anyone else quite shocked by the differences between exam boards?
Igcse English is 50% coursework?

Igcse and GCSE are regulated differently. Igcse doesn't "count" in the same way.

What does that mean? Sorry, I know very little about exam boards.

DC's school is a state school and offers lots of weekend/holiday revision classes - DC has decided not to attend them this half term as they prefer to learn at their own pace. I think it might be a different matter for youngest in 3 years' time as he has ADHD and I think revising alongside others will be helpful to him as I think he's going to find it super hard to do it alone.

I'm already dreading it - both DH and I were the type of kids who felt able to work out how to revise on our own so I find it really hard to explain 'how to revise' to someone who can't work it out on their own steam. It took oldest a while to land on what worked, but then it was OK. Youngest is not likely to really be ready by Y11 - he's not very mature for his age anyway and he's August born, so he won't even be 16 when he finishes his GCSEs. He's catching up gradually with his peers but it's a shame he can't take his GCSEs a year later when he's actually 16.

Doesn’t count?
Is it not a gcse in the same way that AQA English is?

It doesn't count for the progress measures in state schools. So we can't offer it because of that.

Coursework in GCSE was removed by Mr Gove, and significantly reduced at A level.

Yep, it’s very annoying. No wonder many private schools get such high results in English when it’s 50% coursework !

That's awful. I agree that the teachers should be paid for holiday work - despite what most of the country thinks teachers' salaries are based on the number of days we work but pay is spread over the year- but it should be the school funding this and not parents.

So it’s only available in private schools?! Flip! That’s crazier than I feared.

Indeed!

DS is focusing on history this week - so much content to cover for the two remaining papers. Does anyone have any recommendations for good history revision videos? Edexcel if that makes a difference

https://youtube.com/@lovingthelearning?feature=shared

None of my kids have done igcse and they have all been at independent schools. I thought they were mainly used by international schools?

It’s not only available in private schools - home educated children will sometimes study for iGCSEs, and they are used by some international schools - but state schools don’t use them.

Absolutely this!

The team at DD's school have been amazing. Extra sessions at lunchtimes, after school, weekends, holidays.

One teacher has even done a bespoke revision plan for each of his students, identifying which topics they find most challenging and giving them targeted resources.

Thanks for all your kind words. I was really fed up at the end of last week, mainly because I am frustrated with dd as she won't revise for English.
But as someone said, it will be what it will be and she has to find her own way.
So sorry to hear about your dd @Mummyoflittledragon* my neice has an ED and it has been so hard. I have huge sympathy.

Interesting the differences between schools. dd is at a state super selective grammar and they offer either in-school study or study leave. This is great for dd as she needs to be in school to work, she even went in on Friday which was an inset day (but in school study and exam students were allowed in) there were only about 10 of them in!

They have run loads of revision sessions, but mostly within the school day. My son's school (the boys' version of dds school) ran extra sessions in the Easter holidays

Thanks I’m sorry to hear about your niece @steppemum I hope she will recover.