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Secondary education

Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

Year 11 - 2024-2025 Support Thread

1000 replies

QueenMabby · 22/08/2024 12:18

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

OP posts:
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WriterOfWrongs · 28/08/2024 15:00

DS also hasn’t done any revision or homework over the summer, and that is fine with me, but I’m impressed that some yours have!

He did very well in his end of year 10 “mocks” though, with at least 4 x 9s, with the exception of maths that he struggles with. We’re going to get him a maths tutor.

He is committed to doing well in his GCSEs and worked very hard last term, but I’m not sure if he’ll willingly be doing 2 hours every night. He has ADHD and focuses hard at school, but is very tired when he gets back.

SB1971 · 28/08/2024 15:50

DS had done zero work but nothing has been set other than prepping for the English lang speech in Sept which he had not done yet.
I feel you @Oblomov24 -me and DH have agreed that it will be a joint approach with him and not just me nagging as I am around as mostly WFH and tend to do more
of the school mental load.

IThinkImAMathmoMum · 28/08/2024 15:58

Hi everyone checking in for the new thread,

Seems there is a massive variation in how much work schools set over the summer. DD has only had art coursework set which she is now beginning to panic about, she has done some but she thinks it is not good enough. I tried to reassure her that she still has a week left of the holidays but I'm not sure it helped.

She really wants to do well and did do well in her year 10 exams. She says that school don't think she is very clever so she wants to prove them wrong! I don't know where she has got that impression as teachers have generally been very positive about her at parents evenings but she is pretty quiet at school so I have felt that she has perhaps been overlooked in the past.

She will have new teachers for art, english and french this year so fingers crossed she will like them. It's actually less than 10 months until she will be finished exams so I think the year will go very quickly! Eeek.

WriterOfWrongs · 28/08/2024 16:00

10 months!!

Strap in, folks Grin

crazyBadger · 28/08/2024 16:04

Have 2 going in to yr 11. And older DD will resit her maths GCSE ..

So 3 at 3 different schools....

VioletIndigoBlueGreen · 28/08/2024 16:29

Checking in for the new thread. DS has done quite a bit of work over the summer as his school set quite a lot of things to keep them on track. Can't believe they're all going into Y11 now - we are probably more stressed than they are!

Quick music question, I know some on this thread have very musical DC. We have a dilemma around an audition. DS is eligible to audition for NYOS which he's keen to try as he's been unsuccessful with NYO twice now. But there's an Easter residential for a week which would mean him missing the last week of term before Easter here in England. I assume the Scottish holidays are a bit earlier.

I'm thinking it's a bad idea to miss the week of term before Easter holidays in his gcse year, but on the other hand he has very few musical opportunities where we live and NYOS would be great. Not sure whether to veto because of GCSEs or let him audition and see how it goes - would be interested what others think!?

minisnowballs · 28/08/2024 16:55

@VioletIndigoBlueGreen I'd allow an Easter residential (in fact DD2 will be going on a drama trip at Easter) as long as in holidays. DD1 took some time off in the Easter hols and it was fine for GCSEs.

The orchestras are also used to children needing to revise, I think - lots of the NYO have A-Levels, and a few GCSEs.

VioletIndigoBlueGreen · 28/08/2024 17:34

Thanks @minisnowballs - my concern is that this residential is the final week of his school term. I'd be more relaxed if it was a week of the holiday, but missing a week of school then seems potentially irresponsible! Although he loves music, it's very much not his career plan. Is your DD hoping to be a professional bassoonist/flautist?

minisnowballs · 28/08/2024 17:39

@VioletIndigoBlueGreen that is trickier I agree. Reckon I'd still let him - but then I'm a softy and generally think music is good for improving academic performance.

I have no idea what DD2 wants to do - the idea of it not being music seems laughable because she thinks about music all. the. time. - but she's not one of those prodigy genus children and was a late starter - so it is far from obvious that she'll take the music world by storm like some of her classmates. She's also reasonably academic.

She talks about music at Oxford, rather than conservatoire for a next step. I suspect she could be a useful orchestral player, not some genius soloist. Might be a good teacher...She's quite keen on running a music hub or something - because she feels that the state sector let her down musically she really wants to improve it for others.

