Y 11 2023-2024 thread 3

[Techno56]

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

Yes! It’s utterly bonkers. I looked on edexcel history teachers page on facebook and so many teachers were saying the same. Lots saying how unfair it was and plenty saying that kids are taking geography as a result!

The vast majority of schools will have spares for emergencies.

HT has been a good reset here, too.

DS seems ready for maths 2 tomorrow.

There has been a fair bit of history going on, too, but that will be tomorrow's task. I think Spanish has taken a back seat, but I failed by O level French, so 🤷

He's seen his mates, done some exercise, and the obligatory screen time. Hopefully, he has caught up on his sleep a bit, too, but I wouldn't put money on that!

7 exams and leavers assembly this week and then only 4 the last week.

I'm away with work for 3 days this week, which is freaking me out a bit

Yep, it landed here yesterday. So much work!! Plus 5 other exams this week!

Yes, DD has Elizabethan England and Cold War (Superpower Relations). The latter topic is massive- there's over 50 dates to remember let alone the details/impact etc. I really believe that there should be a coursework element for history, the current exam only assessment makes it nothing more than a memory test really

@Mummyoflittledragon I too hope that the specialist helps your DD, EDs are terrifying.
@Panic71 DD1 did history GCSE and the content was awful. DD2 has taken geography but there's a fair amount of content for that too 🙄

Ds has Elizabethan and the American West. There seem to be so many combinations.
I agree about the coursework element. If they did one extended coursework on a chosen topic maybe to be done in year 10 it woukd be far more manageable.

Spanish gas taken a back seat here too, but DS is quite good cat it. He's been getting 90 odd % in the listening in class, but that was before exam season started, when he was doing Memrise regularly. I hope hes not being too complacent on that though or taking it for granted.

DD is taking both history and geography! History def has the most content. She has Middle East and Anglo Saxons in her exam this week.

Finally, I do believe 90mins was spent on maths today !

DD has been told no spare calculators available in the exam hall. I’m a bit jittery as she’s had this one since y7 with no battery change and we don’t have a spare and zero chance I’m forking out for one. I’m sure they must have spares in reality…

My year 7 calculator still works. From 1989.

So does mine from 1979, though I have upgraded to help DD with GCSE maths due to fancy things like fractions being supported.

Not a huge amount of revision done this half term which is frustrating and she does both history and geography. She also thought her history exam was on Thursday and only realised yesterday it was on Tuesday 😬
Anyway, I keep having to remind myself that she has done some revision and she does have a v good memory thankfully.
She thought the first maths paper was ok which was a big surprise. She's only v recently started to click with maths. I'm so hoping tomorrow's goes ok.

I hate it when I need to borrow a calculator at school. Too many buttons!!!

So, just a reminder NOT to wash your child's signed leaving shirt as most of the pens used is turns out, don't stain and actually come clean off.

I may or may not have accidentally done this

We had an email today to say that school has absolutely no spares and if your child doesn't have one they won't be provided.

But surely if there are one or two kids who genuinely forget (it happens!) they must be able to scrabble round and beg, borrow or steal?!!

Especially when in the same email they tell us there are calculators available to buy?!!

Isn’t Maths Paper 2 non calculator?

Last 2 for us are both calculator

It’s a calculator paper for (at least) AQA and Edexcel.

DD’s calculator battery failed this morning. Better that than tomorrow morning!

My dts are doing OCR and they have confirmed it’s non calc tomorrow.

Yes I think for OCR it’s papers 1 and 3 for which calculators are permitted.

DD has turned into a maths machine. She must have done half a dozen full past papers this half term, plus topic practice. I think she is really worried about how Paper 1 went.

DS is the same for the same reason! He said he's been powering through maths paper after paper but then gets distracted with the other subjects!

@DramaLlamaBangBang Yes I’ve never seen anything like it! DD needs an 8 in maths, and seems to think that to recover from Paper 1 she needs virtually 100% in Papers 2 and 3. Unfortunately when the maths teacher went through Paper 1 with them afterwards, DD’s assessment of how it had gone went from bad to worse.

Eek! That's not helpful, but I suppose they are desperate to know arentvthey. I think the grade boundaries are lower for the higher paper. My DS is doing the foundation paper and needs a 4 which is about 60%