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

There is one at Hartpury Uni too @steppemum - Gloucester's not too far from Bristol. There isn't one at Bristol, Bath or Reading which I find a little surprising.

@steppemum They did do a recent Bristol one (at UWE) in October 2024, so perhaps it will come around again in autumn 2025.

From the spring/summer list, is Newport or Exeter any good to you?

https://www.ucas.com/providers/events-calendar-2025

these do look good, I'll see if I can persuade dd to go.
It's a shame there isn't one in Bristol, I was a bit surprised by that, that would be easiest to get to.
Dd knows she wants to study chemistry. She also wants to take a gap year, which I think she will need. She is going to find it a huge step up to go to uni, autism etc and I give her a LOT of support, and I think another year would help.
She'd like to do an internship at our church, but so would 20 of them and they only offer 2 places.
On the one hand she wants to start to plan what comes next and on the other hand she doesn't have any head space for it.

Thank goodness we are at the end! Although I speak more for me than dd! I’ve secured a new job starting in the summer term, which is a massive relief.

DD has the most adorable friend group, one of them organised an end of term quiz at a local church last night, with the help of his dad, there was another party on but they all went to the quiz and had the best time. They did all go drinking afterwards and rocked up at mine past midnight, but they are 17! No disasters other than using all my milk (and waking me up, but in the grand scheme of things not a big deal).

DD as instructed by her economics teacher has a careers appointment, and careers advisor said she had loads of time and not to worry, seems dd didn’t quite relay the idea the teacher had about setting some ambitious targets. Nevermind. Those UCAS days look great @JessyCarr thank you, dd is at college in Winchester where they are holding one so I’ll definitely get her to look at it.

I’m trying to push the idea of degree apprenticeship as something to consider, the civil service do an economics one, which I’m sure will be really interesting.

End of term reports say she’s doing what she needs to, parents evening is invite only and we were not invited which is good. She got a D in her latest maths assessment which isn’t a disaster, but she’s definitely finding that tough, she’s aiming for C in maths and A/B elsewhere. I think it’s probably a bit early to know with maths, you tend to struggle and then make a significant improvement when something clicks.

DS, his girlfriend and his friend from school have signed up for the UCAS Discovery day in London. For DS it's about trying to narrow down options for open days later in the year really. Last day of term here too.

Well done to your son @Muchtoomuchtodo, it sounds as though he's had a very good start to A Levels!

One more day of term here. DS is shattered after a very busy term in and out of school, but he amazes us! We had parents evening a few days ago and he’s getting over 90% in all of his class tests and is on track for 3 As at AS level. Mocks after Christmas will be interesting to check!

He’s very keen to study maths at degree level and is looking for a course with a good amount of financial mathematics modules. He’s even thinking that he might apply to Oxford! To be fair to him he’s doing a lot of research but I have to admit to feeling out of my depth.

The UCAS discovery days look interesting, thanks for sharing.

@steppemum That’s the idea, yes. Probably not every university and every course, but enough to generate ideas and give young people a chance to ask questions in person without having to travel miles from their home town. But it sounds like it doesn’t come very near you!

Those UCAS discover events, are they basically all unis showing their courses in one place? So the Nottingham one shows all the courses from roudn the country?

There are none anywhere near us, 2 hours drive to nearest !

DD’s best friend (male) has just asked her out! She really likes him but definitely isn’t ready for a relationship and she is only just building up her confidence in this friendship. He is so good for her and has really helped her settle into college and it’s been wonderful for her. It all seems to have unsettled everything now. Roll on the holidays to let everything rebalance itself.

End of term was 13th here and we are currently sunny ourselves by a pool!

Two more days of term… thank goodness, DD is being completely impossible and it’s starting to seriously grate…

Excellent idea, thank you @JessyCarr

@Waspie maybe also consider a UCAS Discovery event in the coming season:

https://www.ucas.com/explore/search/events?query=&refinementList%5Bevent_type%5D%5B0%5D=Exhibition

@Waspie Sounds like a good Christmas project! Might this (from the UCAS website) help at all?

https://www.ucas.com/undergraduate/what-and-where-study/subject-tasters

Boast all you like @steppemum, it's great to hear that your daughter is in a good place, settled and doing well!

I hope your son gets a good rest over the break and finds his mojo again @gingercat02 . DS is also "hanging" (his word). Just trying to get to the end of term now.

Your daughter sounds so switched on and focussed @JessyCarr Good for her! DS has agreed that we will go through some university info over the break. He doesn't have an idea of what he wants to do or where he wants to do it. I've suggested that we look at some courses on the university's websites and see what sparks his imagination.

Sorry to hear that @gingercat02. It’s such a long and tiring term.

DC are on school holidays now and full of beans. DD is full steam ahead on UCAS and TSR, researching degree courses, optional modules, first year accommodation, you name it. I felt like she had a bit of a wobble a few weeks ago about the prospect of growing up and moving away, but apparently no more! This may be prompted by the fact that she has quite a few friends in Y13 who are deep into their applications, Oxbridge interviews this week, and what have you. (DD isn’t going to apply to Oxbridge though). We are going away for a bit and then she will have to knuckle down and revise for January exams. But it is nice to see her energy and enthusiasm for the future.