I've explained she'll have to study hard, whatever it is... not sure she's listening!

ThisPerkySloth · 28/08/2024 17:48

IThinkImAMathmoMum · 28/08/2024 15:58

Hi everyone checking in for the new thread,

Seems there is a massive variation in how much work schools set over the summer. DD has only had art coursework set which she is now beginning to panic about, she has done some but she thinks it is not good enough. I tried to reassure her that she still has a week left of the holidays but I'm not sure it helped.

She really wants to do well and did do well in her year 10 exams. She says that school don't think she is very clever so she wants to prove them wrong! I don't know where she has got that impression as teachers have generally been very positive about her at parents evenings but she is pretty quiet at school so I have felt that she has perhaps been overlooked in the past.

She will have new teachers for art, english and french this year so fingers crossed she will like them. It's actually less than 10 months until she will be finished exams so I think the year will go very quickly! Eeek.

@IThinkImAMathmoMum 10 months 😱 I hadn’t counted up the months! Scary.

VioletIndigoBlueGreen · 28/08/2024 17:48

Thanks - I agree it's tricky! Your DD sounds like she has wonderful opportunities through her school. DS's school is ok musically (for a NE state school!) but I wish we had more on offer locally to enhance this without traipsing around the country!

I do agree definitely that music usually enhances academic performance generally, which is great. DS is planning to try to build a theramin next year in his "free time"!

destiel00 · 28/08/2024 18:22

Dd is very into creative and performing arts and is a member of several youth groups

They passed all their mocks, but maths only just and this has knocked their confidence

I've got an older dd just starting a postgraduate course, so I'm rather dreading this next few months tbh!

I'm really trying to convince dd to do combined science (not planning a career in stem!) as they will get better grades, and its 2 fewer papers during the examination period

My older dd regrets doing triple (history grad)

2 of their subjects will be done by the time the core subject exams start, so I'm hoping it helps with the stress of it all 😩

My real issue is how to convince them that they can't do everything - school work, revision, shows, auditions etc
Something has to give

minisnowballs · 28/08/2024 18:42

@destiel00 I agree on triple. DD2 is doing combined. Her sister did triple and it nearly broke us all! Her school is one of those where the top set did triple in the same amount of time as everyone else did combined - and it really wasn't enough, especially with Covid. She did really well in it (7,7,8) but spent so much time on it she didn't have time for other papers- could definitely have done better elsewhere if all her time hadn't been spent on Physics!

having two subjects done in advance will really help!

@VioletIndigoBlueGreen a theramin sounds amazing! What a brilliant project.

justasoul · 28/08/2024 19:19

WriterOfWrongs · 28/08/2024 16:00

10 months!!

Strap in, folks Grin

I think both DD and I had a bit of a shock yesterday as I asked her if she wanted to come to a certain concert next year with me (if we can get tickets 🤞🏾) and I mentioned it would be after GCSEs have finished 🤯

QueenMabby · 28/08/2024 21:11

I think it's going to fly. Dd said that doing her one GCSE a year early this year really gave her a flavour for what it's going to be like next year with results etc. She's doing individual sciences and will probably take two of them at A-level.

It's going to be a tough start of the year for her as her older brother leaves to go to uni. She adores him and is going to take his absence hard I think.

OP posts:
destiel00 · 29/08/2024 11:18

Dd back today...
More than ready tbh
We've been on holiday and they've seen some friends and been to a couple of parties but they have missed the routine of school
Luckily, their timetable uploaded yesterday to the IT platform, so they knew what they had today and tomorrow - very happy to get their favourite subjects over the next 2 days
I hope that the friendship drama of the last week of term (why is it always the last week!?..) won't impact them

theorangecounty · 29/08/2024 17:45

Just joined this thread...
DD does Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Maths, and then the two English subjects as her compulsory ones. Then her options are French, History, Latin and Computer Science.

She literally never revises for her tests unless it's the day before which is worrying. Even for mocks, she did that! And has done zero work for the holidays and I think she's behind on French homework that was literally due at the end of Year 10. It is a struggle!!!

