Y11 2025/26… come and join

[wonderstuff]

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I think schools shoot themselves in the foot doing this. The benefits of the super online resources can be massively reduced by the student getting distracted.

Ugh yes to the school resources on the very distracting tech. DS is at a "Chromebook school" so every revision resource is on Google classroom. Really annoying when I leave him to study and find him on bloody YouTube.

Our school is doing study leave from 1 May and I don't think they will be doing anything in the holidays. Apparently there will be a small number of kids not allowed to do study leave.

Up until now I've left DD to handle everything herself, but think I will have a chat about how effective her revision is / any distractions and do the checking in more.

I remember going to the library for a day to try and focus on revision and spending nearly the whole time reading a fiction book I found!

Hi all happy half term! Dd is “locking in” but mainly on her chosen alevel subjects so I’ve had to gently remind her she has 7 other subjects too. That said she’s willingly agreed to go on a revision course for her two weakest subjects at Easter which is good.

Priority no 1 is prom dress though which we bought yesterday so she’s delighted. As am I as it was only £75 as I was envisaging her picking her something in the hundreds.

Should edit to say that was HER priority!

Ooh that's cheap! We need addresses lol.

DD is locking in too. She is focusing on what is in her mocks as they start after half term (Mostly paper 2 stuff) Her 2 options are not in the mock this time round so are being ignored for now. We just got a tutor for chemistry and biology, as she asked if we could do that. I think she is fine though, she seems to over complicate things when sometimes the answer is obvious/common sense. I wonder whether more past papers would help. She does a mixture of cognito, save my exams, school resources and CGP books.

My DS has managed to get ill with a cold so the revision plan for half term already out the window. He has a lot of mocks after half term so I am sure it will pick up again. He has precisely zero interest in the prom, I don’t even know the date for it. It’s funny I think he has been happy at his school but also won’t miss it at all

Hmm wonder if our kids are at the same school! We too were summoned to a similar parents information evening this week.

We had a letter on how to make sure they are revising, I think fatigue might be setting in for some children. DD was sick the last week of term and is still feeling the effects of it.

We have got DD a tutor for chemistry, as she was really struggling. Although I'm not sure getting a 5 is actually struggling (in mock 1), but was originally predicted an 8, so something is off. I don't know if it's a complete waste of time and money to tutor a subject she's not planning to do for A levels and whether we should focus on biology instead, which she needs for psychology? I feel I'm better equipped to help with biology, DH can do physics but neither of us loved chemistry in school. What would you do? The tutor can switch to biology if needed, so I could do this... I can't afford more than 1h a week...

I’d alternate one week biology, one week chemistry. Or do a block of five weeks each…

Weve gone a bit rogue with tutors… English literature is her best subject and an alevel option, she got a 9 in her mock so doesn’t need a tutor, but wants one to maintain the confidence. The tutor is also doing some English lang too. Thats 90mins fortnightly.

Then intensive revision courses at Easter for maths and chemistry which she is definitely not doing at alevel. 2 days each subject, 9 hours a day with plenty of breaks / lunch etc so probably about 6 hours of studying.

I was looking into the easter course, but I think her school is also running sessions. They haven't given details yet though, so not sure what to do for the best. That's a good idea to alternate every 5 lessons, it allows to do some meaningful work on a subject but also change as she wasn't keen to swap every week. I will suggest it, thank you!

I looked into Justin Craig sessions over Easter but DS's school is running sessions so I'm holding off to find out the details. Hopefully ASAP so I know whether he'll need extras. I'm mainly concerned about making sure he gets the marks he needs in maths to do his A-Level choices. He's bright and enjoys maths but so excruciatingly hard to get moving on the revision side.

He's gone out with friends today and I'm nervously checking his location as they meander through town. It's the first time he's really just gone to hang out without a plan and I'm trying not to imagine nightmare scenarios. Reminds me of his first "school" trip at nursery. They took a bus to the local park and I was a complete nutter about it. Seems I haven't learned!

Awww bless you! Never easy is it!

I'm worried about maths too. DD is fine with maths, gets 7s and 8s but our school wants a 7 as a minimum to do the A level. My friends son got an 8, a few marks short of a 8 and gave up the A level as it was too hard. I cant help but worry, partly because Im not the best to help with maths!

I know what you mean about not feeling very useful. DH and I aren't slow by any means but neither of us have done the type of maths he's studying since we sat our own GCSEs. All his sixth form choices require a minimum of a 7 to do maths, 8 for further maths. He wants to do both.

He's safely home and moaning about "having" to go to Cirque du Soleil tomorrow Honestly, I'm sure the swings of emotion from worry to happiness to exasperation are worse than actual teenage mood swings!

That’s good. Our school doesn’t do Easter revision classes, hence booking Justin Craig. The only thing I’d say is they cap the classes at 8 pupils, so be mindful of spaces filling up quickly if it’s something you’re considering.

Thank you thats good to know. Ill wait and see what school offers...

