The GCSE's are here.

When Ellie was preparing to sit her SATs tests in year 6 her teacher was so worried about her that she ended up in tears telling Stu and me about how she thought Ellie would not do well. One thing you need to know about Ellie is never to underestimate her. She ended up doing OK in her SAT tests. Not the top of the class but she wasn't the bottom either. Something wasn't quite right with her and we went through the process of getting her assessed for Autism which was an ordeal but it turns out Ellie had social anxiety. She started secondary school and struggled with bulling and no self confidence. Her teachers were all worried about her and even in year 7 her teachers were worrying about how she would cope with her GCSE exams, it turns out all it took was a house move and a change of school to give her the fresh start that she needed. I would love to go back to her old teachers and say look at Ellie now!

Ellie has thrived at her new school even with having the disruption that Covid brought with the lack of learning in the first lockdown and the full on home learning which was challenging to say the least. In years 8 and 9 she missed out on so much learning. Year 10 was her first full year at school since she started secondary school in year 7. lol (We moved house at the end of year 7 so she missed a few weeks)

When Ellie started in year 10 she was predicted to get 2's for her GCSE's which are E's and F's in the old way of grading the exams. She has worked hard and had some amazing help from some fantastic teachers and now she is starting her GCSE exams with 4, 5's and 6's predicted in all of her subjects, even her most hated subject Geography!

Ellie had her first GCSE exam last week, the photography one which was all practical work where she spent 2 days in the classroom taking, editing and messing about with photos. It was so different to the exams which are happening over the next month. Today's the day that the GCSE exams start properly for Ellie, the sit down writing one's. For teenagers up and down the country there was some exams yesterday but they were in subjects that Ellie's school doesn't teach. 

Ellie has a full month of exams from now. The first one being biology today and the last one on the 16th of June. Most days she just has one exam in the morning and a few with 2 exams each day. Her longest exam is one of the English Literature one's at over 2 hours but she is really looking forward to it, English is her favourite subject and she has worked so hard at it.

Ellie gets extra time in her exams due to being deaf in one ear. I still don't understand why as it's not like she has to hear anything in any of her exams or writes with her ear but we're not complaining. When Ellie was doing her mocks she was dead against having and using the extra time but her English teacher convinced her to take advantage of it and got through to her. When we were at parents evening we were shown the mock papers and you could see where Ellie had used the extra time as she was writing in a different coloured pen. I am sure she will make good use of her extra time.

Ellie's English and Maths teacher have said they will dance on a table if Ellie gets the 6 in English and 4 in Maths. I am predicting that she can do it and I am of course going to go along with her to pick up her results to see it happen. hehehe

So here we go, a month of me stressing! Ellie is pretty calm about the exams. I am doing all of the worrying for her. Good luck to those who have teenagers doing their exams.

How did you cope when you children did exams?