Y11 2025/26… come and join

[wonderstuff]

New thread

Our school also requires 8 for maths - DD is now predicted this but previously she's been a "7" all the way through, she is getting the 8 having knuckled down and doing more practice. I also did maths A levels and found it very hard - got a B. Definitely would have enjoyed a different subject more - having said that I was a coaster and not as hard working as DD!

I was the one trying to put DD off doing ALevel maths as she has not had to work at GCSE maths and has coasted for years with no study so ALevel will be a big step as she will have to finally do work. I coasted gcse too so struggled at ALevel 🙈 told the teacher she has been bored in class and starting to switch off. He has offered to start giving her harder work. Shame her school no longer did maths gcse after a year.

Hi I’ve not been on here for a while due to life. Here are my sons mocks grades….. what should he work on, planning on doing history economics and politics at A level. He has a maths tutor already, he got a 5 in year 10 mocks but he hates maths…. He is capable just not interested and I don’t want him to peak too early with revision. Parents evening start of Feb. Only getting results now as mocks were before Christmas. Feel like I’m constantly yelling at him to do past parts as he only seems to be making notes every time I look. Finding it so stressful as a parent. He was a star student year 7-9 but it’s not cool to study now at this age is it?! 😒

Forgot to add

I agree you need to enjoy maths, dd is taking it in year 13, she got an 8 and it was one of her strongest GCSEs, I mean they are all hard, but she’s currently on track for B/C and if she’d taken statistics I expect she’d be at least a grade higher. That said she’s going to do economics at Uni and the maths A-level kept BSc option open, and she will find the maths on the BA course much easier having done A-level. Her teacher at the start of year 12 told them all if they were finding it difficult they should do something else.

I'd definitely say focus on the maths. Round here, if they don't get a 5 then they have to keep doing GCSE maths at sixth form, no matter which A-levels they're doing. He doesn't want that for another two years.

@Tebheag how does the school get away with not doing maths at GCSE?!

@NotDarkGothicMamasorry I explained badly the school does GCSE maths DD just hasn't had to do proper work as she found it easy, so no revision for tests finished homework in class as done class work before others. She ain't a genius though and this is her max level so will have to start working to do A Level maths. Probably needs to revise for maths GCSE if boundaries go up, to stay a 9.

DS1 is doing further maths in year 12 . He had a mid range 8 at GCSE . It appears to be very hard , they are constantly being tested and re tested if they don’t do quite well enough . I think it’s one to treat with caution . I’ve offered my son the get out several times or tutoring - but he’s still ploughing on - apparently he will tell me if he’s in trouble !

Only just got mock results from December. DS got 7 in French, 6 in English Lit and 5 in language, 3 in Maths and then 2s in Science (double cert) and History.
Had already signed up to premium Seneca to increase revision options.
No idea what happened with History as he got a 5 in the summer exams!
We have a tutor fortnightly for maths and English.

Have applied to sixth form, waiting for interview. Really hope he can scrape a pass in maths this year.

DD’s current primary concern… prom dress. Because “everyone” has already got theirs. Wtf it’s in June!!

DS doesn't want to go to prom and hopes that it's cancelled 🙄 I've signed him up anyway as a good life experience and told him he'll be wearing a suit.

My DS surprisingly wants to go to Prom which is not his thing at all but he doesn't want to go enough to bother finding out when it is and seems annoyed that I could do with knowing in order to organise things.

We got DDs dress just before Christmas! They have to order it in her size and said it won’t be here much before the end of May and we will still need to fit alterations in too!

Dd made me quite happy by saying Vinted is the place to buy Prom dresses - hoping we can do it all without leaving the house!

We got really lucky on Vinted. A stunning dress that fits really well. £50. Looks like shoes will be a bigger issue.

I had similar, i emailed DS tutor in the end and actually got 3 possible dates so they haven’t got it booked in yet. Less than 30 kids in DS year, so not sure if they will have a venue or if it will be at the school.

Lol, we have prom discussions daily too. We have a wedding invitation but it may clash with prom, which DS really wants to attend. They haven’t been told the date yet, and when I suggest emailing the school, he doesn’t want me to. I’ll wait another week or so, and then I’ll email the school so we can RSVP to the wedding.
@wonderstuff That is an incredibly low number of students per year for a secondary school. We have 300 in a year.

Wow @wonderstuff that is small and I suppose means they don't have to book so far in advance. There is 300 in DSs year and I therefore assume they must have booked it already but getting a date is like blood out of a stone. I may have to give up trying to get DS to take responsibility and call the school myself.

Does anyone have any laptop recommendations for college? DS has got through secondary school without needing one but says he definitely will for College. He is planning to do a Health T level so no need for fancy editing or programming capabilities but I've looked at Currys and have no idea where to start there is so much choice!

It is a through school, nursery to sixth form, but yes still very small. He’s benefited from less distractions, but is now wanting to go to the largest 6th form in the UK, which will definitely be a gear change, he can’t wait.

DD school told us the date and venue a couple of months ago. Kids have to get points to attend some of them you get just for doing a complete week at school or attending study sessions.

So 30 to 4500??

Not quite, I think 4500 is the whole college rather than year group? But it’s going to be classes of 14 or less to classes of up to 28 I think. My eldest is there and in reality she’s only exposed to the kids in her classes and has stuck mainly with kids from school, although she was at a normal sized secondary (because she had the academic and social skills to cope with that). He was in an average state school until year 9 when we moved him.

True but still a big jump in terms of ratios with teachers. All the colleagues near us are classes of 24 apart from more niche subjects. And seas of students. Was just thinking it’ll be a massively different experience.

Blimey! Dd is at a through Indy school 2-18. The nearest state sixth form college has 2000 pupils; that’s vastly more than in her entire school! Hence she’s staying firmly put for school sixth form. GCSE classes are average 16 pupils and Alevel class sizes are average of 10.

Can I join in? I think I need some moral support to get through to June! DS1 now at university I didn’t get involved in his GCSEs beyond a bit of testing him on flash cards but DS2 is a different kettle of fish! He is late diagnosed ADD and now medicated and allowed extra time. He did really badly in Y10 but is now working pretty hard and improved in the November mocks. He’s doing additional online lessons for all his core subjects which does seem to be making a difference. I’m aggrieved with his school as they have abdicated all responsibility for marked homework in favour of various apps which are often not even set to the right material. It has played to DS’s strength of putting the minimum possible effort in to get by. The school GCSE results were crap last year do they have suddenly (after we had arranged the extra lessons) piled pressure on with after school sessions etc which he can’t attend because he’s reliant on the school bus to get home at the end of the day. He needs a lot of scaffolding - printing his workbooks, body doubling to keep him concentrating on the lessons, nagging about homework - but it is paying off. 5/6s in the recent mocks. He wants to stay on and do A levels but I’m really concerned he won’t manage the step up. I think he’ll get the 5 x 5s with grade 6/7 in the subjects he wants to get in. We have looked at local college etc but he’s not keen. I do not have it in me to do this level of support through A levels… I am worn down by the prospect of getting through this year.