Year 11 - 2024/2025 - Support Thread - the final stretch

[QueenMabby]

A new thread to take is to exams and beyond! All welcome.

@Hollyhedge we live in south east London and dd2 was- until she got a government funded music place - at a ‘vibrant’ girls comprehensive (her sister still is and we love it). So we are also strangers to tractors. The latest school promise auction offered a ‘lift to school by tractor’ as a prize. was so tempted to bid and see if they’d pick dd2 up from here!

Dd will be going in my golf! 🤣🤣

@destiel00 dd1 got the bus… walked back and tore her feet to shreds with her heels. Hasn’t worn heels since

I said I would get DS an uber. Theirs is in one of the big football stadium’s hospitality suite, which sounds quite fancy.

Dh was a farmer until he sold up and retired a few years ago. Ds1 loved riding in the tractors. The younger 2 were never interested. So they wouldn’t want to ride one for a prom, dh always says it’s illegal for 2 to ride in a road in a tractor. He’s a spoil sport 😂

We have an annual tractor run from the local young farmers through our market town and local villages. Over 100 tractors and over 1 hour to go past.

DS's prom is on a Friday after all the exams. Not even a mention of what he's going to wear, I think he thinks he's going in school uniform, doesn't seem to be at all interested in it as apart from paying for it we've not had any discussions about it. It's in a big hotel not far from us. I'm sure when it's DD's turn we won't hear the end of it.
Yesterday DS attended an English intervention during lunch and also one after school, plus his usual piano lesson so he was knackered in the evening so only got a bit of revision done for a Biology paper 2 mock that's happening today. He mainly rewatched the Hunger Games film (the first one) with me as he had just read the most recent prequel and got back into the story. I did manage to do some flip cards on Jekyll and Hyde with him at bedtime and he enjoyed telling me what he knew context wise.

Good grief, this thread has just reminded me I need to book for older dds postgraduate graduation ceremony! 😬🫣
I love the idea of turning up on a tractor 🚜

Love the tractor 🚜 too.
I've paid for prom and yearbook, no hoodies. Persuaded ds2 to use his best school shirt for signing. Just trying to find prom suit and shoes.

Wow- just caught up on 76 posts!
Im pretty sure DDs are 50/50 split pre & post half term - she’s taking 9 GCSEs. She is a bit concerned as not all her subjects have had all content covered. She does seem focussed though and putting in the effort. I just hope she’s not disappointed as it does depend on the day too.

I too am disgusted that here for ds2 not all content has been covered. Surely ideally it would finish all content in feb/march?

Apart from maths I agree all content should be covered by now.
But some subjects, especially science, have a lot of content. It must be hard for teachers to balance teaching it properly, not rushing, with finishing in good time.

I know of a school which started GCSE science content in Y9 and still hasn't finished the content, I think because it's a mixed ability class. But I would have thought starting a year early would mean they are finished by now.

I’ve noticed a big difference between subjects in how long it’s taken to cover the curriculum. Maths, English and computer science seem to have been revising since February if not before. History on the other hand will still be teaching new content right up to the exams starting in two weeks, which has me pretty worried but dd tells me this is normal for that subject. I can only assume there’s an unrealistic amount of content in the curriculum.

Very usual for history.
The content is huge.

DD unhappy with how her AQA MFL Higher oral went.

She got a 9 in mocks. But in the real thing she said although the cards she rehearsed and photo questions went fine, she said the teacher hadn't explained properly about the topics to be covered at the end.

Other students came out saying the same but I don't know if it's teenagers misunderstanding instructions or a teacher not explaining something well. Students who have yet to take their oral exam will now know of the misunderstanding from their friends so that seems unfair.

I've had a look at CGP and online and am none the wiser. Not sure if I could have supported DD more with this beforehand. Such a shame as she said it didn't reflect the studying she had done.

Any words of wisdom? Sorry I'm short on detail but DD understandably doesn't want to talk about it and I suppose it's healthier that she moves on. I suppose grades do reflect understanding of instructions too.

That's difficult, I'm sorry.
I don't know much about MFL, but I have known many very, very able (grade 8/9) students who convince themselves things have gone badly, when they haven't.
I hope that's the case for your dd.

Don’t panic! Chances are she picked up some good marks and this is 1/4 of exam. And general conversation is half of that quarter, so unlikely to be hugely detrimental. Easy for me to say I know but she can pull it back. General conversation which is last section is pretty broad, but they get two out of three themes, so did she get a theme she wasn’t expecting?? In terms of topics it’s not really restricted so maybe a misunderstanding

Thank you @destiel00 that's kind. DD is usually fairly honest/accurate in her assessments of how things went so I think there's something there.

I think it was the last third of the General Conversation section so 10 marks out of a total of 60 which she she says she would have prepared for better if she knew that topic was a possibility.

I've had a look at the grade boundaries for Speaking and it's not disastrous, just disappointing, as that's an easy thing to get right.

And that's the sort of thing that came easy to me, although DD has other amazing strengths which I most definitely lack.

DD was recently diagnosed with a mild learning difference so maybe this is one way it manifests itself. Focusing on keeping her wellbeing okay now.

I'm more involved in her other subjects but sometimes that feels wrong. Although some on this board are quite involved in their children's studies too. Difficult balance.

Oh thanks @Hollyhedge, that's really made me feel much better. I maybe meant the word theme instead of topic. I'll try and listen more carefully if DD is up to talking about it again.

MFL didn't come naturally to DD so she had to work for it. And she would have worked on that theme if she was aware.

Just want her to have something positive to show after her teenage years which, like many of our DC, has had challenges to overcome.

It's a very difficult balance, for sure.
My older dd who has an spld worked really, really hard and was quite negative in her assessments pf her performance (she did brilliantly!).
Dd is academically more able, but has her own struggles with anxiety...
So I'm hoping I'm doing the right thing by being supportive but backing off when she feels overwhelmed. Sigh. I don't know of I'm pulling it off.
It sounds as though, for your dd, it was a small part of one part of the speaking exam? She may well have picked up over half of the marks for that part?
It's upsetting for them when they work so hard and the questions don't give them the opportunity to show what they know.

I don’t know anything about themes / topics for the speaking.

Does anyone know what they are for Pearson edexcel Spanish?

We had ds’s award ceremony this evening. I really enjoy the music performances, they always have singers from the school musical, none of my ds’s have been into music or singing. They also have an ex student who gives a talk about their career. Last year they had a lad who was in ds1’s school year. He talked about his degree apprenticeship with BT. His best mate did a degree at uni. then went on to work for BT too. But the first lad is much higher up the ladder, earns more and doesn’t have student debt. So that was an interesting talk on the different pathways into jobs. The speaker today trained to be a teacher, taught for a few years, then went on to do a masters in journalism, she now writes for a newspaper. So a complete change in direction. It’s nice for the dc’s to listen to them.
Ds says he’s glad he doesn’t have to sit through an awards ceremony again. It’s embarrassing apparently.

Ds says he’s dreading his French speaking exam next weds. He doesn’t want to do it. So hopefully he will be glad when it’s out the way.

This surprises me too but my DD’s school does it - it was the first time I’dcome across it and it really surprised me for the same reasons you quoted.

DD had her Spanish speaking today. She was very nervous, but it seems to have gone well. Apparently she was asked a conversation question she hadn’t prepared (about getting a part-time job).