New Year 12 starters parent support thread (snappy title eh?)

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

here we are.

That's scary Lobster! dd hasn't been told anything like that and while she's keeping up with homework and working hard during the free periods she gets, she's not doing much else in the evenings for college work. I don't know whether it's a case for maths and physics, that if you get it, you don't need to do much more?

We pay for textbooks here £25 per textbook but there encouraged to write in them highlight and annotate

Lobster - we've been to Year 12 meeting also. They recommended that if you have a Saturday job, do no more than eight hours per. Also, sixteen hours homework per week (some can be done in free periods).

We've got the year 12 settling evening next week. I'm not sure I'll go, I know the expectations for sixth form. Dd will be at an extra curricular activity so she won't be there and is likely to ignore any advice about extra curricular not taking too much time. Since her biggest extra curricular is organised by the school, in the form of the school play, I think she can carry on as long as she keeps up with homework etc.

Kitten I really do think maths is a good subject for being able to limit the time spent on homework if you're good at it. Some pupils have to take hours over each piece of homework as they need to laboriously puzzle over each question, whereas the best pupils whiz through it because it just makes sense to them.

Boop dropping to 3 subjects is fine. If possibly encourage giving it a little bit longer before making that decision so she can see if it gets easier or if she changes her mind about which subject she wants to drop. I know that's what we advise at my school, we'd never force anyone to continue if they really don't want to though.

It's all a bit different at college. DS2 hasn't done a full week yet and the timetable is quite sparse. Full day Monday, 9 - 5.15 but free all day Tuesday, starts at midday Wed and Thurs. Oh well, he seems happy so far.

From a life skills point of view he's doing really well. He's happily catching the public bus at a different time each day and getting up and out of the house on his own after I've gone to work. He's been getting off the bus in town at the point where it waits for 10 minutes at the start/end point (weirdly halfway through its route) and walking the rest of the way home because it's marginally quicker. This means walking through the shops so he's been frequenting the pound shop for sweets. He finished at 2.30 today and had a late lunch at KFC! Never, ever done anything like that on his own before.

I'm sure this sounds run of the mill for most teenagers but for DS with his ASD, it's quite an achievement. He's only ever been on the school bus before, then a 5 minute walk home, sometimes via Tesco Metro.

Can't believe how happy I am that he's been to KFC!

Ellen that is lovely to hear. It's a big change just having gaps in your day rather than moving from room to room when the bell rings.

Way to go Ellen's ds!
It sounds like he's adapted really quickly and that it suits him - delighted for you, I remember how worried you were.

Ellen that sounds fantastic. We'll done to your ds.

Thanks for all your input.

Dd is loving psychology and really likes the teacher. She's just finding 4 subjects too much. It's a very full on school.

Ellen, that's brilliant :) such a huge leap in what he is doing!

Thanks Msmermaid. That's good to know.

Ellen, how fantastic that your DS has dealt with all that so well. You must be chuffed to bits!

BOOP, 'tis early days still, do you think there's time to settle into things a touch more?

DS has a full day of lessons today, although one is independent study.

Just bumped into a friend on a dog walk, their school are making the students/parents pay for their text books! She's shelled out £60 so far. That hardly seems fair for those less able to stump up the cash. Hardly enabling is it? I do get cross with stuff like this, the socialist in me riles somewhat.

Ellen that really is fantastic progress. Wow to KFC .

need dd's FE college is making them pay for text books. She only does one subject there and the maths school doesn't charge for resources but if she was doing all her subjects there I could be paying about £100. They do have a bursary but you have to be on IS level to access it.

In effect post 16 education is becoming not free. There is no transport even for those with SN (unless they are at special school) and now charges for resources.

Just makes me feel crap for those that don't quite qualify for any help, but shelling out £100 is a big ask.

Not some huge political statement though

ellen
That's brilliant!
Tonight I'm discussing R.S with DD as she really isn't happy she has her first exam from him in 2 weeks and he hasn't told them how to structure essays and says to them to figure it out themselves DD is feeling incredibly lost and bewildered.

