New Batch of Year 13 parents this way!

Ds1 has booked Bristol today, he had already booked Notts. I was planning to go by train but the timings really don't work for us. The bus journey from temple meads to the campus needs to allow between 30-90 mins, that seems crazy to me.
Ds1 wants to look at the Langford site as well which is another hour each way by bus. I don't travel well so it's going to be an interesting day.
I haven't looked at the Notts timetable yet.

Yikes Inchy!
Is it the practice expedition or the assessed one?
DD definitely had toilets at all campsites in the practice one in May, but her assessed expedition is next week - I wonder if they'll be wild camping too?!
Good Luck to your DD!

With the personal statement, the hardest thing was definitely actually getting started.
Dd spent about a week jotting odd ideas and sentences down on post it's as she thought of them, which she then used to create her plan.
That helped a bit but she still found it incredibly difficult to actually start writing (and she's usually very good at essay writing) once she'd started it flowed very easily and the hardest thing was not writing too much. She still needs to reduce hers by a couple of hundred words, but wanted to get her teacher's opinion before cutting anything.
Good Luck!

DS is back tomorrow.

He is suffering from a post festival cold and feeling slightly sorry for himself. Refused to play a football match last night because "you don't can't even imagine how much my feet hurt". I'm evil and made him get up and out of bed before I left for work this morning.

DD is off on her DofE expedition to tramp round Wales in the rain today. She is rather optimistically going to purchase sun block en route. I suspect she won't be needing it. She was horrified to discover last night that the "campsites" they are using are actually wild camping, and that they had to add a trowel to the packing list! Other than that, I think she's quite excited.

DD still has another 2 weeks before she goes back. It's been a long holiday for her, but work has kept her busy.

lobster your poor DD

I think we are still stalled on Operation Get Started. Fortunately there is still another week and a half in which to start, edit and finish the PS and I don't think it will take him long once he starts it but there are no signs of that yet.

First day back was a shock to the system (for all of us!)
DD came home with a bulging bag full of homework (already!) and I found her crashed out fast asleep on her bed when I went to get her for dinner!

Something tells me this year is going to be tough going for all of them.

Hope those recovering from festival viruses feel better soon.

DD has Post Leeds puking. She looks dreadful and has stayed in bed all day. So nothing is getting done.

I completely agree Violet. The only thing making her hesitate is that the four subject does have some relevance to her chosen course. She'll manage fine without it, the universities all seem to provide support for it, but she is keen to do a masters with a year abroad, and the fourth subject is a language. Otherwise, it's a no brainer really (for me if not DD).

I'm hoping dd1 can get a grade higher in at least one of her subjects as her predicted grades. She needs ABB for her favourite uni so far or AAB for second. Favourite is likely to be flexible as EPQ is related.

Talking as A level teacher and 6th form tutor re:3 A levels only advice

I think 3 A levels is wiser with the new 2 year courses. More to revise. Offers are for 3 and the 4th is irrelevant.

Back safely from Reading here. Working on PS with friends. Has post Reading cold which is apparently common.

Best of luck all DC with grade predictions. We know ours. Unis do quite often accept with lower predictions if overall application is good in my experience.

DDs school base their predictions on AS grades (still taken in all subject this year). They got a full presentation at the end of term telling them there was no point in asking for a prediction of more than one grade above their AS grades, and that there was no point in saying school were "ruining their lives forever" because they would not change their predictions. You could just tell they get the same requests every year! I hope they get them fairly promptly when they get back. DD is considering attempting 4 A levels, and I'm really not convinced it is a great idea. If she gets the predictions she would need for the highest tariff course she is considering, I think she'd be relatively easily persuaded to drop one, to focus on maximising her grades.

Two of his subjects are linear (no AS) and those are the two predicted grades he has been given 'officially' (letter from the school sent to our home address).

He was told his predicted grades for two of the subjects at the end of the summer term (his school bases them on internal exams taken in the May of Y12). For the other grade, his teacher told him what it would be conditional on him getting a particular grade at AS.

DD's school is the same Lonicerna, no predicted grades yet. We can make a guess based on her AS and internal mock results, but DD is anxious about choosing universities until she knows for sure.
We're hoping she'll find out in the next couple of weeks.

Back to school today!

How do you know the predicted grades? DD's school haven't given any out yet. They wait until after the AS exams before doing so.

DS1 likes the look of the course at Leicester, but with predicted grades of BBC, it's a bit aspirational at the moment. He has yet to go to an open day.

DD is going to Exeter open day on Saturday, which is the furthest away for us, a very long drive. DH's extended family lives down that way though so it's a combined trip.