Year 11 - 2024-2025 Support Thread

[QueenMabby]

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

Envelope thing is weird - no one needs practice opening one. DS’ school have used similarly odd practices over the years. He had to do one GCSE last year - so practiced envelope opening. Ha!! For DS personally another round of mocks will be good as a chance to see improvements and build confidence before real thing. Will also keep him focused. Main purpose of these will be to show how much to do! Can see for others it may not work. Looking forward to end of this week!!

Gosh, what government guidlines? DC school has told them that they only go in for the pre-gcse exams ( they’re not mocks apparently) and must study at home for the rest of the time.
Trying not to get too involved as in I’ve bought all the revision guides, provided a place of study, broken the subjects into chunks with them. But reading on here does make my stress levels rise as they won’t revise especially for these exams. They’re still doing homework and coursework. The revision will start during the exams when they’re not at school and carry on from there. But the school do exams all the time so I’m hoping whatever they usually do is enough.
The non mocks (!) are quite late and we’ve already had to apply to sixth forms so used predicted grades for those.

@ChannelLightVessel
We just said that she was ill for one day so I don't think you'd get an unauthorised absence. Especially as she has her 16th during mocks, it might be good for her to get revision done during those two days hopefully.

We also only have the one set of mocks. I'm not entirely sure what government guidelines these are, I just know that last year the Year 11s were given study leave for mocks and this year, nothing!

DD got her first mock back today - History. She said she just scraped an 8 which she is pleased about reasonably as all she's aiming for in these mocks is 7s and above (her school's minimum standards) but she was a bit miffed as she got a 9 in Year 10 ones.

Excellent result.,8-9 is a pretty fluid boundary. I don’t think the two grades are differentiated between for any purpose really, so she smashed it!

@theorangecounty absolutely smashed it!

@theorangecounty - great result for your dd. Well done!

We also get envelopes I think. Handed out in form time. Dd is never in form due to music commitments so generally gets hers whenever she bumps into her form tutor in the corridor! They also go up on the portal so she tends to pop to the loo and sneakily look them up.

She has a school concert today starting at 7 and a rehearsal for the musical ending at 6. School packed lunch only due to rehearsals for the concert happening at lunchtime so I'm instructed to be in the school car park at 6 with a thermos of pasta for her so she can eat!

Flip!! DD had a rejection email today from the local 6th form college saying they’d had a record number of applicants and had to engage their admission criteria (first time ever & certainly not in last ten years). It’s her nearest 6th form college albeit a good distance away. There’s none closer. I’m now worried the more selective places will also be oversubscribed. This will absolutely be because of the VAT on private schools.

Oh no! This is exactly the kind of thing I'm worried about for DC's college applications too

Annoyingly they don’t offer her subjects at her current school. There’s a couple that do a little distance away but they’re faith schools of which we have none. They’re usually oversubscribed. The college never is so I think she’ll have to choose A levels that’s she’s not keen on.

Oh no such a shame @NotDonna Is there no way her current school could offer the subjects she wants to do?

DD is very pleased to have finished mocks (apart from Art on Tuesday). I realised on Thursday that it is four weeks until the Christmas holidays so the year is rushing by. Easter is very late next year so spring term will feel a reasonable length I think - sometimes it feels very short! But that means after Easter there will be very little time before the exams start - eeek.

Oh dear @NotDonna, what a nasty shock. What will you do next?

Oh no. What is their criteria? Can you appeal? DS’ number 1 sixth form only takes 30 externals. First Catholics, then ballot. We aren’t Catholic. Agh!! We have a plan b…

Crikey @NotDonna -that sounds rubbish. A bit of a risk but could she get in and then transfer to a levels she wants after a few weeks? It probably isn’t that easy am sure

I've just submitted ds2's application to his school 6th form. Also to a local college, as a back up plan. I'm looking to find a third back up.

I don’t understand what you mean. They’ve had record number of applicants to the college, so for the first time ever they have had to enforce an admission policy, which is looked after children, distance etc. Nothing to do with her choice of A levels.

Despite having a few students also interested in her choices they’ve said no. It’s just one choice of sociology that’s the issue. She REALLY wants it and to be honest I think she’d really enjoy it alongside politics & business/economics. We are flabbergasted that the college have had to use their criteria - they’ve never been oversubscribed before. If they’re oversubscribed it doesn’t bode well for the more popular 6th forms.

DD can stay at her current school if she gets 7 GCSEs at grade 7 and chooses A levels she’s not massively keen on AND gets 8’s in those!! 🙄 She’s applied to 3 other schools as her school doesn’t offer sociology but they’re very popular and quite often oversubscribed 6th forms but were worth a try. The local college was her back up - so it’s quite a shock to be rejected from the back up - I’m guessing it’s distance despite it being our only college. Now praying that one of the three ‘worth a try’ comes through!

I hadn’t thought of appealing. I’ll look into it. Thank you.

That’s disappointing news @NotDonna What do you think the chances are of a place becoming available if others, who have been offered a place, opt for somewhere else?

Gosh @NotDonna - that's a bit of a shock. Hope your dd finds a way to study her sociology. Her current school has very high requirements!

@ChannelLightVessel ive no idea as it’s never over-subscribed. She is on the waitlist. But being rejected from what we considered a solid back up suggests her flimsy applications are even less likely. I’ve been VERY nonchalant & told her not to worry. She’s in the middle of mocks and predicted grades could (maybe maybe) be important for her other choices.

I don’t want this rejection to be a distraction.

Terrible timing as well @NotDonna I’m sorry.

I think I’d definitely want to know how they’ve applied their admissions criteria and where she is on the waiting list. One thing that is perplexing me is a lot of school I read about have now ditched the personal statement. An extremely competitive one goes for actual grades only - the applicants are ranked and that is it (he isn’t applying for that one). The one he wants has the usual grade requirements (7 x 5-9 plus 7s or 6s in subject you want to do - STEM and MFL 7s) and the over subscription criteria is faith/ ballot (after LAC). So what role does the required personal statement have in this?? It’s not very transparent…any ideas?

Apologies for any misunderstanding on my part @NotDonna