Y11 2025-26 - Trying not to melt and pushing through the final weeks

[Stowickthevast]

I finished the thread so started a new one. Welcome all Y11 parents, support and solidarity for the next big push here!

Good luck for Eng Lang today! Some final tips (I’m an English teacher):

• Section A - always explain and extend your analysis. Before you put a full stop, can you add ‘because’, ‘which’ or ‘so’?
• Q2 - you do NOT need to analyse language. Quote, inference, compare only. It’s only 8 marks , so move on after 10 mins.
• Q3 and Q4 - you MUST analyse methods eg language.
• Q3 pay attention to which source and line numbers it is.
• Q4 - read the question! Is it similarities, differences or both? Do not skip this question! It’s a big marker.
• Q5 - Don’t forget the basics: paragraphs, full stops and capital letters, use a variety of punctuation.
• Q5 - pick a side and stick to it. Use a strong voice - even if you don’t care about the topic, write like you do.

Yes good luck everyone for English language. By 10.45, that’ll be another whole subject done! Number 3/9 for us.

@Drivingselfmadthankyou so much, that’s really helpful and will give me some talking points for our walk to school, DD likes me to walk with her and revise on the way.

Anyone on the thread know anything about Art GCSE? DD didn’t finish her final piece in the (10 hr) exam I heard yesterday that could drop her 2 grades (!) and am now panicking.

Her sketch books are amazing and her prep and process was really thorough, she just didn’t have enough time to finish in the exam (she did 2 canvas’ one fully finished, the other 2/3 done) and is refusing to go back as she said Art has already taken too much time and she needs to focus on her sciences and maths. Thoughts?

I don’t know anything about art but when you say she’s refusing to go back? Surely she can’t anyway if the time has finished?

DS also quite fed up which doesn’t bode well for next week. He loves English Lang though so I’m hoping it might give him a little boost if it goes well today.

Next week is a hard one - maths, history, science, DT. I don’t think he’s even glanced at DT!

@coffeeagogo Is Art not already finished and graded? She should already have her Art marks. She can't go back to finish her exam piece, but she should already know what raw marks she got.

@coffeeagogo I think the way the final mark is allocated, the exam piece only accounts for 10%.
The exam project as a whole is 40% but 30% of that is the research and book work. Her other two pieces and book work count for 30% each. So it's not that large a percentage that she would lose for not finishing hopefully. What does get teacher say? Agree with @XelaM that they've been given their raw grades.

& @XelaM that’s why I am so confused - I thought it was done done, although we haven’t had marks for this sketch book yet. This all came about yesterday when another child said to DD oh Mrs Art teacher said you haven’t finished your final piece and it needs to be done and you will drop 2 grades for an unfinished piece? All a bit random, will email the teacher today and thankyou all for talking me down!

Once your Art exam is finished, that’s it I’m
afraid. You can’t then go back and add bits or change bits. It’s like any other exam.

Actually I don't think mine has had the grades for her books yet, just the exam.

Another double exam day today and then will finally be into single figures with 9 left
Ds was quiet this morning but to be expected as hes not a fan of English.
Good luck all. We are slowly ticking them off!

DD hasn't had her Art grade but that's because she hasn't asked for them. Apparently they are available if you want but it's their choice. It annoys me as I want to know.

As others have said, exam piece and exam sketchbook shouldn't be changed after the exam has finished. I wouldn't be surprised if there is some fudging of this that goes on though (I completely restarted my exam piece at home for a level many many years ago when it didn't go to plan, I'm sure that wasn't what was supposed to happen but my teacher told me I had to or I wouldn't get the grade I deserved!)

Big one today!!
Good Luck all! X

I think if they don't ask for the Art raw marks they can't then ask for a review of the marks if they're not happy with them, as there's a deadline for this. I'm no expert though. I'm sure many schools cheat with Art. We know a school with many grade 9 Art students every year, but the grade 9 sketchbooks that they showed us at open day wouldn't even get a grade 7 in our school. It's all very subjective and totally dependent on the individual Art teachers.

Thanks @Drivingselfmad. I've shared your tips with DS, although he no doubt reckons you're in on the MN grade scam with @clary 😅If only teachers had time to be so devious.

I love this! Bless your ds for his ingenuity.

Hope everyone has a good Eng lang day.

DD and I on our way to work sometimes see the same lad on his way to her old school. We reckon he must be year 11 by now (he’s pretty well grown) and he was walking in with particular unwillingness today. Reckon he’s not a fan of Eng lang.

Popping on here to say hi!
Light revision for DD last night, she did a few practice plans for question 5 but had was too exhausted after history. Feeling like the end is finally in sight.

@XelaM and @BeasKnee thankyou for all the context. I have emailed her art teacher to get to the bottom of this.

DD has no intention of changing/doing more even it was allowed, she is full steam ahead for maths/science next week and art has taken a disproportionate amount of time compared to all her other GCSEs put together and caused untold stress in the process (i swear it has made me go grey!). She is taking it for A-levels and if she drops marks as her piece was ambitious and she didn’t finish then I’m ok with that (and it sounds like the 2 grade thing was rubbish!) Thankyou!

I can now turn my attention back to worrying about English 😂

@XelaM there are external assessors though. At my daughter's school they were all downgraded by the assessor last year as they had marked too generously. She's hoping they have learnt their lesson but she is not getting her hopes up for the raw 8 yet!

True but they do have the external people come and check the schools marking standard. After that the raw marks can go up or down. The finale 1-9 grade isn't determined until then.

Definitely not a fool proof process though - my daughter and friends are certain that some externals will be influenced by some schools / teachers to keep their marks 'as is' even if they're objectively too generous compared to other schools..

We only got Art raw marks yesterday. We were expecting it to be very close to an 8 based on previous sketchbooks but it's come out as a solid 7 - which is also amazing but this was the one subject where she thought an 8 was possible. There's some confusing maths involved but I was quite surprised that internal moderation brought down her two previous sketchbooks/outcomes so much - she went down about 4 marks despite adding to them following advice before final submission. She wants to ask her teachers why but I'm not sure it's worth it. I don't have the knowledge to accurately challenge a grade/marking and I'm sure it's not the obvious cases where they've missed whole pages of work, for example.

AQA English ok, and now down to just 6 exams, hurray! And every exam they sit from now on in will clear off that subject which is a nice position to be in. 2 more weekends of revision then freedom!

Argh, DDs second English Lang paper did not go well with timing and she missed a whole question (8 marks). In mocks she’d always got a high 6-8 and with the error she made on the first paper I’m now panicking about her even getting a 5. This is the only subject she’s had any issues with but has messed up both papers! The rest of it went well apparently so right now she’s not panicking (just me!).

10 days and five exams left here, can’t wait for it all to be over! Five GCSEs are now over and done with following this morning’s English language paper.

Oh no @Crispsandwich25fingers crossed it’s ok