Y11 2025/26… come and join

[wonderstuff]

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Yes our parents evening is also mid January. They then have “mini mocks” mid March. Dd did revise but knows what she needs to focus on now thankfully.

Thank god that term is over! Felt like the longest for many reasons.
DD got her results back, 7 9s and 4 8s. She was one mark off a 9 in 2 of those, haven’t told anyone her results so will share here and say how unbelievably proud of her we are. She says she knows where she dropped marks so is focusing on that over the holiday and also the endless slog that is Art.

She is so focused but I am a little worried that she is going to burn herself out she looked bloody exhausted by the end of term.

We have parents evening the first week back and we need to get her VI Form applications done over the holidays as she was still deliberating over the last option.

Hope you all have a lovely Christmas and your DCs get some well deserved rest.

@UncomfortableSilence what amazing results, well done to your DD!

Well done great results here.

we have a conditional offer from xaverian college which is first choice so just need the results now.

happy Xmas everyone hope all of yours getting a break from the studying

@UncomfortableSilence big congratulations to your DD excellent results especially when doing 11. Hope she is not too hard on herself over the lost marks my DD missed out on 2 being 100% papers due to silly mistakes dropping 1 mark on one paper and 2/3 on another.
My DD only does 10 gsces though. 3 science 2 Eng, maths, geog, Spanish RE and finally electronics. Had no chance of doing any extra.

@Ursulla42 congratulations on the conditional offer.

Hope all the DDs and DSs have a great Christmas new year before the hard graft next year. And good luck with all the applications for the next step.

We’re in the Caribbean for a well deserved break and dd bought revision books! I’ve told her no way, this is your time to totally switch off.

@Tebheag Her very nature means she was a little hard on herself! She’s at a Catholic school so RE is compulsory a language is also compulsory then she is doing triple science plus her 3 options Art, History and Comp Sci…it’s a lot. Well done to your DD..so close to full marks is an amazing achievement.

@36and3sounds like utter bliss, enjoy. Much more preferable to my afternoon trying to track down a leg of lamb and at every given moment saying next year we are definitely going away

Well done . We were late sending forms off so won’t hear for ages yet

Yeah I don't remember ever drinking anything at school. DD says she couldn't possibly.go without water for 2 hours.

DD has mocks starting first day back in Jan. She said she was going to have as much relaxing over the holiday as she can, but did 3 hours revising on her first day off which I was very surprised about. Has just done 2 days of outdoor activities though so I think she'll keep a good balance. Just awaiting the tears on the last weekend 😞

Amazing results @UncomfortableSilence- I know what you mean about not being able to boast anywhere else!

It feels to me like this is their last chance to properly relax for another six months - we’re trying to enforce DS taking this week entirely off from work as it’s his last chance for a while for a full week off. He keeps saying all his friends’ parents are making them do revision! He can do work next week but I feel he needs a good break.

It seems so harsh having mocks bang after Xmas. I’m grateful ours were in November. Our alevel mocks will be at that time though . Give the poor kids a break!

That said dd is delighted ive booked her onto an intensive revision camp at Easter!

Hi all. The year had arrived!
Well done to those that did really well in their exams.

My son unfortunately didn't do really well in his mocks. Enough to pass. However he has been practicing papers over the holidays and his getting majority of them correct. Ive marked them and his getting 8's, so not sure what his getting wrong.
I will up with emails to school asking for further support, any advice on what's going wrong?

It might just be the exam conditions @GucciGin. Does he have another round of mocks? If so, that will help him get used to the exam environment and hopefully he'll do better.

Hi all, happy new year - well done to all those who have mocks out of the way already. DS starts his next week, so it's been a Christmas of trying not too nag too much to balance revision with a bit of relaxation time. Not to mention work on the DT NEA which is still rumbling on and which I for one will be very glad to see the back of! No debating about sixth form options here as he will stay on at his current school - vast majority stay for sixth form - so that has made life a bit easier. A level choices were submitted before Christmas so he just needs to get head down and get through the mocks.

DS seems quite relaxed, possibly because he did Latin GCSE at the end of Y10 so knows what to expect re the regulations, expectations and so on. We'll see how the exams go though!

@FlyingPandas my DS also starts next week (Tuesday) - no coursework here, though!

Yes, one more to go in February.

Hi all,

Thank goodness for this thread! My Year 11 DS has traditionally done well at school but has been feeling quite sad recently, and I feel the pressure is worrying him. He is at a large state secondary.

He needs some structure & support - but also a lot of reassurance and care.

May I ask what your after school days look like at the moment? Are they working a bit each day? How do you manage their need for rest and time to see friends?

Thank you x

My current DS2 is pretty unmanageable , he revises when he wants and I imagine it is all going to end in tears . If I do try and intervene then he gets a whole lot more upset and nothing happens . I imagine that he will manage decent grades in the subjects he needs for a level and all other subjects will be tenuous 4s ( if we are lucky) .

DS1 ( last years GCSE victim) did a set amount on 2/3 subjects each night - I think it was 45 mins - with Friday and Saturday off . He started revising 3rd week of January . He was pretty motivated and worked hard , but ran out of time with History and scrapped a 6 though predicted a 9. I made sure he had breaks , but didn’t need to push him
to work .

At this age I think it is very much on them .

Ditto. DS can't be bothered to revise and resists all attempts to make him. I let him off over Christmas. We have parents evening next week. My plan is to have a crystal clear chat with him after that and then start confiscating devices. He's not in danger of failing, thankfully, but he has his sights set on Oxbridge and he's not getting there if he carries on pretending he can wing his exams and still come out with top marks.

@NotDarkGothicMama I thought the GCSE process was absolutely brutal last year - DS1 had 24 exams in total , did work and was exhausted by the end . Does your DC have older siblings or cousins / friends ? input from them maybe more useful . DS2 obviously saw DS1 at work last year so kind of knows what to expect ( not sure if it’s helped or hindered though as they are very different and at different schools / working at a different level )

Hi all, need advice. DS did well in mocks except English—marks look like grade 3. He works hard and has tuition, but results seem worse. Would it be worth asking to see his papers? His English teacher gives very brief feedback at parents’ evenings, so I feel a bit anxious. He’s feeling dejected. He’s dyslexic but not eligible for extra time. Thank you. x

I had this with my eldest, we got a copy of the mock and showed her tutor, who felt it had been marked harshly, also was able to see where she’d struggled.

DS done very little all Christmas, insists on ‘working’ on his own and gets very grumpy at me trying to help/encourage/nag won’t even put a decent light on in his room. He’s convinced it’ll all be fine, but we really are getting into the sharp end now. I’d say odds are currently 50/50 whether he’ll do enough to get grades for 6th form. DH is really cross, but that won’t really help I don’t think, we can’t make him. He knows what he should be doing, he knows he’s not the sort of kid who can pass exams without revising, he knows he’ll end up at tech college if he doesn’t pull his finger out.

@wonderstuff I’m in same page as you. Child in denial