Year 11 - 2024-2025 Support Thread

[QueenMabby]

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

@Elizo - practice, practice, practice for maths. It's the best way to revise. Corbett maths is good and also physicsandmathstutor.com for past paper questions by topic. Once he has his mock paper back the trick is to see where and why marks are being lost. Are there certain topics that need more work or is he losing marks as he's not properly showing working out or is it just silly mistakes? Once you know that then he can target his revision accordingly.

Thank you

Thanks to everyone who commented about DS. His school asked us to come in earlier this week and they suggested that he drop English Lit (especially as he seems to have such a strong aversion to poetry) and Further Maths, leaving him with eight GCSEs. He does love Chemistry and the sciences, so hopefully this will allow him to concentrate on those, as well as English Language and Maths.

They have drop-ins / surgeries at school so will be making sure he goes to those; his drama teacher (where he got a 1) is also meeting with him 1:1. DS started with an English tutor at the beginning of Y11 as we knew that was a weak point for him, and we’ve now engaged a tutor for Maths and another for combined sciences to help with exam technique.

His school actually tried a few different tests for him in Y10 to assess GCSE access arrangements, but his scores didn’t qualify him for extra time. We’ve got ADHD and ASD assessments booked for him this month (to be honest we should have looked into this earlier but he’s probably good at masking and also has never had to work in an exam environment as much in Y10 or earlier), so will see what happens with those.

He can produce very good written work if there’s no time limit and it’s just one question, according to his English teacher and also his tutor. So I suppose just practice and trying to help him manage his inner panic somehow (he says his brain just refuses to work at mocks).

@Greenbriar - it sounds like his school is on the case at least which is good.

My dd came home today disappointed with her performance in her Spanish speaking mock. She said she just had all yesterday's German in her head and couldn't remember any of her Spanish! At least it's only a small part of her overall score.

Sorry she is disappointed but as you say just one element. Also as a good friend said earlier, they are mocks for a reason, practice and learning. DS did one GCSE last year and from mock (Jan) - exam grades went anything from up 3 to down 2 from children he told me about. Best to not take the results as too much of an indication of any particular grade/ outcome.

Me again. Found an incredibly useful feature on mathsgenie. Alongside exam papers and mark schemes there are video explainers for every single question (one long video for each paper). Has anyone come across such a thing for sciences?? Thanks x

This sounds very useful - I think it will be helpful for DS so thank you for sharing.

Results day for DS here, complete with assembly and envelopes. DS seems very laid back about the whole thing which makes me 🙄.

Apparently the Spanish speaking was really hard!

My son is two weeks into his mocks and has another week. It seems to be a real slog and this isn't even the real thing. The whole year seems like hard work because apparently he has more mocks in March and then the real exams in May/June. I just can't remember it being this bad when I did it. But maybe my memory has faded!
I feel like it would be much better if they were tested on less subjects-maybe just Maths, English and the Sciences but then maybe they wouldn't bother with their other subjects if there wasn't a test at the end.
I also can't believe how much my son has to learn for the sciences. It seems much more than any other subject.

DD's English homework took her four hours. FOUR HOURS! It's getting ridiculous!

Ouch! 4 hours for a homework!

I think a number of schools run two mock sessions. I’m quite pleased ours doesn’t. These have been enough.

DDs results are trickling in slowly. Seems like a bit of a mixed bag and not as good as end of year exams. Shame as she’s done so much work over the summer and since. The reports will be out in a few days so hopefully they’ll advise where improvements can be made.

I am really sorry @oblomov24 . I must be really heartbreaking for the parents.
My DD has very bad anxiety and panic attacks so I know of the emotional struggles students go through. Mocks weeks are over now, results not until January (with full envelope ceremony too 😐
DD would like to do A level I.T later so need an 8 in maths and I.T. We are not putting pressure and have told her there will always be a door opened for her. Cahms sessions start this week.

@froggybiby good luck with the cahms sessions. It’s very tough seeing your child struggle so hoping you’re being kind to yourselves too!