She didn't perform horribly in mocks - she got 9988776555. But she wants all 9s and some 8s which is going to be difficult for her if she doesn't get her game up. I'm happy as long as she tries tbh though.

theorangecounty · 29/08/2024 17:47

DD has got quite a lot of holiday homework in my opinion. She is going to have a mini History mock in September, as well as a Biology and a Physics topic test. They had a lot of English homework including practising for the SLE plus ,more. And she has her mocks in early November and needs to be revising for those. There's also French homework, Maths homework and Biology homework that she is due to complete!

QueenMabby · 29/08/2024 18:26

That sounds a lot @theorangecounty. What's SLE?

Dd does English x2, maths, FM, physics, chem, biology, Spanish, German, Latin and history. She's done Greek already this year so it's nice to have one out of the way.

We don't have mocks until January but Spanish and German speaking mocks will be before Christmas.

A-levels wise she's thinking of maths, FM, chem and biology.

OP posts:
VioletIndigoBlueGreen · 29/08/2024 18:38

Your DD is quite the linguist @QueenMabby! My DS does a similar set of subjects (fewer languages!): English x 2, biology, chemistry, physics, maths, further maths, RE, history, German, Latin and Music.

His school have one set of mocks in October then another in Feb (?) I think. He's mainly interested in STEM options looking ahead, and will probably do maths, further maths, physics and German for A Level.

He loves music too, but is keeping it strictly as a hobby. He's been watching quite a bit of tv with German audio this summer and was trying to read the tourist leaflets in German for the places we visited on holiday. Harder to keep the Latin ticking over with real world interactions!

newbeggins · 29/08/2024 18:40

Joining

UpstartEnglishTuition · 29/08/2024 19:23

If you are in England, it's crazy but the Speaking & Listening stuff with AQA board does not count towards your overall English Language grade. Bonkers, because as a teacher it is a hard enough sell as it is, but it's more difficult to sell to students when it doesn't contribute to the grade, even if, as I tell them, I have never had a job (in or outside education) which did not involve speaking to audiences of people.

In Wales, WJEC board make Speaking & Listening 20% of English Language, over two tasks. Increasingly, we are asked to video (not audio) presentations so the exam board can check (on a sample) that our marking is not too generous.

Regardless of exam board, what can parents/carers do?

You all know this is an important skill. Link it to the idea of an interview for a job or course.

Speak to your teens. Regularly. Actually, not to, but with. Ask them to express an opinion, and then back it up. Keep them talking, because to get a decent grade, they need to be speaking for minutes, not seconds.

Get them to think about how they might speak to someone quite important (ie the examiner). It's a real world skill - if they turn up for any interview and speak as if they were talking to their mates in the park, how impressed will the interviewer be?

Hope this helps.

NotDonna · 29/08/2024 22:20

@icanbewhatiwant Japan is on my bucket list! If he’d only miss a couple of days then I’d be tempted to go. Esp given your DS3 is keen. He didn’t enjoy York recently, did he? And is a very hard worker? Trying to ensure I have the right op & DS. Please correct me if I’m wrong. If I have it right I think it could do him good, from what you’ve said previously about his character. He will know tbh.

NotDonna · 29/08/2024 23:19

I had to google theremin. We are not a musical household. Nice to have learnt something new today!

DD received her timetable today. Goes back Thursday. All the same teachers bar Chemistry as he unfortunately left - only lasted a year sadly. Same as the previous one. No idea if they only had yearly contracts or hated it and resigned. DD really liked him. Although science isn’t a strength, he seemed to have been able to get through to her. She’s hoping the replacement is good! And ditto 🤞🏼

NotDonna · 29/08/2024 23:39

@Oblomov24 is the school superb bc they only accept 7’s? You do wonder sometimes. I understand for maths & sciences 7’s are needed. For other subjects a 6 could be totally fine. May not lead to A or Astar in A levels but perfectly good grades for the next stage.

DD will be looking elsewhere for 6th form as they don’t offer her preferred subjects The other issue is her school requires 7x 7’s plus 8’s in chosen subjects. Bit of a stretch tbh.

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