Y11 2025/26… come and join

[wonderstuff]

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@Screenager it’s can be so hard when you are a teacher as well as a parent - the feeling of guilt when your own child is not where they ‘should’ be, and the sense of responsibility to work as hard for them as we do for the kids at school… sending lots of empathy.

Thank you!… It does feel relentless going from school to home. I’m just so knackered in the evenings and he has very little motivation.

@ScreenagerI’m a teacher too but infants. Kudos to all secondary teachers!!

DD came home this afternoon looking defeated, had mocks and thought they were extremely hard. She is expected grade 8s and 9s. Trying to be supportive, telling her to brush it off onwards and upwards.

@helenafalco if it’s any consolation, it’s my students who come out of exams saying ‘yeah that was easy that, Miss’ who I worry about more than those who say it was hard!

I always worry when DS2 says this - as I tend to think he’s missed the point ! - it’s a hangover from 11+ work as I was a lot more actively involved at that point … and that was an absolute blood bath

Thank you for this....I have tried to say they have to make it a bit harder to ensure all students get a bit of a reality check and get their heads down and start taking things a bit more seriously.

We’ve finished the first week of mocks here, one more to go. Dd is exhausted. There’s only 14 exams for mocks compared to 24 in the summer- terrifying!

I always think it’s when they know more they know what they got wrong my and what they missed out. DS has had two weeks of mocks with two exams to go. I got him back in the swimming pool last night which is his main hobby, I could see him physically relax!

The good thing is that they're more spaced out in the summer and there's half term in the middle too.

Also, once a real GCSE exam is done, they can forget that content, forever if they want to! And clear space in their little brainboxes. Unlike mocks where they are still retaining/revising ALL content, and still learning more.

Give me teens over infant and juniors any day 😂

How did college taster & open days up for people this week. Suddenly all feels more real & DC likes the idea of a big college with lots freedom! Can only hope that focuses the mind on grades now to get on course they want

Our open days were July and September and so admissions deadlines are long passed. We got a place at a heavily oversubscribed state college but there’s 2000 students! Dd is adamant she’s not going so she’s staying at her small Indy school sixth form. Alevel options are finalised too.

That size is normal here and admissions seem to all be January - but I’ll be checking this week!

It's strange how it's so different from place to place. Colleges here run open events from September right up to the following August and accept applications at any time.

That’s really good. We couldn’t do the one which would be back up plan (lower grade requirement) due to too many clashes

I’m hoping it focuses the mind too. My ds was a bit overwhelmed by choice. But at the same time that choice will be quickly narrowed down if he doesn’t pull his finger out. We’ve only been to one so far. Visiting a couple more next week.

His school doesn’t have a sixth form, and the other schools around her that do are super competitive

@Screenager I really feel you, I have a chilled teen DS who is not on track for the grades he wants, I’m also a secondary school teacher, it’s such an intense year having it at home and school. We are writing a personal statement for college now. DD1 is in U6, but she had no worries about getting grades and did the whole application independently I think. They are very different!

He has to apply for 4 A levels, going for Art, Graphic Communication, Media Studies and Drama. They do taster lessons in all of them and then confirm 3 choices at the end of the summer.

I think we are also going to put in an application for the local tech college for a level 2 course just in case. The 6th form does offer a 3 year program where they spend year 1 retaking and doing study skills then go onto A-level, but they don’t publish the grades for this and I wonder if they limit the intake for this, don’t think we can count on it.

DS I’m sure will be fine whatever, he’s very sweet and has the gift of the gab as well as that male privilege. I just wish he would put a bit more effort into studying.

Hi, popping my head in. It’s all a bit overwhelming, isn’t it? We are in a grammar area and DD is predicted mostly 6s and a couple of 7s and 5s but possibly won’t have the grades to do what she wants at a grammar sixth form (Science/Maths/Psych)

The offer and results from the local high schools are really poor. She seems keen on college (open evening is this week), but again - results aren’t great and it’s an hour and a half away on public transport.

It’s not helped by the fact she has no idea what she wants to do after!

DS2 is in independent … I’ve taken him to DS1s Grammar and the local sixth form college - neither felt right for him and he agreed - although ithey look great on paper - I am not confident to put him back in the state comp ( the best local option ) he left in yr8 so looks like it’s staying at his independent… feel a bit sick at the cost. Good luck to all those looking at sixth forms - it’s been quite eye opening but feel much better placed to know what suits DS2 now than I did in yr7. He had just started mocks and I think is realising that maybe doing a decent amount of revision might be a good idea

Had DDs parents evening today and fantastic feedback as always - I can't boast anywhere else sorry! I did joke with DD it's getting a bit boring now and maybe she should try and get her first detention just to make my life more interesting.

Lots of debates here about what combination of subjects to choose but were somewhat reassured by advice that for degree apprenticeships the actual subject taken don't seem to matter much, so concentrate on most likely options she'd be interested in studying at university (not that she has a clue!). We also found out which chemistry teachers take the sixth form and it's not her current teacher who she thinks is rubbish, so that's good but also makes the choice even harder as we have more subjects on the table as possible choices.

My son has 5 potential subjects on the table for A level, and is struggling to choose which 3 to focus on: Biol, Chem, Physics, Maths and Business. And he has no idea about career, so we can't help him choose on that basis! We've been to 1 open evening at a Sixth Form, and have more coming up (next week and January). He's in the middle of a 2 week 'assessment period' and then mocks in Feb. I think that we are hoping A level choices will become clearer when we see grades from this assessment period, and when we know more from Sixth Form evenings.

Most of the Sixth Forms do AQA for the sciences, but one of them does OCR Chemistry B (Salters) 601/5371/4 which uses something I'm unfamiliar with called the Salters approach. It is context-led, and uses real-life scenarios as a starting point for learning scientific principles. AQA is more traditional, topic-based. I feel that my son would do better with the AQA approach. Any thoughts on different approaches?

First mock result back… 9 in English literature. She’s thrilled! This is her first choice subject for alevel so has given her a much needed boost. The other results will come in slowly over the next week or so. Essay subjects are much more her thing than stem but we shall see. I always find it fascinating how some kids just “get” essays or stem or vice versa; they all have their strengths don’t they!

Great to have such good results!

DS had lit today and reported it easy and definitely at least a 6. We shall see. I’d be delighted if he did well but he really hasn’t done much work, I think he’s in for a wake up call when results come out. I don’t think we get them until January.

He’s applied for his first choice 6th form, but his mates are going elsewhere, I winder if he’ll change his mind. Choices are colleges in Winchester or Basingstoke, the transport to Basingstoke is much easier, but I can understand him being drawn to Winchester. He’s in a small independent school at the moment and we definitely can’t afford to keep him there.