Y11 2025-26 Results Day and Next Steps

[UncomfortableSilence]

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

This is my daughter exactly. Did absolutely NOTHING in Y10 (even her Art sketchbook was mostly blank) and only started revising last minute after mocks. She also hated the Biology papers this year and went from a predicted 8/9 to a 6 (although 1 mark off a 7) but her Biology teacher also left midway through Y11 and the replacement was terrible and she realised when revising that they never covered big parts of the curriculum. She still wants to do it at A-level so fingers crossed it will be better if she starts working earlier🤞🏻

DS2 didn’t work until Easter and if I’m honest wasn’t particularly consistent - can definitely see the difference where he worked hard though . His best friend worked like a Trojan and has got a selective place elsewhere . I learnt you need to work at this age and I’m hopeful DS2 has too 🤞

DD is going to a new VI form, she had a great time at her school but really wanted a change and to try somewhere new. There are a good group of girls going from her school too but only one or two of her friends.

Shes made a start on the Maths bridging work of which there is a lot!

She’s also still waiting on teacher feedback on her English Lit script. It’s really bothering her, I know most will say she got the grade to move on but for someone that has worked at the same grade pretty much all through school it’s gutting so we are supporting her. She also typed one of her answers out and put it through 2 different AI markers, one of which their teacher told them to use, and the mark was 11 marks higher than she was awarded 😟

Signing in to the new thread. We went camping with some friends who also have a GCSE kid so it was nice just to escape and spend time outside.

Great to read all about the different paths people are on.

I got DD's Eng Lan scripts on Friday but only just looking at them and trying to understand whether it's worth a review. She doesn't need it but was consistently predicted higher. She's only 1 mark off a 7 so it feels like it's worth a shot.

She's enrolled in 2 schools at the moment and needs to make a decision. One is her current school which is very academic but a couple of close friends are leaving and it's quite far away. The other is closer but more of an unknown as she wouldn't know anyone there. She's waiting to hear whether she can do what she wants there.

Current choices are German, Maths, History and Eng Lit.

Unfortunately she can only do three. She is doing English Literature and Sociology as well (really wanted to do Spanish, but it clashed with both Lit and Sociology).

She looked at core maths, but refused all other options offered.

She is ADAMANT she wants to do it, and has spent most of the weekend doing maths.

Physics was by far her best science, and the teacher said she did best in the maths questions of that (afraid I am really clueless about both maths and physics as I had a mental block against them both).

DD also didn't start working until Easter, as she didn't want to "burn" herself out!

She also confessed that she looked over the last topics, not the whole course, so has now decided that she needs to knuckle down and keep going over the earlier stuff all the time.

Thank you so much. She is a hard worker and seems to 'thrive' under pressure.

She got a 5 in her mocks for maths (which shocked her), her teacher said it was a blip and she got a 7.

She went from a 3/4 to 8 in Spanish, after the teacher suggested she do foundation Spanish.

She seems to want to 'up' her game if challenged, and seems to 'zone out' if it is too easy, or boring to her. My fear would be if she chose RS/Politics and found them boring, then the grade could be worse, through lack of engagement.

Her school suggested maths as an option, we knew she qualified, but I was more cautious.

My mum and son are against it, and I am trying 'not' to let their negativity affect her.

She may be fine, she may not. But I am inclined to let her try (she has two weeks to change), and it was one of her first choices originally anyway, and she seems most excited about that than the others.

She knows it will be hard though, which is good, as if she thought it was easy, she may 'zone' out.

That’s great that her teacher is looking through it - our school won’t engage with that so it’s up to us to figure out whether it’s worth submitting for a review or not. If the AI marks are that far off I would be tempted to submit - especially if you’re fairly close to the upper boundary and so not much risk of dropping a grade. Out of curiosity, can I ask which AI markers you were advised to use - as this will be our only option once we get DDs scripts given the teachers won’t help review :(

@propertymug That's really disheartening that the school won't help. Really hope your DC gets what they deserve.

