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 😭

Half term also for us - going away for the last relaxing school break until the summer, as DC has mocks after Christmas.
They sent reports out and the grades were very good - which is great but important to not get complacent!

Hello, hoping I can jump on this thread too please!

DS1 is stressing about his exams and school to the point where he is feeling and/or being sick at least a couple of times a week. We have been to the GP who wants to send him for blood tests but he has a fear of needles/blood so is currently refusing to go.

He is not, however, stressing to the point where it’s actually making him do any revision. I am trying to encourage it but he is spending a lot of time sleeping and says they are going on and on about revision at school and he just wants a break from it when he’s home.

He is having English tutoring for an hour once a week and science tutoring for two hours every other week - these were at his request as he’s worried about not passing them (he got 2s in English language and physics in his end of year 10 “working at” report).

His English language teacher is quite difficult, I am yet to find a student or parent who actually thinks she is any good, and there are a few in his class who are having English tutoring as they are worrying about not knowing enough for the exams.

His school no longer has a sixth form, so we have got to find somewhere else to go next year. He wants to do A-levels but not entirely sure which ones. Possibly history, politics and business or law. We’ve only visited the local college so far, which we were surprisingly impressed by, they have a sixth form centre and I think the set up there will suit him. It’s unclear if they are offering politics though. We have a couple of school sixth form opening evenings booked in November and we are going back to the college for another look around as well.

They have more mocks in January, straight after Christmas.

I wasn’t anticipating how stressed I would be about it this early in the school year, although obviously I’m not letting him know I’m stressed.

We have no holidays booked and no plans to go away until next summer, which is already booked and we are all looking forward to!

English Language and maths are the most important. Try to relax a bit as he is probably picking up on your anxiety. They do need a break as they have lots of pressure at school too. He needs 5 GCSE including English language and maths with a minimum 4. Can he drop any subjects?

Maybe try teen tablets if his energy levels are low. We use wellteen. For his exams anxiety and needle fear I wanted to suggest solution based hypnosis.

DS alleges he has a revision timetable for this week - mocks start 30 November, so really he's got this week and a few days off beforehand to get down to solid chunks of revision.

English seems to be coming on, but still a bit of a challenge. Honestly if he can manage a 3 or 4 in mocks in Eng Lang, I might be inclined to tell him to forget effort in Literature and concentrate on being secure with a 4 in Language, as it's easy to spend too much time trying to get your head around quotes etc in Literature if it doesn't come naturally to you.

Half Term here too - 2 weeks!

we have mocks in Nov so DD has a revision timetable from school
she is working hard but also making sure she gets a well earned rest and some fun days out

Parents eve was just before half term which went very well and her first report is positive

so ticking over nicely just trying to stay calm and positive for her!

Thanks for this, I am looking into how to get round the needle/blood thing as we need to find a way for him to cope with it. I’ll have a look at hypnosis and definitely look at the well teen tablets too. The GP has given him omeprazole for the sickness but it hasn’t helped yet.

Hopefully he hasn’t picked up on me worrying about him, I’m more worried about the vomiting than anything else, but DH is on at him all the time about schoolwork. They don’t have a very good relationship which is also quite stressful.

They won’t let him drop any subjects, but I am going to contact them about moving him into a different English language class. He needs at least a 6 in English and maths to get into the sixth forms near us, one of them even wants 7s across the board, so I get why he’s worrying.

DS has been in his room all day allegedly mostly revising. I do hope so! He seems to be in fairly focused mode, so that's a good sign. He's seeing a friend on Thursday afternoon, so not just doing work all week

Good people’s children are revising. My DS definitely won’t be! His mocks are not until after Christmas and he has been set a lot of homework including revision for multiple tests after half term. I don’t think I’ll be able to get him to do anything else but also I fear it’ll be a battle to get him to do the homework before the weekend! I hope he focusses over the next set of holidays. I also think important to have some relaxation time now, given that the next 6 months are going to be very hard going.

DD has mocks a fortnight after half term. School have advised them that the mocks are important in case we have another disaster like Covid…

She had parents’ evening just before half term, which was useful in reassuring us all that the subjects she is planning to do for A-level are her best ones! She was disappointed with on teacher’s feedback – he is new to teaching her this year, and she under-performed in her end of Y10 exam in this subject (she basically forgot to revise it) and didn’t do too well in the first little test earlier this month, and the teacher basically reassured her that she could get to a good grade if she works hard, and here’s an extra practice book… she is generally a high achiever and has taken great offence at this, so she is determined to ace it and show him she is more than he thinks she is! We will see how that goes!

She was all fired up to do lots of revision this half term and to make it efficient and effective, but yesterday she did go off the boil and was frustrated at herself for sitting at her desk and wasting time. I encouraged her to get out of the house, and she had a good walk and felt much better. She has now realised there is no point trying to revise all day every day!

We’re going away for three nights from tomorrow, so she will have a change of scenery and we will go out for a chunk of each day, though she will still have time to do some revision if she wants to.

It feels as though GCSEs are at once very close and very far away!

Joining this thread too.
DS has surprised me with his focus this term.
He had really disappointing predicted grades at the end of year 10 and it seems to have motivated him.
I got him a tutor for Maths and English and he's already improving.
We started mocks here just before half term and they are carrying on after. I'm hoping to see some grade improvements.

He's planning an extended diploma in protective services for post 16, targeting the police degree apprenticeship. He's always wanted to join the police. His back up is officer training in the army. He's already achieved the fitness requirements.

We're hoping he achieves mostly 7s in his GCSEs. Although have written off Spanish we're targeting a 4/5!

