Continuing Year 13: January 2016

The maths coursework is for OCR MEI board, I think.

Happy Belated Birthday, to Hells Junior!

Thanks Ellen. Good luck with your DS' Empa. I have never heard of maths coursework either (and DD is also doing maths - I assume a different board).

Happy birthday for yesterday, hellsbellissimo and good luck with the Empa.

DS1 has his physics Empa next Friday. He's already done maths coursework for A2. The whole concept of maths coursework is alien to me.

Well done to Bucking's DD.
My DD is 18 today and has spent the weekend celebrating but was back to school yesterday. After a family meal out tonight, I hope she starts focusing on revision and exams. First exam (an Empa) is this Friday!

You folks are way down the line with offers being accepted! My poor DD is still plodding on with auditions it feels like this has been our life for all eternity.

She has had an offer from RADA to do the Foundation year today. Which is Fab. But she'd have to go through the whole audition process all over again next year to get on a three year course. Sigh.

And only £29.99 including a tie!

EllenJane Ha Ha. He can't be that quiet if he will wear that in public .

EllenJane Wow!

So, DS1 has to wear a suit to sixth form. It has made 'what to wear to the ball' a bit tricky. DS1 (geeky, fairly quiet) has found this! It's in the sale and cheaper than the posh shirt I was going to buy him.

NMS Several of the unis DS2 applied to video all the lectures for his subject (while stressing that this is for revision purposes not lecture skipping). It was one of his criteria in making the final decision.
I'm surprised that it's not universal but it certainly isn't. At DS1's uni there are one or two lecturers who film but most don't. Some don't even provide lecture notes which was a problem when he was too ill to go in one day.

Most universities are very good on SpLD provision. The problem is that since the rest of the world caught up, a bit, SpLD provision has increasingly been linked to eligibility for DSA which isn't always the same thing as having an SpLD. In particular, some people neither want nor need to 'claim' (we would be in that boat, really) but you have to now, usually, to trigger eligibility for support in HE because it's how the HE establishment's funding is worked out. They can no longer afford to support kids without the money assigned for that purpose from the government. Or, maybe they no longer choose to do that.It's more transparent and it's more accountable but it isn't always in the best interests of the kids themselves, possibly - that's my worry anyway. And eg Post 16 assessments cost £££ so there's a hurdle in place now which some kids will fall at.

It's all past papers here. DS1 keeps quoting further maths questions at me which occasionally sound vaguely familiar but mostly sound like Greek.

DS1 is NT (though very geeky) but DS2 has ASD so the info on DSA has been useful. I don't think DS2 will go to a traditional university though. We've already ruled out school sixth form in favour of a rather more flexible college.

So far I've found that as the educational establishments have got bigger, the experience and knowledge of SEN has improved. Primary was better than pre-school (which was awful.) Secondary was better than primary and college looks to be better than secondary with a dedicated ASD coordinator. I would expect that universities would be very used to accommodating student with various abilities and disabilities. Good luck to your DC.

Well done to Bucking & Needmore's DDs for offers.

Hope all those needing support at uni will get it.

DS eventually realised the reason why he hadn't heard back from student finance was because he hadn't pressed 'send'. DH entered his NI no. wrong then found he couldn't correct it, think it's sorted now. I was trawling through bank & bs statements adding up minute amounts of interest & stressing that it would time out & crash - why don't they tell you you need them before you start rather than half way through?

Quite a lot of past papers being done here. DS has one 'sort of' friend applying to first choice. Close friend applied but didn't get offer despite v good results.

DD didn't have a choice of halls. There is only the one. And it's new so who knows how it will be. But it is soundproofed! (Obviously) so there's that. I'm hoping that the DSA will pay for Sibelius for her. And any other software she needs. But if it doesn't it doesn't. The key thing for her is understanding I think. And organizational support. Which does have a money price but not one she or we have to pay - access to it is triggered by eligibility for DSA which is now confirmed so really, she is sorted. I know her college does their own needs assessment for the eligible students once they get there, because it needs to be contextual to their particular circumstances (eg, DD1 will have to lug around a lot more crap (not a nice way to refer to £1000s worth of instruments but you know what I mean) than single instrument kids, and being dyspraxic and in particular an Olympic level 'dropper' she may need help with this). This is the sort of support that would have been so useful for her to get at school. Sigh.

We got confirmation that DD will get DSA today. She now needs to have a needs assessment - this stuff is just never ending! I really don't see how anyone based where we live, hundreds of miles from the nearest conservatoire, could have any idea of the support needs of someone with DD's issues who is attending conservatoire. Also her post 16 assessment included a needs assessment in its conclusion (though that in itself was general and predicated on a normal degree not a conservatoire music course). Still. It will be sorted. And she has been accepted - now it's all about what she will need and get, not whether she is entitled. And confirming entitlement was the key thing because that triggers all the college support mechanisms.

Thanks needmoresleep

Plus I need to sort out vaccinations

Is there something other than the meningitis they are supposed to have? You put an s on the end of vaccination so I'm thinking ds may have missed one.

I've started the student finance form, but as we run our own business I needed the current year assessment form, which took a while to come online. Biggest problem is DH who won't get round to doing his bit may have to login as him and do it for him.
DSA for us too, but DD has been having sad thoughts about why she needs it, and had decided that once she went to uni, she would magically become a "grown up" and not be ill . So lots of hair stroking going on here.

Ds only got the student finance email last week, apparently. Also need to arrange post 16 assessment for DSA.

My DS has no idea about his friends' choices either - I have no idea what they talk about to each other: gaming, I expect.