She isn't close to the boundary, there are pages of her answers with no markings on although I know that doesn't necessarily mean anything. Her paper 1 was marked at 85% and paper 2 46%. She's never been near that grade so she is obviously disappointed (understatement) She just typed out the AIC answer into Co Pilot and Tilf, Tilf was given to them by their sub English teacher last year who told them she was an examiner too and they often used it, not sure if this a good or bad thing!

Obviously once we hear back from the HOD it may just be that she completely ballsed it up!

I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you! We’ve had DD’s paper 1 back from her HOD as she’s only one mark off a 9 and the teacher thinks she can see 1/2 extra marks so it’s been sent off now and we’ve been told it’ll be max 20 days before we hear. That and a physics remark too. I feel like I’ve got to mentally build up again fkr another results day!!

I've just read my reply back...I didn't mean the teacher uses it to mark exams! Just in class they were told to use it.

We’re in a similar situation with Lit. Dd got 80% on Paper 2, 50% on Paper 1. She’s never got half marks on any English work or mocks before. School have requested papers back so we shall see. She might have just had a bad day, but I want to see if somethings gone awry with marking. I’m an English teacher and have been a GCSE examiner and it seems quite odd to me. Wonder if she will let me look at the papers…

Good luck to any going for remarks.
DD is planning to start bridging work tomorrow. Hoping its not been left too late.

DS2 started bridging work today - only about an hour spent … however he seemed genuinely interested and was asking all sorts of questions I couldn’t answer .. thank goodness for Google 🤞

Good luck @Drivingselfmad

Surely you’re the best person to look at the paper! Do you teach the same board?

It’s so disheartening, even at primary she excelled in English and all through from Y7 she has never received below an 8 so she’s struggling to understand it.

Is anyone’s dc doing English literature and/or History alevel? Specifically with OCR?

Sorry she feels that way when she’s clearly a very able English student. How far into the boundary was she? We’ve gone for a remark as Dd is hugely frustrated that it’s always been a subject she excelled in and she’s missed out on a 9 by one point. It’s immensely subjective. I wish they had a more objective mark scheme but I suppose it’s impossible.

Yes I teach and have marked the same board! Dd adamant she doesn’t want me to look at it - she’s often very clear she wants ‘mum mum’ and not ‘teacher mum’ 🤷🏻‍♀️ Ah well, will leave it to her teachers. Good luck to you too!

Honestly I think this is a good time to be 'mum mum' and not 'teacher mum' as hard as that must be for you.

Yeah you’re right. Also, as I said to her on results day, a 7 is amazing. I don’t want to get too involved as I don’t want to somehow give the impression I’m disappointed with a 7 from her - I’m not!

Has anybody's DC already started their EPQ? DS has been told to turn up with quite a bit of preliminary work already done and ready to do a presentation on it.

@Drivingselfmad @UncomfortableSilence sounds similar to my DD. her results are amazing but we've no idea how she got a 6 in Lan as was always top of her class, winning English prizes etc. I'm not a teacher so had no idea what I was looking for in the scripts so have just sent the lowest paper back and hope they can find the 1 mark she needs to lift it to a 7. She's doing Lit A level and only dropped 4 marks over the whole of that so this feels like an anomaly.

I'm also a bit annoyed with the school about Art. The whole class was downgraded by at least 2 grades from the teacher assessed grades so no-one in DD's class got higher than a 6 and no-one in the year got higher than a 7. Just bad teaching as they all thought they were getting 8s and 9s. It doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things but just a little frustrating.

@makemineadecaf mines doing English Lit & History but the boards AQA.

Not sure if DD will do an EPQ as she still needs to decide what school to go to! But it seems quite a lot to get started already @MoggetsCollar . Then again she really needs to do the transition work!

That’s really annoying re Art! The school needs to provide some training as a matter of urgency there.

Nope! They haven’t even officially signed up to it yet!

Wow that's shocking about the Art marks. I don't know of any school near us where Art marks were downgraded.