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

Thanks @wonderstuff, I think the civil service would be a good option for DS. He has no idea what he wants to do. An IB or Scottish highers model would probably have been a better fit for him. It was so difficult for him to narrow down subjects to just three.

Entry level publishing would be great, and possibly more flexible with hours than a service sector job. Fingers crossed your friend comes through with a job for your daughter. DS is doing some tennis coaching but that's not at it's peak in winter so I'm hoping I can persuade him to go for a temp. job over Christmas at the garden centre, which is a 5 minute walk down the road. They always take on lots of fit young people for the lugging around of Christmas trees!

@waspie lots of degrees with some economics, I applied to The Treasury after my geography degree, I think on assessment day it was my maths that let me down, it wasn’t terribly complex,I’m just not great at maths!

DD job hunting has taken a turn, poor kid has put in dozens of online applications for various retail jobs and been rejected lots for failing personality tests, which is so harsh I think! Anyway I sat with her and she got as far as reference requests for McDs, I messaged a friend who oversaw her volunteering last year, friend came back and said she might have a job due to dd a-levels, not entirely sure what she does, something to do with academic journals, part of me thinks service sector job is a right of passage, but seems DD may be able to do entry level publishing instead. The world has changed so much since I was a teen.

The work expectation seems very onerous for some of your children so early in the year. I hope they find ways to manage the workload and still have a life outside of school/college.

DS has had no homework and nothing has been said about how much work they are expected to be doing outside of class. It seems to be very much that the student has to decide for themselves. The students are expected to keep up with their revision notes from all lessons. It's hard to know, because DS is generally quite tight lipped, but he has said that lessons move to the speed of the quickest in class and everyone has to keep up. This is the exact opposite of his previous school which moved at the pace of the slowest. So far he is finding History to have the biggest workload and is spending a lot of time re-reading and clarifying his notes. They've been told to get lever arch files and keep their revision notes in these once they have been sanitised and re-written.

He does have a year 12 expectations and transition session this morning. These are happening in small groups before school every day this week. I'm hoping that this will clarify out what the school are expecting and how this term will progress. They have two weeks left until reading week, then half term.

DS is absolutely loving economics and is now muttering about economics at university. Unfortunately he is not doing maths A Level so I don't think this is a possibility. He could take something economics adjacent, like economic history. Alternatively, if he does decide he wants to do economics he could take a gap year and take maths A Level in a year, with a reasonable part time job at the same time to build up some money for University. But it's early days he'll probably change his mind many times between now and this time next year 😀.

DD is working hard and having a few anxiety wobbles. She gets 8 pieces of homework per week (2 in each of 4 subjects) and doesn’t have many free periods during the school day. She isn’t great at getting on with it after school unless it’s urgent either (being knackered and zoning out in front of TV). So weekends are pressured. Can’t wait until she can drop down to 3 subjects.

We don't have parents evenings. Any concerns then the Teachers contact the parents to arrange a teams meeting

Gearing up for the first lot of exams to determine predicted grades and Ucas points.

First lot of coursework due in on the 1st December, this will be 35% of total mark.

Getting about 4 hours of homework a week but it's all done in school as lots of free time and can't come home as they have to stay in for the full school day.

DS seems to be working pretty solidly. He's finally taken some advice and has been doing work in the afternoons when he's come home at lunch due to free periods rather than leaving everything to the last minute as he did before.

Does anyone else have parents evening soon? We've got one just before half-term which will be good to see how he's settled into 6th form and doing with the work so far.

Expectation is 15 hours a week private study and I think dd is doing close to that, maybe a bit less, it’s difficult to tell as she is mostly working during the week when I’m working, gone are the days when I’m much help! She seems to be getting on and quite relaxed that she’s on track and not overwhelmed. Time will tell I guess. Thankfully she’s quite driven without being overly anxious to get everything right all the time.

Just wondering now that everyone should be more settled in - how much work those doing a levels are actually doing?
I can see mine doing the homework and sometimes something called Level Up which is extra study but it does not feel like a huge amount. Interested to hear what others' children are doing.

I’ve left it open with dd that I won’t book until next year, she can do something with her mates instead if she wants (at her cost). Her two best mates are doing the trip though, so I’ve made this offer of a big trip with me and it stands for anytime not just after a levels.

That’s a really impressive achievement by your DD @Messen. I am grumpy this weekend with both my DC for having turned down amazing non-onerous opportunities in favour of (so far as I can see) more time glued to something crappy on a screen. So I find your DD rather inspiring. Hats off to her.

Those trips are ok if they pay for it themselves. Expensive way to do it though. And you have no chance of getting any of the money back if you change your mind, unlike other holidays. I really object to the idea of ‘fundraising for it though. Makes me 😡.

Conversely we are poor and my eldest did one of those trips last year and paid for it all themselves via a job…. I will admit I was very sceptical and it was really hard to find the £250 a month before she sorted out her job. It was difficult to manage alongside GCSEs but she’s now 17 going on 45 as a result.

On the other hand I am still getting regular missives from friends recommending x and y hotel or place or experience or trying to arrange joint trips which are about ten times what I could afford as a single parent on a very middling income with a big mortgage. Everyone here seems to have cleaners and be able to afford to get people in for the most mundane DIY like painting or hanging pictures up.

@Countrylife2002

We did similar, it sounded like a fantastic experience but it's a hard, hard slog to fundraise £4000 at a time when they are already very busy. The tour companies are very quick to tell you that the fundraising is doable and that most DC raise the majority but I'm not convinced. DD worked out that it was the equivalent of her p/t job income for nearly a year which put it into perspective.