Mocks are end of November.
Theyve kindly put them the week after the School musical. So they go from missing kessons and late nights straight into them.

Shes turned done Cub camp in the midfke if all that (Shes the Young Leader). She was looking forward to it.

Please speak to your husband; he needs to take a step back. Support, encourage him, find tutors, sit with him, listen to him. But all that pressure from your husband isn’t good. Also treat your anxiety as they do pick up on it whether we show it or not. I know it is easier saying than done.

Acupuncture and solution based hypnosis has helped me a lot to feel more calm and balanced.

I feel for your son. I will put your son first; I would not be very happy if my husband doesn’t support or understand our kids.

So much pressure at 15 is mental in my opinion. I dislike the UK system but here is where we are so we do the best we can.

Also make sure there is nothing else going on at school.

Best of luck.

My son is barely engaging with revision this half term. So frustrating. Mocks start mid November.

@Kermit99sorry to hear it, is there anything you can do? Bribery?! Is he generally doing well ?

@purplejeanie He should get reasonable grades but his teachers all say he’s capable of much more if only he applied himself a bit. Capable but lazy/easily distracted as opposed to older brother who was less able but worked hard. Bribery has been mentioned, but it’s such a distant prospect it doesn’t translate into action now.

The school has various nights about key subjects etc, but I don't think they add much and after the last time we went to one in Y10, DH just got massively stressed and had to leave early. He was all 'DS can't do any of the stuff they demand, how can he get into 6th form, he can't get those marks' etc despite me trying to tell him about btecs. To be fair to him, he did keep it to himself in front of DS.

I think he is feeling a bit better knowing about the Animal Management btec now and that it does offer options. MIL, I think will not accept this so readily, but that's her problem.

But the school nights like this are a bit stressful if you have a kid who's likely not to get more than a 5 in anything and may not pass all the subjects

My son sounds similar. He hasn’t done anything yet over half term and he’s in his second week of half term. He does reasonably well without trying much, hence reinforces the not trying! He could do so well, very frustrating. But I guess lucky that he should hopefully do fine anyway (as with your son).

Hi all, Just a quick reply and I’ll try and pop in again to reply properly 😁

seems it’s been a while since I checked in on this thread. A lot has happened outside of school (all been v.stressful).

DS is sort of studying but from what I can see there’s a lot of work left for DT coursework 😬

it was only one week half term here, and it’s exams straight after, followed by more after Xmas holidays (mocks).

this year will fly by…

Ds has exams after half term and has completely ignored my pleas for revision. Coursework for us is in English and neither was completed before half term as required by school. Ds is autisitc and we are seeing now this is transpiring as hating coursework with a passion. He is far too overwhelmed by it and bqrely started apparently. He was predicted 9/8 but if he doesnt do his coursework, does anyone know what that could translate to? We had no idea the deadline was before half term so are a bit stumped and he needs 6 in Eng to get into the 6th form he wants. I wish we had known English wasn't exam based and had had a little more guidance from school. He boards at the moment so I feel we have been completely oblivious. What a mess!

Is it IGCSE? If so, I seem to remember the coursework element is around 40% of the total. Didn’t the school have an options booklet/meeting explaining this? We don’t get told as parents when the coursework is due, but the pupils do, and I assume parents or tutors would be informed if deadlines are missed.

Yes it is IGCSE and I assumed we would have been told as well but so far just lots of merits for other subjects and no email to us or anything! Maybe I missed a communication about the deadline somewhere. I guess we just have to hope the exam is aced and he can get 6's. I dont think the 6th form would be open to an explanation - they need a set number of points which he us well over in total but also stipulate 6 in Eng and Maths or 7 if taking Eng or Maths. I really feel I have dropped the ball here and DS only mentioned it this morning! Think he has been worrying about how to tell us.

@HisStericalTestesthe English coursework isn’t submitted until March so he has time. Has he done any of it? The deadlines that they give out are internal, so it’s not all left until the end and so the teachers can give feedback and it can be improved. I assume the school won’t let him just not do it.

Thank you @purplejeanie,we have spent some time going through his laptop and figuring this out. I think he thought he had to have it done before half term and the deadline had passed. Very relieved and going to message the school and see if they have anything to help him - he has the idea and spoken to a teacher who liked it, but then seems to have frozen with the open-endedness of it all after a paragraph and it then built into an insurmountable task. He goes back on Monday and is so relieved he gets another shot at it!

Our DS also gets frozen by open ended tasks in English, but seems to be getting better. I don't believe he has any coursework - I hope not, he'll never be able to do it. I don't remember oldest DC having any, but then they were totally self-sufficient so there was maybe no need to mention it if there was.

DH has agreed to go to the school Core Subject evening on Weds while I take DS to 6th form college open evening. I'm very glad I found when they were having it at the right campus - they seem to put them up at quite short notice and I initially signed up for the wrong site (and only realised 10 mins before leaving it was the wrong one for his subject choice) because they don't list all open evenings at the same time, so I just assumed those were the only options.

Hope DH doesn't get too stressed out by the school evenings, they're always all 'Students should revise a billion hours a day and they will need at least 5 Grade 6s including English and Maths to get anywhere' I don't know if anyone else has found this or if it's just our school.

Had the Yr11 report. Almost sent me into a panic as there was an Attendance warning on it.

Looking in detail... she was "late" 3 times. By a cpuple of minutes. While seeing teachers in another part of school before school.

Her form tutor had gone overboard on kate marks, not taking into account the new one way system around the building, and the fact Yr11 have stuff before school the opposite end of the building in the Yr11 area.