Y11 2025/26… come and join

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This is curiosity - at this point DS1 had predicted grades and had done for some time ( state grammar) , DS2s school haven’t given predicted grades at all - ( non selective private) they bang on about yellis and midys tests carried out pre GCSEs but haven’t told us what the results really mean or what we should be expecting DC to achieve . I’m a bit cynical about this … anyone else here with no predictions at all yet ?

We had predictions after Year 10 mocks and a pretty good idea of what DS is aiming for since the end of Year 9.

We have predicted grades too and have done since early Y10, along with indicators of how likely DS is to achieve them.

We aren't using tutors either but DS is at an academic indie and predicted high grades so I'm hoping we won't need to. If he was borderline passing core subjects then I definitely would. If it helps anyone, we used the mytutor website for older DS when he was really struggling in sixth form and would definitely recommend - admittedly this was for A levels but they have tutors offering GCSE tutoring too.

DS seems to be back in the zone now they're settled back to school - is quite diligent at managing homework and the dreaded DT NEA - it's just the making of revision notes for topics already completed that really isn't happening! But I will keep on nagging encouraging him to do so...

No tutors here either although DD is very academic and on track for high grades. DD1 did have a tutor for Maths but she was the Covid year with the teacher assessed grades.

We’ve had predicted, working at and working towards grades since Y10 too.

She’s very focused and working hard, we had a parent info evening which had the core subjects talking and giving revision ideas/resources. Her school is a bit of an exam factory so it is test after test after test but has been like that since Y7 so she is used to it.

The MidYis/Yellis tests are done at the beginning of Y7 and they just form a baseline for students. They generate objective predictions for GCSE.

https://poetrylive.net/about-the-events/

This was shared by another parent in DDs year and looks pretty good for English Lit.

I'm in. DD works incredibly hard but it doesn't always show, unfortunately for her.

Looks fab. I hope DS's school goes.

We have tutors. Weekly maths for an hour and fortnightly English for 90mins. Admittedly this is to help tip dd from the 7/8 to 8/9 so not exactly necessary but she’s keen to have the extra support. She’s at a private school so shouldn’t really be paying more but most kids are doing the same.

sixth form options event next week and alevel choices are due by December. Currently she wants to do English lit, history and psychology for an LLB course. She has considered sciences for a more medical route but I definitely think essay based subjects are better suited to her.

Hi :) Just found this group.
DD has just started yr11, No idea what to do for A Levels going to be a fun year(DS doing ALevels same time just hope he passes)
@waitingquietly can you email the school and ask for more information. DD had a careers interview yesterday and the person could see her predicted grades as commented any 6th form would be happy to have her with these grades.

@36and3 wow how do you fit it all in DD just does sport for fun and that keeps us busy. Actually got her into it to do a few competitions to help with stress as she used to get stressed before tests 😂 she has gone the opposite direction now as only did 30 mins revision for yr10 exams! Thankfully she still had 8s and 9s and a 7 in English Language. .
@FlyingPandas do feel your pain had same problem last yr with DS I actually threatened to take away his gaming equipment instead we compromised on reduced game time. Actually tried to convince him to do an apprenticeship and not to do ALevels as didn't want the repeated stress.

God knows. She trains in her sport 5-6 days a week too. She’s definitely tired and have said over and over she can drop sessions but so far she wants to keep at it.

@UncomfortableSilence I have just paid for that poetry event, his school has organised for them to go en masse. It seems potentially more beneficial than the normal trip to see Inspector Calls etc as poetry is such an alien concept to them! Nice that the poets get a bit of an opportunity on the GCSE circuit too!

A level choices will be a dilemma, especially trying to look at sensible combinations. He’s quite keen to do Computer Science but won’t do Maths, which will limit what he can then ‘do’ afterwards. Other possibilities include French, History, English, Philosophy. My eldest DS is an out and out STEM boy, so DS2’s options seem more complicated to navigate!

What English Literature specification is he doing. If it's AQA, what poetry group is he doing? There's love then power and conflict and then also words and lives, that one is new only started teaching recently but there's lots of good resources for it as the poems are more modern. It does look like a goof poetry event though so useful whatever poems they ate studying.

Hi, joining because I can see this is going to be a long year, with one in Y11 and one in Y13. DD (y11) came home saying she was going to fail everything so there was no point studying - and we're only 3 weeks in. We sat down and talked through some history and that worked a bit to settle her down; but I'm not sure I can do this all year... Her predicted grades are very middle of the road and, at the moment, I'll be happy if she gets 5 passes and maths and English.

