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

[QueenMabby]

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

Had tears already this morning over History - DD says she can’t remember anything. DP and I have both tried to reassure her and I’m now going to drop her in but it’s hard seeing her so upset before she’s even got inside the exam room.

Oh bless her. Hopefully she settles down. As we’ve all said - history is a beast

Good luck to all those doing History and French. Hope they both go well!

DS hasn't been on tiktok I don't think to compare his performances so far. He seems very positive about the maths paper yesterday, he was on a high all day. I dare not ask him details as he is prone to silly mistakes, not showing working out properly, illegible writing etc so don't want to burst his bubble!

Thanks for the English revision advice. Cracking on with that and geography today.

The other advantage is we are normally away for my birthday 22nd which the kids get jealous of - DD was quite pleased this year we have to go away earlier (Portugal which seems really popular) so we are back for GCSE results then we cab(hopefully) have a double celebration

my best friends were the 30/31st of July so there wasn’t too much of a wait for me - it must be harder today with all the id etc

@SuperTrooper14 hopefully a cry beforehand has released some stress as tears do and she will relax enough when she sees the paper

box breathing before she goes in to steady heart and blood pressure perhaps?

good luck to everyone today sounds like history is a heavy one

@MrsHamlet
thank you very much for our first revision session plan this morning
methods child tell me everything you know about every method you know!

I will also be seeking out any geography photograph questions we haven’t done, this is what I have for “fun” in my life right now!

I don't know how all yours are coping with multiple subjects. DD is exhausted just from yesterday's maths, and has struggled up today for 3hrs of college.

I hate to hear about kids who are upset so I’m keeping everything crossed that today goes well for everyone. 💐

History and French for us. My daughter said she thinks she’ll feel much more relaxed after today as no more days of 2 exams for her and what’s left are nicely spread out. She really wants History to go well, she’s much less fussed about French. She’s going to text us after History so this is not going to be a relaxing morning.

I did mention the marking things on TikTok to her and she says she is not going anywhere near them! 🤣 I don’t blame her. Hopefully all will be well, but if it’s not, we are firm believers in it being best to live in blissful ignorance til results day. 🤣 Those looking are braver than us!

Much as I'd have liked us to go away earlier after the exams finished, DD is in a play at school so we're just going on a night away in July in the UK.

She could really do with a Saturday job as well but as she's not 16 yet (2 weeks!), her applications keep failing even though she'd be 16 by the time she started anything. Any tips on that front appreciated!

Good luck everyone doing History & French today - we only have History here.

No end of exams holidays here
Little brother still full time in school
Big plans for two years time when we have one a level one gcse leaver oh that’s going to be a glorious June/July not in summer holidays trip.

come June 17th all our focus will be on youngster (which he will largely despise) and we can go back to letting grumpy 16 year old do what he likes!

We had a ‘key dates’ testing session while getting ready for school this morning. He’s said he’s doing the Cold War section first because it’s so date heavy & he wants it out the way. Lizzie will have to wait. He didn’t eat much breakfast which is unlike him so he must be a bit anxious - unless he’s just saving himself for his promised Domino’s pizza this evening!

He announced this morning that he’ll be quite sad when History is over (can’t believe there is still one more paper to go!) because he’s enjoyed the time we’ve spent revising it together. I think he probably means he’s enjoyed being plied with snacks, but I’ll take the win. It’s the nicest thing he’s said to me for years 🤣

I pre-ordered him the Nintendo switch 2 as a post-exam present - should arrive today. Do we have a ‘yay - the Cold War is over’ game of Mariokart together or do I make him wait until the 16th when they’re all done? He says making him wait is cruel 🤔

Any tips for Lang 2 Edexcel?

SPaG is a bit of a disaster here - DD uses editing software for everything outside exams.

Without it, her SEN suddenly becomes rather obvious. She spells phonetically, punctuation is used correctly but she doesn't always remember that it's needed, syntax is sometime odd (her sentences come across as if she's not mother-tongue English).

If there is one thing she should focus on to try and get a few more points in that section do you have any suggestions?

