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

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

here we are.

I guess its being the weak of wars. Sorry to hear about your bad time slant DD has had head of 6th today and he was making comments without being directed towards her, so indirect comments to explain meanings of words etc. do you get me? I've told dd he isn't as mature as he makes out and to rise about him

It sounds like it's been stressful all round for y12 parents. Glad some of it is getting sorted out, despite the tears.

All seems to be quiet and going ok with DS1 but it's impossible to tell. He could have lost a limb and he'd be reluctant to mention it to anyone.

We haven't had to endure a y12 welcome talk. I did go to DS2's Y3 talk, which was thoroughly depressing. His temporary classroom is far too small and his teacher was all, 'KS2 now; no more fun; time to get the nose to the grind stone.' And all I could think was: he's 7! There's absolutely no need for this nonsense. You'd think they were starting a-levels based on how his teacher was going on.

Thank you for allowing the odd Y11 stress/question. DD will definitely stress more than DS I feel.

Starfleet. Yes, I get that totally about FM and Maths. It's exactly the difference between my 2 DC.

Mint I agree totally about school meetings, especially trips, where they give you a leaflet containing all the information you need, then spend an hour going through it. Why?!

Oh gosh Slant, what a week! It's very wearing isn't it? Your poor DS. A glass of wine tonight maybe?

I actually laughed out loud at your comment Step re the lack of communication from your DS. Completely and utterly my DS.

I think I've been the only one who's gone to a good parents induction evening. It was so positive, a lot of talk about how we expect them to have a dip, in winter, how we will keep a close eye on them, how to contact the counselling service etc. and why their rules exist. It was all very reassuring. The only rules mentioned were do the homework else you have to stay that day to finish it and don't be late cos otherwise they make you come in early the next day.

It sounds like it's been a tough week for people. I'm not surprised. All of the excitement and rosy glow of new starts will be wearing off and all of the issues that need to be ironed out, raising their heads. So be lovely to yourselves this weekend. Congratulate yourselves for having got through this week by hook or by crook and plan something nice for half term if you can.

sorry, I seem to have developed a surplus of commas recently. I'm not sure why!

Hi, if I can drop in - my ds is starting year 12 again after college failing to support him last year (chronic health condition). This year has started better so far but we started later than many of you so only week 2 here.

I'm wondering if there will be an event for parents at our college. There's usually a meet the tutor one but as he hasn't got a tutor yet due to reorganisation I can't see that happening anytime soon.

Last year was a really unhappy one so when I went to a "welcome to parents of dc about to start next term" event in July last year I was very tempted to heckle when they went through all the stuff that should happen.

Also I seem to remember that one Scandanavian country (Sweden?) had a party stand for election on the platform of banning people giving PowerPoint presentations which they then read to their audience. Do you think we should take a similar approach to school/college presentations to parents. Out of the 3 secondary schools and 1 college that my dc attended through the years all of them have read out the PowerPoint slides to us.

Oh MrSlant what a nightmare week for you. Sounds like the school has excellent pastoral care though and a deputy head who goes above and beyond must be very reassuring. Hope your ds is feeling better about it and you have relaxing weekend to re charge.

Fantasy sorry to hear your DD is also having a tough time. I imagine it must be difficult being far away when she's so unhappy. I hope you can help her resolve some of the issues over the weekend. I agree with knitting I think - it sounds like the maths resit is a bit unnecessary.

Mint your parents meeting sounds very similar to ours - a load of patronising guff. You're right, I'm sure they only do it because they have to be seen to be doing it to tick boxes.

In your situation I would email all your questions to head of 6th and hopefully get some answers without the risk of getting shouty!

Strong One absolutely feel free to post about your DD here. My DD2 will
be y11 next year and I'm totally counting on all of you to get me through it again!

Knitting our parents meeting info came by email about 4 days before, although it was listed on the calendar on the school website from the start of term so I had some advance warning.

Kitten that sounds like the kind of meeting all schools should be doing, instead of the doom and gloom the rest of us seem to have had. Also what an absolutely lovely post, made me feel all warm and gooey - hope you have a wonderful weekend.

DD has had a relatively calm week, she seems settled with her new teachers/class mates, and is up to date with everything so has a rare homework free weekend!

I know what you mean about the rosy glow wearing off though kitten - demonstrated perfectly by my reception class - we had more 'cryers' at drop off this morning than in the last 4 weeks put together, and at least 3 fell asleep on the carpet during this afternoon's story! I know exactly how they feel!
Happy weekend everyone!

Reporting back that dd has finally met with her tutors and managed to sort out the problems with one her options. The tutor said it was all very normal and thought she was being very mature going to talk about it.
We have heard nothing about any new parents evenings either. the calendar on the college website is still blank for the rest of September. My understanding is that last year it was just before half term in October. My dd is a bit better knitting usually verbal messages are passed on a day or two before the event.

to everyone having a tough week.

Lobster I've had criers this week too. My form are year 7 and 4 of them have cried at me this week.

I didn't bother with our sixth form starters evening last night, I felt vaguely guilty about missing it but not enough to actually go to it. She wants to sign up for the World Challenge thing her school does so I need to go to a parents info evening thing next week for that, which seems a better use of my time. If she does get onto that (is usually oversubscribed and they interview for places I think) then she'll need to fundraise (and get a job!) over the next 2 years for the money.

Dd had a meeting with the head of sixth form yesterday. Apparently she is one of a select few who are going to be allowed to do 4 full A levels (others are strongly encouraged to drop one at Christmas or even earlier) and because of that she is not required to do an EPQ. She thinks it might be interesting to do one anyway, she's thinking about doing something with the physics of musical instruments and how they make the right frequencies, but said that would be the first thing to be dropped off things get too much.

