Year 11 - 2024-2025 Support Thread

[QueenMabby]

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

@newmum1976 that sounds more stressful than the great british bakeoff. Not sure I know how to debone a chicken even now! Good luck to her

Ah food tech sounds amazing. Hope you can enjoy fruits of her labour!

DS aiming for around 4 hours per day for mocks (week after half term). I printed a Spanish practice reading past paper for him yesterday. Was quite useful to see where marks are lost, ie put children no mark, put disadvantaged children get the mark. I found a slip in his blazer saying there are 4 in/school interventions this week. He said they are optional so he is going to two. Find it odd that parents don’t get a letter, but appreciate the teachers doing this and hope they get paid extra.

Hard to know how much work is actually going on, seem to be a lot of breaks but am trying to leave him to it other than when he asks me. Have got him second hand revision cards for history and PE and he seems to like a 2 card a day approach, ie I test him on two cards per day. 5-10 mins.

He is enjoying a lie-in anyway. Time is hurtling on and I’m keeping my eye on glorious mid June!

No revision being done here.

None here either. Dd has had plenty of homework and she's done most of that but otherwise she's just taking a break and relaxing. We have a spa day this week and dh's birthday so I'm encouraging her to have a couple of full days with no school work.

DD3 did her practical 3hr food and nutrition exam last week so that’s one more thing finished! She said it went ok so 🤞🏼
We are away on holiday with a large group so she’s taking herself off here & there to get homework & notes done. I’m not getting involved as she has decided what needs to be completed. She’s task orientated and I’m letting her crack on. I think it’s probably a bit easier with the third one as she’s seen her sisters’ efforts pay off.

My DD has no homework but has done a small amount of revision, but she is struggling to really focus I think. I guess homework is essentially contributing to the cause and so additional revision is not necessarily necessary. I can’t help wondering if DD wouldn’t find that more structured school approach helpful. She absolutely refused to talk to us about what she needs to do and is point blank refusing to create a list of topics and to think about the amount of time she might need to spend on things.

I am glad she is doing something, even if it would be more productive (and satisfying) if she could focus a little more.

@phyllidafosset

I have only just realised that my DD's school ( independent) has placed a LOT of emphasis on "independent" learning, right from the start of the GCSE course. I can see no "homework " where they have answered GCSE style questions over the past two years and for people like my DD who is not self motivated but will do any work that is "set", this is looking like a disaster! In my day ( eons ago) we were not meant to show "independence " until university, other than reading "around " the subject at A level.

The average comp down the road is a bit of an exam factory, but my goodness, by the time the kids do the exams, they have that knowledge like clockwork.

@aliceinanwonderland It is so interesting, because I would say many years ago in my comp it was all independent learning, and that is essentially why I got utterly crap A-levels. My friends at private were much more structured. The irony is that the exam factory approach produces learners that really struggle in a university environment (at least that is my experience teaching at that level). What we need is system that is somewhere in the middle! Some structure and homework, and some requirement for (structured) independent learning.

I guess one of the issues is that this is just such a difficult time for the majority of teenagers (who are not those deeply conscientious ones), because those toddler brains are not best equipped to be able to do work now that is useful for a goal that feels so far away. They are also not best equipped to be able to take on the advice and expertise from their more experienced parents. Ultimately, I think a system that only tests at 18 would just be that much easier all round! I feel like the system we have at the moment is really just such a hold-over from the days when people could leave school at 16!

I'm sure your DD will get there, and hopefully her school will provide some good preparation/support in school time over the next few months. That is what I'm hoping for!!

@phyllidafosset and don’t get me started on the prevalence of online homework and on rare occasions where it was written, then “marked” by her best friend.
Good luck to your DC too!!

Yes my DS is also good at doing set work from school but beyond that there is little independent learning. He has been at home alone most of this half term as I've been at work and DH has been away with DD. But he's shown me work he's done (geography revision and homework, 2 maths papers and an English paper and self marked them). He's now in London with DH for the cross country nationals, so that'll be it this half term.

Still haven't had a decision from his favoured 6th form, a bit worried as all his friends have had offers and interviews from there. We are wondering if it's because of the oversubscription criteria as it's a catholic 6th form and we are non-religious, so bottom of the list. But he claims his friends aren't religious either, so don't know what to think.

@phyllidafosset

I also teach graduates on a professional course and really have to spoon feed them!

The thing is that at 14 a bit of spoon feeding does no harm because by A level, they are older, more interested in
the subjects they're studying and more focused on the "future"

Ds2 is finally better after antibiotics for chest infection. He has mocks next week. Spanish speaking today @ 8.15am! I dropped him off pre work at 7.55am. He was not impressed.