Your post-A Levels trip sounds like a great idea. Something to look forward to for you both.

Talking of costs, I vetoed DD doing one of those fundraising and go and build a school type trip. It required a direct debit of £250pm for 18 months and the idea is the student fundraises and pays back their parent 🤨
Instead I have suggested after a levels we do a bucket list trip, with a tour group, together, for slightly more £ but it pays for two of us to go. Massive stretch financially but so exciting!

@bluefineliner ,

‘ETA at no point did I assume the teacher was useless. I have huge respect for all teachers, I could never do it, I have no patience. I just need DD to know I am listening to her concerns from the start and will support her if she needs to address it at school herself.’

Like all professions, though, there are plenty of useless teachers! Some do lack subject knowledge and some have no patience.

Some older teachers are just burnt out and going through the motions until they collect their pensions.

So, while you should never assume a teacher is at fault, they could well be! It is worth patiently doing some research and making sure to politely query things that bother you.

Although I detested rude and demanding parents, parents are the canaries in the coal mine and are often the first indication that teachers aren’t doing well. So, don’t go in all guns blazing, but do politely query things and escalate if things don’t improve,

My dds college does flipped learning, but its nothing like @bluefineliner experience. They are given a booklet, told which video to watch and to answer set questions. However its completely optional, and they are taught everything again. Its the idea that information must be repeated 7 times before it is in the LTMS, so the next 5 is up to them

Thanks @Newbutoldfather for your wise words. I agree with you that the method of teaching does have its merits, just maybe not for every lesson.

It is still early days and there is a chance she may not get the same teacher in y13 which would help. Good point on asking the Y13s, she is new to this 6th form so doesn't know many yet, but I'm sure she can do some searching and find out.

ETA at no point did I assume the teacher was useless. I have huge respect for all teachers, I could never do it, I have no patience. I just need DD to know I am listening to her concerns from the start and will support her if she needs to address it at school herself.

@bluefineliner ,

It is never good to assume a teacher is useless. What the teacher might be doing is a style of teaching called ‘flipped learning’ which I like in theory, but seems much harder to translate into practice. The theory is that school teachers are not necessarily the best lecturers and there are loads of excellent lecturers online. So, a pupil can learn the subject by listening to one of them. What school teachers should be very good at is knowing individual students and helping them apply the learning and that is what class time is best spent doing,

My personal experience is that pupils don’t teach themselves well at home, so you have to explain it again anyway but it is still useful to do from time to time to develop independent learning skills.

Having said that, a lot of what you say does make the teacher sound lazy rather than just using a different method.

I don’t think pupils have much voice so I would politely e mail the head of biology, explaining your daughter’s concerns and asking for a phone call/meeting to discuss it. You could ask what his results are like, although you may not get a clear answer, but at least they know that you are looking at it.

What your daughter could usefully do is talk to Year 13s and find out how they have found him over the course. A few weeks’ experience is hard to make a judgment on.

@Pythag that is what I would have hoped will happen but I know DD is intimidated by this teacher so may not be able to confidently articulate why she finds it difficult to learn from him without sparking a defensive response.

I will give it another week or so and encourage her to speak to either the teacher concerned or the other one who is HOD.

As a teacher, I really would like anyone unhappy with my teaching to come forward and ask me in a constructive way to do things slightly differently. I don’t think poor teaching should be accepted.

I had no idea that many remarks were requested, or how many resulted in grade changes! It is worrying, especially if you are looking at A levels and the impact the wrong grade can have on students at that point.

I have paused on the biology teacher problem for now as DD has not mentioned it the past two days. Thank you for your thoughts @RomainingToBeSeen @Waspie @JustHereWithMyPopcorn I agree different teaching styles could be a good grounding, and she will need to get used to this. I will monitor from a distance and see how the next few lessons go.

I do disagree that A levels are self taught. I did an access course a few years ago in biology and psychology and know how in depth the bio was. If I had tried to google and teach myself I would have failed. I loved the subject too so hope things settle a bit soon for DD.

I know we have all moved on from the joys of GCSE results now, but have a look at this TES analysis of Ofqual stats. In 2023, 64% of all GCSE challenges resulted in a finding of marking errors, and 21.8% of all challenges resulted in a change of grade. A Level marking looks to be even more fraught with errors, although the proportion changing grade is about the same. Interesting.

https://www.youtube.com/c/biologycarol

@bluefineliner I'm sorry your DD is having to deal with this useless teacher. My DS1 had similar when he did Biology A level, one good and one bad. He knew she was terrible but didn't realise quite how bad until he did an external Easter revision course in Yr 13 and realised how little of the topics had been covered and how little he knew. He basically taught himself her side of the syllabus from scratch again from Easter to the his A level. He managed to get himself an A so it can be done even with a terrible teacher. I think there's some good YT accounts out there - I seem to remember Biology Carol?

Oh @bluefineliner that sounds very difficult. At least your daughter has two teachers rather than just this one. Could she set up a study group with some of the other students to discuss their work? They all seem to be having the same issues so working through assigned work together would be helpful for them all.

As @RomainingToBeSeen says there can be some longer term benefit in two contrasting styles of teaching and learning how to deal with both. I rather disagree that any subject is "self taught" - what would be the point of sixth form if this were the case? I don't see any harm in your daughter mentioning the differing teaching style of the other teacher to the HoD. Not to criticise him, but to suggest that the group would like more support in these early weeks than he is currently providing and, more generally, are there resources she could suggest which would help the group add value to their studies.

It could also be that the teacher is just stamping his authority on the class in the early days but it's not working as he intends. He may come round and improve the lessons. It must be fairly boring for him to not teach the subject which, presumably, he is passionate about.