Y11 2025/26 The Final Stretch

[UncomfortableSilence]

New thread to see our wonderful DC through their exams and onwards.

Come and join for chat, support and solidarity.

I'm so happy to hear about the pastoral part of the invigilating. DS has not been doing well mentally and from seemingly out of nowhere is now being assessed for autism (so that's me feeling like a bad mother for not having realised for the last 16 years!) I think he should be ok but honestly he's the kind of kid who seems ok until he is spectacularly and seemingly without warning definitely not ok. So whilst mocks have been fine I do wonder if the fact they are "the real" thing is going to cause a melt down.

*waves back at @3GoldenLamps yes, we all feel very protective of our students too (with the occasional mild eye roll at the number of toilet breaks they ask for!). I always get emotional on results day wondering how they've all done.

@Littletreefrog it sounds as if you are doing everything possible to support your DS. Have school put any access arrangements in place for him? Rest breaks etc? I know it's easy to say but no way should you feel bad, autism presents so differently in different DC, and at different stages of life, and you can never quite predict how teens and young adults are going to be. My eldest with autism was actually fine at school, okay ish at sixth form but then the wheels massively fell off at uni..they are all so different. In certain scenarios mine will appear quite neurotypical - see him in a different situation and he will present as very autistic. Sometimes I feel like I never quite get it right in supporting him but as parents we can only do the best we can manage.

@FlyingPandas thank you that makes me feel a little better. He has no access arrangements in place as he couldn't face the thought of doing anything differently to how he did his mocks and his school have been spectacularly unhelpful and uninterested. I have hopes that college will be better for him in terms of support from them but also a more diverse group of people.

@EducaatingRita yes that's my understanding of AQA Art.

@UncomfortableSilence it sounds similar to AQA drama. DD got told today her devising part which is marked by the teacher is a 7, it's worth 30%. She was a bit disappointed as was hoping for a 9 in drama but outside moderator may change them later. The grade boundaries are very tight apparently with 70 out of 80 being a 9, 67-70 an 8 and 64-67 a 7. I think they are generally higher in creative subjects.

Random question. Has anyone else been told by the school their child can’t use gel pens?
DD has a painful lump on her right (writing) hand. After months of trying different things and seeing OT she finally found a pen she can write with. But it’s gel!! Panicking a bit here.

It's because for papers that use a computer scanner (for multiple choice etc) gel pens don't always scan reliably.

I recommend talking with the exams officer to see if she is able to use a word processor or scribe. I know it's late in the day, but the exams officer can guide if evidence provided by the OT (any reports you have, referrals etc) would be accepted for a change if she can't use another pen.

ETA- good luck, hope it goes well.

Thank you. I don’t think she would cope with a scribe or laptop either. She suffers massively with anxiety and I think that would just knock her for six.

I'd definitely talk with the exams officer then and see what they recommend. They may have come across the issue before and have practical ideas up their sleeve.

Using a scribe when you have not had a fair bit of practice would be a hard task IMO. It's definitely a process you need to get used to!

@Wolfiefan is it just a gel one or one of the frixion ones? The frixion ones disappear with heat, which might be a problem but the regular gel ones don't? I think my DD uses gel, I didn't realised they aren't allowed!

DD just called me out of her Spanish speaking exam, she is over the moon as she thinks it went better than mocks. She said she did extended answers for all questions and that the teacher asked what she called a spin off question (further from the first question, not the actual set question) on pretty much all of them. She said only one question she could have answered better but still gave a detailed answer. Teacher gave a little bit of feedback and said she did well, free conversation being her strongest and that she only made one gender error. 1 down, 23000 to go ;-)

Great stuff @Caddycat - really good that she extended her answers, and tell her that gender errors are classed as "minor errors" and even for the top mark for linguistic accuracy, minor errors are allowed. Big well done to her.

Yes our school have said this. Some ballpoint ones flow just as nicely. The OT might suggest things that can be placed on the pen to help grip

No it’s a regular gel pen. Bic gelocity. It has a great shaped grip and the ink also flows nicely. They seem to do a ballpoint version “velocity” so I’ve ordered that.
Sadly we only saw OT once. I’ve ordered a batch of different pens. I understand it is because they scan papers. But surely not the long essay type questions.

This may be no help but we went right around the houses on pens as my son had a specialist pen (yoro pen) recommended by an OT for years. Then the company stopped making them, then we found another one (Maped) for which the supply of black ink pens evaporated in the UK. So we currently have a very small and very very expensive set of basically biros imported from the US at vast expense for GCSEs only. As there was no other way around the problem when writing was required with JCQ. We tried. We have pages and pages of reports. We have complex agreed access arrangements and for most exams DS types. But when he can’t the pen was the insurmountable part!

Evening all, anyone else now bored of GCSEs!

Just want it over and done with.

my heart sinks when my DD gives me flash cards to go over (she never seems to ask her Dad 🙄).

If I’m feeling this the kids must be feeling this x1000

It’s so rubbish. I have a child who is studying and working and doing all she possibly could, all anyone could ask, yet still the tension in the air is awful. She has French speaking the day after tomorrow and we are both miserable with it!

My son has French speaking tomorrow. He got a 4 in his dec mock but he’s been working hard since Jan so I’m hoping his several hours of French a week for last few months has paid off. It’ll be pretty bad if he hasn’t!

All the best to all the MFL speakers this week :) remember the past and future tense, work it in at least twice. And give opinions and reasons. Last year I had a candidate finish their description of the photo with "J’aime la photo parce que c'est intéressant" – I mean it wasn't but who cares.

Final tip – say what you know the French for, not what you would like to say but don't have the vocab for, please.

@Wolfiefan AFAIK all papers are scanned. Markers for Eng lit will mark multiple iterations of the same question rather than marking a whole paper.

Thank you for the great tips @clary

@Wolfiefan could you get a grip to put on a compliant pen? Would that help?

@whereonthestair I remember yoropen. They were brilliant.
@Caddycat we have tried several grips as advised by OP and she couldn’t get on with any of them.

french speaking completed today and the first 2 of 51 exams done for the DTs.
feedback was “it went ok”.

have given them their exam gift box thingys and they’ve already tucked into some sweets and chocolate. I sense the edible items will need to be replenished. 😀

still not ordered the shoes…..

My DS is getting very tired we have basically backed away from expecting much if any revision other than in school. Mocks went well and so trying to just rely on DS to know what he’s doing and fatigue is probably a greater factor to how DS does than what he knows. The damned exams just need to start now!

I don't remember finishing GCSE courses as early as my DS has and if I'd had as much revision "lessons" in school as he has I'm not honestly sure I'd have done much more.

Also if I'm honest I don't think I learned what worked for me on revision until A level and into my degree.

We are exactly the same. I feel he peaked at February mocks and now fatigue and boredom have set in. They are revising and learning exam technique at school so I'm counting anything he does at home as a bonus and trying not to get too stressed about the fact it definitely seems like he has taken his foot off the gas.

DDs Art exam part 2 today, portfolios handed in. Then no more time vacuum Art GCSE required, wooo hooo! She can concentrate on other GCSEs now..

Only 6.5 weeks to go for them all - worth the pain for future gain, even though it doesn't feel like it sometimes

We are the same. DS had his weekend metldown and both Monday and yesterday the school called me to say to come get him as he was distressed.

Past 2 nights I have run him a bath and inisted he get into bed lights out by 9. He said he's feeling a bit better today, but I am hoping he will go to bed early again tonight.