He did actually do a few past papers for maths, biology and chemistry last week over 1/2 term, I've just found out.
An Dh took him to outlet village for clothes shopping. And he talked to Dh about getting him a prom suit. Dh is fab at finding superb suits for ds's cheap off vinted or e-bay.

And plans for Dh to teach him to drive soon. ( Dh taught ds1 early, he works at a Water company that has huge partly deserted sites, so took ds1 there early and taught him clutch control, parking etc, basically how to drive, months before his 17th birthday, so will do the same for ds2). I will get him to apply for his driving licence soon. I enjoyed teaching ds1 , so am looking forward to teaching ds2. We will do all the donkey work. This week I also contacted ds1's old driving instructor ( he only needed a few lessons over a couple of months to pass) and she has pencilled ds2 in for October, so that's good.

For PE he ran 5k in 21 minutes 30 secs, but needs to get it under 20 minutes to get higher marks. So now needs to run at a rate of 1km in 4 minutes, rather than the 1km in 4.19 he just ran. All sounds a bit tough to me, I only run to the fridge to fill up on wine!

I've now got a few stray grey hair in my centre parting. I assume this is stress of trying to get a laid back ds2 through GCSE year, although we haven't even got to the worse bit yet have we? Are we gonna have a count down, to the first exam, so we know how far off we are? More grey hairs for me, I 'm assuming?

My son has mocks this week and next and has just come down with a stinking cold. Hes very run down at the moment.

@Oblomov24 I’m impressed he’s been doing some sneaky revision! Fingers crossed his mocks go well. Is this his first lot or second? Seems forever ago since DD3 had hers in November. Crikey! Driving lessons - is he already 16? DD3 is a summer born so has a long wait. Looks like her first exam is Monday 12th May - doesn’t seem very far away.

I do hope you are right about older being a mit more focused and independent. My kids feel a long way from that!! 🤞🤞🤞

This is good to read, because I'm currently on eggshells around my DD trying to encourage good revision habits which she sees at nagging! We're in a slightly different position to most in that she's not doing A-Levels but instead a Level 3 BTech. She had an interview with a subject tutor at the college she's applied to and it went so well that when they made their conditional offer they slashed the number of grades she needs to get. Which is brilliant, but I'm worried she's going to take her foot off the gas knowing it's pretty in the bag. She still needs to revise in all subjects! So I'll continue with the spoon feeding.

Great thread too – really helpful to hear from other Y11 parents currently in the thick of it!

@Oblomov24 - so glad he's finally better and hope yours recovers swiftly @Infracat . DD2 came home for halfterm with a streaming cold but did get some work done, and I finally got to look over her stuff. History coursework now in, English coursework now finished.

Apparently both music performances for GCSE being recorded this week. Both music teachers happy with what she's preparing (she's doing one on flute and one on bassoon just because of what happens to be ready) so I guess I shouldn't stress about that.

Drama devising log just needs final comments. After that I think all the coursework is finally done except for her drama monologue and duologue, in which she seems to be playing a very grumpy Emily Bronte.

Grade 8 bassoon in two weeks (great timing, school) but she doesn't seem stressed. Prob best for me she's not doing it at home as we nearly came to blows over the last one!

Not sure if ANY revision is happening, but at least her grandmother now carving out an hour a week to do past paper maths with her online. I can't help, so this is as well!

Hope your DS feels better quickly @Infracat

My DD has her second set of mocks starting next week and yesterday I received an email from her art teacher saying she is a bit behind with the coursework and please can we support her in making sure it is all up to date in the next couple of weeks - um hello? Mocks?! DD says everyone in the class is behind.

Her first written exam is also 12th May (English) but she will have language oral and art final piece (10 hours over two days) before that.

Our oral MFL exams start in March eeek
and the first written exam is a few days after Easter.

Oh so early! AQA window is 1st April onwards. DS will have his speaking exam w/c 5th May and first written GCSE 12th May. Mocks next two weeks. Not long now folks. DS tired but doing what he can. Sixth form interview tonight.

I think early is good though. Get one done!

DS is currently sitting his second set of mocks. He doesn’t get the results until the end of March and won’t see the papers until the last week of this term, which seems very late to me, and leaves very little time to work on any significant gaps I feel.

He also has his NEA for DT to complete by the end of March, he says that it is fine and on track but I am a little concerned he has more work still to do in both the practical and portfolio than he realises.

You wouldn’t say that if you heard the mangled French yesterday 🤣
Two weeks to put it right (ish)

Ha!! I still remember my mum practising with me. I had to say my pet is a rabbit. It stood me in good stead 🤪🤪

Dd has two mfl orals and her first main exam is 8th May (German).

They've finished maths and English (just one coursework to do) and other subject seem to be heading towards the end too.

We have parents' evening this evening. She's not done any revision yet but they're having plenty of tests at school. I'm going to start to encourage her to do some bits at the weekends.