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.

The correct model of calculator is vital for extra marks! My maths teacher husband is always banging on about it. They don't make that model anymore but you can get a good copy on Amazon. Good shout on the batteries, I didn't think of that! I'll tell my husband to remind his students too! I mean, he probably does but I have ADHD and these things always catch me out :p

@Caddycat we have the same reaction to the calculator upgrade here - DS2 now has DS1s old one as he trashed his own ( yes really !) … he is fortunately much happier about maths these days and much less likely to self destruct ( touching wood)

So funny! Someone should tell Casio to bring the old one back!

I made Ds empty his blazer pockets today. He had erasers, tissues, his various bits of asthma and allergy medication (that went back again), some random flashcards he had forgotten were even there, a fidget toy and a squashed cadbury fudge bar.

I seriously considered sewing up DD1's blazer pockets when she did GCSEs to make sure she didn't accidentally take anything in. We compromised on leaving her phone at home (walked to school).
(Dyspraxic with disorganised tendencies.)

We bought spares of the old model. Think DD found on Amazon

We are also thinking he leaves his phone at home. It;s the classic thing he will forget to remove. I'm lucky that I can wait outside his school at the rough time he is likely to finish so he does not need it to call me.

DS's school collect phones in before exams. I've made him leave his Garmin at home though as I know he would forget to take it off. It's an old one so I don't even know how 'smart' it is but he has agreed just so I don't panic.

I also have spares of absolutely everything. I could open a stationery shop!

Our school has a phone turned off at the bottom of the bag policy, so DD wouldn't have her phone in her pocket I don't think but now I'm worried lol. I will make sure it is in her bag when I drop her off.

For those worried about phones, watches etc being taken in by mistake-students should have a verbal reminder to switch off phones and put things into their bags as they enter exam hall (or side room) AND the warning should then be repeated as part of the announcement that is read or played immediately prior to the exam. So there should be a two stage process of reminders even after our paranoid parent reminders 😀

At DS’s school they play a recording but where I work the lead invigilator will physically read out the announcement before every exam. We literally say ‘please have one last check to make sure you don’t have any of the following with you…’ and then read out the full list which includes phones, watches, earbuds etc etc etc. So even in the exam hall minutes before starting, students get the chance to hand items in and reminded that they risk disqualification if they have any banned items with them. And there is ALWAYS someone, in every exam series, who will raise their hand and sheepishly hand something over at that point! But honestly, there are enough reminders to ensure that even those who’ve brought stuff in by mistake get a chance to hand it in.

Right am going to pop to Rymans on my way back from work - so far don't have any spares. Are they allowed to use uniball pens or is it strictly black biros?

DD has a busy week with last full day today, Leaver's assembly and shirt signing tomorrow then German listening and reading on Thursday. I keep nagging her to do some German and she finally did a reading practice last night but says she finished it in 15 minutes. Hoping the exam goes as well.

@applecrumblespider we had discussion of Frankenstein themes over supper last night. Her school does slightly weird texts, their Shakespeare is Much Ado About Nothing which I'm far less familiar with than Macbeth. She did say they've watched a movie with Keanu looking hot in.

Well we have had an email from school at last explaining what is going on. Lessons compulsory until half term. After half term, if there is an exam in the afternoon and none in the morning, they can either go to a revision session that morning or stay at home to sleep revise for it. It also says if there isn't a revision session for the next exam they have, they can stay home, but having a quick look through the timetable they sent, DD has a revision session every time she doesn't have an exam.

DS announced this evening that he's going to try and experiment. He didn't do any work at all for the mocks, so he's going to work really hard at school for the next 3 days and see if it makes any difference. Bit late, sunshine, but hopefully better late than never.

My son stepped it up massively. God love him.
it’s so much to learn and retain though!!!!

Mine has geography iGCSe tomorrow.

He's explained waves to me. And tectonic plates. He's had a rescue remedy pastel and a shower. He's now in bed reading The Jungle Book.

I realised about an hour ago I'd forgotten to get him his preferred breakfast so dashed out to do that.

Geography is the subject he feels least confident about. But he's taken on board that cramming right now is fairly fruitless and better to get some sleep.

Good luck everyone- see you out the other side.

Good luck! I hope he comes out satisfied that he's done himself justice and relieved that his least secure subject is behind him.

Halfway through art now. Apparently not going to plan at all and DD feeling quite down. I'm hoping that it's just the pressure of it and she goes back in tomorrow and finds it's better than she remembers. She had such a great plan for it and amazing small prototype but she said she's struggling to get it looking good at a bigger size and rushed things. I'm hoping it's salvageable as I was hoping it would be one good one out the way early. I guess in art a lot less depends on the exam though - I looked it up and although exam is 40%, only about 30-40% of that is the actual exam and rest is exam sketchbook (which I think she's done well in).

I wish I was doing the exams as I would feel more in control!

Good luck to all those doing art and geography tomorrow. Anything else?
First one is Thursday here but we had an extra stress this evening as we have the Senedd elections also on Thursday (open to 16 year olds) and he hasn’t decided who to vote for. So this evening instead of revising Sociology he read election pamphlets….. And I think he still hasn’t made his mind up :(, Wish he was a Summer birthday!

Lots of luck to everyone 🙂 - 1st exam is on Thursday here.

Depending on board, and IGCSE or GCSE, German is on Thursday (Pearson Edexcel IGCSE - both written papers; AQA GCSE – listening and reading papers; Pearson Edexcel GCSE - just the listening paper).

So all the best to those sitting it. A few top tips:

• Watch out for different words to the ones you may be most famiiar with – Federball instead of Badminton, Klamotten instead of Kleidung
• Listen out (or look out) for negatives – Ich spiele nicht Fußball, ich habe keine Schwester, ich gehe nie ins Kino– so don't jump to "oh it’s football/his sister/cinema!"
• Words like "aber" and "jedoch" indicate a change of view – also listen for ToV
• In both listening and reading there will be passages that you don’t need to understand to answer the question; so don’t worry if you don’t know those words
• Check your umlauts in the dictation questions

Good luck everyone.

to @BeasKnee DD.

Great advice @clary!

❤to everyone's DCs going through this.

Ahh good luck to those kicking off tomorrow!!

English language IGCSE here rhis afternoon, and history tomorrow. Wibble. Strangely Geography IGCSE isn’t until next week for us!

I hadn't realised some of the 'proper' exams start this week (not classing art as a proper exam even though I'll be glad when it's done!) I'm glad DD's don't start until Monday as I feel like we need the extra few days! The first couple of weeks until half term are so packed with exams though, it's going to be tough.

Good luck to everyone today and the rest of the week.