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

Brilliant thank you

They get sent to the schools November-ish (after all the appeals are done I guess)
Schools often do presentation evenings in November and those that don't attend have to make arrangements to collect them or get them sent.

Does anyone know when the GCSE Certificates are available?

One of DS friends has applied for a job and they won't accept the results slip as proof of gcse and want the actual certificates?

I'll be honest I didn't think to ask and can't remember when mine came, DS doesn't know either

@Philandbill - DS is a tennis coach and had to clear up vomit last night when one of his class threw up all over the tennis court! Nowhere near as bad to clear a tennis court as a swimming pool though.

A* is amazing @Tebheag - well done to your son! I hope the job search is going well. Jobs for 16 year olds do seem few and far between.

DS is doing some tennis coaching, and also has two year 11 students from his old school whose parents are paying for English and History GCSE tutoring for a few hours each week.

Hope everyone's students are doing well. DS has reading week next week, then half term. As part of reading week he's signed up to do an essay for an external competition, as well as work for his A level subjects. He's looking forward to not having to get up quite so early for a fortnight. He didn't have reading week at his last school, but it seems like a good idea as this school doesn't have any inset days. The school staff do all of their training at school during reading week.

DS was meant to be job hunting applied couple of places but never heard back. Thankfully college seems to be going well not made any new friends but reconnected with some old mates. Been doing OK in tests so presuming revision is going well even got his first A* ever.

@gingercat02 I was keen for DD1 to do lifeguarding as she was a swim teacher assistant. Sadly she was put off lifeguarding as she said they had to clean up a surprising amount of vomit 🤑DD1 got quite good at spotting which kids were about to sick up in the water and was quick to scoop them onto the side. She went on to have a holiday job at Sainsbury's instead 😁

He's very determined what is and isn't an acceptable job! He's also a bit sick of me WhatsApping Indeed ads 🤣

The Sainsbury's job would have been perfect it's a 20-minute walk and sensible hours.

My big hope is a lifeguard course coming up soon, they are guaranteed a job in the local council pool at the adult minimum wage. It costs £250 and is 5 days, but it would be brilliant as a qualification. The last one was May, half term, before their exams!

Oh that's ridiculous!

Has he tried pubs for kitchen staff pr glass collectors? Garden centre cafes round here seem to take on students

Lovely to hear how our resourceful young people are doing. DD seems to be settling into a good place socially, which is a huge relief after some tricky years. Leaving the “mean girls” behind has made a huge difference. She’s also had a boost with her first set of grades which are really encouraging. Both DC will have 2 weeks off for half term and we are all much looking forward to the break!

If I had got up at that time for a wated interview I would have been upset, and I'm not a teenage boy @gingercat02 . Sainsbury's definitely employ 16 year olds - ours do anyway - as DS' friend got a job there in year 12. I hope they manage to find your son something; they can see that he is committed by interviewing at 6am!

Our local Tesco is desperate for staff but won't take until 18 years old. They are really doing themselves out of a large number of sixth formers.

DS has bounced back after a few days of arnica gel and ibuprofen, thank you for asking @steppemum. I agree, I used to take him to training and matches but I haven't for a couple of years as I just can't watch him play full contact.

DS could happily tell your daughter why extra time in bed, and being 15 minutes late would be preferable to less time in bed and arriving 4 hours early

An aspirational timetable @anoukis is better than no timetable at all (looking sternly in DS' direction).

I'm glad your daughter has had a positive conversation with the HOD @bluefineliner, and has done well in her tests so far.

DS has said that they are going to have some baselining after half term. He knows he isn't doing the work he probably needs to do. Not getting the grades he thinks he can achieve in these tests might give him the boot he needs. Fingers crossed.

@YellowphantGrey early isn't the word!

The lady interviewing him said she had no idea why it was so early and told him at the end, they were looking for over 18's, but she would see if she could find another role for him. He says loads of people in Y12 applied.

I'll be a bit cross if they wasted his time. He got up at 5:15 to get ready, bless him.

He had an interview for a local chippy at the beginning of the summer but never heard back from them.

It's so hard to get a job at 16 round here unless you know someone with a small business.

@bluefineliner resit results in January. She has to continue classes until then.