Know exactly what you mean @NotDarkGothicMama re being 'bright but so excruciatingly hard to get moving on the revision side' - that absolutely sums it up! DS is similarly hard to 'get moving' - we were away for half term and he did a few bits and pieces but is very laid back about it all. Then he got quite panicked on our return because he thought he'd lost a whole wallet of classics literature booklets and notes. We couldn't find it anywhere. Then he realised that it was still in the zipped up lid of his suitcase from holiday - he'd diligently packed it 'for revision' and not even taken it out of said suitcase the whole time!

In his defence what he did do has worked well for his mocks but I am acutely aware from supporting my older DC that there is a big jump from GCSEs to A levels in terms of content and difficulty. I just want him to 'learn to learn' and be prepared not just for GCSEs but for the future need to be more structured in terms of study. Gearing up to go into nag mode shortly...

(DS is also wanting to take maths/further maths along with physics and chemistry. I will be literally no help with any of those as I'm a humanities graduate and loathed maths/science with a passion!)

DD says her close friends and most of the other kids talking about it today said they hadn't done much/any revision over half term (their mocks were Jan). I'm happy that I got her doing a decent amount for 5 days of it.

I'd like to join. Haven't read the full thread yet though.

I've no idea whether my DD's school has revision classes over Easter.

I feel like an impostor as I've no real clue what I'm doing. DS took his GCSEs in 2008, and it was very different then,

I've had nothing but arguments with DD over revision.

She wouldn't agree to me helping her much. The only agreement was to do some 10 minute tests in Maths, Chemistry, Biology and Physics ( her school do separate sciences). She us doing highe tierr Maths (everyone in her school has to), and got a shock when her mock score was a lot lower than her predicted, and way to low for A Level (which is one of her chosen subjects). I am useless at Maths, even the easiest bits are like a foreign language to me.

I did something tha Musnet would disapprove of - I used Goiogle Lens on the photos she took of her mistakes on the mock paper, and it came up with how to do it, she also disapproved (as she hadn't been taught it yet), and resisted my suggestion of looking up similar questions to understand how to do it. Turns out is an OCRf urther Maths paper. I'mnot sure why they did that, when it is AQA who is the examining paper.

Unlike other schools, she only did one set of mocks - in January, unlike most schools here.

I feel bad, as my best friend's son is at a secondary school and has spent everyday since September, revising. Even Christmas and last week (half-term), he was revising. She is far more laid back, but goes to a grammar, so should be doing more.

She has an Engieering practical that is due this Friday. She brought it home for half-term to work on it, them didn't tell me until Saturday - so she wasted the whole week! Her dad, (brilliant at engineering), was also off, so she had time and opportunity, but squandered it.

We have Parent's Evening this week, and for the first time at her school, itis in person. I'm terrified. When DS was at school, in person Parent's Eveniings were stressful. The previous parent would continue chatting, meaning you were late to the next and often missed out. Does this still happen, or are teachers good at kicking parents off when their next appointment is due?

Using Google lens is a brilliant idea.

Parents evenings at DS's school don't have set appointments. All the teachers are sat at tables and we just queue up until they're free.

Does she have to do higher tier, even if she risks failing it? Or does the school decides at the last minute which one to enter them in?
Was her whole mock paper a further maths one from a different board or just the one question? My DDs mocks for maths have been papers made by the multi academy trust for all their schools rather than actual papers, and shes found them harder than actual papers. Further maths is a lot harder than maths, my dd got 8 in her first mock, but only 5 in FM. Granted, she didnt revise it as she was thinking about dropping it, but still a big difficulty gap.
Your DD still has time, its never too late to start. Perhaps their schools do more and dont need as much revision. The private school kids around here dont seem to work as much...
What does she want to do for A levels?

They have to do higher tier, she was predicted an 8/9 in Maths and gets 100%, it was a set of questions they haven't been taught yet.

For A Levels she wants to do Englis, Maths and Psychology. I spoke to her Maths teacher before she chose them, and she said DD was capable, but ive since tried to persuade her to change.

Shes not doing further Maths, so its unclear why they did the paper.

We got a conditional offer for sixth form yesterday. The offer states she need 7x4s, but for her subjects she needs 6x6s including english and biology and a 7 in maths. 🤞
Her second set of mocks started yesterday, she has spent every awake hour revising so i hope it pays off. She missed her favourite dance lesson yesterday as she felt guilty going and was sobbing over a past paper she thought she did terribly in. I tried to convince her to go as it's the highlight of her week but she refused. Im so worried she will have a breakdown if she carries on like this and wont do well in the real ones. Im hoping the mocks go really well so she relaxes a bit. It's biology today, she got a 6 last time and worried that was too borderline and they would make her do foundation, which would mean no psychology A level. I spoke to school but the line is very much if we decide it's foundation, then it's foundation, parents dont have a say...

I'm sure she will be fine if she usually gets 8s and 9s without much work! My DD is hoping for maths and psychology too, with french and an epq.
Maths A level scares me, it seems even those with high 8s/9s find it incredibly hard and i wont be able to help either 😕