Year 11 - 2024-2025 Support Thread

[QueenMabby]

Hi
A continuation for those of us with DCs going into year 11 - GCSEs are looming!

2 weeks to go here too!

DS has been doing a day each of geography, maths, and chemistry and physics and today PE. 2-3hrs a day perhaps. There's so much content to cover, it's all a bit overwhelming. and he's still got homework and revision to do on topics that are not covered in the mocks.
Sounds like a good plan there @ThisPerkySloth DS's maths teacher has given quite a few maths revision booklets which is great so he's been working through them.
DS has had his bottom braces put in (teeth related) and it's hurting/bothering him, which is not ideal and he's feeling a bit meh. rewarding him with his favourite foods to keep his spirits up!

Mocks start straight after half term here so only about 3 days left 😬

This sounds good going to me. DS has them week after this. He can use it as a guide for where to focus. Getting v high grades at this point can make it harder. Good to have progress to make. Do you have to pay for Seneca cram mode?

Hi - what is your DS doing for PE. My DS has had a nightmare with it with both teacher & head of department leaving and he needs some crash revision. He has the CGP book. Anything else you recommend? Thank you!

@Elizo he's just been doing some past papers on PE. I think just paper 1 content. The PE teaching in his school is also inadequate, the teacher hasn't even given out any guidance for the mocks, what topics to revise etc. just doing questions on year 10 stuff and hoping that'll be enough.

Thank you. DS has two OE mocks but has been told to only revise paper 1 topics. Two tests on the same topics???? I think he has to try to crash learn some of the material. Good luck!

DD also has mocks in 2 weeks. She’s made a timetable and seems to be sticking to it from what I can tell. It’s 50 mins then 10 mins break for around 5 hours per day covering 5 subjects a day. She’s been doing coursework for English, PE and Food too. I’ve no clue if they were given homework or any guidance what to study. I know she has bought ‘save my exams’ (must remember to refund her for that and ask if it’s any good). She’s also had gymnastics some mornings but mainly to get more footage, plus we had a 6th form open day and made an event of it by a stop off at wagas. She hasn’t spent any time with friends as everyone away, which has undoubtedly helped her focus. But I’m conscious of too much work not enough play especially as she usually has so much sport/activity. She’s certainly been giving revision a proper go so hopefully it translates into better results. She needs decent grades for the 6th forms she’s looking at. I’m pleased the mocks are pre Xmas. My other two had them after, which spoils Christmas somewhat. DD will be able to have some proper downtime.

@Elizo @DataColour a bit bizarre saying only to revise paper 1 topics if they’re testing on both papers. DD definitely has 2 papers for PE in her mocks. They’ve been given a mock timetable and there’s two papers for each subject (bar English where there’s just one as they’re also doing coursework). I’m not sure how they do 2 papers when they’ve not been taught everything yet. They’ve not even begun ‘Medicine’ topic for History, and only halfway through ‘Vietnam’. I’m sure it’s similar for other subjects.
DD only goes in for the exams, the rest of the time is study at home. I don’t recall my other DDs having this. Over the 2 week period she has exams everyday but only has 3 full days, which all consist of a 2hr exam, 2hr break, 2hr exam. So she’ll get a sense of how that feels if she has 2 exams on the same day in the real GCSEs.

Yeah It’s chaotic to say the least. How is your DD revising PE?

5 hours a day is very diligent. Well done your DD. DS not done anything like that…deep breaths!

@Elizo she has to study - it doesn’t come naturally to her and if she didn’t she wouldn’t get very good grades to continue. Some can get away with it; others can cram but she needs to be pretty diligent and has realised this (finally & in the Nick of time). I’ll ask her about PE revision.

DD has her French speaking mock on Monday morning and the written mocks start on Monday 11th. Feel like we haven't done much this half term but I've been a bit under the weather and she has been doing some revision as well as some relaxing/chilling. She is clearly feeling a bit stressed out about the mocks coming up and her Art GCSE coursework where she says she is very behind. School seem to be piling on so much pressure and it's really not helpful. She is doing 10 (including further maths).

I've always grumbled about our kicks being just after Christmas but now I'm glad that I can delay the exams stress for another couple of months!
DS who is at uni also has exams in January so Christmas is going to be a quiet one for us.

Mocks. Not kicks!

@QueenMabby here I am asking how you know? 😊

yes peaking too early not great - I know myself from my own experience at a levels many moons ago - it was as if I switched off / brain wouldn’t take anymore but no one noticed.

