Year 13 -2025/26 - Support, discussion and looking after each other (new thread from y12)

@GirlsInGreen sorry to hear that your mum is so poorly. I hope things turn around soon.

DS has had a good week getting 100% in 2 further maths tests, and passing his driving test with no minors this morning! I wasn’t sure how it would go so this is great news! He’s got a very busy weekend with sport and social events so I’m going to look for insurance starting in a few days time.

@GirlsInGreen sorry to hear about your mum, hope things improve soon. Such a lot for your DD to think about atm, she probably did better than she thought though.

@PinkChaires I also think our YP are running out of steam and need a break now. This term has been so full on it is hardly surprising their motivation wanes at times. Congrats on the Manchester offer!

DD had her Newcastle interview today and all went well. She felt she answered questions as well as she could so just have to wait until March to find out if she has an offer now! Interview came through for Lancaster too today so 3/4 interviews so far.

So sorry about your mum @GirlsInGreen

@PinkChaires i think the last few weeks of this term are really tough, it’s a long term, it’s dark, but an offer from Manchester is fantastic, hopefully will help your dd get her mojo back.

@GirlsInGreen I'm so sorry to hear your mum is so poorly, I hope she improves quickly with that ICU care. I am sure your DDs interviews went better than expected, fingers crossed for a positive outcome.

Well done on your DDs offer @PinkChaires

unfortunately dd seems to be quite unmotivated these past few weeks, i think shes suffering from slight burn out. Today she had a bio test which she barely revised for and surprise surprise said it went horribly.
On a positive note, dds college finally submitted her ucas after 3 weeks and she got an offer for law at Manchester before even getting the acknowledgment email!

Such lovely news with all the driving tests! Delighted for your DC!
Things aren't great here - my poor old mum is now in ICU & very poorly for the last week.
I've tried to sheild DD from the worst - she had her Ox interviews this week - 1st went great 2nd she says a complete disaster - she has good offers but says none of it seems very important right now.
Noises have been made about a gap year - but we shall see.
Best of luck to all the DC for interviews/offers💫

Well done to your DS on those offers @JustHereWithMyPopcornand to your daughter @wonderstuff. my friend’s son had Kent as his insurance- loved the campus but it felt very remote and far from home .

Dd got an offer from Kent, she’s never actually been to Canterbury and isn’t sure she’s interested in going, so I’m not entirely sure why she put it down! But nice to know the application is in and being seen I guess.

Ah OK, so I imagine it will be spring before we hear anything then!

@JustHereWithMyPopcorn he applied on October 13th as he was an oxbridge hopeful. That’s not worked out but he’s happy with the 3 offers that he’s got so far.

@Muchtoomuchtodo well done to your DS on all the offers!

Good news here too, DS has had offers overnight for Notts and Sheffield both offered at AAB. He really wants Bath so I'm quite envious that you've heard from them @Muchtoomuchtodo , when did your DS apply again?

Congratulations on the driving test @bluefineliner , it's such a relief to get that done. Watch though, I bet she'll still want lifts everywhere - or is that just my DS? 😄

@JessyCarr Oh I'm sorry to hear about the DVT, why on earth would they not take into account her family medical condition??

Congratulations on the offers @Muchtoomuchtodoand on the driving test pass @bluefineliner!

I’m sorry to hear about your daughter’s DVT @JessyCarrI hope she gets over it soon.

I was in hospital in September and it was routine for all inpatients to have a blood thinning injection each day due to the sedentary nature of hospital life. Hopefully the hospital will change their policy but that won’t help your daughter of course.

We have parents evening on Thursday and the subject mini test continue apace. Mocks take place directly after Christmas break. DS is still recovering from flu, it’s a really nasty strain apparently.

@Muchtoomuchtodo that sounds like a great quote. In my research over the past year I've never found cheaper than 1.5k so am ok with it (especially as DD is paying half!). She does have a nice little mini 1.5 diesel so that will increase the price, but it was too good a car to not get and should last her years (which is good if she has to drive to placements at uni too).

Good luck to your DS on his test. I was sitting in Morrisons car park waiting for her to finish, time never went so slowly. She even managed a pretend sad face when she came over which I fell for before she waved her test paper at me 😂. She failed every mock test she did recently and somehow managed to get zero minors on the actual test!

