Year 11 - 2024/2025: It’s all downhill from here!

[QueenMabby]

New thread to help us get through the next week or so!

@Sisublondie i am so sorry the school sound awful - hopefully he has a good next step

is he is a main hall or small room? If in main hall would he be ok in a small room?

definitlry get him coming home as well

when i was an exams assistant we had a horrible thing where one girl had finished and another still had a couple of exams and she attacked her outside school during lunch time. Really hurt her hand (couldn’t write) and her head. She did the exam bless her with a scribe (couldn’t write) and rest breaks

I would definitely contact exams officer as well to get see if he can have a small room

@Sisublondie to add really sorry for your DC. Their happiness and security is so much more important than any exam 💕

Thank you… yes, it’s safe to say you are very accurate about the awful- ness…. I’m praying he gets the grades he needs- to go to the college in a different town, where he has an offer to do the BTec he is really interested in ( hopeful first step to certain profession he wants to do). Hopefully a fresh start. When we were driving home, when we were chatting, I said, “Ok, so our exam countdown also includes when you don’t have to see “ Dick” ( not his real name!😈 (much!!) everyday”. He was concerned as what if D also turns up there ( would be VERY unlikely- even if D left DS school too, most go to a college in nearby City), I just said how, even if he did , the chances of his crappy bunch of nasty ass bully mates being there too, is teeny, and, on his own- he would be too SCARED to start anything! ( 🙏🤞 I was on target!)…DS said that on the odd occasion their paths cross, both alone, D puts his head down and scurries past…..so, yes, as you say, hopefully he will get his 4 Grade 4’s and get the hell out of there! 🥳

That is so shocking, your experience as an exams officer! That poor, poor girl! Oh, can you IMAGINE what she went through?? Her poor parents! What a hateful, despicable file who attacked her, and injured her so badly! I do hope the Police were involved ( and that the injured girl hopefully got grades she wanted)…

Thank you, yes, I am constructing my email in my head, ready to be put into writing once I have DS “ tucked up”!
🙏

Sorry! I forgot to add that as DS is ASD/ADHD he has laptop use ( writing problems), stop clock and extra time ( which we had to fight for, despite him having been diagnosed at 6), and he does have the benefit of being in a small room, away from the main hall, as crowds increase his anxiety. But, thank you so much for suggesting it, as it is not something that I would have been aware of as being a “ thing”.

Thank you for being thoughtful and kind 😸

Thank you, @Hollyhedge.. yes, you are absolutely right. And, even when you think of what would appear to be during exams - the dreaded “ worst case scenario “…aka “failing catastrophically”, well, yes, it’s not ideal, but his happiness and keeping him safe is paramount and his mental health, too. ( Ironically, he has the bonus of knowing of my failing my first round of (STEM) A Levels catastrophically, going to a not as nice college ( in an old warehouse off campus!) while everyone went off to uni, crammed three new ( English, Law etc) subjects in the following year, doing Ok, went off to Uni and got to the profession I wanted just a little later. He and DS18 do take the mickey of the grades I got first time round, they knew the story from little, so it has kind of come into its own as they have grown up. Probably the only life lesson I have inadvertently taught them 🙄😹!

Hearing him laugh just now ( he and DH just had a joke at my expense ) was priceless!

Thank you 😸

Thank you. Yes, they are precisely why he doesn’t want to go. He did say that if his friend B, who is also autistic, would go, he may possibly consider it… but B hates crowds even more than he does, and the bullying has continued, so it was a Hard No. My plan is our going to watch Final Destination new movie ( we both love them… please don’t judge!) 😈😹 🍿 instead!

Thank you, @greymalkin71, for your advice, that’s so kind of you. I’m in uncharted waters here. I’ll endeavour to find out the school procedure tomorrow. 🙏

Yes, that is an exceptionally good point! Thank you. I’ve now got my To Do List to execute via email ( thank you, also, @Oblomov25, paper trail is 💯 necessary here, very true), and shall drop DS for his Maths ( watch him walk into the building) and get cracking.

So much appreciated 🙏x

@rosemarble.. thank you so much for saying that. 🤗. He is the most loveliest of souls and I’m so proud of his self restraint to not fight back, or even to raise his voice in retaliation, or come down to their level. 🙏

Thank you for this. It is really helpful to hear how others revise, sometimes a shake up and a bit of a change around is needed- like a bit of a breath of fresh air!, so it’s good to hear new/differing ideas.

I do like printing out the past papers.. ( I’m very much preferring paper as opposed to to online…. not very DS, unfortunately 🙄😹), too.

It seems you have a great team method going on, that you have honed effectively! It sounds hard work and very full on for you!… now, wasn’t talk of GCSE’s being a team effort?! .. it definitely sounds as though you should be getting your own Results slip! 🥇

🙏… good luck tomorrow!! 🤞 🍀 🤞

Feeling pretty queasy here about maths today, who else is??

