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

We do take work experience kids in the NHS as for most AHP and nursing degrees, they expect some on your application. We would never get degree students or new staff otherwise.
Sadly, he has no interest in anything science or health related
Yhanks, JessyCarr. I have sent them on.

@Waspie I agree. And you’ve got hordes of undergraduates and even postgrads also looking for work experience in June and July, which makes it even harder for sixth formers to get a look-in. Not to mention the Y10s who are often told to find something as well!

Virtual work experience is interesting, thanks @JessyCarr

I have no idea why a business/company would want to take on some sixth former for a week or two for work experience. I can't see what benefits they could get out of it (apart from someone to make the tea perhaps).

https://stem.caa.co.uk/work-experience-at-caa/

https://www.ucas.com/careers-advice/virtual-work-experiences

Oh, thanks, that might be a useful place to start

Oh, I think it’s a hugely common problem. Has he considered online work experience? E.g.:

barclayslifeskills.com/i-want-virtual-work-experience/school/online-work-experience/

@JessyCarr I doubt it about half the year group have nothing yet. I have sent him some local charities to contact that have vague connections to his subjects.
I was hoping for some outside the box ideas, but it must not be a common problem

@gingercat02 Sometimes schools offer back-up work experience for those who don’t find anything external. Supervising younger year groups, photocopying in the school office, etc. Is that a possibility?

@Waspie @TeenToTwenties
It's School 6th form, he's doing History, Geography and Business. He has applied to local museums, the local archives, the council, the university, and many others! All said no, oversubscribed, etc 😔
I work in the NHS, and DH is an IT contractor.

If it is 'just because' work experience rather than 'course required' I wouldn't bother panicking. Nice to do but not essential I would have thought. DD's is 'course required'.

DS has to arrange work experience for June. We only got the letter from school yesterday so we're going to come up with a list of places to email at the weekend. He wants to do it in a legal environment of some description. If all of the places he contacts fail I'm hoping my employer will take him. I don't work in legal but am sort of "legal adjacent" so I know the legal team pretty well. Only issue is that the legal team are based in an office nearly 200 miles away, so we'll have to find an Air B&B for the week.

What type of work experience is your son applying for @gingercat02?

Is this a vocational course?

DD (animal care) applied for around 15 places and ended with 2 offers, so she is going local for 1 week and then about 45mins away for the other which is a real pain but DH does go there twice a week anyway and it's a nice area so we may do some days out dropping and collecting her.

What kind of field?

I am panicking a bit here. DS has applied and been rejected for lots of Y12 work experience. He needs to have something by the end of the month, and we have all totally run out of ideas.
What things are other teens doing?

That sounds like a really good parent's evening @Tebheag

We had ours last night too. DS' teachers seem happy with his progress but would like him to contribute more in classes. I think this is something he has to get used to doing as his old school didn't really encourage debate in class whereas the new one are very keen on discussion led lessons. There will be another round of assessments in February, then full mocks in May.

He has his first driving lesson booked for next Saturday. Exciting times!

Sounds like he’s doing great, @Tebheag!

For anyone interested, the University of Manchester has just announced its 2025 open day dates, as attached.

Great parents evening all happy with how he is doing. Even had a teacher recommend he is tested for extra support due to his hand writing, will see how that goes. Seems to be lucky with his teachers as they seem to enjoy teaching still going by the way they spoke. His GCSE teachers where a mix some didn't seem to want to be there and could be talking about any kid think one mixed him up !!
Hope everyone else's kids are doing well.

That’s so good @steppemum its so lovely seeing them grow and become more independent.

I am so proud of dd.
She has been ill for 10 days, and missed college.
In the past, this would have triggered a spiral down, due to the pile of work to catch up on and being overwhelmed by the amount to catch up on. She would have struggled to attend any lesson where she hadn't done homework or caught up.

Instead, while still ill at home on Tuesday she wrote up a chemistry practical. She went in for a 3 hour computer lesson on Wednesday including a test that she hadn't been able to revise for. While in school on Wednesday she found her maths teacher and asked what she needed for maths lesson today, and did that last night with plans to catch up over the weekend, and found her chemistry teacher and arranged to do the practical she missed this morning in a free time. She also did the prep work for that last night.

She is still not 100%, cough is truly awful, but I just can't get over this pro-active and independant approach. I am so proud of her and how far she has come.

Hope back to school/college went OK, ds seems to be back in the groove, thankfully
About open days, all my friends with older children and DS friends' older siblings have all gone with a parent, unless a local uni.
I know ultimately it should be ds decision, but I can't imagine dropping him at the train station and just letting him get on with it!

We had a university applications session at school this evening for Y12 and parents/guardians. They have to hand the first draft of their UCAS form in to school for review before the end of the summer term, and there’s lots of momentum to get all applications for UK universities submitted before the end of October so that full focus can then go back on to studies. If they want to go to open days they are strongly encouraged to do so in June rather than waiting until the autumn.

I was pleased to hear that, as DD is now prone to spending lots of time dreamily looking up university accommodation (ensuite only, apparently!) and sports societies etc, while conveniently forgetting that she has to bag a few A Levels first.

My mum went with me to visit unis, I didn’t have friends looking at the same places as me! This was in the 90s. No one in my family had gone to university before so we didn’t know where to start really! Remember deciding against Portsmouth pretty quickly and liking Southampton and Sussex.

Yes I did too but I didn’t see unis in Scotland or far north. We’re seeing 2/3 in Scotland on the same trip. The trips I’m going on are all too far for a day trip so we’re making it a little break and staying in a fairly ok hotel and having a meal out together. My parents would never have done this but we had quite a diff relationship. DD will see any closer ones on her own, but she’s not interested in going to Scotland without me. I think it will be fun, we’ll see the cities as well as the Unis - which is important to dd (it wasn’t to me)

@steppemum congratulations to your DD! What a relief and how proud you should be.

I will be going to open days with DD, I did with my older DD many years ago at their request. I may not go to all, I am hoping school will do some trips to cover some of them. With DD being so undecided I would like to be there with her to ensure she sees everything she needs to rather than be sidetracked by others needs. We are encouraging closer unis to us in the north as I can't justify the extortionate London living costs if the same course is offered outside of the captial.

I wish DD would look at apprenticeships, maybe she will as time goes on I want her to remain as open minded as possible for now, it feels like such an uncertain time now doesn't it!

Good for your DD thinking outside the box. London costs are mad, so she might be better off elsewhere but if she is capable and money isn’t an acute issue, it’d be a huge shame for her if she went local just to appease her dad.

A good law degree from a good uni will set her up for life, and will also give her independence and resilience. your husband is going to have to let her go at some point.