DS is a lot calmer than me so hopefully will pay off 😂

@Elizo perhaps I need to lighten up - staying consistent with his current grades rather than aiming higher at this point might be better. He’s predicted one grade up so hopefully he can make that leap by the time of the exams.

just had a look at free version of Seneca and looks like you can access - worth a look! There maybe some slight limitations that’s all.

@NotDonna agree so much better mocks before Christmas.

Very belated thanks @NotDonna
Good luck to all those with mocks coming up, we had a lovely few days away in Dorset over half term. Minimal revision has been done this end and I have kept to my chilled-ness till today when I blew up.
Poor DH - he had a moody non-revising teen and a menopausal raging wife-no wonder he is looming forward to going back to work for some peace!

Hello, I would love to join this thread … dd1 did GCSEs in 2023 but was so self-motivated I didn’t have to do a thing… dd2 in Year 11 and doesn’t seem to have a clue, she lies around claiming she is working but I know she is hiding her iPad/novel under cushions when I go in! I am trying to make her work downstairs now, but still not convinced she is doing the bare minimum and if she wants to change schools she needs good grades… Her school is lovely but I haven’t had much feedback on how much revision they should be doing on top of normal homework. Mocks in Jan…
She mentioned that she is going to try a retrospective revision timetable which sounds good - but having created a beautiful page with coloured pencils I notice she hasn’t filled in any of the boxes!
Truly sorry if this has been covered in this mammoth thread but has anyone got any ‘hacks’ for parents? Downloadable revision schedules, should we have a joint diary? I see one of the first messages on here mentioned they had downloaded the maths syllabus onto excel - was that easy to find?! I will be going through all this with her, but if anyone has any advice before I do, that would be very gratefully received.

I am also after some tips please! Specifically if anyone can recommend any online (preferably free) resources for French and Geography?

DS has been mainlining BBC Bitesize this half term, and has just started using Seneca, but that one is apparently not great for French or Geography. He does Duolingo but could do with a more curriculum-based resource I guess, if such a thing exists.

Quizlet for MfL vocab. They have an absolute ton to get through. Not sure of other online resources apart from bitesize. I feel the books are good, eg CGP…DS not doing Geography

Ah I wondered about Quizlet - thanks @Elizo 😀

We managed to get a lovely tutor to come to my son’s school at 8am and do an hour with him then (not GCSE this is when he was younger) because he was too exhausted after school - would that be a possibility? It was a bit of a pain for her because she had to get a DBS check, but she/the school were brilliant about it.

@ThisPerkySloth - ds hated mfl but it was obligatory. I pushed and pushed revision for the mock and he got a 6. He obviously felt that that was achievement enough, refused to do much more work for the actual thing....and got a 4! If I hadn't pushed there would have been a strong chance that those grades would have been the other way around!

@Cornygirl - welcome! Getrevising.com has an AI generated revision timetable you can use. Sometimes gives rather random results but once populated you can drag and drop study blocks around. Otherwise just keep reminding over revision and maybe if mock results are down that will give her a kick up the backside to get her working!

@HereComesYourMam - try physicsandmathstutor.com for geography. I think they have practice questions by topic and some revision materials. My dd does Spanish and German but uses quizlet and also language nut (or something similar). I suspect your DS's school will use some kind of programme or website for resources and/or online resources from his textbook?

@stickygotstuck - a before school session might work but also stress to your dd that it's quality and not quantity of work that counts. If she's not retaining it then her brain is already overloaded. Stick to small chunks interspersed with lots of downtime. Get her to make a list of "break" activities and schedule those in between work sessions. Good luck!

Back to school today. Good luck for those with mocks this half term. Dd has Spanish and German speaking mocks at the end of the month so we'll be practising those at the weekends. I'm going to encourage her to RAG her specifications so she can start compiling her revision timetable for her mocks. She has a very busy schedule so needs to start earlier to get it all in!

Thank you! Will check out the AI timetable.
So do most people recommend Quizlet (or Anki?) for languages and Seneca for maths & sciences (or Cognito?).

@Cornygirl thank you. That sounds great but there is no chance that DD would get to school early enough for that. Plus, as
@QueenMabbysays, she'd become even more overwhelmed. She barely copes with spending the day in school.

Her brain is most definitely overloaded (she has several other issues that take up a lot of her headspace -ans mine), and I veer between 'she can do it if we help her and she can find just enough energy to concentrate for long enough' and 'leave her be, she's already working harder than it's reasonable and avoiding burnout is enough'.