Y11 2025/26… come and join

[wonderstuff]

New thread

After each round of mocks, at my (state) school we have to analyse how each student is doing against what they ‘should’ be getting, and if they’re not making expected progress, we have to write notes on why this is (attendance, home circumstances, are they attending revision sessions, do they do their homework etc) and we have to say exactly how we are going to help them improve (calling home, getting them set up with a peer/staff mentor, enlisting then for compulsory intervention, giving them extra support in class etc), then we have to implement this. And we are held accountable for this. I don’t begrudge it for the kids, as we genuinely love them and want them to do well. But yes it is exhausting, and I guess my overall feeling is that, if a kid is at a good school, there will be so much being done behind the scenes right now, that you kind of have to trust the process and the school, and it really does depend on the child doing their bit. You can take a horse to water and all that. I say to parents at parents eve, alas the adults at home need to be absolutely on it too. Knackering all round 😆 but it will all be done in 5 months!

My DS is at a “good” state school but so far the only subject they have revision lessons for is his best subject where revision lessons serve little purpose. He’s been swimming today (he’s a national level para swimmer) and now trying to decide if he goes to the national championships which are literally just before his next mocks. Timing isn’t great and we keep changing our mind as those championships are about as far away as we can go without getting on a plane

How much home study are schools saying they should be doing a night now?

DS's school have said 2hrs a night but we have compromised on 1.5hrs as he has intervention for 1 Hr after school a few nights a week and his sport takes up quite a bit of time even though he has cut down to give more time to study.

We are 1.5 hours a night

We haven't been given a guideline on how much revision they should be doing. More than none would be great!

Hi all,
I have a question about Sixth form offers DS has got an offer from his 1st choice and also from 3rd choice. We haven't heard from 2nd choice 6th form yet. How do this work? Do we have to accept all the offers or only accept 1st choice? Thank you.

@splenda I think you can accept as many as you like. From friends with older kids, it can be a bit of a bun fight on results day trying to confirm various places and decide. I definitely know children who have left it till results day and later to decide - we're in London though so there may be more options than in other places.

No work going on here as Dd had been ill for over a week. She finished her mocks and then collapsed. She's now stressing about what she's missing but has a temperature and is genuinely really under the weather so can't go back in. I'm trying to reassure her that it's better to be ill now than later.

Thank you so much. We will accept all. I hope your daughter gets well soon. You are doing the right thing by reassuring her, she needs to rest and soon she will be back soon. x

As Stowick said, accept all offers and then make your decision on results day.

We have lots of movement the first week back with pupils withdrawing then offers being made, this generally goes on for a good few weeks until numbers are confirmed.

DS has been to some sort of event for offer holders at the college he has applied to go to for a T level in Health where they did some little taster lessons and got to use the equipment in the simulated ICU unit etc. He is now absolutely buzzing with the idea of going there so hopefully that will give him a push revision wise. Although he has actually been doing OK if the mock grades are anything to go by but it's hard to know really because he refuses to let us be involved in anyway.

Hi been lurking but thought I would join.

With regards to revision in the week - my DD still gets homework every night, this takes at least an hour. She also does extra revision sessions at school 4 hours a week and we pay for 1hrs maths. So feel this is enough!

Dd had a meltdown last night which really surprised me as it’s not like her. But!…5 months from now it’ll all be over and she can drop 6 subjects so that seemed to placate her.

Sorry to hear that. I hope she is feeling ok now. DS seems to be ok for now. Putting in some work every evening. He has got dates for 2nd Trials in 15 days. I am a bit worried but trying not to show it.

@36and3 really common I think - my mellow one threw me by being really quite horrid this time last year . DS2 is much more volatile and has had a couple of flip outs lately . We’ve made some changes though and fingers crossed he seems ok ( at the moment ) - I fully expected this year to be a rollercoaster though just because of his character

@splenda DS accepted both his offers as both where conditional.. He got the grades but waited till almost last min to choose where to go, had both places emailing asking if he was coming.

That's a lot of work for you teachers
@ECT22

DD had a melt down again getting bored and fed up at school as still repeating work when still got lots of the syllabus to do going to be a very long few months. Surprised as she is normally very patient had been even helping other kids in her class. She actually helped tutor her brother who is 2 yrs older in answering GCSE papers !

Dd has now finished the syllabus for maths, further maths, history and biology already. Other subjects are nearly done too. I’m impressed they’ll be a lot of time to revise together.

For those with less academic kids worrying about next steps, there is a new thread in praise of BTECs: Bouncing back from poor GCSEs - in praise of BTEC (edited by MNHQ at request of OP) | Mumsnet

@TeenToTwenties that's great and I also just want to mention even if your child is academic and would do well with A levels don't fall into the trap of thinking they are the only option especially if their current school has a 6th form. I completed A levels and a degree mostly because I didn't realise there was another option. Which ultimately turned out to be very expensive and (apart from meeting my now husband) completely pointless.

@TeenToTwenties My DD has chosen 2 A Levels - one coursework-based, one exam-based - and 1 BTEC. I’m delighted - she is finding the pile-up of revision at the back end of Y11 really stressful, and I’m so pleased she will largely avoid that at sixth form 😊

Ps. In case anyone here doesn't know, BTECs come in 3 sizes:
Certificate (1 A level size)
Diploma (2 A level)
Extended Diploma (3 A level)

So a school or A level college may offer a few Certificates alongside A levels, whereas vocational colleges tend to do Extended Diplomas. (Not hard and fast rule of course).

Interesting! Only alevels on offer at dds Indy sixth form. I’d never heard of Tlevels before Mumsnet either!

In case it helps anyone T levels are equivalent to 3 A levels.

Eldest DS also did 2 x A levels and 1 x BTEC, and this stood him in great stead for his degree (which was all coursework based). The only thing to be aware of is that there is no B or D grade equivalent with BTECs, so you can only get distinction star (A star), distinction (A), merit (C), or pass (E).

They are a brilliant alternative to A levels but it's worth bearing the above in mind as it feels like quite a big drop from the distinction to the merit.

Hello

Joining you if that's ok. Trying to help my DD navigate this...