Coping with children doing exams: Year 12 better or worse than Year 11?

[HLG3]

Currently working part time from home, but looking to do a year's full time study to change career. Three sons, 14, 12 and 3 - trying to work out when best to fit this in (missed the boat for 2008/09 entry.

2009/2010: oldest boy (stressiest and most challenging one of the three) doing GCSE, littlest one in reception
2010/2011: oldest boy doing AS
2011/2012: oldest doing A2, middle one GCSE
2012/2013: middle one doing GCSE
I was planning to go for 2010/11 but have been warned that "AS year is even worse than GCSE year". Any thoughts gratefully received!

lol !!

we currently have

ds1 gcse

dd SATS she is sitting them year 8

ds2 SATS year 6 /plus he had 11+

ds3 reception

ds4 potty training!

IMO the GCSE is not as stressful as i had imagined but not quite in thick of it yet

does not feel like when we has exams!!

go for what you feel there is no right way imo!!!

lol !!

we currently have

ds1 gcse

dd SATS she is sitting them year 8

ds2 SATS year 6 /plus he had 11+

ds3 reception

ds4 potty training!

IMO the GCSE is not as stressful as i had imagined but not quite in thick of it yet

does not feel like when we has exams!!

go for what you feel there is no right way imo!!!

wow! am not even attempting potty training with 3 year old yet (his brothers were all sorted by 2.5), as he is totally uninterested. Glad you are not finding GCSE as stressful as you thought - my big worry is that my oldest is the one who rages and worries about things, the middle and little ones are more laid back (not unusual I guess. He is very bright, but sometimes things get on top of him, and I wouldnt like not to be able to give him full attention when he needs it because I am pursuing my own career agenda...

My DD is in Yr 12, and I don't think it is as bad as lst year, because that was the the first time she had ever taken an exam that REALLY mattered, and 11 subjects (+ short course ICT) is a lot to revise.

Now it's 5 subjects, the workload IS more but she is used to it I suppose, but I am not looking forward to next year (A2's + DS taking his Yr9 SATS)

HLG i am not really sure how much they need...
Its so much coursework/module based that there is not the stress we suffered!

DS2 in Y12 and agree that it isn't as bad as Y11 - after all they have the opportunity to resit the modules twice in Y13! Y11 more stressful with so many GCSEs and loads of coursework (though this is changing) to hand in all through that year. Also, the attitude of sixth formers tends to be more mature than Y11s as they are then looking towards university/further education and should know what they need to do in order to get where they want to go.

DD2 now in year 13 has found her English A level a lot harder than her English GCSE. She is also doing a Performing Arts BTECH which she has found is a lot of work.

Thanks for all this: no perfect time to do it of course. Bumped into some former colleagues yesterday who have slightly older children - they have been job sharing together and have now both started work full time. They recommended I should just get on with it whenever it suited me - the boys would just get on with their lives and it would save me sitting at home feeling resentful at their teenage lack of gratitude for all my concern for them!