Starting year 13 2016

DS has firmed Birmingham so that's it, despite a very nice email from Leeds saying they were very impressed with his application and hoped he'd choose them. He might meet up with your DD there BTM

DS' birthday is the weekend of half term so we have organise a little trip to Rome and a meal at the Sky Gardens (think I might need to cut up the credit card now!)

They can have the meningitis ACWY vaccine at any time. I just need to plan DS' between bouts of fever so it is more tricky.

Well done to your DD Mirabelle.

Hang in there teta, the interviews will start coming after half term. she only needs one offer.

They don't have to decide until May so no pressure.

dd had two clear favourires which fall nicely into a high offer and a lower backup offer so there was no point waiting. She has already seen both places twice at the open day and offer days.

Or maybe indulged only who can hint rather than demanding?

Mirabelle, I seem to remember DD and DS had injections in Y10 or 11. Not sure if they were for Meningitis or something else though

Errol, your DD sounds very sweet and undemanding. Hope she has a lovely day.

Littlehum, that's good - she's obviously sure of what she's doing. DD isn't going to make a decision till she has been to the second Offer Holder day - this is quite unusual for her as she normally wants everything organised well in advance! I think it's Mayish, Teta.

Well done Mirabelle's DD.
Happy 18th birthday Errol's dd .
Littlehum your DD sounds very sorted.When do they have to decide their firm and insurance by?We are still in the land of not knowing anything .

Sounds perfect Errol if no one else knows would be great if you don't mind asking, thanks.

Two orchids.Also, courtesy of DH, a couple of ladybird books... Evolution and Quantum Mechanics.

No, I don't know about the meningitis - if no-one else does I'll try to remember to ask.

Oh bless her ! Some home cooking sounds like a good idea, did you get her plant? Vaccination reminds me, does anyone know what the situation is with the meningitis injection?

I'm going to try to get her to organise so something with her mates but so far all we have on the calendar is interview at Nottingham, vaccination boosters (in prep. for summer hols) and her driving theory test.

Thank you. Milestone there then LittleHum, just the exams now then !

Happy Birthday to DD Errol. It is tough with the mocks looming, could she celebrate in half term maybe?

Thats great, Mirabelle!

DD's 18th tomorrow, but with mocks next week she didn't want a big celebration, not even dinner out. So DH and I have to do some cooking this afternoon.

Hurrah Mirabelle. Lovely news.

dd has now pressed the button for firm and insurance.

Well done Mirabelles DD.

Ono, he sounds like he would get on famously with my DD

Good luck to him Ono.

Thought of you all earlier as was sat in school car park with DD before her Foundation Art interview. She was very nervous as had found that they were interviewing 26 for 15 spaces and I had a flashback to sitting in the car when going to get the GCSE results at the same place. She's been offered a place which is good news.

Best wishes to him for both, ono

DS has been to one and is planning to go to Leeds once he turns 18 so he can visit the clubs which are legendary .

Day 1 of the mocks here and typically he is running a fever again but we have a consultant appointment booked for 21st

DD has been to one and is going to another next month - for her two possible firms. She has been to the general open days for the other 3.

My dd is planning on 3 applicant days. Two were for places she had not visited before. The other is one she is thinking of firming and she hopes going will help her decide.

DD's all interviewed, so the applicant days weren't optional. At this point, the one remaining she probably doesn't really need to bother with but its after exams at the start of halfterm so she's going anyway - interesting day out and maybe a chance to discuss her EEE v gen eng dilemma.

I guess with non-interview applicant days it depends if you had a good enough poke around on an open day plus logistics?

How many Applicant Visit Days are your DC doing?

My DS is considering 3.

My DC's private school got the same number of Oxbridge offers as previous years (around 20% of cohort). Cambridge numbers were in line with previous years.

I don't know how a coordinated anti-public school policy could work in practice, as admissions are handled by college and by subject i.e. lots of different people deciding. I'm certainly not aware of any such policy. I'm also not aware of the pretests changing admissions demographics significantly, but I probably wouldn't be as I'm not in a subject that did pretests.

Sensible boy, ono!

DS school which is a comprehensive got 15 into Oxbridge, mostly Oxford for humanities and a couple into Cambridge for maths/computer science. The feeling this year was that those who went for Cambridge had made a mistake as it was much tougher to get into.

Teta, good luck to your DD. My friend with the vet med student said they will likely ask her things like what she would do if a dog came in with a common condition like a limp. If she has had work experience then she will be able to draw on what she's watched the vets do to diagnose. Basically all they talked about was work experience at interviews.

DS has gone ahead and firmed Birmingham. I think this was based on him starting revision and realising the enormity of the task ahead!

Teta, it's a selective grammar, and indeed they have a lot of very clever Asian girls.

Thank you Errol for the good luck wishes.Its not until the end of next month ,so a while off.DD s friends are going to practice Interviewing with her beforehand as they feel bad for her as she hasn't yet got an offer.
Dingit is your DDs school a state school ?The only school that did well round our way is a international school that's high up in the league tables with nearly all Asian students.Even the well known public school near us didn't get anyone into Oxford.