Ellen that's fantastic, makes me a bit tearful! You'd never have believed it a million years ago when they were setting off to secondary school. How fantastic.

I'm going to have to phone school and check in with all DS's teachers, he probably won't get round to telling me if he needs books. The SENCO called me yesterday to get him set up for the year and said I should make contact with them all so they are up to speed and I did think 'isn't that your job' but kept my mouth shut .

MrSlant of course it is her job but you will probably do it better.

I know we've all moved on from receiving GCSE grades and all that but this website www.bstubbs.co.uk makes interesting reading. A breakdown/analysis of grade %'s.

Hi all, just thought I'd check in and wish everyone a nice weekend. Hope the sunshine returns. Clubs start back this weekend so I'll be mums taxi.

Thank you all!

I have absolutely no idea how he's doing with the work, though. He's not particularly informative unless it's about Pointless.

We've have applied for a discretionary bursary for him today from college. There were lots of criteria about benefits received, and me receiving working tax credits and earning less than £16,000ish per year meant he was eligible. It'll mean he'll get about £15/week term time, which will pay for his bus fare and lunch.

I think I missed a trick the last two years as DS1's sixth form had a similar bursary, apparently. It might not affect anyone on the thread but if you are on a low household income it might be worth asking the question.

BOOP, I hope you and your DD come to a decision this W/E. My DS1 did stick with 4 subjects up until AS and dropped one for A2, but with the linear A levels it's more tricky. The school used AS levels to help predictions of grades and I'm sure universities used them when deciding on whether to give an offer.

But 3 A levels were all that was needed to get his uni place. Some unis give slightly lower offers for 4 relevant A levels, eg AAAA instead of AAA at Warwick for maths but getting 2 A grades in physics and chem sounds harder than getting one A in physics or chem.

I guess unis that are offering on UCAS points rather than specific grades it might be beneficial to do 4, but it depends on your DDs plans. I guess you've been looking at entrance requirements at a few likely unis for courses she might be interested in? Just to give you a feel for what's the best option?

It was definitely the right thing for DS1 to concentrate on 3 in Y13, even though he did maths and FM which is quite often a combination that means students do 4. He did very well in his 3 and I'm sure he could have done pretty well with 4 as well but may well have dropped a grade in FM, which would have meant not getting into Warwick.

We've have?

Ah, bolding in the wrong place. AAAA instead of A A A*

Boop Dd's school advises waiting until half term to settle in before dropping any subjects.
Although I do think if she's made up her mind she's unlikely to change it after a few more weeks.

At her school most start with 4 but almost all will drop down to 3 for year 13.

Speaking of text books - I've just done an Amazon order for 2 history text books (at £20 each) a huge French dictionary (£22) French Grammar book (£15) 2 set texts for English Lit (£6.50 and £6) a poetry book (£8) and a "required" advanced graphics calculator for maths - £89!!

Completely agree, it's a lot to shell out for all at once.

DD had no lessons this afternoon so she met DH in town for lunch then got a lift home.
For me Friday afternoon frees would be dangerous, but she's been working all afternoon and has almost finished all her homework.

I'm completely shattered - it's been my new class's first full week at school.
Is it wine time yet?
Hope you all have a lovely weekend

about the calculator.

Wow Lobster that really is a lot. I'm amazed about requiring a graphical calculator, we all use the normal Casio calculator we ask them to buy in year 7. We sell it at school without vat so it costs or kids £5.50, I can't imagine asking them to spend £90 on a calculator, I'd want it to be gold plated for that!

Need my inner socialist comes out when I here about people being charged for textbooks too. I know that we have a load of families at my school who would just not be able to continue on to sixth form if we started making them buy textbooks.

Dd needed a graphical calculator but the maths school bought a job lot and sold them to us for £60. Surely if the school is requiring them they could do similar.