Year 11 - 2024/2025: Half way, half baked, half term!

[QueenMabby]

Continuation of the year 11 support thread. Go!

When dd studies at home she locks herself away and doesn’t like to be interrupted. She can struggle to get started, but once she does she sticks with it. I am home anyway, as I am dd1’s carer, so am here if she needs me, but so far that has been for snack production and emotional support, rather than study.

Ds1 (ND with ASD, ADHD and other complex needs, including demand avoidance, which can make things tricky) needed help with structure and focus, so I did help him, but the option of attending school sessions was invaluable. I am pleased to say that thankfully, now he’s 23, living at home and attending a local uni to study computing, he has finally reached a point where he can manage his study without me and is doing really well.

I'm very supportive of school rules, but I think that if my DC revised better at home than being in school and/or needed to do last minute revision on a particular topic that wasn't being covered in school on that day, then I would let them do so. Likewise, a little lie-in can do wonders for overall productivity. There's a time and place for rules to be broken; their future could depend on it

French - “actually alright, didn’t cry”

We’ll take that as a win! It has really stressed her out after her lovely but crap teacher got ousted. New teacher started in September who was shocked by how far behind they were. She has really cracked the whip, hope it pays off for my daughter as well as the school.

We keep getting emails informing us attendance is mandatory and so is full school uniform.

School starts early for breakfast revision

My DS would rather be at school revising. He escapes to the SEND Room. At home hes dstracted. The staff have let him put treats in their little fridge. Little acts of kindness are getting him through.

I agree, I have always supported school rules, but this year the new ones that have been brought in have been ridiculously petty, ott and punitive. Dd has never been in trouble, has zero ‘behaviour points’ and excellent attendance, but wouldn’t even take a day off when she was really poorly the other week because they would ban her from attending prom.

I offered to take her in late one morning when she overslept after a really bad night of no sleep, stress and upset over Maths and she begged me to help get her in on time, as late marks carry the same punishment.

@SilverSnaffles - sounds like your parent group got caught off guard by new management and their ways. Quite often the staff then rely on the parents to say something.
One advantage of being in a pushy London grammar school with a lot of alpha parents is that management know they cannot go against the parent group who are a united force to be reckoned with on WhatsApp. So any noise of things that do not work, there are very loud protests straight up, it is almost embarrassing sometimes.

@Pancakeflipper That is lovely, why can’t more schools recognise that a bit of human kindness and support is what’s needed, not threats and bullying?

crikey @SilverSnaffles I’m lost for words!!

For those doing the IGCSE physics (edexcel Pearson) how are your DC revising now the paper has changed with the addition of a formulae sheet and there’s no proper past ones?

@Araminta1003 parents have really tried, but essentially been told to back off. There have been quite a few issues that parents have fought against, but so far have lost every battle. I don’t think the parent group is strong or cohesive enough to stand up to them properly though.

This is all the work of one new SLT member who seems to think they are either running an inner city school with major issues or a prison. They seem to have all the power and even the staff seem scared of them.

To be honest, I will be glad when it’s over. I have spent half my life fighting schools and LA’s - previously over SEND provision and implementation and think I have officially reached the end of my tether now.

I didn't realise that the paper would change? !!

What has your school told you? (no info here at all!)

Good to hear French was ok. Dd has been on a bit of a rollercoaster, falling in, out, then in love again with it and has revised really hard, so praying she found it ok too. Won’t hear until she gets home after 4.00 though.

She is dreading Physics, her strengths are in Humanities and creative subjects and she gets very stressed about Maths and sciences.

School have told the students that they don’t know what to expect this year now that they are supplying a formula sheet just that ‘It’ll be different’ - as there’ll be no ‘what’s the formula for…’ questions and obviously there’ll be no marks for knowing the formula. So who knows. Physics is DDs worst subject so the not being able to familiarise herself with the paper doesn’t help (same as everyone sitting that board). It could be a very similar format, but no one knows.

Dd off today - really looked dreadful at 6am
Luckily, no exams today 🙌
2 tomorrow though 😔
Good luck to all dc with exams today 🍀

I've been reading the posts about ridiculously punitive new school/slt rules
Honestly, what are we doing to our young people!? 😔😡

DS school are asking them to go in but I know some friends who are allowing their kids sick days. To be honest going into school suits DS as he needs the targeted revision. I think it is only up to Friday then after half term it is study leave.

He is fed up though - we are allowing him a weekend off as he has all next week to revise. We really do need to knuckle down on English Lang though - he is struggling to get over the line. Last weeks English Lit was 'ok' and it sounded like he had done enough but yesterday was awful apparently. He has prepared us that he will probably not pass Eng Lit.

Intrigued for physics tomorrow. My DC do Edexcel: Bio was fantastic, chemistry bad (they have a great teacher so that's a shame) and we're 'waiting to see' on physics.

Our school want them at home for revision. They’ve set up one revision session per subject but unless you’ve signed up, you have an exam or you have extenuating circumstances they don’t want the kids on the premises at all.

Thanks the reassurance about the handwriting btw.

If ours took sick days they’d be jeopardising their place at prom; attendance has to be above 90% since 1st March (unless extenuating medical circumstances)

@SilverSnaffles , your school is being ridiculous and unfair. They could be messing up the future of so many kids.

Like @rosemarble , we've always tried to side with the school. But when they start insisting on stuff that both we and DD know it's counterproductive, we are not listening. DD has lots of sick days.

The one good thing is that it's giving us a chance to demonstrate to DD that when rules are so unfair that they seriously impact your life, it's time to stand up for yourself.

Our school is also a 'good' school with few of the problems some of the large inner city schools have. There's no need for the punitive regime. If anything, they are losing the goodwill of both parents and students. It was always oversubscribed, but not anymore!

This is since becoming an academy the year before DD started there. I don't suppose it's coincidence.

That is a real shame.

Dd has just informed me that chemistry "wasn't too good"
(Aqa)

@strawlight Ours already had to have 94% attendance to attend prom, but if they miss a single day now it’s an instant ban. The same applies to collecting a small amount of ‘behaviour points’ over minor things, like uniform non-compliance (hence the panic re her tie this morning).

@stickygotstuck That’s the thing. Dd actually very strong views on fairness/justice. She has never been in trouble but only because, historically, the rules and consequences were reasonable, now the only thing keeping her there is the fact she doesn’t want to let down the group of girls she’s going to prom with (not to mention she is looking forward to it). The thing is, the pupils that are least likely to play by the rules are also the ones that are least likely to be bothered about prom, so it’s actually only those that that have worked themselves to exhaustion point that are being penalised.

Not really. Pretty sure it’s to make the serial absentees sort themselves out this term, and to prevent kids from going home ‘sick’ after an exam.

I wrote to DS’ tutor and said he is staying home to revise, she said ok thanks for telling us. I would be v peeved if they got heavy handed.

@silversnaffles your school sounds even more harsh than ours, although they seem to have followed a similar trajectory- it wasn't so strict when we started there, but a new Head has meant a new regime. Uniform violations (particularly for length of skirt) have been an issue for us. And one of the reasons DD is choosing college rather than 6th form. My boys are pretty laid back and roll with things, but try and railroad DD into something she feels is unfair and she will dig her heels in. (A bit like her mother ) Similarly we have backed the school with DD but I have raised concerns privately, particularly that there appears to be a disproportionate number of girls affected by breach logs.

She's not doing prom so is enjoying there being no hold over her at the moment. The short skirt is back and make up is getting bolder. I've no intentions of intervening at this point and tbf the HOY also seems to be picking her battles.