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

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

here we are.

It does.

Glad most first days went well. Sixth form and college can be fantastic. Free lessons, only subjects you want to do, new friends and a much more relaxed relationship with teachers.

Unfortunately DS2 needs fairly close supervision to keep him on track and he doesn't really do friends. Hoping he knuckles down a bit.

Oh, and MrSlant, I emailed DS2's geography teacher to celebrate his unexpected B grade (she'd predicted him a D) and to thank her and the TA for their help, support and 'persuasive skills' with his CA which was a high A. She emailed back, delighted, and copied in the SENCO and various TAs. So I'm sure your email will have been very happily received.

It amuses me, they do it quite often. It's Monopoly or they play poker using our penny jar. Sometimes, I come home from work and there's 6 pairs of converse at the door and a teenage boy aroma.

Ellen I am sure the teacher and TA's were touched to have positive feedback. I did the same with DS's English teacher, who claimed it was all DS, when it most certainly was not, her influence was immense.

Lovely to hear the stories coming in, amazing to think of them in sixth form common rooms/colleges and learning the joys of free periods.

Exit fingers super crossed for tomorrow that she slots right back in at school and you have a slightly smoother although expensive week!

I'm glad my email into school will hopefully be well received. A LOT of people have put extra time and effort into helping DS1 throughout his school career because they could see he was bright underneath all the issues and wanted him to show everyone else what they could see. At his old primary with DS3 this morning all the staff knew his grades and made a bee line for me to say how pleased they were for him, the teacher who turned him round from a miserable little boy to one who did well had actually phoned me on results day to see how he'd got on but I missed her call (I did email her the day after). She almost hugged me and said 'I KNEW he had it in him'

MsMermaid - school bear I presume they know you are a teacher as well? That's just mean .

So now I have to think of what the class bear can do for the week and get the printer working to print the pictures

I think the class bear would enjoy buying lever arch folders and downloading A-level specifications.

Apparently the class bear is just going to hang out at home playing. He can meet the guinea pigs, have stories read to him, play improving board games, maybe he will do some A level maths homework. Since we're first this year, we can set the bar low :) I didn't even know they had a bloody class bear, they've never had one before.

Once again dd1 is up well before normal. She's already been down and had breakfast I'm still in bed and is getting herself ready to head off to meet her friends early to walk to school. Long may this continue.

Other parents will thank you hugely MsMermaid. The last thing they would want to see is that the first outing the Class Bear had was to Barbados. Hopefully you wont get another turn this year so you wont be able to see how badly you let him down.

We didn't need to go out and buy folders. dds college provides one Giant folder for every thing to go into.
She will need a fork lift truck to carry it by the end of the year.

The class bear could do some baking - read the recipe book, sit in a trolley and get the ingredients, help with the spoon and then supervise the oven Bake Off style. It's so long since one came home that I've forgotten what we did but it was day to day stuff.

We are off to York today. I am ridiculously excited because we are going on a train which is something I experience about once a decade.

DD has her induction day today! And back to school! Can't believe how fast it's gone! DD is nervous when there's nothing to be nervous for
Have fun icouldbe

First day of y12 here as well. dd isn't expecting any lessons but has finished holiday tasks.
She is meeting up with a group of girls who have also transferred from her old school to the sixth form college. She is also excited about meeting up with some girls from her old primary school as well (her secondary school is one of the few in the area to have a sixth form).
Ellen i had an email last week from dds Science teacher saying how pleased he was with the B grade that dd obtained for Additional Science. It's really good to know that individual teachers value these achievements (even if official press releases are full of pupils with lots of As and A*s).
I remember the class bear. I think he went with dd to Brownies (or possibly Rainbows) and then had a nice long sleep in the dolls crib because he was very tired afterwards.

When we had the class bear he had a rather close encounter with the muck heap. Dirty Bear.

DD had a jeffing Latin Bear last year. Granted he just sat around on her desk.

Flipping Alis test, just when you think they could have a few microseconds without worrying about the outcome of a test.

DDs Alis test is today she's extremely nervous as she can't think on the spot like that.
DD is all packed! Nearly time to leave

dd was looking forward to it, but I think perturbed that she finished early. How can you finish early on a computer adaptive test?
I hope they don't give them the results.

Do they all do the Alis test? I've never ever heard of it before but then DS does have a tendency to move through life just doing as he's told without questioning or sometimes even remembering what he's just been made to do . He's like a giant happy teddy bear really. Very patient and calm and slow, life has no urgency for him.

love your description of your ds!

I don't think so, from a bit of Google research it seems that some don't do it at all, some use just GCSEs scores and some use this crackers computer predictive test thingy. Google hasn't answered my own question about how it's possible to finish an hours long adaptive test early. Unless she made gazillions of rapid guesses and it either ran out of questions or gave her up in disgust!

I haven't heard of these tests either, and DS says he hasn't been told about them at school.

DS had his induction day today, which he said was 'boring'. They had 2 hours in their tutor group. They had to write a letter to their future selves, to be given back in Y13 (which DS wasn't impressed with!!), and did a lot of talking. They then had to have their photo taken and came home.

Kitten, I'm sure it will be fine.

I'm glad of this thread, it's good to chat to you all as they get into 6th form.

He's 6'2', broad shoulders and long arms, big hands and feet with a mop of bright red hair and freckles. Most common expression is happy with a side order of slight bewilderment . He's a lovely boy actually. All the attitude and temper that are supposed to come with red hair were apparently shared out as an extra between his younger brothers. They are NOT patient and calm. Oh no.

It's more for international students as they have no GCSE grades. DD is nervous I've said if it predicts low grades that's fine she can still achieve higher Mother Nature has arrived so she's feeling dreadful

I'm sure it will be fine too, it won't make any difference at all, apart from perhaps which set she starts off in. If it's the wrong set I'm sure they sort it out. I suspect however it's really so the college can then at the end of the two years say 'look how amazing we are at getting them x grades above predicted grades'

I think she or I (or perhaps both) are stuck in worry mode at the moment, but this would be a silly thing to worry about.

DS said it was 'pathetic'.

Ahh, I missed your DD had moved to college, perhaps that's it then?

yeah maybe - with students from lots of different schools and different levels of teaching maybe they need to establish a baseline.

dd has arrived back and is still smiling! Her verdict "first day good". Much to her surprise after a "Welcome to college" assembly/talk there were some real lessons today.
She has received her timetable and has lots of free periods. There are some days where her lessons don't start until 11.55 am, but also others where the last lesson finishes at 4pm.
They did some "diagnostic" tests at the pre-enrolment day but isn't sure how they will be used.