Good Luck to all DC this morning with Maths Paper 2 🤞🙏 🍀 🤞!! I hope they manage to keep calm, read the questions properly and just do their absolute best 🤞🤞🤞💖.

Extremely! I hope DS got more sleep than I did . But, he’s already rejected his favourite breakfast, ( or any), so I’m fearing the fear has kicked in. How is yours?

About to get myself up to make her some tea. She's been a bit calmer the last 24 hours. Just hoping this maths paper will be better than the last.

I've just heard also that she'll not be going to her dad's until late on Sunday this weekend so she'll be with me at home both days for moral support with revision.

@Sisublondie I was so sorry to read about the bullying your ds is enduring. My ds1 (ASD/ADHD/OCD) ad a dreadful time with bullying at school. It was a co stant fight for us to get his schools to take action against the bullies, despite allegedly having zero tolerance to bullying.

Not sure if it will help at all but, after severe bullying through primary and secondary schools, college was so much better and he has really found himself at uni. He delayed going for a couple of years while he worked on his mental health, so he’s 23, mid-uni but living at hhime now and loving every minute. He has lots of friends via a couple of uni societies and is so happy, it’s lovely to see.

Just about to jump in the car to drop dd at a Maths revision session at 7.30. Good luck with Maths Paper 2 for those that have it this morning.

Dd went into an absolute tailspin over it yesterday. She has to get a 5 to get into Sixth Form and technically should be ok, but is convinced she won’t. Yesterday was not fun, but she had been back over her mock papers by last night and realised she was in a similar position to how she feels now after those exams, but did ok.

Urgh! Please excuse my typing. I barely slept last night and I’m using a touchscreen that doesn’t like my fingers!

Oh, yes, hopefully the tea may help her ..🤞😸.. that’s really good that you’ll have those extra two days with her to support her until late Sunday. I know it’s horrible seeing them stressed, and wishing it was like it would have been when they were tiny, scooping them up and making all the bad things go away, but I’m just loving when a little smile or a joke pops out from him, or, as you say about your DD, when he shows a bit of calm and his “non exam” self pops thro… (He, also, had a not so good Maths Paper 1 ( medical room called for him to be collected after as “taken ill” in it… yet to find out how much was completed)).
I hope your DD finds this paper to be kinder to her ( as I’m calling it!)! 🍀🍀🍀

For some reason I am more Zen about this maths paper! Probably a bad omen….
Think exams have been going on so long I have reached the “well fuck all he can do about maths paper 2 now”.

Hope everyone finds something enjoyable to answer this morning.

@Sisublondie
My final exit the car prep talk will be
Check the negatives (especially taking from each side of equals sign)
Expand brackets one at a time
If it asks for an answer to 3 decimal points it’s unlikely to be a nice round number
Double check your calculator answer (you should mentally have it in a roundabout ballpark)
Longer questions will be in steps lo at what information you can work out with what you have go from there.

Think that’s RattyRevision’s highlights!

Me too. Worst one for DS. Maths is the subject he struggles most with. I just really want him to get the pass! We’ve have a tutor for a year which has really helped.

Good luck for all for maths today!
This is likely to be DD’s best subject so she’s pretty chill although dh is on the taxi service this morning so I hope he remembers!
My pre-exam rant advice was to double check all her answers, particularly to the “easy” questions. Dd has a nasty habit of over-complicating the working out and getting a wrong answer where it just needed something simple!

She does Edexcel IGCSE which is only 2 papers and both with calculators. FM hasn’t started yet. They do AQA for that which does have a non-calculator paper.

@Sisublondie - sorry to hear about your DS’s troubles. I hope he manages to get through it all ok. Not long now.

If not too late. Make sure they have a calculator….yes some people arrive without one!

Best of luck 🍀🍀 everyone. I think DS keeping me firmly at a distance with his revision has made me more chill 🤣 He was up and out v early as they apparently have some sort of warm up. He was chipper - I know he is a bit worried about some of his grades, but on the face of it cheerful. We’re off now - 12 exams virtually back to back. Dreaded history tomor. Stay strong everyone x

I’m so sorry @Sisublondie to hear about your lovely DS being bullied - and the school’s failure to deal with it properly. Fingers crossed that his move to college will be the start of a brilliant new chapter in his life.
Meanwhile, we had a knock at the door at midnight: two neighbours had discovered DCat2 trapped in a coil of wire. So much for an early night. I see a trip to the vet in my near future…

Sorry to hear this @Sisublondie ...and @ChannelLightVessel re your cat! Great timing cat - but hope it's ok.

DD seemed chirpy when I spoke to her last night. Will see how she is AFTER the maths exam (and the inevitable three hours of symphony she has afterwards).

Good luck for your DC with maths. DS I think has "lack of revision over half-term when it was a golden opportunity to revise" remorse this morning. Bless his little cotton socks.

And of course I got huffing and puffing "yes he knows all this" apparently!