Year 11 GCSE support thread 6 - exams and proms

Omg! Been on/off lurker for this site. Just been reading last few pages of thread and find myself weeping at funambulist's ds sending "all okay" text. More worried about my own ds than I thought. He's got a great back up option with more A level subject choices but he's desperate to stay on with his friends at current school where they have a mean we kick you out if you don't get enough points policy. If he doesn't get to stay he will see himself as a failure despite all my attempts to allay his fears.

thread here for GCSE results and starting 6th form/apprenticeship/job (though it's not all in the thread title)

Spud that will be handy for results day. I think DD would refuse to come with us if no wifi but she's lucky it won't ever be an issue as I need it for work whilst away.

Still no discussion about Thursday here. She can't get to the fairy festival so hopefully is editing the music on her film. She did say she has a list of things she wants to get done before Thursday which was surprisingly organised for her, think Japan trip ha helped a fair bit.

I can't quite get over how bad the Maths and science AS result were at DD's school. I've asked her to tell her friend who has chosen them for 6th form so he knows as they have done well enough with softer subjects and Arts to be able to hide the awful results behind statistical headlines which the are very good at doing. We're talking one person in a class passing Maths Mechanics and bright children who could have gone to Grammar, worked hard and got good GCSE's coming out with U's and E's in physics and biology.

Their Head of 6th form is the son of a politician and it certainly shows. Friend was telling me how the school does really well at A level and in the top 25% for A level. I gently pointed out they are in the top 25% for AS bit bottom 40% for A2.

Witch from what I've seen of friends with older children 6th form there is quite a clear timetable. I did write out what I think it is but deleted it as guess we should get GCSE results first ! But there will be a fair amount to keep on top of I think ? Personally I would find a Year 12 thread very helpful to make sure we're on top of things and found this thread very helpful seeing what different schools were telling people at different times.

Same with DS2!

Thanks Horsemad, she needs to decide what she wants to do then, at the moment she only has the vaguest of ideas.

Witch, I would advise going to Open Days next June, as the September ones are very close to when they start preparing their applications so earlier is better imo.
We did a couple in Sept, but then we did go to 12 (don't ask!!) overall.

I sincerely hope DS2's route to Uni is less stressful than my DS1's!!

DD says she is going in with her friends - not sure if/when she will let me know the results, if last year is anything to go by!

DD is going with her friends, not sure what she is doing after that but she'll be home for dinner and we are going to have whatever she wants/go wherever she wants regardless of the results.

I was looking last night, universities are already posting the dates for university open days next summer. Maybe our DCs who want to go to university need to start thinking a bit about what they want to do. My head is still in the sand, I am expecting that the 6th form college will tell them/us when they need to do something?

I'm driving DS to school for 9am, may even be allowed to go in with him to get the results I think, then I'll be coming straight home while the whole school year descends upon the local Costa Coffee

He is currently away with a group of friends quite some distance from home (I had a thread about it) and I am more worried about that than about his results.

Ah, that's lovely Horsemad. DD and I are going out to a local show some of her friends are involved with on Wednesday night as a pre-results thing (possibly help take our minds of them? - anyway will be a quiet week with DS away with a friend's family from tomorrow) No plans for Thursday yet apart from going in fairly early to pick up her results. I think we'll go with the flow but hopefully try to do something nice together or with her friends

I think I got my results for both GCSE and A levels in an envelope waiting for me on the doorstep when we got back from family holidays fun
So I missed out on the going into school with friends thing. A slight shame I think but I didn't mind at the time. I don't remember knowing any different - parents possibly kept quiet about arrangements - anyway didn't waste my holiday with any worrying.

I'm supposed to be working on Thursday but will take a day off. We'll drive DS in to school and then take him for coffee (us) and cake (him & me!) and we're doing that, whatever his results are.

No criticism of anyone with a family holiday booked intended! Things are quite different now with wifi, and I had to wait a really long time.

I've had a tentative discussion with DS1 regarding Thursday. He wants me to drive him to the school where he has to pick up his results. He's then going to go in on his own to collect them and I can wait nearby if I like. He says he may be some time but has agreed to send an "All okay" text once he's opened the envelope to stop me fretting too much. He wants to tell me the actual grades in person though. I'm finding the waiting hard, I think partly because it's bringing back memories of waiting for my own results at a similar age. I ended up having to wait a long time to get my results as my parents booked a family holiday for that time and I felt upset at the time (and now!) that they didn't seem to have even remembered my exam results were coming out. It sounds kind of silly but I so want to get things right and make things as easy as possible for my DS.

I felt quite sad at how pleased and excited the girls were to discover the WiFi......then I thought about results day and everyone being able to keep in touch etc and I'll suck this one up. I was looking forward to more conversation, but here we all are on our various tablets.......

