Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Secondary education

Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

Original poster

Y11 2025/26 The Final Stretch

991 replies

UncomfortableSilence · 16/04/2026 15:07

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

Come and join for chat, support and solidarity.

OP posts:
Thread gallery
6
larkandowl · 14/05/2026 10:54

Joining this chat today - thanks for starting it.

Bit late to the party but my DD found the iGCSE (triple science) Edexcel Biology paper ridiculously hard on Tues; think their student friends thought the same.

And that is her strongest subject regularly scoring in the mid 90s (including in the mocks). So that was a real downer. But I've today heard someone say that the grade boundaries for a lot of the exams were very high last year so maybe they're trying to adjust grade boundaries downwards [clutching at straws...].

Maths iGCSE today. Good luck to anyone else sitting exams today.

MabelsBeats · 14/05/2026 11:05

DD found maths ok, apart from the last question (four marker on surds I think she said?).

Caddycat · 14/05/2026 11:05

DD just called to say Edexcel higher went well, 2 questions she didn't get to the answer but thinks she got some marks due to the workings but the rest was very good and she even managed to do all of the "9" questions, so she was pleased.

@myladyjane we had a laugh on sunday with DD and younger DD about her use of "foreshadowing", so your DD's comment made me laugh...

TheGodWorm · 14/05/2026 11:09

Caddycat · 14/05/2026 11:05

DD just called to say Edexcel higher went well, 2 questions she didn't get to the answer but thinks she got some marks due to the workings but the rest was very good and she even managed to do all of the "9" questions, so she was pleased.

@myladyjane we had a laugh on sunday with DD and younger DD about her use of "foreshadowing", so your DD's comment made me laugh...

That's good. My DS is also Edexcel, but iGCSE. I don't know if there's also a GCSE version. Still waiting on him messaging

Caddycat · 14/05/2026 11:10

TheGodWorm · 14/05/2026 11:09

That's good. My DS is also Edexcel, but iGCSE. I don't know if there's also a GCSE version. Still waiting on him messaging

Show quote history

Ours is GCSE, not iGCSE. I hope he messages soon, the wait is awful...

Beachforever · 14/05/2026 11:10

DD just called to say edexcel higher maths was a good paper. She feels she did really well and had 30 mins to check all her answers.

TheGodWorm · 14/05/2026 11:12

These past 2 hours have been looooong

MabelsBeats · 14/05/2026 11:13

DD’s was AQA.

Tebheag · 14/05/2026 11:14

DD messaged Maths higher aqa went OK bit annoyed as missed one 4 mark question as forgot to look it up last night even though she told me she had hopefully still hit couple of marks. Currently being questioned by mates what answers she put down!

Stowickthevast · 14/05/2026 11:14

DD did AQA and is quite optimistic, 2 hard questions but the rest was ok.

Callmejudith · 14/05/2026 11:33

TheGodWorm · 14/05/2026 11:12

These past 2 hours have been looooong

Sooooo long. I need to chill out.

JustOneMoreMargarita · 14/05/2026 11:54

The waiting to find out is hard… DD is unlikely to message until after school as the phones have to stay in the pouches. Definitely need to chill

cherrywhite · 14/05/2026 11:59

AQA higher paper maths feedback..... "mid"

Original poster
UncomfortableSilence · 14/05/2026 12:05

DD left me hanging while she went to get food but has finally text and Edexcel Higher, all good. One funky question on Histograms and the last circle theorem question she couldn’t remember it off by heart but said she worked it out. Hoping to do Maths A Level so fingers crossed.

Keeping everything crossed for all your DCs, I think we’ll need another thread soon!

OP posts:
Original poster
UncomfortableSilence · 14/05/2026 12:07

@Stowickthevast I’ve been reminding DD of that too, this isn’t about the last few months of revision you’ve been learning this for years and it’s all in there.

OP posts:
Crispsandwich25 · 14/05/2026 12:11

DD also did Edexcel higher and hoping to do A level maths. It went “Ok” but she couldn’t do 2 of them. Hoping she can still get an 8.

Anonymousemouses · 14/05/2026 12:21

I suffer badly from anxiety (and I do have bipolar, which intensifies it), but I am panicking a bit.

DD was adamant that no one at her school was allowed to do foundation Maths, they only allow foundation for the three sciences and languages, and only for a very few pupils (it is a grammar school).

However, she saw there were a few doing the foundation level today.

She said that she found the paper really easy. She said it was much easier than the mocks, and checked her paper said higher tier on it.

But I am really, really worried that they mucked up and gave her foundation by accident. This would affect her staying and her A Level choices.

She has been doing CGP full length past papers at home, and got full marks on both the non calculator ones, but she said today's exam was harder than them.

Should I email the school to check? It definitely states AQA higher tier maths on her exam timetable and gives her seat number, but could there have been a mistake?

BeasKnee · 14/05/2026 12:26

@Anonymousemouses I think if she checked front and it said higher then it's very unlikely there was a mistake. I understand the worry though as I massively overthink things too.

Anonymousemouses · 14/05/2026 12:41

BeasKnee · 14/05/2026 12:26

@Anonymousemouses I think if she checked front and it said higher then it's very unlikely there was a mistake. I understand the worry though as I massively overthink things too.

Thanks, she said her friends were all talking about the same questions, so they all seemed to do the same paper (and she now isn't sure that anyone else is doing foundation there, only that it was on the board).

It's been awful this week hasn't it, I worried, in the early hours of Tuesday morning, whether her Biology exam was really in the afternoon, or whether that was a mistake and she was due in the morning.

Going to be a blubbering wreck by the end of June.

Glad I'm not the only worrier, but hope you're doing OK

waitingquietly · 14/05/2026 12:43

Edexcel IGCSE - DS says much the same as it always is …he is a 5/6 though so may not help those with higher achievers waiting @TheGodWorm

36and3 · 14/05/2026 12:43

Dd AQA higher “half good half shit”

3GoldenLamps · 14/05/2026 12:43

DS came out and said it was okay. iGCSE higher. He's only been moved into Higher in the past month so he said there were questions he could not answer as he had not seen anything like them, but he felt he could give a bit of a stab at them, which he did. He's hoping for a 6 (which is why they moved him out of Foundation).

Wolfiefan · 14/05/2026 12:46

FFS I have just missed a call from the school. Apparently DD didn’t have the formula sheet she should have had. I’m really worried now. Waiting for a call back to find out what actually happened and WTF they are going to do about it. If it’s a school mistake anyone know how to proceed with a complaint. She was anxious enough about Maths as it was. I’m fuming.

Callmejudith · 14/05/2026 12:46

@Anonymousemouses try not to worry - if she checked and it said higher it will be fine. I say that as someone who has checked their phone every minute for the last two hours hoping DS will message me with a maths debrief!

36and3 · 14/05/2026 12:47

Wolfiefan · 14/05/2026 12:46

FFS I have just missed a call from the school. Apparently DD didn’t have the formula sheet she should have had. I’m really worried now. Waiting for a call back to find out what actually happened and WTF they are going to do about it. If it’s a school mistake anyone know how to proceed with a complaint. She was anxious enough about Maths as it was. I’m fuming.

Omg I’d be raging