Y11 2025/26… come and join

[wonderstuff]

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It’s week 2 so quite early in the exam season. And she’s got 3 earlier than week so a very heavy week. The three exams are Maths in the morning and then German and Psychology in the afternoon. She’s strong in German but weak in Maths. Psychology is a lot for her but she’s doing well and is taking it for A-level…so that’s the one she would either do last (for the extra marks) or roll over.

Personally given the choice I’d do maths last if she’s weak in it and is guaranteed extra marks.

Would she be allowed to delay the maths as it isn't the clash? I suspect not.
Also if weak at maths better to do it whilst fresh anyway, the extra marks may well not make up for being tired.

As the Maths doesn’t clash with another exam, she’s not allowed to do that last. The choice is between German and Psychology. Doing Maths in the morning is preferable as she needs a fresh mind for it. 😊

I would delay too @mutbee - 2% isn't much at all - It wouldn't even be 2 marks on a regular paper? I would do psychology the next morning, especially if she needs to secure a certain grade for A levels.

The more I think about it, I agree. The extra revision time and rest will very likely make up for the 2% extra…and yes I think it’s about 2 marks.

DD hasn't had her paper back and has decided not to check the app for her maths paper 1. Her best friend is a straight 9s girl, always get perfect scores in maths and she told DD that she got a 6 in her paper 1, so DD is panicking and won't check. I told her the boundaries might be revised anyway, so to forget it's there and focus on what is next (Physics, history and maths 3). I'm a little reassured by this as I think her 50% result would also be a 6, so at least she's not the only one who hasn't done as well as planned. I don't understand why they'd put on a mock this difficult just 10 weeks away from the real thing?
History is the one she dreads the most so I will be glad when tomorrow is over.

Dd had first round of mocks in November and she did fine but defo room for improvement. The second round start on 16th March.

@36and3 that sounds late for 2nd mocks.
DD is getting told slowly her results so far all great. Even had a shock 9 in English Language.
She even got an apology from her maths teacher after he made another comment after she stated to him she got 9s in other subjects and had teachers telling her to do better.

I think it’s great timing: ensures no one delays cracking on with revision until Easter holidays.

We have more mocks coming up too

More mocks start here tomorrow. Just maths and English.

Mini mocks here this week (in class and not exam hall). Main mocks were in November.

actually not going great as they are just doing 5hrs of exams everyday which means they're too tired to revise and exhausted each day. Thankfully they did some revision before this week.

DTs and I are anticipating worse results meanwhile the school were hoping this would boost everyone by seeing them get better grades than main mocks and encourage them to revise for the final push.

cant wait for late June when this is all over.

in some good news we have a prom dress for one of my twins! 1 down and 1 to go.

DS2 has been having a series of mini mocks in lessons - a couple more next week . He seems to be putting in a bit of effort and seems more grown up all of a sudden . I don’t expect him to shoot the lights out with his grades but I’m now more confident that it won’t be a blood bath 🤞

I told DD to just chill till Easter hols only doing homework as been full on since November.
They have been told everything in the syllabus will be done by Easter. First week we have booked a UK cottage in middle of nowhere so DD can study with no distractions, after Easter Monday she is at school for study if like DS will he lots of small in class tests till GCSE exams start.

Good luck to everyone doing mocks

DD is exhausted. She's only got Maths paper 3 to go on Monday. She had history today, which she was so worried about, so we got home and she was so ready to crash. I sent her to rest when her tutor messaged the link for tonight's biology session 🙇I'm going to take her to town for a nice treat this week end. I'm hoping I can convince her to have a more relaxed approach in the next couple of weeks.
Well done on the dress purchase @Ifonlyoneday I need to make an appointment asap as I'm worried all the shops seem to do the only 1 of a style per school thing!

I’m vaguely horrified over prom dresses.
when did it become normal to have a £500 dress that they wear once?
Dresses that they’ll never wear again. Dresses that are all ‘American prom’ but you’d not be able to wear as a normal evening dress.
and yes shops that insist no one else could possibly have the same one.

Completely agree with you @eurotravel about the cost of these prom dresses for something only worn for a few hours and probably never worn again. Not everyone can afford these expenses.

sensible alternative solutions I have seen.

One charity shop in the largest town has some prom dresses they are selling.
DTs best friend managed to get one of vinted. There are/were loads on reselling sites. a good option if you can get decent measurement size of dress on these sites.
another school in the county (not ours) does a preloved event.

@Caddycat yes these shops will only sell one of each type and in our case 1 of each type in any colour. DT which doesn’t have a dress tried on only 2 in the shop she liked. First one fitted like a glove, she loved it. Then the shop realised they’d messed up and that was the only dress they had sold to their school! Arghh.
also we have been to two places. 1 said they couldn’t order in different sizes after end of Feb! the other said after March. Hope you get an appointment soon.

my plan was to get it all done and dusted by end of Feb so there was no having to try on dresses round trying to revise and my DTs do sports at weekend. At least one has a dress.

so far year 11 costs (local state comp)
2 x year 11 hoodies
2x year 11 yearbooks
2x year 11 school photos. 1 x year 11 whole school photo
2x prom tickets
1 x prom dress

the best of all this is they’re not even leaving as they’ve decided to stay on for 6th form 😂

back in my day you got your shirt signed for year 11. For end of sixth form there was a ball.

Mini mocks should be finished by middle of next week. Then teachers need to mark. I think we are getting the last school report with revised predicted grades and feedback on areas to focus on per subject before Easter. I assume the school is supplying it then so revision topics highlighted or exam technique problems can be practised or revised over Easter and into the run in.

We deliberately chose not to go on our normal holiday for Easter and instead were planning to do 2 day trips. Although DTs are saying they want/ need to “lock in” and can they not go anywhere.

We bought a dress online but dd now says she doesn’t like it so we’ve got an appointment at a shop tomorrow. She’s adamant she doesn’t want a big dress, more a sleek evening gown.

Stacees for prom dresses? Large variety of styles and colours and no where near £500. My dd has one for £150 and it’s beautiful.

Yes our prom costs are tolerable as boys buy a suit which then use in 6th form.

So far we have a suit from Mango for £120 but DS is insistent he wants to wear a White t shirt with it rather than a shirt and tie, even a shirt with no tie is a no. I know he can wear what he wants and to be honest if this is the compromise needed for him to go then so be it but I can't help feeling he well be a bit under dressed.

All I know about a prom is that there will be one. We don’t even have the date, and DS has so far expressed no interest at all in it. We may even be away as we are all desperate for a break as DS will do GCSEs and then has a month until major surgery which we have to get in this summer. I am not sure if DS will change his mind on that but I doubt it.

So far DS has done 14 of his 18 papers for this round of mocks. 2 more today and 2 more on Monday. Can’t wait for them to be over to be honest. I guess it means most of the content for his courses has been revised again (not all of history, not all of English) but he has had a full set of papers for some other content heavy material. He’s done better tiredness wise this time but the amount of work is ridiculous. He did 2 assessments and 6 hours of decent revision one day!

I did think my goodness with twins the costs will be horrendous @Ifonlyoneday ! I made an appointment last night after reading your post, earliest appointment was 29th March! I do hope the cut off is not end of march as DD is barely 5ft tall so I'm pretty sure none of the dresses will fit. I totally agree @eurotravel - My DD's friend last year wore hers for about 2 hours and then got changed into jeans for the after party - Her mum was horrified!
My DD doesn't even like any of the ones she's seen online, she hates the over the top puffy, glittery ones and wants something classy but can't find a single one she actually likes, so this will be interesting...