@JessyCarr your poor DD, how scary to have to go through this and a DVT too! I hope DD's recovery is quick, Y13 is bad enough without having this kind of trauma to deal with too.

Cross posted @JessyCarr - really sorry that it’s been so tough for your DD, hope she’s fully on the road to recovery now.

Great news @Muchtoomuchtodo with the Bath offer - it’s DSs favoured uni currently. Not that he’s applied yet… 🤨

And congrats on DD passing her driving test @bluefineliner- great to have it done and dusted. I think we paid about 1.2k for DS as a primary driver, not black box, but it was on a very cheap car worth next to nothing (that now needs a new clutch!) - if you can take the pain of the first year it gets much better after that. Hope her interview goes well!

Thanks for the good wishes for DD, @Lalux and others. She’s recovering well from the meningitis but has suffered a DVT as a result of being on extended bed rest. (She does have inherited thrombophilia, but for some reason the hospital didn’t think she needed blood thinning injections - hmmm. And she wasn’t well enough to insist on them, and nobody spoke to us parents about it at all). She will be OK but it’s been really tough.

So great to see everyone’s news! Driving tests, offers rolling in and so on. Best of luck to your DD @bluefineliner for Newcastle, and any other DC with interviews coming up.

Wow! That’s a lot @bluefineliner. What car has she got, is it registered in her name?

I’ve looked briefly but don’t want to get ahead of myself! What I found was around £1200 for fully comp with a black box but with no time restrictions. It would monitor speed, cornering and braking. That’s on a 1.2 Peugeot registered in his name with me and DH as named drivers but DS as the main driver.

We got some very reasonable (!) quotes from about 1.5k but when we looked into the black boxes and their restrictions we actually went for one without a black box that was just over 2k. We had budgeted 2k anyway (DD going halves with us) and chose this because there were restrictions on driving the car after 10pm on some. She has a job that finishes after 10pm some evenings. I've also read reviews on people getting insurance cancelled for odd reasons and didn't want the stress of this.

DD is a very careful driver (a bit too careful sometimes) so I am happy for her not to have the black box if it is affordable. Tbh nothing about learning to drive is affordable now but it's a must as we live so rurally.

@Muchtoomuchtodo have you looked for quotes?

Great news @bluefineliner - have you managed to find her insurance without needing to remortgage?! Not long until ds’s now…..

Good luck for her interview.

Hope your DD is feeling better now @JessyCarr

Great news on the offers @Muchtoomuchtodo

@bluefinelinerwell done to her. Hoping all goes well with the interview too.

@Muchtoomuchtodo well done on the Bath offers!

Slightly off the A level topic but DD passed her driving test today first time! What a relief to have no more lessons, but now I am stressed at her going out on her own! A huge weight off her shoulders 2 days before her Newcastle interview!

He’s not sure which is his favourite tbh @AuntyBulgaria . Bath don’t take TMUA into account but we thought we might be waiting a while longer to hear from them yet!

@Muchtoomuchtodo congratulations on the offers! Some of the offers for these maths degrees are a bit scary. Though I'm sure your DC is up to it. Your DC took TMUA didn't they - does that bring the required grades down at all?

Is Bath a favourite?

My son is doing maths and economics type courses and some of the offers are eye watering! He needs to work out which course he is going to have as a insurance - but even those are pretty high!

Bath offer came in today, well 2 different ones for maths and stats with a professional placement / year abroad.

Either A⭐️ A A or A⭐️ A⭐️ B. The A⭐️ and A have to be in maths and FM, and the third grade can be either his 3rd A level or Welsh Bacc.

Good to catch up on the latest with everyone. DS still hasn’t submitted his UCAS application - hopefully by the end of this week, as the school reference is done and he’s just finalising his personal statement. I keep telling myself it doesn’t matter as long as it’s before the deadline…

To be fair he’s been very busy, he picked up a temp Christmas job so he’s been working 16 hours each weekend which will carry on until early January. Mocks are mid Jan so he’ll have to get his head down over Christmas. And DS2 has GCSEs this year with mocks after the holidays too, so it’ll be fun and games all round!