DD is shattered. Sad to get a B in history

I am failing to give a ..........

A b week 3 is ace!

MsMermaid that sounds like a brilliant topic, although I did both music and physics A levels so might be biased . I remember we had a question in General Studies A level (I presume that has ceased to exist?) which was about the very topic and was overjoyed!

Thank you for all being so lovely, it was a ridiculously stressful week and I am very glad to be out the other end with a happy DS. As Mermaid's school have said not many of them get to do four full A levels so it was expected to drop one so all is good. Plus DS2 has surprised me and found all the right teachers to get permission to swap one of his GCSE's and it's sorted. We are celebrating by going to an end of season surf life saving competition and having lots of fun running on the beach and racing various craft in the sea, Lovely . Even if I am currently sharing a Premier Inn bedroom with an expensive rescue board!

Have a lovely weekend everyone.

Exit a B is bloody brilliant at this stage, which you obviously know enjoy not giving a ....

We've had an up and down week as well. Ds1 is doing really well, all is good in sixth form. There is a yr 12 parents welcome evening this week. It starts at 1830 on the only night I'm working until 1830 and the school is an hour away at that time of night. Needless to say I won't be going.

We had the same thing this week with ds2 yr 10 meeting. Same evening and an 1830 start. I arrived at this one in time for the "your all rubbish parents who don't understand your dc" speech-from a visitor who had spent one day at the school and decided he knew better than us how to parent our dc.

To top it all dd yr7 was in tears as she was being excluded by her best friend and another dc who is always mean (unfortunately her best friend wants to be liked by the other dc).

all around tonight I think.

That sounds dreadful ldg. Who on earth was the visitor? And what a bizarre assumption to make.

DD's school are still doing General Studies. They do one lesson a week and claim it is an easy extra A Level. She has started with four other subjects but is enjoying them all so is not sure she wants to drop one. So that is five subjects overall, Gold Dof E, Saturday job and the horse. And the boyfriend.

Not surprised she is shattered.

DS is taking four but one of those will stop after AS. It was a compromise, his friends were all taking that one and I could see him moving towards that and dropping English. Everyone is happy, he gets a lesson with his friends and he keeps up with three "proper" A levels.

Oh dear, another bizarre parents evening/meeting!

DS is doing 4 and is adamant he will take 4 through the full 2 years. Caveat is that 2 are Maths/FM, so doable. DN is taking 5 A Levels, fully aware it isn't necessary but loves to study. All A's at AS, so clearly dealing with the work load. I don't agree personally but each to their own.

We've had the re-mark for English Language back and no change to the A, in fact his mark went down, which was always the risk, but still a very secure A thankfully!

I didn't know General Studies was a 'thing' anymore, it was a compulsory in my day, which annoyed me no end...

Sorry I've been absent; got a bit distracted by real life this week (one of my children was injured and I've been offered a job that I really wanted).

DS1 is trying to keep up with his studies while also maintaining the social life that he had over the summer holidays.

Within the last week, he has:

• attended a 17th birthday party that turned into a sleepover which lasted well into the following afternoon
• babysat one evening until after midnight
• been to a gig in London and arrived home at 1.30am

In order to fit in homework, he has been studying till nearly 11pm (on the nights he is in) and then getting up early and doing more before school.

And he expects to stay well?

I'm feeling frustrated because we had a chat at the beginning of term about him taking more responsibility for his own health now that he's 16. But when I query his current lifestyle and lack of downtime, I just get told off for interfering.

I feel your pain. Dd doesn't have the most robust health, and also suffers from a lot of headaches. She really needs her sleep but never gets a lie in because of the horse. She is also doing some modelling for a local business.

TheSecond, I hope your injured dc is ok. It sounds stressful. But huge congratulations on the job offer :) There is no way your ds can keep up with that pace. Does he have to travel far?

And Exit, you are right, no wonder your dd is shattered. That's a huge amount to be doing all at once. Wow. If she manages all that she'll be superhuman.

dd is doing 4 this year, then dropping one and doing an EPQ instead. She does an extra curricular that takes up a lot of time at times.

I was quite surprised and interested to learn that her college discourage part time jobs and would rather they focus on fully immersing themselves into the work but also get adequate rest. It goes against my instinct a bit, but they did get extraordinary results last year and a lot of really good uni offers, so I'm bearing that advice in mind. I'd like her to be able to find something though.

And I forgot driving lessons!

Her school suggest that they keep any jobs to a minimum. She only does Saturday afternoons. She likes to earn a bit of money. She really misses the £20 pocket money my Dad used to give her. #spoilt.

I think Saturday afternoons are the way to go.

Driving lessons. eep.

My school discourage too much in the way of part time jobs. We know they will have then but some kids seem to do every evening in the local takeaways then wonder why they aren't managing to keep up with the homework and are failing. If dd does get a job it will be just one day at the weekend, with possibly one evening through the week. She doesn't want to get a job though, and going through our budget I think we can afford to fund her up to the end of uni without her needing one as long as she doesn't expect an extravagant lifestyle. We can't afford to fund a world challenge trip costing £££ as well though, so if she wants to do that she will need to find a way to fund it.

Second huge congratulations on the job offer!
Hope your injured dc is ok?

DD is hoping to do 4 full Alevels,
plus EPQ,
and is also doing Gold DofE,
a waitressing job,
a teaching job,
dance lessons/competitions,
she wants to audition for the school musical next year and has just announced she'd like to do Latin GCSE at an evening class, "just because".
I've told her she'd better ask for a Time Turner for Christmas!

I love that she likes to get involved and be busy, but I do think that at some point somethings got to give.