It was nothing like it when I did my GCSEs. No interventions, we must have had one set of mocks but I don't remember any pressure. You did them, you got the results, you moved on. This madness of 'it's the be all and end all' needs to end IMO.

Anyway, in the meantime. DS has been getting his results in: mixed and generally lower than they ideally would be at this point but onwards and upwards. The volume of what they have to learn is vast. Sciences yes, but history and Spanish seem equally huge. He is chipping away now, think he has realised if he wants the good grades and to do the A levels he is considering work is needed - it's just the shortness of time and the grades needed for A levels putting on the pressure. One way or another it'll work out...

Good luck all

DD has another set of mocks in March too...may be a solution would be to have their marks made up partially on results achieved during the year / and the rest by the exam, rather than everything relying on just 1 exam.
This mock session has been stressful enough...although DD has never got up so early to ensure she got to school on time ...always a silver lining.

My son got 5-5 in his Combined Science mock which he was quite pleased with bearing in mind how awful the teacher has been and that they still haven't been taught all the content. His teacher said he should think about taking the Foundation Paper because of this result. She said that the exam boards have said the boundaries will be getting higher and higher and that with his results he might fall off a cliff if he does the higher paper! Has anyone elsebeen told similar?

Congrats on a 5-5. Sorry I don’t know the ins and out of foundation v higher for science. I know with Spanish it is harder to get a 5 on higher. What grade is your DC aiming for? Does he need a particular grade? If he wants to do higher could you agree he does further tests end Jan? I think Feb is cut off for GCSE changes without a fee (although do check). Also how close to boundary was he? I guess a high or low 5 would make a difference. Good luck.

Ps just remembered friend’s son got 4-4 and has been told foundation would be better. He was a bit reluctant as was hoping for a 6-6 but friend is minded might be best to go for safer option of foundation and focus on other subjects. They are deciding in the hols. He doesn’t need science for any A levels.

Elizo thank you for this. I think he would be happy with 5's or 6's. He was thinking about Psychology A level though. I think you might need science passes. Something for me to check tomorrow.

@Infracat

I would think that if your son is able to get 5-5 at Higher Level mocks, a solid pass, he should stay at Higher level, since he has a chance to improve on those grades with feedback and support, whereas at Foundation he can't. And saying to a student with that mock result that they might fall off a cliff? Are you able to get an appointment to discuss this further with this teacher?

One of our local 6th form colleges asks for a 5 or above in Science and Maths for A level Psychology, and at least one 6 in an essay subject. They also offer a BTEC in Applied Psychology and the chance to study this together with BTEC Social Care - apparently those who completed the course last year all went on to Higher Education. They do need higher grades if you want to do more than 3 A levels.

I don’t think doing 4 A levels is something majority of DC need to worry about it. From teacher friends have been told unless child is v studious and v bright not advisable as risks bringing other grades down. Unis ask for 3. Further Maths might be an exception as often considered as a 4th

All the advice we're getting (and this is for a child that has Oxbridge ambitions!) is that universities don't take 4 a-levels into account, and there are much better things to do with their time. They said the only reason to bother with a 4th a-level is if it is something they are really interested in studying and basically want to do it just for the knowledge, not the qualification. Do things like the extended qualification (who's name I forget!), leadership things, volunteering. These will all count more towards competitive university courses than a 4th a-level.

DS is having trouble trying to choose 3 A-levels let alone 4! He wanted to do further maths as a 3rd A level and his chosen 6th form said that would be fine for a maths or engineering degree, but now he's having second thoughts about FM. Not sure what he wants to do as an alternative, he'll see what the mock results are like.
Need to give in the 6th form college applications to his school by tomorrow. It's only yesterday that his school communicated this unless I missed a previous email. So tonight's going to be spent filling in 2 application forms to be handed in tomorrow. His school then fills in the predicted grades and references section and sends them to the colleges. His own school 6th form application deadline is sometime in February.

I contacted the sixth forms DS is applying to and they said no issue swapping later. At this point they use it more to gauge demand. So bit more relaxed as he can decide next summer. Hopefully yours the same. Good luck