@Waspie that sounds really painful for your ds. How is he now? I have ot say I used to live rugby until I had a son and then I suddenly realised how dangerous it could be 😂

dd actually sitting at the table doing homework at home!!
had an interesting conversation with her earlier about how some kids are late to lessons, and not handing in homework etc and she is surprised at their lack of committment, and that they think it is ok. For example road works mean that one bus route is diverted and arriving late (this is a midday bus). She cannot understand why you wouldn't get up and get the morning bus so that you were on time for your lesson which isn't until 12:50.

It was nice to see her positive attitude to attendance, but quite sweet that she couldn't imagine why a 16 year old wouldn't get out of bed and then hang around for 4 hours until their lesson rather than be 15 minutes late!

That's an early interview! How did it go? Is it his first interview?

For those of you who have teens looking for jobs. Sainsburys Christmas jobs came out this week.
DS applied last night and has an interview at 6am (!!!) tomorrow. £12ph 5h pw
He's grumpy because I said he needs to wear proper trousers and shoes, not jeans and trainers 🙄

Morning 😄
DD has had a few test results back in chem and bio and is doing well, pretty much in line with her GCSEs. She has been revising for them though so can see how hard she has to work to maintain. Others in the classes have been a bit shocked at their D/E/U grades, DD said it is only because some didn't revise so it is an early blip the teachers use to prove how much work they will need to do.

DD and others have spoken to HOD about the bio teaching variation issue. HOD was very understanding, offered their extra support and hinted this is not the first time they have heard this so will be addressing. Not sure if anything will actually be done, however DD feels heard and is happy with the response so that is a step forward!

@steppemum glad your DD is feeling positive about her resit, getting that out of the way will be a little weight off her shoulders, when do they get results from Nov resits?

Yeah it's a great target 😀the problem is, it isn't really happening atm. But I'm happy to see some structure and I can nag her and remind her it's the timetable that she created herself.

I'm glad your daughter is positive about the retake and has decided that this is an exam she can get her grade 5 (or more) in @steppemum Coloured overlays are interesting and can be really useful for people who have dyslexia too.

I told DS it was really important to love the subjects he chose for A Level, otherwise it's a long and gruelling two years, but I didn't expect he would love every moment!. As you say @Teadrinker81, highs and lows are just part of life and some days will be joyful and others miserable - and everywhere between.

I think your daughter's 18 hours per week target is amazing @anoukis

DS was dropped in the lineout during a school rugby match yesterday and landed on outstretched arms to break his fall. He was checked over by the school medic who said he hadn't broken his collar bones but his shoulders are very sore and bruised. Joining the school rugby team has been really positive for him in terms of mixing and making friends in the new environment but, excepting those who, like DS, play for clubs as well as school, they don't seem very experienced. Rugby is a technical sport which can be dangerous if players don't know what they are doing. I have asked that he consider dropping out of the team.

@Teadrinker81 I think your answer is sensible. They are adjusting not only to the new 'freedom', but also to the responsibilities that come with it. Changes are coming thick and fast in their personal and school life: provisional driving licence, going to GP on their own, getting NI number, first job, budgeting, post 18 plans, first relationships, etc. They are trying to become more independent, but it's all still very much confined within parental and school boundaries.

Interesting to see the work expectations indeed. My DD has finally added her planned study hours into her planner - their tutor went though an exercise with them at school - but she isn't really doing that many... although she did well to prep for the baseline tests over the past 2 weeks. Total planned is 18 hours weekly across 4 subjects. I think that's great, but has yet to achieve it😁

Weekdays - frees & study periods: 1 hr daily
Weekdays - at home: 3 hrs Mon, 2 hr Wed

Weekends - home: 4 hrs Sat & 4 hrs Sun

There are more frees/supervised study in in the school timetable, but she is only really using 1 per day to study, rest is hanging out with friends. I think she planned too many study hours during weekends but... school ends at 4pm on Tue, Thu, and Fri, she has athletics on Tue and Thu evenings, and volunteering on Wed after school.

so daughter sends me a message asking if she should be enjoying her a levels?
I thought she was! She chats quite enthusiastically about them and shows interest in the content.
where has this come from?
I replied that I didn’t think she should expect to be waking up thinking yippee it’s college today but equally she shouldn’t be dreading it or hating it. Somewhere in the middle is good for most days but there will be hate/love days as well.
some days I hate my job and odd days I love it-
most of the time it’s ok- that’s life isn’t it?

