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

My dd had a real wobble early on in maths, I do think it's to be expected, its a big step up, but now she seems calm about it. She found that there were topics that most students felt fine with that she found tricky, but also topics she was quite able to do that some others found hard, so she's feeling overall she is not the weakest and will probably do well enough. The maths department have a policy of seating plans and she's upset this half term to have been moved away from a very bright and lovely girl to sit next to a boy who is struggling even more than she is. I found in A-levels that being friends with the clever students was super helpful - I have a nerdy personality, but I'm only averagely intelligent I think.

Actually she had originally wanted Spanish and was very sure about it, but during taster lessons in the summer decided it was much harder and she felt she didn't love it enough to carry on with it. She opted for economics instead and actually that is by far her favourite subject and one she thinks she will do at uni. It is very hard to make such narrow choices at such a young age.

17th birthday today. We brought her car down from my DSIL, or rather I did, like an absolute twat I have managed to prang it while driving on the motorway, I was in lane 2, the person I was overtaking in lane 1 started pulling over towards me, I swerved into lane 3 and clipped another car. It's driveable, needs a new wing mirror and has quite the scratch down the drivers door. I feel like such a knob though. DD has been very understanding.

does school offer any support? Dds school has a drop in for Chem and maths once a week if they need extra help or help with homework.
It is a very effective system, and dd does her maths homework at the drop in most weeks, even though she can do maths.

I do think there has been a jump up in levels and dd at times is wanting her hand held more and struggling with the independence expected.

@Newlease That sounds tough, but is it perhaps worth having a chat with the Chemistry teacher(s) before shelling out for tutoring?

@steppemum That’s brilliant news! Perfect timing to get that over with and celebrate her birthday. Hope she enjoys her first driving lesson too 🚗

English resits done, both exams went well!!!
(although she lost confidence after coming out and talking to the teacher after paper 1) still, she wrote 6 pages which is probably 5 and half more than in the summer.

Such a relief. And finally found a driving teacher because she has a free afternoon with no English lesson! So birthdya this weekend and first lesson next week

Going through the same, after very good GCSE results and calm exams, now worried about Chem. came home crying one day, as the chem class test went bad.
now IG started showing me MyEdSpace, lots of google reviews, but I can’t see many posts about it here on MN ( my first port for reviews on anything in life 😬) Please let me know if anyone has used/know about them. I also told her not to worry and if it gets too much, we can drop Chem at AS. But that again would cause much stress, DD is not very good at admitting defeat 😢
Compared to £60 ph elsewhere, I really want to give it a go.

Yes I really think she is so used to working hard but finding it easy and she got lots of motivation from doing well. I suspect the relationship with the teachers is very different as well. I don’t think there’s as much positive reinforcement and praise! 🙈😊 I keep saying I don’t get told well done at work when I do something.
Hope things improve quickly for your son Techno56.

My son is also having a wobble after having four assessments (one in each subject) sprung on him with a few days notice just before half term. He then had to wait til school started again for the results and hasn't had his maths or FM results back yet and didn't feel as confident as he's used to when doing the assessments. He said he is worried they'll tell him he's unsuitable for the course. He isn't used to finding things tricky or having to work hard on something so FM in particular has been a bit of a bump down to earth I think!

His physics and comp sci results were fine so hopefully he will feel better once he gets the maths ones.

I think it's a huge information overload, step up in work difficulty and less feedback / hand holding that's making him feel a bit worried. Perfectly normal I think (hope) 🙂

You’ve summed her up perfectly! That’s exactly what I think is going on in her mind. Doesn’t help that she’s a good all rounder so the decision has been her own where I was only good at humanities so the decision was made for me!
I will suggest she speak to her tutor- thank you and she got c grades in her recent assessments which I think she was disappointed in but I suggested she can’t go straight to a grades in a few weeks.

@Teadrinker81 I think this is a very understandable time for a wobble. All the certainties of GCSE, when they got to pick a few options but largely stuff was decided for them, are in the past. At sixth form level they have the opportunity (or tyranny) of real choice - and OMG what if they have got it wrong and they’re going to do really badly and it’s all their own fault and it’s going to ruin their whole life???

Does she have a pastoral tutor she can chat with? Has she had grades/marks back that you can reassure her with? She is clearly very capable, so probably just needs the adults around her to steady her a bit.

Edited: as you are clearly doing!

Is anyone else’s teen having a wobble?
dd is very bright with an excellent work ethic- sailed through gcse really with wonderful results.
She has already changed one subject to English lit and she was initially really enthusiastic as she is an avid reader and loves analysing books. However she’s now thinking it was a mistake. Chatting to her it’s a confidence thing- I think she’s struggling a little and saying how difficult it is as an a level. I’ve said it’s usual to feel this way and that it’s a big step up after gcse. She seems to have lost her way and not really doing any work at home (this is really unusual). She isn’t that keen on her other choice either.
is this usual at this point in the year? It’s a long, long time since I did mine!