@BetFries I’m not sure I can last all year either and I only have one in an exam year! Been a long week in our house with NEA’s (in class assessed coursework), coming thick and fast, the usual back to school bugs and “motivational” assemblies. Also they keep asking DS1 what he wants to do next year. He has no idea at all so this makes him panic. We have had several bouts of tears and it’s only September. 😢 Sending thoughts of solidarity. Aiming for B’s and C’s here (Wales) but sadly the least likely C’s are maths and English which is a bit problematic.

Hello, joining here. All seems a bit full on this year already! DS did a maths paper last night, said that the teacher is going to set one each week as part of homework - that sounds intense! Anyone else have same or am I woefully out of touch on workload?

I am very very annoyed after going to the year 11 parents meeting last night. Despite it being a parents meeting there was a significant number of year 11s there (not mine thankfully) and the headteacher spent 90% of the evening (in quite an aggressive manner) saying:

• if your child doesn't get a 5 in maths and English they can't access apprenticeships or college
• if your child doesn't get a 5 in maths and English they will have affected the rest of their lives
• if your child doesn't get a 5 in.maths and English they will spend their lives in the minimum wage jobs
• your child is fighting against all the rich kids with tutors and private school kids for the top grades so essentially they don't have a chance unless they are putting in 5 hours revision every night rom now
• even one day off school will mean they have blown their chances
• if they have a very time consuming hobby they should quit as there isn't time for both

Then the head of year 11 came on stage and tried to undo the damage but there was at least two girls I saw crying.

The school is in an area of deprivation, attendance can be shocking for some kids and some parents do not give a toss at all so these things might have been needed to be said to some people but surely you target those conversations to the people that need them!

I'm all for a rocket up the arse of the year 11s in September but this was really too much.

@Littletreefrog We've had a similar experience with school forcing DS2 to design a completely unrealistic revision schedule. If he does 30mins - 1 hour a day then I’m happy - the risk is that as he now’s thinks it’s all hopeless he does nothing . School have undone all my hard work over the summer trying to get him in the right place with a plan that works for him - to do just a little bit but most days but starting much earlier than more academic DS1 did . I’ve told him to create the schedule and then ignore it while making his own more realistic plan.

Thank you @Walkingbkwrm ! Sometimes it seems like I’m the only parent at our ‘academic’ state school whose children aren’t sailing through with ease. Having to also think about next year is just adding to the stress.
Goodness@Littletreefrog I think I would be crying after that!

@RememberDecember definitely not that full on at DDs school yet ! Have they even finished the syllabus to be able to complete past papers?
@Littletreefrog that sounds awful got a feeling they will do similar at DDs school did for DS also tried to persuade kids to drop from higher to lower Maths paper as said better chance to get a 5.
{mention:BetFries}@BetFries it is hard when you feel everyone else is sailing through had that with DS and having the same again with ALevels spent so long with him helping him revise and marking past papers for GCSE dreading doing it again. Then feel like a failure with DD for not getting a tutor etc to help her do better as thought she was already doing very well !
Starting to see why shops already have 25% of on wine 😢

@Littletreefrog that sounds awful - apart from anything else a 4 is a pass. It's too early to be so negative. 5 hours of revision is unsustainable.

We had a Y11 meeting at Dd's grammar school last week and it felt like a bit of a waste of time. It was mainly telling us to support the children and give them various techniques for learning. Given it's a group of very engaged parents, it felt slightly unnecessary. But they did say aim for an 80:20 break down. If your child is doing what you expect 80% of the time, you should feel happy!

The most interesting part was about A levels which they want them to choose by the start of December, which feels incredibly early. If they stay on, they may be able to switch after results but it depends on spaces. There's another open day in November to discuss A level choices and to be honest, I was a bit annoyed they couldn't have just bundled it all in together rather than making us trek to school twice. It has a huge catchment over a massive area of London so it's a bit of a pain to get there for many parents.

5 hours a night? Do they even want these children to relax? 😢.

I am pushing DS for 30-45 minutes a night at the moment. With the probability of ramping it up to 1 hour 30 after Christmas. They need time to decompress too and it’s unrealistic to expect them to just school, study eat and sleep without any relaxation time.

We've been told 30 minutes per subject per week revision, on top of homework. But then they also want you to do extra reading for English (like newspapers, poetry for the unseen poems bit) ... and you could do 5-a-day maths etc so adds up to more if you were going to do everything they suggest I think. Was given a list of websites, apps etc for all the main subjects that can be used. DD said she already knew about most of them from teachers but there was one or two things that she hadn't.

5 hours a night is insane.
We are aiming for 1 hour so similar ish to @SatsumaCat and even that sometimes doesn’t happen. I can see that fitting all the material in that time is going to be v hard though but DS is so mentally tired after school more than that just isn’t going to happen.

Ooo I’ve just found this thread, hope it’s ok to join? Our DD is in Y11, it’s all ramping up..
Def not 5hrs revision / work a night, that seems ridiculous, not surprised some were crying.