Y11 2025-26 Results Day and Next Steps

[UncomfortableSilence]

We can use this thread to continue our discussions for now.

Congratulations to those that have grades changed. Sending hugs to those who havent.
Finding it shocking how many have had grades changed. They really need to look at the marking.

DD is getting annoyed still not had her study sessions sorted.next week she has supervised study sessions or class all day every day no free time.

Same. @makemineadecaf being an example. Delighted for them but seriously it makes you wonder about marking auditing. Loads of people I know really dropped AQA English by 2-3 grades or went other way and got 2 grades higher than expected! And remarks are getting extra grades. When I did mine you just took what you got

It’s also gutting to think Dc are missing out on A levels due to it. Although I’m delighted where DD had ended up I’d be furious if her remark gets her the grade that made her have to change plans

DS is also waiting on a review of marking for English language (2 marks off a 9, CIE). Total vanity remark and will mean absolutely nothing in the scheme of things but we'll see what it comes back with. I totally agree with regard to the apparent marking errors this year...I'm an English lit graduate and there is obviously a degree of subjectivity with the humanities subjects but even so. And how many DC are missing out on opportunities because parents either don't realise or are not fussed about about encouraging them to get paper marks reviewed? From posts on here there also seems to be a lot of variation in how much encouragement and support is given by different schools. Seems really unfair.

DS is settling in at sixth form, no change to his chosen A level subjects (maths/FM/physics/chemistry plus additional science electives) and doesn't seem fazed by a packed timetable. He's just chuffed that two study periods on a Friday afternoon mean he can leave a bit early! Tbh having seen older DS struggle his way through the much more flexible sixth form college route, with quite a random timetable and loads of unscheduled free time, I'm quite glad it's going to be different for DS2. I know the sixth form colleges rightly pride themselves on being the 'halfway house' between school and uni and they work brilliantly for many students but DS1 was not one of them. DS2 is much happier with the more rigid routine of still having to be in at the same time every day.

AQA drama external written part went five marks up. DC was predicted 7 but got 5. Its 6 now after the remark. For a context , all other GCSEs subjects are 8/9 and he is actually good at acting/ devising drama (went to Sylvia Young Saturday classes and performed on stage in the past ). All his cohort at school got lower than expected drama grades.

That’s fantastic news for your DC! Shame how many drama and art students out there work hard for years only to have the rug pulled out getting a final grade far less than predicted. Did you worry the mark could also go down or did the school check first and reassure?

Thank you! The school did check first and said there was a possibility for extra 1-2 marks.

@FlyingPandas would you mind updating us when you get the results of your review please? DD was just off a nine but her school advised not to bother sending it for a review as they said CIE are really stubborn and rarely change the grade even if they discover extra marks.

Like you, it would just be a vanity review if we did it as she’s not doing English at A Level or beyond as we decided not to bother but I’d just be interested to see if her school were right in what they advised.

Thank you!

Yes of course @Franpie I’ll post on here once he’s heard back.

Hello all, I’ve been away and have just got back, so haven’t had a chance to catch up on all the new threads yet. Hope all our YPs have settled in well😊!

DD has started at her new college and so far she’s ok🤞. She decided to take three subjects, as that’s all she needs for her uni requirements. The college only encourages students to take Further Maths as the fourth subject, but DD doesn’t need FM, she therefore has quite a lot of free periods and is trying to get involved in other activities instead.

On the GCSE English Language front, we’ve received the scripts and were honestly quite shocked by the marking! We haven't asked her school, but it was much lower than DD expected. DD already has enough grades for her uni application, so she doesn’t want to take it any further.

Has anyone else had a similar experience? I just feel a bit upset about it, as she worked really hard for English and was always predicted much higher marks. I know the grade is enough for what she needs, but it still feels a bit of a shame after all the effort she put in 😔.

Has anyone had any luck with aqa maths reviews?

@Kindflowe26
yes we are AQA English lit and eduqas eng language.

paper 1 English lit seems harshly marked in my opinion (high 6) whereas I think it’s more a good 7. He got a very high 8 on paper 2.

English language he got 3/10 on a 10 marker as one example. Chat gpt thinks it’s at least a 6/10 answer.

I’m waiting for head of English to give me their opinion. Dead line next Friday

@ShesRunningOutTheDoor That does sound really frustrating (and it’s exactly what we felt too!), especially the 3/10 for English Lang! 😑

Hopefully, the Head of English can shed some light before the deadline and give you some reassurance about whether it’s worth challenging.

I’m not sure exactly when the deadline is but believe by end of September?? I hope school help you soon to turn them around, especially the literature. Also interesting to hear two different exam boards being used for English!

Dd has the good problem of enjoying all of her four subjects and needs to drop one in the next three weeks. I have no idea how to help her decide - and conscious her mind definitely may change over the next few weeks. But all of her choices are perfect for her degree course, it doesn’t matter which three she ultimately goes with. She wants to do law. She got 9s in two of them, the other two are new subjects. Any words of wisdom?!

Can she not keep all 4?

Hugely discouraged to do 4 at her school as she’s also doing an EPQ. But that would definitely make the decision process easier!

@makemineadecaf would she consider dropping EPQ? That would release more study time for the As?

@makemineadecaf what subjects is she doing? Mine has the same problem. For her it's a self-imposed deadline as school will let her do 4, but it's 20 hours of teaching + 20 hours of homework which she reckons is too much. Also nearly everyone else is doing 3 other than the FM folk.
She's doing Maths, German, English Lit and History, she got 9s in all bar Maths where she was 6 marks off, so capable of doing any of them. And they all go pretty well together. She doesn't really know what she wants to do at uni and is enjoying all of them so far. I've just said, it's early days, let's review in a couple of weeks when you've had a bit more work in each.

ETA - she may be leaning towards dropping Maths as it is the only one she knows she's not going to do at Uni.

In other news, English Lan paper 1 review came back with no change so have requested paper 2.
And apparently, the school has requested a review of the art marking as the whole cohort was downgraded by 2 grades from the teacher assessed work.

This. Why does she need the EPQ? Just keep the 4 A-levels and drop the EPQ.

The deadline for remark applications here is the 22nd September. I'm not sure whether that's just the internal school deadline though.

I'm accompanying DS round the Cambridge college open day today. He can't believe that none of the students are wearing suits. I can't overstate how horrified he was by the idea of party nights in the college basement. It only got worse when our guide told us about college families and getting "college married". I've taken him to the library to recover before finding one of the older colleges for comparison.

Haha my brother went to Cambridge (and still has super close friends from there) and he doesn't even drink, so not all are crazy party kids 😂 though he most definitely does not wear suits!

Because EPQ is over and done by end of year 12 leaving just the three alevels to focus on in y13. EPQ is also only 90mins of tutor time a week compared to 5 hours of alevel lesson time.

@makemineadecafdoes your school publish the stats of the grades last year’s cohort got in the different subjects. DD is doing 4 including FM and switched one of her other subjects last week. She’s now doing something generally seen to be a facilitating subject rather than a core subject but she loves it, there is actually a coursework element which will slightly reduce the pressure come exams and 85% of the pupils got A/A star in this subject last year and the year before whereas it was only 60% percent in the other subject.
@NotDarkGothicMamai almost swooned on meeting my College father and could scarcely form a sentence! He also gave me all of his essay plans from
the first year which were hugely helpful when I was feeling horribly out of my depth in the first term