Phew! We stayed in a couple of places with no wifi, but only a night in each thankfully

Arrived at the holiday place.....Our apartment has wifi ladies, it has wifi. Praise be. The girls are happy and I have all your hands to hold in the days ahead, so I am too!

Ripeningapples, similar concerns here - DDs first choice want minimum A's in Eng, History and Maths I think. She also has various other possibilities with some grades needed/unconditional offers. She will definitely get a place somewhere but it's so unsettling for them not to know.

Ripening that's stressful. My DD has an unconditional offer from her favoured college so we're able to be more relaxed about it though I am getting anxious about it now so I am perfectly relaxed about the whole thing

Sit yourself down Ripeningapples , nice comfy seats here, have some and . Good idea to keep her busy. I think it is hard when they are following in the footsteps of a high achieving sibling, especially if they are the type of person to put pressure on themselves. Hard as parents to watch them put themselves through it.

The dicussion about the logistics of Thursday has yet to be had here. Am tempted to get her to have a sleepover early part of next week but am not sure of the current FiL situation. His financial attorney emailed offering some money to 'help with the travelling expenses that are coming soon' but more than that I don't know.

However I am so delighted to be home in my bed with no flaming mosquitos eating me I feel ok to deal with it all.

Have only lurked on here but am getting twitchy now. DD has three offers: first choice 9 A-B with A's for A'level options, second choice 8 A-C with A's for A'level options, back-up 6 A-C with B for A level options. Based on induction days the third choice is now more favoured than the second but the first choice remains the holy grail. She will be very upset if she doesn't get the first choice - we don't mind - we like all three schools and think they are all good.

She tends to be a bit frail emotionally though and brother is high achieving and I know it will be a mighty blow if she doesn't get the first choice.

She's tense and anxious now and it's been building. Am trying to do nice things to keep her mind off it:

Have suggested shopping this afternoon
Afternoon tea tomorrow
Monday ???? have to work
Tuesday am at home and we are going to the theatre
Wednesday ???? have to work
Thursday - to be parked outside school at 8.45 so she can be at the front to pick up her results and she intends to hot foot it back to the car and I am to be asked to drive to another road where she can open them with me and away from everyone else. Who knows what will happen at 9am and whether she will change her mind.

I think we will both need a lot of hand holding between now and then and hope she will be OK if it doesn't work out as she wants.

Have a lovely holiday Spud AP I think it really helps when they get a chance to talk to people a few years older, goes down much better than when it comes from us ! How's the jet lag going?

Juggling that is so lovely she is worried about her friends. They are a strange mix of adult and child at this age aren't they?! DD excitedly came to find me earlier to say she has been invited to a fairy festival, it was like she was 8 again.

DD's school allows changes until the first half term I believe.

Apprenticeships definitely worth looking at with University fees and living costs so high now. If anyone has a budding accountant, PWC run one plus work experience in the summer. They really look after them and they seem to be assigned a mentor as far as I can tell.

Having seen various friends having quite a challenging time in years 12 and 13 and how fast the time goes, I want to try and be on top of things next year . Just hope she gets enough next week to scrape onto her A levels and then comes into her own doing the creative subjects she wants to do. Am going to be gutted if Maths resist stops her doing the 3 she wants to do so fingers crossed it's sociology for the chop.

Great, glad there's to be a results day and after thread HSM.

I picked up DD from her second week of NCS yesterday - they'd spent the week on a Uni campus with various outings from there.

Anyway on the way home we mentioned results on Thursday and DD said she hoped everyone would be OK - thinking about all her friends that she knows from various activities and groups. I thought that was so lovely of her that her first thought about it included everyone she knows. She is growing into such a lovely young person - think I'd missed her being away for the week! At least we have her home for 2 more yrs before hopefully Uni

Yes HSM, at DD's school re-configuring A level choices after results is definitely an accepted thing and can continue into the first few weeks of term if needed. But certainly between results and term starting it would absolutely fine (as long as it can be accommodated on the timetable I guess) I think DD is reasonably settled with her choice now but still we'll see how she feels on Thursday. I hope she finished some of those papers!

No idea HSM, but I think most allow some room for manoeuvre. I will be double and triple checking with DD if she thinks she has made the right A level choices (presuming GCSEs no to plan) as I made a bad choice with one of mine and nobody thought to get me to change

Off on our holiday today......not sure there is WiFi (god help us all) We will be finding a cafe for results morning and awaiting the email. Bleurp. My stomach is doing flips!
I'm hoping I'll be able to check in....we might even have a new thread!
If not.....see you all on the other side.