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

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

here we are.

I think that 4.5 hours per subject is probably about what most do. What kind of hours are your dd doing Jan?

Slightly harsh lesson Need - but good to learn now!

mummytime, I hope your dd recovers quickly. There do seem to be a number of colds about, I'm back with a sore throat, having only just about got over the last cold.

DD is doing 5 hours per subject per week, so that seems about right. All ours are starting with four A levels - plus Cambridge pre-U. The school day is 6.5 hours of contact.

Yep, I've just got over a cold too, and DD is currently afflicted. DH too when I think about it...

I don't think he was too bothered Kitten. If he had got a C because he didn't understand the work, then he would have been cheesed off, not for being a bit of a dingbat.

TheSecond Here's hoping for an application of common sense and a solution.

4.5 hours tuition per subject per week here with a three subject norm. They have been told that they are supposed to do an hour's private study for each contact hour. DS has three mornings that start with a chunk of study time as he goes in on the college bus and I think that's when he's doing his homework. He has one afternoon where he has nothing In the afternoon and he comes home early then, that was the trade off for no late starts.

Can I suggest an app called MyStudyDay for anyone who hasn't come across it already? It will handle a two week timetable and will remind them when homework is due in. It will also prompt them to get out of the cafeteria and off to the next lesson at the end of their free/study time.

My cold refuses to go away.

DD has 8 lessons per week for each subject, made up of 4 double lessons - which I think makes them 80 minutes so that is 5 hours per subject - (4 subjects) plus one lesson for General Studies. She doesn't have many free periods as they also have a double period of supervised study, pus she gets Wednesday afternoons off as that is when they do their 'enrichment' but DD has convinced school that she does her enrichment at home - which to be fair she does as she volunteers at Rainbows.

She seems most bogged down by History.

Dd is doing history biology and RS. About 4 hours per week contact time. She's had very little work marked and returned so hard to tell how she's doing. Last history essay was worth 8 marks and she got 7 and comment was 'outstanding' so hoping she's doing OK.

Wednesday afternoon also enrichment here. Dd does netball at the minute.

I can't remember how many study periods DD had. She is doing four timetabled subjects, plus Further Maths. They have to nominate 2 as guided study periods, and check in to a supervised room. She also has her clarinet lesson in one study period. Further Maths is another (plus a lunchtime and an after school session).

She has also signed up to be a Maths Champion for Y7. She was shocked this week that her Y7 girl turned up writing with the opposite hand. She'd dislocated her shoulder in a fight and had a trip to AandE.

Dd has 4 lessons (1 hr each) per subject, plus one study period that can be used by each subject as a lesson if required (physics and maths have used one of these "allocated study" for tests, chemistry hasn't yet). She's doing 4 subjects, so has 5 study periods per week plus the 4 "allocated study" which will most often be available for her own use.

My school has 5 hours of lessons for each subject, with most starting on 4 then dropping to 3 at some point in y12. So they get 5-10 study periods per week, but chose some form of enrichment out voluntary work as well.

DS2 is doing an extended diploma at college, equivalent in UCAS points to 3 A levels and get 11 1/4 hours of lessons a week, 1 1/4 hours of 'directed study' and 1 1/4 hours a week of an individual 'making sure he's on track' tutor time. That comes to 13 3/4 hours a week which divided by 3 is about 4 1/2 hours per A level equivalent. He has Tuesdays completely free! The days are much longer, though. Last lesson finishes at 5.15 then it takes him an hour home on the bus through rush hour traffic.

I thought that seemed very little compared to DS1's sixth form where they had compulsory games, 'enrichment' activities etc and just as much time for FM as for regular maths. I think they had 5 one hour lessons per subject per week plus extras.

It's DS2's 17th birthday today. I saw him this morning for present opening but he's now at his dad's for the weekend.

DS2 doesn't need to be in college during free lessons, so starts at 9, at 10.30 and at 12.15 on 2 days. He finishes at 5.15 twice, and at 2.30 and 3.45. He has 2 days when he has a 3 hour gap in the middle when he gets any 'homework' done. Or so he tells me. Certainly no work has been done at home yet!

Happy birthday to your ds2 Ellen. You'll have to nab him another time for a celebration.

First set of internal exams done without any drama - phew!!

raspberry, I can't believe how little they give to further maths at your dds college. Although at dds they don't split it fm and maths, but instead just by subject, so core, stats etc, they give each one the same weighting so maths overall is 10 periods.

Happy birthday to your ds2 ellen
DD is exhausted and says she is ready for 1/2 term now. She has a triple free tomorrow so can begin work to shorten work load at weekend but she plans to consolidate knowlege at the weekend

nooo, it's not nearly half term! before we know it it'll be april and back to full station stress!

I know Kitten, but it's not treated as an option subject, just as an added extra, hence her doing 5 AS. There's only half a dozen of them, I think. It's only been slitted into a study period as they all had the same one free, otherwise it would have been like DS1, just lunchtime and after school in Y12.

It is what it is, she wants to do Ancient History at uni so I suspect she will drop it after AS. My DS1 is doing Physics and while it wasnt his best result still did fine.

OYBK
1/2 term starts 21st here! Yay! I'm tired myself.
Thankfully we have no external exams this year only internal

DS1 moved to a grammar school for sixth form and they had 60 (!) doing further maths at AS down to about 40 for A2, so 3 classes down to 2 classes. They did maths in the same sets as for FM and had another 3 or 4 classes just doing maths AS. It was another world compared to his comprehensive where maybe 8 of them were planning on FM.

I have a Y11 and Y12, can you imagine the exam angst for the next few years.

I suppose If DD were doing Maths for Uni we could have considered other options to consider, but her school gets consistently high results for History and English which are her main ones.

Indeed, raspberryripple. DS1 is doing maths at uni now, and that was pretty much always his plan. His sixth form had much less success with English or history than with sciences.
I nearly did English, maths and history A levels, but was persuaded to do physics instead of history. I still wonder if that was the right choice...

DD is doing Philosophy, Maths and Geography. I think lots more young people do Maths than back in my day, and they aren't told it's just for people doing Sciences.

DD sixth form has somewhere between 140 and 160 in Y12, and there are 4 maths sets. I think there are even 2 further maths sets. I can't imagine so many people doing it when I was at school. It really was just for the super keen.

Dd has 10 and 1/2 hrs of maths/FM (like OYBK it is split by topics not into maths/further maths) and 4&1/2 of physics and history a week. They also have 3 hrs of the school's own extension certificate, 1&1/2 hrs of tutorial (academic and pastoral alternate weeks) and a fortnightly 'inspirational' lecture from outside speakers. Wed afternoon is enrichment (dd does BSL) and they finish early on a Fri and start late on a Mon. So she has very few frees during the week. She seems to be keeping up ok.
We had her SEN review yesterday. There are no major problems but all the minor ones are being taken seriously and action plans made.

Hello please may I join. Have lurked for a while. DD is year 12 doing English, History, Psychology and Business A levels. I have a yr 11 ds and yr 7 dd also. DD finding the work load quite heavy already esp English and History - a lot of reading to be done!

welcome limeandchilli, I've just added you to my salsa for tonight's tacos

That's good news NoHaudin.