Hi all,
interesting to see different work expectations.
dd is finding it hard, but she does 9-5 days and does it all at school, that seems to be working up to a point, but she is slow in her free slots, she will need to focus more.
still having friendship dramas, and a massive melt down last night with her dad, which I think was her needed to explode and her dad got the full force, nit sure why she was so wound up.

But we potter on.

On the bright side, she is doing English language resit in November and teacher is very happy, says she should get a 5.
I think it is 90% mindset change from dd. She has decided THIS teacher is good and they are doing a different exam board and THIS exam is doable and her previous one wasn't, so she doesn't go into blind panic mode very time she sees an English book.

They have also assessed her and offered coloured overlays, with a sort of reading line on it. Dd is finding it so much easier to read and process with this. She has actually borrwed a book from the library and read it in 2 days, which is super fats for her, and she was so excited that reading was so much easier.

I am pretty pissed off actaully, she was assessed by an ed pysch in year 8 and she came out as very high in most areas and very low in language processing, but within normal, so school said she was fine. I now realise that I should have picked up on that odd low score and got her tested for more. But I didn't and it was mid covid, and it took so much to get them to get the ed psych in, and then the ed psych said she was fine, so school kind of said - I told you so she is fine.

Since then we have had an autism diagnosis and now it looks like some kind of visual processing of words on the page.

@gingercat02 ,

I really like and agree with that approach. If students can do it, they effectively have nearly every evening and weekend free, which minimises stress.

It is really important for students to realise, though, how short an A level course is and how much starting well matters.

The reality is that it is September one year to May the following year, so one year 8 months, and that has lots of interruptions. There are normally meaningful end of year exams which go to set the predicted grades. If students aren’t happy with the results there might be more (optional or not) exams at the beginning of Year 13 to evidence a higher predicted grade. Then, at the beginning of Year 13: there is the whole uni visit and UCAS process, which is a huge distraction and, of course, most departments want to finish the course in good time and get revision done.

Because of all the above, the beginning of Year 12 is the best time to calmly cover large chunks of the syllabus.

I think it is really important for students (and parents if they want to help) to grasp how short the A level course is and how it intensifies in Year 13. If you decide on a lazy start (as many do, after the efforts of GCSEs), it is far harder to catch up than most imagine.

DS school have asked them to treat school like a job and try to do 9-5 days. This and free classes means he gets most of his homework/coursework done then (he did do some history last weekend). So far this seems to be working well.
They had "deadline day" last Thursday, when they had to submit a big piece of work for each subject. They have been working in them all term.
No exams or similar mentioned atm..

DD also does most of her work in her free periods. She says they have 2x pieces of work per subject per week. I’m trying to stay hands off now as she did well in her GCSES and is enjoying her A levels so time to take a step back. She had her first benchmark assessment yesterday which she was pleased with.

I think they normally have a trip with history, so waiting to hear about that. My finances are very bad at present so I would like them to take their time announcing it!

It is hard to tell how much work DD is getting as she is very self sufficient doing homework. She does have quite a few study periods and does use these to work so I know she does a lot of work at school. Every time I ask her what she has to do at home she always lists off what she needs to do and does spend time every day doing something at home too. This is very much like how she tackled her GCSEs though, she was always doing something (but that could include Tik Tok viewing too 😂).

DD has been allocated a place on the school trip to Rome next year, which she is delighted about. 4 days/3 nights £1100. I feel it is expensive but reflects the cost of flying etc so we are ok with this.

Apparently last year they ran a trip to Malawi which most of the aspiring medics went on to help their 'CV' for med school applications. DD seemed to think she would be disadvantaged by these kids going on the trip as she hasn't been on any trips in secondary school at all (different school and there were none offered due to covid timing for her year). I talked to her about other things that make an application strong and how one trip is not going to sway a uni to offer a place and that work experience/volunteering would be just as important. Not sure she listened to me though!