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

[QueenMabby]

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

I hope media has gone well, as she's very good at it.
I also hope older dds assessment has gone well (although even if it has, she will only focus on any negatives...sigh)
Hope everyone's dc have had a good day and feel OK x

Dds comments on edexcel geography B - really happy, said the 8 markers were "nice".
Wjec Media "mixed bag" - dd couldn't write much for the 25 marker.
Onwards!....

Got a text from DD2 on english lang 'went pretty well I think'. She's obviously got fed up of calling me!

hi thanks @QueenMabby for the thread!

maths tomorrow and Friday history and business studies - thankfully only one day where DS has more than one exam! couple of his mates had three exams on Monday. On study leave! next week is intense.

they are definitely the forgotten year (2020) - no prom, no hoodies or year books etc but DS year has always missed out. on the last day of school last week - got home at lunchtime and there was an email addressed to..... alumni!!!!! guess school couldn't wait for them to leave!

my DD has A levels at the same time - only one time both have exam at the same time on the same day!

That seems so mean. This is the year that never got to 'leave' primary.

DD's school have organised prom, leavers' hoodies, year book, the works.

I think they have been rather a challenging year group, and I do think that there is little understanding (in general not DD's school) of how much they have been affected by spending transition in lockdown, and in our case almost the whole of year 7 and most of year 8 at home. (Big London comp with endless bubbles bursting).

By the time normality returned they were Y9 and no-one's priority, and huge gaps for many in the basics which has made GCSE content much more difficult for them.

DS had AQA geography today, he seems to be happy with it and said he actually managed to finish in the time which he often hasn’t managed on past papers.

Maths tomorrow for him, which he is good at and desperately wants a 9 on, but is worried about high grade boundaries meaning he can’t afford to drop many marks at all. Then history Friday.

Agree with this completely. Some kids got into Bubbles and survived, but so many others were isolated and no learning took place.

DD had AQA Geography today and thought it was ok but not her best topics for the longer questions, she also found the questions a little different from the many she’s practiced. The main difficulty I think is the timing, the entire paper is very tight on minutes per mark! However, that’s done and Maths tomorrow which is her favourite.

There is only a trip to Thorpe Park for her year, nothing else organised by the school or parents (I was told not to offer). It is sad, even though the school always hope most will stay on there for sixth form.

Nerves kicking in here. Maths tomor - Edexcel. DS needs a 7 for sixth form options. Says always struggles with last questions. Have tried to calm him.

Seems like there are so few marks that can be dropped to achieve a 9...in my day I recall we got an A with 70ish%.

Yes mine said he thinks it either needs more time or less questions because there is so much to get through in 1.5 hours it is always tight on time. Glad she was ok with it overall.

Interesting comments on the different exam boards @clary . DD is doing French with the Welsh exam board WJEC, so that’s another one!

An A is 7. 7+ is around top 20% which is about the same as those who used to get A and above. 8 is around top 10%, roughly same as A*, 9 is top 3% - nothing used to exist for those! The numbers are not helping!!

They are very good though! I had two last night, three is impressive.

dd was happy with AQA Geography today - says she cooked 😂 bit of a relief after being underwhelmed with biology yesterday.

@achangeofnameisasgoodasarest am v impressed that Frankenstein is your daughter's favourite book - dd hated it with a passion and could not wait to offload the study guides on to her younger brother. It is a really challenging text for GCSE I think - pretty sure there were huge chunks of it she was quite vague on as it is so massive, but at least sounds like she has written something coherent and question was ok, the importance of family.

Surprised some schools don't seem to do anything for leavers - seems a real shame. We have hoodies, yearbook and prom organised by school and prefect committee.

@groovylady how about shirt signing?

is she off to college. Dd is leaving her all girls school as well to join a boys sixth form

Older dd really upset
Told today she may not pass the course
Not sure what more she could do

I really, really hate the new numbers.

DD's music teacher took her off for a chat as she got amazing scores back in all her components, and he wanted to prepare her for the likelihood that she is still realistically looking at a 7, maybe an 8 rather than a 9 (she's very severely dyslexic and ADHD - and the dyslexia really causes problems with music notation, as well as the usual SPaG marks she will lose) and that they do not want her upset on results day because a 7 is still an A grade.

She was desperately upset - which feels ridiculous when in my day an A was an A.

Kids should be over the moon with an A, not feeling they have failed.

DD likely to move from all girls school to mixed 6th form. Any advice @Tiswa? DD doesn't have any brothers so being around boys will be different.

They are so unhelpful. They should have done 8* or something because everything feels like it has been downgraded

What course is that? Is it a BTEC type thing? Level 2 or 3? They would normally pull out all the stops to help them pass.

Pgce.
It's been a dreadful placement.
She's genuinely doesn't know what else to do

Yeh I don’t think I’ve ever done a WJEC speaking exam! Not commonly done in England perhaps (tho dd did WJEC geography).

Oh no. I have no knowledge of that at all. Can she do another placement and extend the course, or will that be it? (Do you think she is cut out for teaching?)

Btw on grade boundaries for maths - last year Edexcel (the board which my DC sat) was 197/240 for a 9, so possible to drop 40 marks over the three papers and still get a 9.

I think it is sad if DC are disappointed with a 7; remember that a tiny % get all 9s, whatever you read on MN. My Ds2 is pretty able and he got 9888777666 and was over the moon (as were we); dd also bright in specific areas got AAAAAAB996 and was also very happy.

Any grade of 7+ is excellent and indicates hard work or else a massive facility in the subject (for maths, say). Please tell your DC this.