Weirdly she's very good at creative writing in terms of ideas, making it engaging, vocabulary, voice etc - just needs a good editor to fix things. I know that probably sounds very odd - to write well while having the SPaG issues.

Update: we had a bit of a singalong to the radio on the drive in and by the time I dropped her off she was in a far better frame of mind. She knows she's still got next week's America paper in her arsenal because that's her strongest module so she's just going to do her best today. God, it's a rollercoaster!

He definitely deserves a game of Mario Kart today. I’m a soft touch though, and I love Mario Kart so would be itching to play myself anyway. 😂

Eugh...it feels like the nursery days, where you'd get to work feeling like you'd already put the hours in!
DS in school for 8.10am and feeling OK. He's stripped his bedroom wall of all his history notes.

I made myself a second cuppa and played Candy Crush for a bit before coming to work.

I went down a rabbit hole of looking up Vietnam protest songs last night so now have Alice’s restaurant stuck in my head. Considering watching Good Morning Vietnam at the weekend ( we jointly decided it probably wasn’t accurate enough to count as revision..) Good luck to all today.

Eugh...it feels like the nursery days, where you'd get to work feeling like you'd already put the hours in!

That's exactly it!!!!

I was just about going to say that @rosemarble , well observed.

Although, frankly, that's been most of my secondary days for the last blooming five years!

Lots of fairy lights, bunting, fire pit, bbq and last time, dh’s record player and vinyl collection set up in an awning. We warn the neighbours and they are fine about us playing music outside (we are sensible about not allowing it to go on too late). Dd is actually in two bands now, but I think live bands would be a step too far, although last time we did have a singalong around the fire pit to a couple of acoustic guitars. We have piles of blankets and boozy hot choc for the adults at the ready for when the sun sets and it gets a bit chilly.

This year some of our guests are bringing tents to sleep in, so suspect dd and her friends may want to join in and do the same. I, on the other hand, will appreciate being in a proper bed after a day of faux festivalling!

I was expecting dd to want a lift to school this morning, as it’s absolutely bucketing down here, but she wanted to walk with her friend as planned. They have been friends since the first day of nursery and this friend isn’t staying on at the school’s sixth form. I think it’s starting to sink in for dd that after the exams they will never walk to school together again. 🙁

Edited to correct typos.

@mojobrojo Definitely have a game today. It’s a great way to destress.

Mario Kart is my dc’s go-to game when one of them is stressed or upset. It’s also family tradition for them to have a Mario Kart battle on their birthdays. It’s the one time that all three of them still spend time together and enjoy a shared activity. There are other things they do in pairs, but Mariokart is always a family event.

DD2 went in this morning of she'll try her best but she doesn't need French and went on to say if she doesn't get the math grade next week then probably best to re-think A-levels anyway.

All true I suppose - I think her cold is leaving her very tried.

Neither DH nor I did much after GCSE - we couldn't for DD1 as second year of covid this bit of the UK was still heavily shut down. DS had a lot of summer schools and prom set up - which he enjoyed - DD2 just has prom as uni summer schools - a week of events at differnt uni - in the program she part of don't seem to be a thing this year - DH says he's not surpise he in HE as everyone focused on getting paying students in and cutting costs.

As they finish same day we'll likely get pizza and watch all the back up TV shows - we are heading off on family hoilday before end of term not as early as we initally planned as DH has work things - hoping it doesn't clash with college come and and meet us day they did for DS.

my DCs love a good birthday mariokart too - just last week we all played on DDs birthday 😄

Sorry your DD is still not very well @CatHairEveryWhereNow. My DD a bit worse too today after maths yesterday. Double exam today then Eng lang tomorrow. I'm feeling pretty rough now too. The sore throat and headache has begun 😞.

I am resorting to radio 3 (calm classical) as background to see if that improves the mood!

Colds should be illegal in summer.
We have been keeping everyone away from snotty toddlers for a few weeks but it’s impossible to avoid everyone.
Full day in tomorrow so if someone there is ill everyone else in will be next week.