Year 11 - 2024/2025 - In the thick of it!

[QueenMabby]

New thread. Sorry. Forgot to start it - I hope everyone finds this!

DS said Chem was fine and PE hard but not as bad as it could have been.That paper has been his weakest historically so positive vibes.
Eng lit tomorrow then they are allowed gone as school has an early closure for parents evening. Think he will probably go and play football somewhere in the afternoon which I am chilled about as no exams on Wednesday.
I find myself quite distracted at work thinking about how he is getting on-soon be over…

Ds said PE was "suspiciously easy" he had not been looking forward to that one. I have to say I invigilated that one (at a different school!) and everyone seemed to finish with at least 10 minutes to spare.

Edexcel chem was horrible apparently. Plus miscommunication from invigilator on an error (which was on combined foundation paper but they spent 15 mins looking for it to correct on triple foundation paper - so those sitting higher papers had to wait for about half an hour just to start). And the teacher received an email from Edexcel AFTER to say there was a multiple choice question which had 2 correct answers (or if 4!) though the question asked for one, so that threw DS a bit because he wasn't sure which one was right when actually they were both right! The first exam which DD has said was awful (and she was thinking of A level Chem)!

DS double exam tomorrow with Lit and Comp Sci. He scored 100% on his paper 2 mock so I think he has put all his effort into Lit. Inspector calls and poetry.

He (we!) have learned one in super depth… and another 2/3 we’ve gone over videos online, he’s added notes to his existing annotations.

His school do time and place rather than conflict or relationships (which caused mass panic earlier as he picked up his older brothers old anthology which had got mixed up in revision guides and when he did it, they did conflict, and obviously none of the time and place section was annotated!).

He's hoping that they get Westminster bridge or adlestrop and he can compare it with London- which is the one he knows really well. 🤞

DD reported that chem wasn't as awful as she expected. That's a v good sign.

I did have a call from school to say she had severe rib pain and she had a muscle spray in her bag but she shouldn't have meds in school so it would need to be kept in the office (fair enough, I didn't know she had still) then rang back to say it had expired so she couldn't have it but they could give Ibroprofen with my consent.
Then she texted to ask if she could come home. By the time I got out of my meeting and was able to call school she'd just gone into her English lesson without complaint so we agreed to leave it. It was last lesson and useful for tomorrow's exam!

She's done a couple of hours tonight and is now making cookies.

DD said her AQA higher combined chemistry was her “least fave” exam so far but not too bad so we’ll take that as a positive. She would have happily done intermediate if it were an option as she “doesn’t believe in science” 🤨🤣

Tomorrow she has Eng lit higher (AQA) - she seems quite relaxed about it, although, in her words, putting her eggs in one basket with regards to the poems. She’s hoping nature comes up but can make it fit if she needs to! I’ll take her word on that but she seems very much in control.

They do not need to know them by heart, but they do need to know them well enough to discuss the themes and know some quotes to illustrate their points.

As to how many – DD is my barometer on this (as on so much else) as she did amazingly well in this exam; she says ideally six poems that cover between them all the possible themes. Tho she admits she was always going to to write about Exposure as she had the most to say about it (not sure what she would have done if the set poem had been My Last Duchess but hey). Two poems sounds like not enough to me; what if one of those two came up and the only other one you knew didn't cover the same themes at all?

And remember it’s generally agreed that AQA will never set Tissue as the given poem as long as Eng lit remains untiered – way too nebulous and inaccessible.

Dd does edexcel english
J&H for novel and L&R poetry
She loves J&K and says she's "done" 4 poems 🤷‍♀️

If there were functional literacy and numeracy options at this stage for those unlikely to pass it would be much better than making them feel like failures.

@BobBobBobbing I very much agree. And frustratingly, there is an option, just schools are not allowed to offer it and must push the GCSE. I have known students who won’t get a grade 1 have to battle through the Shakespeare and Dickens. My DS1 got three grade Es before he was allowed to sit Functional Skills L2 which he passed and it’s on his CV as “equivalent level to a C at GCSE” – but why not offer it to him, and a small group who will struggle, much earlier?

@Dagnabit your DD sounds a bit like mine – she was given Bayonet Charge (major gift but it was the first year of the spec) and the topic was “the effects of war” so Exposure was spot on. Just as well then.

What board was this please as DD said there were some weird questions (6 & 9 markers) which were hard to provide enough info on.

If it is available @clary what is the rationale for not offering it? Seems very mean.

My guess is someone thinks too many will see doing FS as an 'easy way out' rather than fully commit to the more challenging GCSEs.

I do think colleges should have to offer L2 FS and not be forced to make students do endless resits.

What are you feeding your child that she loves J&H?

DD hates it to the level I asked her teachers what on earth they were thinking. There's not even a decent film!

They should think of the poor mothers helping with revision and pick Pride and Prejudice with lots of mock questions on lakes!

As I understand it, schools have to enter all students for GCSE Eng lit and lang and maths and science (presume as part of the way they are assessed). Students have to fail the GCSEs more than once (or once very badly) before they can do FS. I agree it is very mean of someone (don’t blame the schools tho as it’s not their fault).

“We have to enter them for it” is what I was told by an Eng teacher colleague once when I queried why a student in my form (who had SEN and was totally lovely and amazing in many ways) who “won’t get a 1” was being made to sit the paper. The stress of trying to do it was making them ill.

It was OCR.

I agree @groovylady J&H is a really challenging text for GCSE. My DD studied it for her degree and loved it. Mary Reilly is a possible film? (bit late now tho!)

@OhCrumbsWhereNow
Oh, now you're talking!
(Dd would love P&P too!)
Dd seems to like gothic drama...no idea where she gets that from! I don't mind a bit of Dracula but J&H is a bit dense for me...
She says she likes "the duality of man"? 😬🤔😁

Dds school also do AF and MofV, which not many other schools choose

@QueenMabby
You ready with a new thread title? 😉
We are racing through threads at a rate of knots!
maybe we could have GCSE's 25 - 1/2 way through, pre May bank holiday 1/2 term somewhere in the title?

Aren't we all 1/2 baked already? 😉

DD did a degree essay on “homosociality and homosexuality in J&H” I was like whaaaaaat? WHERE? she was “here where he uses this particular word it indicates xyz...” 😀

She said to me before her GCSE could she answer on P&P as she loves it so much (she did Frankenstein which she also loved tbf) (and AF) and I said well there’s nothing stopping you actually but i don’t advise it...

Older dd got an 8 in lit...she loved AF! 🤷‍♀️

AQA separate higher chemistry went well - dd checked her answers after with a few of the reliable high achievers in her class and got the same for the calculations so was happy.

Now desperately trying to cram for Power and Conflict - I think she is focusing on 5 or 6 poems as suggested, though guess you need to know them all a bit as anything could come up (except maybe Tissue...) She has read predictions for Storm on the Island, but who knows!

AQA chemistry higher went well today for my daughter. She’s feeling well prepared for tomorrow’s English lit paper, An Inspector Calls and Power and Conflict, but I’m sure she’s not the only one who is tired and counting down the days til half term.

Amend to my previous post (too late to edit) – it’s only maths and English for which DC have to be entered. Most schools do enter DC for science as well but in fact a friend's DC took separate sciences but only two of them – they never took GCSE chem (I think) at all. So it cannot be a legal req. But in terms of P8 I guess schools are keen to enter students to tick that box.

Half-way and half-baked sounds like an excellent idea! Will check in tomorrow morning to set up - don’t want to miss the end of the thread again!