Year 12 - 2024/25 - Support, Discussion and Looking After Each Other

@steppemum hope your DD is starting to feel better, I remember a class mate from my ALevels missing lots due to glandular fever.

@steppemum That sounds awful - your poor DD. Has she been seen by a doctor to rule out whooping cough and other bacterial infections? I do hope she’s on the mend soon.

struggling here.
dd has been ill for 3 weeks.
first terrible headaches, then sore throat and cough and exhausted, then it morphed into a horrendous cold. She is coughing and coughing to the point of throwing up at time. She has been into school 1-2 days each week, and then wiped out for the rest of the week. Last weekend I had to go and pick her up at lunchtime on Friday and then she slept Friday afternoon and all day Sat and Sun.
Initially she was doing well with just turning over the key things for school, but last week was a right off and now she has a mass of work piling up.

So now she is stressing and panicking, and still coughing, and sleeping.
Not sure really what to do next to support her.

Looking forward, a date for our (DCs’) diaries: 14 January 2026.

This is the equal-consideration deadline for most UCAS undergraduate applications in the forthcoming 2026 cycle (i.e. it doesn’t affect applications to Oxbridge, medical, dentistry or veterinary schools, or conservatoires).

The move from late January to mid January (this year’s deadline is 29 Jan) is aimed at bringing forward universities’ decisions ahead of the key exam period. For the same reason, UCAS is reinstating the pre-pandemic “advisory deadline” of 31 March for universities to communicate their decisions to applicants, though the hard deadline is 13 May 2026. Hopefully this will mean our DC are less likely to be waiting for decisions in April and May, which has been a problem in recent application rounds.

https://www.ucas.com/advisers/guides-and-resources/adviser-news/news/ucas-dates-and-deadlines-2026-cycle

That’s good news @Tebheag. We have a younger DS whose cohort look likely to have some GCSE subjects entirely online as the move over from handwritten exams gathers pace. I’m glad your DS will have suitable adjustments in the meantime.

Your son will also become very proficient at typing @Tebheag , which is a very useful life skill.
I'm glad I'm not alone but I'm sorry that you have the same frustrations

@ waspie he was happy as knows he has lost marks due to his writing even he has struggled at times to read it.
hope your DS has a good first lesson.
We are in similar position with DS don't think he has done anything for work experience for accountancy.

That's good news @Tebheag Hope your son is pleased with the outcome.

I'm not sure our weekend is going to be restful as DS has his first driving lesson tomorrow. I've tried to get him interested in road signs, markings and general driving stuff but he seems to believe that he knows everything already. He will be in for a rude awakening tomorrow the first time he stalls the engine!

He has signed up for a virtual seminar on "Work in an international law office" with Freshfields on Monday evening but hasn't yet contacted any local businesses to try and arrange work experience for the summer. DH thinks DS is waiting for me to offer to put together a list of companies to contact and draft the emails. He has said that I must step back and stop doing DS' admin for him. I agree. I am becoming the helicopter parent I swore I would never be.

Hope you and your DC have good weekends

Hope all your kids get a chance to rest and recharge this weekend feels like a long half term.
DS has already had his decision back he is to use a word processor in his words. Seems happy with this decision. said speed was OK just his hand writing.

Absolutely no need to worry, the assessor will have no expectations of him and simply wants to see how quickly and legibly he writes, there’s no pressure it’s just to inform an assessment of what works best for him. He probably won’t get results straight away as the assessor will need to count his words.

@Tebheag either he will be asked to write about himself for 10 minutes, he’ll be given a minute to do a quick brainstorm first and asked to mark his place every 2 minutes, or he’ll be given a passage to transcribe, a computer program will dictate and he will be able to repeat the words as needed and move on as he writes each phrase. There may be another test in not aware of but those are very popular.

My son was asked to write about himself by hand and then type, for the same amount of time. He can type twice as fast as he can write and it allowed him to finish exam papers rather than not!

@wonderstuff what will DS have to do
Is he given something to copy out?
As DS likes to know before hand what he has to do or starts to worry.

Thank you
Just found out from DS is looking at whether he should be using a laptop and maybe possible extra time. Never knew schools could do assessment did ask for help at school but never happened.

@Tebheag I am a SENCO and I will sometimes do writing assessments to make a decision about whether to issue a laptop for exams, or it could be part of an assessment for extra time.

Is this for speed to see re extra time for exams?
Yes the SENCO can do various tests and if the DC is below a certain standard in they will qualify. Can't really tell you any more than that but schools can assess their own pupils for exam concessions.

Anyone here know about writing assesment? DS has one next week was only referred last week by his teacher. Seems to be in college and that's all the info we have or that's all DS has told me.

She was very keen. Apparently school says insurance is impossible to get...

Thank you @JessyCarr - you are a wealth of helpful information

@Waspie and anyone else with DC interested in legal careers - keep an eye on the Bar Placement Scheme which is still being finalised for 2025. The holding page is a bit of a mess, but as I understand it the intention is that this year sixth formers will remain eligible as well as first-year undergraduates. NB Widening-participation criteria apply:

www.barcouncil.org.uk/becoming-a-barrister/school-students/bar-placement-scheme.html

Thank you for sharing this @JessyCarr

Quite a few unis seem to have posted dates, which I've pencilled in our home calendar, and DS has signed up to "register interest". We've got potential clashes already - Birmingham, Nottingham and KCL seem to be the same weekend!

That's lousy @hels71 I hope they fix the insurance issue. Was your daughter very keen to do it?

I agree @Countrylife2002. DS (lazy as he is) is saying he might not even apply for work experience and just do some of the virtual offerings. To be fair to him, they do look good, give certificates for completion and some offer entry to summer schools as well.

Driving requires a huge amount of co-ordination @wonderstuff it's so easy to stall the car. It's how well (and calmly) they deal with it afterwards and get the car moving again that matters. I hope your daughter is enjoying learning to drive. Sounds as though she has settled well at college. Great that they have given her the extra time for exams - even if she still ran over this time!

DD was told she had to sort work experience. She did. Then school said they had no insurance, so no-one is doing it.

I definitely think virtual work experience is the future. 7 hours and then the rest of the week to dig into the epq. I’ve suggested dd doesn’t even worry about looking for things in person, it doesn’t really exist anymore.

Parents evening is invite only at dd college and we weren’t invited, which means she’s doing well. No compulsory work experience either, sounds stressful to arrange!

DD seems to have inherited my poor coordination, she stalled on a roundabout during her last driving lesson, her instructor said no one has ever done that in a lesson before! Think learning may take a while.

She ran out of time in her latest economics test, even with extra time so thank goodness college have assessed her for this (school refused to). She’s sad to have finished mechanics in maths a she preferred it to pure, but generally she’s bumping along well. Not home yet this evening as she went out for dinner with friends. Off to stalk her in Find My.

I did my work experience in the NHS (radiography) @gingercat02. In my day it was either NHS or Barclays who took most of my year group, but that was because they were trying to recruit school leavers, which they simply wouldn't do now. Plus the school organised it.

I've sent on some links to virtual work experience to DS. It's a great option if he doesn't manage to get anything locally.

Agree @JessyCarr