Good luck to your DD next week @steppemum really hope she gets a positive outcome. Same wishes to anyone else's DC retaking.

I do hope the English retake goes well for your DD @steppemum

Good luck to all DC taking retakes soon - you can do this!

things going ok here too. Dd seems to be making friends, and not just one over intense one, but several, so that is a huge step forward for her.

GCSE Enlgish resits next week. Thought she was doing really well and being quite chill about them, but she had a meltdown last night over pizzas!
She has a youth group weekend at church this weekend and has (much to my relief) decided to come home each night and sleep, which is good news.

Someone mentioned uni open days. dd is planning to apply for an intern year with our church between school and uni, which I am really pleased about, as I don't think she will cope well with uni entrance and A levels and also she needs a bit longer before flying the nest.

Just caught up with the thread. Glad to see everyone settling in well.

It's been chaos here packing and moving and managing the building works. We are now temporarily living with the in-laws which means the kids have had to learn to commute by train. It also means all their extracurriculars have a long commute too, including on weekends.

DS has been struggling with being further away from his friends and his girlfriend. Especially as PIL's internet isn't great so it's harder to hang out online too.

However, he is enjoying lower sixth and his subjects, and even maths, which is less his thing but apparently can be a nice change from everything else that is essay-based.

No job hunting here (too complicated with the housing situation) but he's continuing his volunteering, and has also applied for and got a mentoring role at school.

He is very reluctant to start thinking about post-18 plans. He says he finds the decision making that would require very stressful.

Hope everyone is enjoying the half term.

We are doing the same @Philandbill . We have four universities within an hour's drive and have encouraged DS to look at these in the summer irrespective of whether he is interested in them. He is also considering a gap year so that he can do a Maths A level as he's really enjoying Economics and if he wanted to study this at University he'd need A Level Maths.

DS' school have said not to go to open days until next summer (after their May mocks) so that that they can go with reasonable grade estimations. They will give up to 3 approved days off during the last half term of year 12 for this.

DS is earning some money this half term tennis coaching at a half term Kids club. It's finished by 3pm so he still has time to see his friends, go the gym and have some decent down time.

Hope your DC are enjoying half term so far.

@MamOfTwo I am trying to persuade DD2 to go to local university open days this year. Not because she intends to go to any of them but because, as she has no idea what she wants to do, to go to subject talks to start to rule things in or out. She's going to take a gap year rather than go straight to university so we have a bonus year. 😀

Fairly chilled half term here.
@MamOfTwo i think advice is to wait until next autumn for open days, but I think starting to think about a short list of courses and universities is probably reasonable now. Dd is keen consider London universities. I’m not sure this is best and want her to at least look at a few other options. She’s enjoying economics and thinks this will be her subject choice.

Hope everyone doing well. Half term has brought the inevitable illness to our household, boo. Having a slight panic about the whole university application process - when should current Y12s be going to university open days?

DS Just come home on a high had his first proper driving experience today and really enjoyed it. Also had a party at the weekend so lovely to hear him laughing while telling us stories. Normally all we here about are utube videos and games he played. Giving him a few jobs around the house so he can earn some extra money.
Hope l your dds and dss are enjoying a lovely restful half term.

DS got his exam timetable. His exams.are w/c 4th Nov.

4 exams in total. School have said the results will form their predicted grade and their base target.

Those grades will be what they need to achieve in the remaining exams in year 12. They can be the same or higher.

If the June exams come in lower, they can't continue to year 13.

He doesn't seem too stressed about it but has been working on coursework that's due in the second week of November

School aren't offering any revision or past papers, students are to use their self made revision guides

@PinkChaires I echo the thoughts about clubs and societies. DD has really bonded with like-minded people through her sport and drama. Remember it is still very early days for them.

Hope everyone else is doing well. DD has collapsed gratefully into the half-term break, tired but happy. She received a lovely first report which confirmed our impression that she has made a good start academically. The only fly in the ointment is that she has been late to registration a few times. No excuse, as her “commute” is a 10-minute walk!

I have no advice, but hope she will son find her people.
This Friday after football DS asked me to drive home one of the new transfers. I was very pleased that they involve new youngsters in their friendship group.

Are there any clubs or societies that she can join to meet more likeminded people?

Well,dd is doing quite well, but ever since she started shes been feeling a bit unfulfilled in her social life. The college is massive so everyone already has their own friendship groups , and thankfully she has two friends come with her as well. However, one already has two closer friends from their high school
(One goes to the college and the other doesn't) and the other she feels she's outgrowing. Tbf shes done quite well, she got dropped from her entire friendship groups at the end of y10 so only became friends in y11. The area we live in and the school she went to had a very high proportion of muslims and so it wasn't the norm to go out etc. Its only the end of the first term, so she may well meet new people. Any advice?