DS has definitely got the end of term blues. He's lost his mojo a bit in the last week and isn't sleeping well.
Also got his first progress check last week, 3 C's, which he was disappointed with.
Roll on Christmas and a break. Hopefully, back on track in January. This term is always a slog at the end, but this year seems particularly so 😢

Hi all, lovely to hear how everyone is getting on.
Teadrinker81 dd was finding maths homework hard initially so she made it part of her timetable to go to the drop in sessions and do her homework there. She told me last week that now she is much more confident, and so at the drop ins she is doing the hard 'extra' question that they regularly get set, so stretching her a bit. I think there is a big jump to maths A level, but if they are good at maths, they just need some support to get over the bump.

dd is doing really well. (I hesitate to write that as I don't wnat to jinx it) despite the friendship issues, she has now settled, has new friends, and is managing the interaction with the one girl she struggles with, everything has calmed down on that front. She is up to date with homework heading into the holidays (this is incredible for her, she used to always have late and undone homework hanging over her)
She is doing chemistry and computer science flash cards on the bus every day, so that is revision for the stuff they are learning, again, this proactive learning is a first. And the CS teacher made the flash cards (on an app) because she asked for them, so that feels really supportive.
And she got an A on her last chemistry test.

Sorry to brag, but last year with GCSEs was so hard and she was so broken, I didn't know if we would even make it through this term.

driving is also going well, and just waiting for her English resit results in Jan.

@Teadrinker81 Absolutely - if they offer drop-in sessions then she should make the most of them! I do think it can be hard for them, and brave of them, to admit they are struggling, so kudos to her.

We have had similar recently with (much younger) DS, who it turns out has been struggling and worrying about something school-related that’s actually quite easy to fix. We had to reassure him that all the emphasis on being strong and resourceful and resilient doesn’t mean you have to soldier on alone and suffer in silence. Sometimes the “strong” thing to do is face up to a problem and let parents and teachers help you to solve it.

’Maths regret’ is such a great term for it!
DD has mentioned that there are drop in sessions at lunchtime so think she needs to ditch some of trips to the coffee shop/supermarket and accept some help. I think part of it may be the shock of not finding things easy and think she has to accept that she’s going to have to work at it. Ideally she’d like to study architecture as she is really arty so maths is quite important.

@Teadrinker81 I don’t think “maths regret” is uncommon, and it’s certainly not new. I recall my sister having that same Christmas crisis in Y12, some 30ish years ago. She did turn it around with the help of a tutor though.

And that’s the good news. If difficulties can be acknowledged now, there is time to tackle them. Does the school offer any extra support, and are you able to be in touch with her maths teacher(s) for their assessment of where she’s at? If you think a tutor is needed then I’d go for it sooner rather than later, before your DD’s confidence drops further. A bit of extra help may well make all the difference.

Anyone have a child who is struggling with a level maths?
She always enjoyed gcse maths but did have a wonderful teacher and the school had an excellent teaching style that my daughter loved and thrived under. She got a grade 8 in maths and presumed she’d be fine with a level maths but she’s saying she’s really struggling at the moment.
she’s one of only 2 girls in the group and hasn’t really made friends in her maths class so can’t determine whether everyone is struggling or it’s just her. She had an assessment today which she said she struggled with. The previous assessment she did well in and she said some people were forced to drop the subject at that point. It’s obviously too late to drop maths now. I’ve tried to talk to her about being resilient and that we often come up against blips like this and that she needs to perhaps spend a little more time on her maths at the moment. I’ve even suggested a tutor to help.
Is this common at this point in the year and any one got experience of their child ‘turning it around.’ At the moment it feels like she’s giving up which isn’t like her.

I think it's good that they are NEA @bluefineliner hopefully that will be better for your daughter than having to do them under exam conditions. Ha, yes, I think that's a mother's lot in life - I worry about DS way more than I have ever worried about myself.

I was with a group of about 20 teenagers at a theatre rehearsal yesterday evening and they were all absolutely shattered and saying how tired they are. Autumn term is so long.

DS is tennis coaching as his PT job, but at the moment as many lessons are being cancelled as are going ahead due to the weather (his club don't have any indoor courts). I tried to get him to go for a seasonal job at a local garden centre as they always want lots of cheap young labour to lug Christmas trees around, but he was too slow applying. With hindsight I'm quite glad he didn't go for this as he's already very busy. My son is planning to sleep a lot over the Christmas holidays, I'm sure your daughter, and lots of other teenagers will have the same aim

@Waspie I checked with DD and the practicals are NEA, they have to do 12/13 overall and just have to pass them. She has done 3 so far and is passing them all, and hopefully will continue. She does like to have something to stress over though, you would think I'd be used to it by now, but every time, I take her stress on too 😂.

DD is tired all the time but insists on working extra shifts at her job (seasonal touristy area) for the run up to Christmas. She loves working so I am leaving to her for now as when Jan hits her shifts will drop off and her school work will take more focus. Her job hasn't affected school yet, but I am sure it will next year when mocks on on the horizon.

How are others balancing their work/school commitments?

It's good that your daughter has made this decision early @JessyCarr The subjects she is taking are content heavy and, from everything I've read, universities tend to offer on the student's best three A Level results anyway so a fourth can just make life harder for no real gain.

I think you should brag all you want @wonderstuff It sounds like your daughter is doing really well. Congratulations to her on passing the theory test too!

Is there an NEA element for practical's in bio and chem @bluefineliner ? I'm sure they will get easier the more she does.