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Congratulations on everyone getting through the mocks. Dd doesn't have hers until January as soon as they get back which rather puts the stress on over the Christmas holidays.

But she's had a full on few weeks anyway with her school play and art and drama coursework to get in so in a way, it's good she didn't have mocks to deal with as well.

Congrats to all DC getting their results back 🌟
Mocks are finally finished for us, her school are doing a results assembly in a couple of weeks where they will all be given their results in a brown envelope to try to make it realistic!

DD was happy with how it all went except for one hideous Maths paper that left several girls in tears.

Open evenings done and she’s undecided on where to go so will wait for the taster days, she’s set now on Maths and Computer Science and can’t pick between English, French or History for her third.

She’s off to celebrate with a weekend of no revision and an afternoon in Camden Market then off to see the Christmas lights.

Our DS did maths papers which included content which they accepted they hadn’t covered. Which strikes me as a way to destroy the confidence of those taking the paper and throw them off trying to work out what they can answer. We are still waiting for some predicted grades and one will be even further delayed as they want to to moderate with other schools.

Yes this was the problem, content included in the paper they haven’t yet covered. They spoke to their teachers after and they said if they had revised they would be fine! DD has revised and worked so hard but like she said you can’t revise something you haven’t been taught, feels a bit off.

We have to wait until after Xmas for results, ds doing mocks this week and next, then breaking up early because it’s an indie (they do do longer days).

He’s not doing much revision or listening to us, Bea (whoever she is) suggested some maths revision last week and he was buzzing because it came up, and he answered the question.

I suspect results will be below his expectations and I’m hoping it will be the kick up the bum he needs. He can do well if he revises, but he doesn’t.. he has 6th form interview on the 19th, which will be fine because he’s quite charming.

Our second round of mocks are in March just before finishing for Easter which is good because they should be in the depths of revision then

Another week until DD starts mocks. She’s shattered. School expect two hours of revision each day and seven at the weekend.

@Wolfiefan DS2s school had similar expectations - it risks making them
give up completely . I told DS2 to do two half hour slots as I thought he was capable of that ( it worked for a while )

I think telling her she didn’t have to do it would just make her extra anxious. And risk her messing up the mocks entirely due to that anxiety. I will be so glad when they are over. We are going away for Christmas and her 16th birthday and it will be well deserved!

We are half way through mocks. Only four days of exams next week and an inset on Friday. Hardest so far was French writing where he really struggles with what to say. His vocab is really good but he completely lacks inspiration when asked to write about his school / his recent holiday. We need to work on that somehow before the real thing.

We’re going away for Xmas too and it can’t come soon enough! Particularly as Feb and Easter holidays won’t be happening.

Same here. We often go away at Easter but wont be this year. We have booked an early summer holiday though.

We have two years of GCSEs followed immediately by two years of Alevels .. one of the downsides is definitely the larger gaps between holidays

We normally go away over May half term but obviously won't be next year. I'm taking DS on a break after the exams are over though, just me and him.

We would normally go away both in Easter and May, obviously that isn’t happening this year!

It may be crazy but I am thinking about going away at Easter. Either a city break, maybe Berlin so Dd can practice her German, or a few days somewhere warm by a pool. I just think it may be nice to not have to revise the whole time but maybe it's unrealistic!

I spent the Easter before my A levels living in a hotel room in a random Eastern European city because of my dad's job and it was fine.

We passed all mocks with a mixture of 4s 5s and 6s phew. Maths was a 4 so a bit more work to do there for surety but on the whole great news. Good luck to all of you still waiting. 🍀

We also now have the results minus one subject we have to wait for next week for and have one 7, the rest 8s and 9s, including a 9 for English Language. And I couldn’t be more proud especially as we were told my DS wouldn’t even be able to write more than his name when he was 3 or 4 (as he is disabled). I know all children deserve to do well and doing well is relative but for DS he has to work slowly and steadily week in and week out as it’s not just assessment where things take longer, it’s everything from getting dressed onwards. I will say that even with that he has not been doing 2 hours revision a night in the week, nor 7 at a weekend. But he works hard most days and it is paying off!

Well done on mock results so far! DS came home buzzing saying he thinks he’s got at least a 7, maybe a 9 in food tech, we shall see, he hasn’t finished his course work for this yet, but who knows. He thinks English was okay.

We have booked to go away in February half term, I absolutely hate the winter and so we do a week in Tenerife, because summer is okay here really. DH and my DSF are taking DS and a friend away in the summer, because my mum and I did that for my daughter when she finished GCSEs and it was nice, nothing booked yet though because I still don’t have the date of prom and DS still not decided where to go..

We have had our sixth form open evening and I am slightly freaked by the fact that DS1 now seems to want to do totally different subjects that he hasn’t studied before (most of which were on offer at GCSE) and that he hasn’t previously expressed an interest in! Not sure if to be supportive or mildly suggest he does a bit more research (which will 100% be taken as rampant disapproval). Any ideas?

I think some kids benefit from a change , I was so bored of the standard subjects by the gcse exams and didn’t do that well as a result . I took up both economics and politics at A level . It was a lot more interesting and I managed to turn things around. DS2 has chosen A levels in Economics and Sociology to go alongside the Business Studies he’s done at GCSE , I think he will benefit from more real world subjects .

What does he want to do @Walkingbkwrm

I took Art A Level without GCSE (made a portfolio for application), and Politics which I also didn’t do at GCSE. There are quite a few A Level subjects which aren’t even offered at GCSE by most schools: psychology, sociology, philosophy etc. I honestly think, unless they’re set on a rigid career path eg doctor, we should let them choose whatever they want to do at sixth form. There are many paths to get where you’re going in life 😊(I teach sixth form, and think this with my teacher hat on as well as my hippy parent hat on!)

Next dilemma.. how many are off to Reading / Leeds festivals in the summer?

Yep dd is booked for Reading, like the rest of Surrey!

DS2 wants to go ( DS1 wasn’t interested ) - I’ve said yes but no camping . We are relatively near so worse case we can go and get him. I’m hoping though he will be able to stay at a friends who lives much nearer .

I’m not comfortable and I’ve already spelt out all the risks I can think of - he seemed to think it was ok as he wasn’t a girl .

Over the last few years I have experience of one friend having to dash to collect a DC that was being threatened and another who’s DC left quickly when they started burning tents on Sunday night ( apparently it’s thing )

Its a right of passage so I know he has to do it - doesn’t stop me feeling sick though

edited to apologise for being rather frank it’s one of my flaws !