New Batch of Year 13 parents this way!

Glad she's back safe ursula
Dd has hit A2's with a bang 4 essays already and some exams she is juggling work well so far

I'm glad you've found this link useful. I have had so much advice and support from you all that it's nice to give something back.
It's great that your dc have all survived dofe, they must have gained a lot from the experience.
Ds1 is waiting to get his ps and ucas application back after his teachers have checked/suggested changes/approved it.

drummer that's a fantastic link thank you. Wow, some of those are very impressive! It's certainly upped it's game since I did mine. I remember writing it out so neatly on the back of the paper form, times have changed.

They did their own routes originally but they kept getting changed because of the conditions.

Glad she's home safe Ursula

Didn't they plot their own course? So they decide in their group how long/hard it's going to be in advance?

Although I know most seem to have had to change route at some point due to the "inclement conditions".

DDs DofE groups were the same Ursula it made no sense to me either.

Thanks for the PS link drummers. That is really interesting.

She is safely home from DofE. The worst experience everrrr apparently. Cut off from everything up a Welsh mountain in the rain. But she's loved it.

Bizarrely her group and two others had harder and longer walks than others as they were deemed to be fitter. But they all end up with the same result.

That's a really helpful link drummers - I've just sent it to DS in the hope that he will work a little more on his PS!

Mrslant I found this website helpful for ps, I don't know if Ds1 looked at it but he has had loads of input from school.
www.studential.com/university/applying/UCAS-application-guide/personal-statement-examples

They have examples by course or uni.

If anyone is at Notts on Saturday, ds1 needs a haircut, I will be following several steps behind looking exhausted!

Don't worry about it voilets

Simon Singh is great extra reading for maths, between dd and me we've got all of his books. Dd subscribes to a nice YouTube channel called numberphile, which is lovely but perhaps aimed a little young for sixth form (the man is part of a comedy group called festival of the spoken nerd - they're great live if you ever get the chance to see them and you are a bit nerdy).

I've just booked our tickets and hotel for dd's birthday trip to London. I'm very excited much more than she is

No offence meant about hills lonicerajaponica. I hope your DD finds a uni that is right for her.

For us, it is a joke, laidback friend's DD doesn't want to over exert herself despite academically working hard. A genuine consideration.

Having a DS doing maths type degree, he extols the virtues of simon singh. Maths reading is a bit beyond me. But I'm sure it is good further reading.

Dd is working on her PS. The member of staff who had a look at it didn't make many suggestions for alterations which he did for some of her peers, so I think she must be on the right lines.

MrSlant I think if he has loads of practical, relevant experience that must play a major part in his statement. If his dyspraxia has affected how he got there in a positive way it would be really useful to discuss that too.
DD got interested in language because she is dyslexic and got so frustrated by the English spelling system that she worked on her own reform. That fact is how she is beginning her PS.
Incidentally I know that you are looking at Welsh universities. My ds is at Swansea and has lots of additional support. It might not be on your list and he is doing a totally different subject but if it is relevant please pm me.

Need to post before this thread disappears from TIO.
dd has now been back at sixth form a week and has handed in all her holiday projects including a 25 page essay that took approx 1 hour to submit on the on-line portal (feel sorry for the tutor marking this one).
Most of her friends are continuing to Y13 at the same college (apart from one who lived some distance a way who has transferred elsewhere to take an Extended BTEC). She has the same tutors for 2 subjects but one has left for a job elsewhere so this is another adjustment.
I may have the opposite problem MrSlant in that I don't think dd will be applying for unis (at least not this year). She still isn't sure about what course she would apply for and can't really imagine herself studying 1 subject for 3 whole years! The trouble is that many acquaintances who know she is starting Y13 keep saying things like "you will miss her next year etc" and I don't really have the inclination to say that she may be following a different route.

I think it depends on what you are applying to do Fantasy. DS' doesn't need to be in until January but some courses are October. You can check on the course websites when they want the application by, most are after Christmas so time yet.

Contextual offer is an excellent way of putting it, that's what I was trying to say. I'm going to make sure he mentions his dyspraxia on his PS because it makes what he has achieved through sport all the more amazing and I think sometimes when you have struggled to get the hang of something it makes you a better coach yourself because you understand the different pathways. DS3 who can see a sport once and excel 5 minutes later would never be able to explain how, it just is.

I'm learning a lot for next time round too when we will be having to take things rather more seriously.

Also, off the topic of UCAS forms, does anyone else become a little bit teary when you think what happens if they are successful. I feel like sabotaging his so he stays home . How did we get this far? I remember some of you from when they were starting secondary school and I was all tearful about that too!

Dd hasn't even started writing a personal statement it's not been done here not for a couple more weeks I don't think?

MrSlant I know that a couple of the courses DD has spoken to has more than one admissions tutor. In her case it is useful because her subject splits into two main specialities, so it helps to have one of each. In your case though, it could be that it is a simple job of passing over the application to the person who doesn't know your DS.

I'd have thought that your DS personal statement could easily include something like "I have XYZ difficulty, which has made ABC a particular challenge. However I have tried to counterbalance that with DEF, and GHI, and have been successful to some extent, demonstrated by JKL."

DD has tailored hers (a science subject) by saying what things she has seen (during work experience, or at a science show) that have particularly interested her. She needs to work on WHY they have interested her...but she's still on first draft, so time yet.

Might your DS qualify for a contextual offer?

I love Simon Singh (saw him talk once, he was amazing) but I'm hopeless with twitter. Not enough words!

I dunno about some of the ethics though, I've know the course leader since he was a teenager and if it looks like DS1's not getting in I could threaten to tell his students some stories .

He met all the tutors earlier on this year, our friend took him over and said "This is Slant's son, he wants to come and join us". He'd just done a hard as nails 70k charity bike ride with 20% gradients and a sleety headwind. I said "consider this our application" .

That's so interesting. I will start DS2 on Fermat's Last Theorem by Simon Singh then (that book made me cry, I think I get true geek credentials for that). I'd love to hear how everyone has tailored theirs to their given subject. Fairly sure when I did mine I managed to say such world altering truths such as I loved reading and travel. No idea how I got in.

MrSlant there isn't an ethical issue - he can apply where he likes. For performance based subjects tutors will have come across some of the applicants before and may even have coached them/run workshops/given them lessons.

When you apply for prospectuses the difference in the universities inclusion policies is amazing. One course bends over backwards to cover all aspects of SEN. Unfortunately that's the uni that wants ABB or something which isn't happening. Although I suspect that if they have that attitude on the prospectus webpage they would be open to different offers to reflect different exam taking abilities. Hmm, interesting, I might give them a call. He has family in the city that one's in and is familiar with it. The main course he wants to do (and this is very outing to anyone who knows us!) is lead by someone who has known DS1 all his life and he's met other tutors at sporting events with him. So I can go straight to the source and find out about visiting that uni at school pick up tonight . I have no idea where the ethics on applying to that course are, the moment the tutor reads DS1's personal statement he will know who the applicant is because they have so many sport clubs in common! (He wants to do a sports science course with strong links to outdoor sports and gaining coaching and training qualifications along the way to the degree so a big part of the application is showing enthusiasm for an outdoor way of life and good level of fitness, I think this bit is as important as the A levels).

For a course in something like Law or English what sort of thing is required in a personal statement? (These are the first examples I can think of that are opposite to what we are doing!) I'm finding the whole process fascinating, be lovely to hear what other people put.