Y11 - 2026/27 thread

[Echobelly]

I don't see a thread yet so I guess I might as well start it. I'm gonna need a lot of handholding for this one 😭

@purplejeanie he sounds ideally suited - what a shame he's not enjoying it! Are you sure he would even have the option to give up at this stage? It does feel very achievable if he can just find that bit of spark.

@brackengirl it sounds as though your DD is well suited too. It is a pain taking your instrument in - DD has to take hers three days per week (not for GCSE music but for ensembles / music lesson) and she does struggle on the bus. She is lucky as her peers are all traditional/classical players so she fits in. They are all music nerds together.

@LetItGoToRuin She has a 20 min walk so can manage, but a bassoon and a clarinet don't fit with her trendy bag and non-robust shoes! She came home today saying they have offered her a place in the senior wind ensemble so she'll definitely have to take the bassoon (affectionally named the baboon in our house) 2 days so I imagine she'll end up using one or the other more in music lessons too.
She did suggest hiring another one so she could have a school one and a home one but that is very wishful thinking and won't be happening!

@LetItGoToRuini think he would have the option (probably after January mocks). The school is very results focussed and so far music is an outlier for him in terms of how he’s doing. But I’m going to push them to help him more (and try and get him to properly engage!) to see if that helps.

Ugh, just spoken to MIL and she was like 'Oh it would be a shame to shut down DS's options, that's all I'm saying', meaning she doesn't want him to do the BTech. I am going to do an open day for a sixth form as well, just in case something shifts radically in the next 9 months and he's suddenly A-level material but I can't see that happening in that timescale.

I think she's also expecting us to be really interventionalist because she was a 'Drill your kids on their Latin verbs' alpha mum and I'm just not, so I know she's going to blame us on some level if DS gets the results I'm expecting, not what she would like.

He says drama teacher has asked them to write part 1 of their drama coursework this weekend, but seeing as there's at least 3 sections, and the last one is longer I'm going to try to get him to write at least 2 parts. He does have a habit, common I'm sure, of wanting to do the minimum. The problem is then if you find you have difficulty doing the minimum you run out of time to tackle the issue.

Just joining in this thread.

Can’t believe DS is now in Y11. Although I have an older DS (he is 21), his year got TAG due to Covid so a completely different experience of Y11 than DS2.

DS2 has ASD and is academically not as strong as DS1. He is predicted relatively good grades for English and other subjects but finds maths/science quite challenging so it’s going to be quite a slog to get him the grades that he needs. He has spent a lot of time over the summer on Cognito (online learning platform) and doing past papers, all his own doing.

He wants to stay at 6th form to do a combination of 3 BTECs, school is his safe place and I think him changing at this point is not a great idea.

I was quite pleased to see the school has their 'learning review day' at the end of November (school shut but you go in for a teacher meeting), then two INSET days on the Thursday and Friday - so that will give him 5 pretty solid days to dedicate to revision shortly before Mocks begin. He is doing some revision now, but I think really dedicated revision starts at half term. And it will help to have that chunk of days shortly before they start.

He's got new shelves up in his room to organise revision stuff - but actually realised it'll fit better in his old shelves, and he can move books to the new one. Actually makes more sense that way around as old shelves are next to his desk.

We have a ridiculous number of revision books, oldest DC never really used them, also have a subscription to 'Save My Exams' which he quite liked for summer exams last year. I just wish there was some really easy-to-follow 'tick list' covering all the topics revision system but I can't see anything that simple.

I'm thinking maybe concentrate on using revision books for Y10 stuff, and maybe revision material from school and Save My Exams for Y11 stuff.