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

Great news @wonderstuff . My DD was 2 marks off a 9 in Maths and her teacher suggested one paper for remark - she said two questions were marked poorly and there was an opportunity for gaining 3-4 marks. It came back 1 mark off a 9 - so annoying. Luckily DD is very relaxed about these things.

@steppemum DD plans do a gold dofe residential next summer that is healthcare related, as she is considering applying to medicine. The cost is for accommodation, meals, and transport to the venue. If she changes her mind down the road we will try and find a cheaper one.

I guess my rant was directed more at the cost of the DofE Gold expedition. It's a hiking trip (actually two 4-night expeditions). They will camp and there is no food included. I know it also includes the rental of some group equipment and it pays for instructors' time, but the ratio of instructors to participants is 1:7.

Well done to your DD @wonderstuff thats greta news!

Just had dd remark for science back and she went from 88 to 98, so that was a nice surprise, she was 1 mark off and one paper went up 4 marks. No idea where she gets her brains, must have skipped a generation, highest gcse i got was a B!

She went to talk to her economics teacher about exam access and ‘only shook a little bit’ bless her. Seems to be settling in well. No drama this week.

Has decided she might go to London with her mates for her birthday. I’m so sad to not be a part of her plans anymore but super proud she’s doing stuff on her own too!

wow that is a lot.
I run a kids camp each year and I sometimes have teen helpers who use it as their gold Dof E residential, basically a volunteer week helping at camp.

Would something similar be possible for your dc?

Good luck @anoukis .

So glad DS decided to stop after Silver DofE. Hope he will not change his mind.

DD is doing Gold DofE for enrichment... what was I thinking... it's so bloody expensive! Just found out that the expedition cost (practice 5 days & qualifying 5 days) will be around £700, organised by the school but using an external expedition provider. Luckily she has all the clothing and equipment she needs as she did Silver, but still... On top of that she will need to do the residential, which is another £800 (in the UK, not abroad). :rant over:

I agree that driving is a hugely important life skill, and that’s why we’re pushing forward with it now. My own experience was not great - as a late-August baby I was very young in the year and so by the time I was 17 it was a hectic time with 4 A Levels and Oxbridge entrance etc. So I didn’t start driving until university, couldn’t afford enough lessons, had no car to practise on between lessons and failed my test on my 21st birthday! So that’s why I want to help DD get it under her belt in Y12 before life gets even busier.

She’s in good form this week - friendships are solid and she’s trying out for sports teams. Apparently there is not a single fanciable boy in the 6th form 😯but she says she’s too busy for that sort of stuff anyway. (DS says she’s bluffing).

dd is youngest of 3, so we have been through the driving route twice already.

With both, for their 17th birthday we paid for them to go on the insurance of our car (that cost £400) and then for £500 worth of lessons. After that they were on their own (paid out of saturday job)
That is about 15 lessons at the price they were 2 years and 4 years ago. (£35 per lesson)

We normally do about £100 each at birthday and Christmas, so this is way out of our normal league, but we felt it was worth getting them their license, if they don't it will be years before they can afford to do it.

15 lessons was enough because we took them out driving all the time in between. After 3 lessons, they drove everywhere. They got hours and hours and hours of practice. They both sailed through their test confidently.
ds then saved up from his Saturday job and bought a car.
dd1 didn't drive again for 18 months, (insurance on our car for a new driver was too much - £2,000) and has just got a car, and after a couple of quiet journeys to get back into it, is now driving confidently.

I just feel it is such an important skill to get.
I'm dreading the increase in lesson costs though

It took me 40 but I had no home practice, but I did pass first time thankfully. Hadn’t thought that dd could pass in less than that so fingers crossed ! I was a bit older too. It will only be an hour a week though, I definitely can’t stump up for two.

Is it worth a summer born learning now though? At best she’d be taking her test in the middle of a level exam prep, and then 6 months later off to uni. I’m wondering whether to suggest she waits until she finishes uni like I did?

@YellowphantGrey Mine were £9! 😂 I paid for them out of my Saturday job, I don't think any teenager with a Saturday job would clear enough to pay them now.

My driving lessons were £11 each and I recall my Dad grumbling that they were expensive then! This was 1997 when I started learning!

Well dd has today moved to English lit and has just texted me to say she was scared of going into the room. Seems like she’s done it so fingers crossed it goes ok.
I did warn her that it would feel strange and not to panic if she didn’t know what was going on immediately and to think back to 3 weeks ago when she started.

Well done on passing his theory test @JustHereWithMyPopcorn. Good luck to those starting out with lessons. I don't think DS is going to bother until at least next summer. He couldn't afford the insurance and running costs of a car yet anyway.

I'm amazed at predicted grades being given already @wonderstuff.

DP and I have just got back from a new parents' coffee morning at DS' school. They don't have any formal exams until after May half term. These are the mocks they will use for their university admissions. The change of schools is a huge culture shock for DS - he's gone from a mixed ability school where his year was only the third group to take GCSE's, to a single sex selective which is celebrating it's 900th birthday next year. I'm not sure he's handling the transition well. He has joined the rugby team but hasn't made any friends yet. As one of the few boys not taking maths A Level he is spending his study periods pretty much alone in either the common room or the library. He's also suffering from a nasty head cold and a twisted ankle from rugby so is feeling quite sorry for himself hobbling around and sneezing.

He is also losing weight that he can't afford to lose, despite eating enough for 3 people each day. I swear he eats the food and I put on the weight! I'm not sure if it's just stress but it's a big contributor to his current low mood.

In maths we do a tricky algebra test just to let them know that things are now much more tricky than GCSE. We haven’t done loads of content for A-level, but it is useful to know early who needs extra support and who isn’t studying hard enough.

Blimey, the cost of some of these driving lessons !

DS 1 passed his driving test 16 months ago, lessons were £32 per hour or 10 hours for £300. He passed his theory as soon as he could and then the driving school booked the test. That way they had multiple tests booked between all of their instructors and could swap and change between them if one pupil wasn’t ready and another was. He had 20 hours of lessons (including the time for his test) and we took him out regularly for short practices inbetween, just to the gym, supermarket etc.

ds2 isn’t 17 until June but I’ll be getting in touch with the driving school just after Christmas to get his name down.

Yes it’s £90 for a two hour driving lesson here too. Internet suggests it takes 40 hours on average to learn, but that includes those who repeat-fail and those who never practice outside of lessons. No way are we paying for 40 hours of lessons, hoping we can get it done with half that.

No sign of testing yet here, or predicted grades. The y12 parents evening suggested a rough timeline towards uni applications, starting with going to open days in spring of y12. But we’re signed up to go to our local university open day in Oct half term, just so he can get a sense of what open days are like and go to a couple of subject talks - engineering and economics - as he’s really not sure what he wants to do yet, or if he’d prefer uni or apprenticeship.

DS has had some topic tests for his A levels but no proper exams until January.

We found it hard to get an instructor as everyone is booked up but we have found one now who can start in three weeks. She hadn’t asked for him to have the theory done though, we just wanted to get it done so we could book a test, it’s a six month wait for a date. 😭. In the meantime I’ve been taking him out to teach the basics.

Lessons here are £40-45 an hour it’s so expensive!

Thanks, I guess it's better than GCSE target grades that were based on year 6 SAT scores in English and Maths :-)

I like how some schools are very transparent on this, here's an example: https://thebicesterschool.org.uk/target-setting-and-assessment/

Our school said they will use a system called "ALPS" to set minimum target grades, but they haven't provided details. They did say there will be 3 types of grades shown on school reports: target, working at, and mock. Predicted grades will be available early in yr 13.

She's doing economics, psychology and maths, so only did maths at gcse and got a 8 in that, she got a range from 5 in Eng Lang to 8 in comb science, maths and spanish. I'm sure there's a program that calculates, in school we get predictions based on KS2 SATs - how they calculate an Art grade from scores in Reading SPAG and Maths is a mystery, but they do!

@wonderstuff that's interesting - are those minimum targets? may I ask what GCSE grades did your DD get for the subjects she is now studying at A-level? It's a mystery for me how target grades are set.

@JessyCarr Maybe they want to use it as a baseline of some sort and/or to see who's adjusted to the pace and who is not? Content-wise they were told to revise from what they were taught in class which is less that one chapter, apart from maths. I think it's too early. Mid-Oct or mid-Nov testing would've made more sense to me. I think we will also get their target grades and "on track" reports in Oct.

DS first lot are October and these are for their baseline assessments and predicted grades. They need to keep at this grade or higher to continue to year 13

Well done to your son! DS has no interest in driving yet but I've called about 6 different instructors and none of them will start him with lessons until he passes his theory test and he said he can't commit to that till summer holidays

Just belatedly did the college welcome webinar, it's quite scary how quickly they want them to start thinking about university, basically having some idea by the end of this academic year to start applications in September. Also had a little play on the parent portal and there are predicted grades in there already! They base them on their GCSE attainment. Apparently dd should be aiming for at a minimum of BBB - seems like a lot of pressure.

She's signed up for gym as her enrichment option because there's no minimum attendance, she just needs to swipe her badge once a week. I have said I don't think that's quite the thing, but if that's the only liberty she's taking I'm happy. She seems quite settled and calm at the moment, she's not really made any friends outside of those from school, but I'm sure she'll start talking to her classmates at some point (no one from school in any of her classes).