Year 12 - first half term DONE.

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

new thread so we don't get lost. Well done to all our dc whether doing btech (or breach as autocorrect prefers to call it) or a levels. 1/6 of the way through this year. (blimey)

Good luck to your dd swing
I am however worried about dd she is Coming home every tired she's been very ill this weekend hot and cold etc stomach ache. Tired and looks ill, she said she's stressed she gets about 4 essays a week plus extra reading and other homeworks so she's always working and she's just as tired as before the holidays
I'm in 2 minds as to whenever to contact house staff or not as she is 18 and therefore technically school to home contact should be low which it is, I hardly contact school.

Has anyone else's dc started with wisdom tooth issues yet? poor dd is suffering this week.

Your poor DD kitten. Wisdom teeth haven't made an appearance here yet, but I remember them well from when I was a teenager. Mine were very painful, and got infected, right when I was having interviews for my gap year placement.

I've got parents evening for DD tomorrow. I forgot to make appointments on their online system before it closed and had to ring the office to make my appointments . I hope there aren't any surprises.

oops on the appointments! I hope it goes ok tomorrow.

I think a dentist visit is needed for dd. Wisdom teeth are stupid things. I'd hoped she had inherited my lack of them. I'm hoping they will calm down for her as levels.

Ouch to the wisdom teeth. Hope they sort themselves out soon.
I remember living on soup and yoghurt for about a month when mine came through

We've had parents evening for dd tonight.
All very positive, really lovely to hear she's doing well and on track for her target grades.
(And the English teacher who gave her a B in the mock admitted he'd marked it too harshly!)

She's feeling very positive about all her subjects, and re-considering her decision to drop down to 3 in yr13.

Just got to get the EPQ over and done with and then she can properly evaluate her time/workload etc.

I still worry she's doing too much with 4 Alevels, EPQ, still doing dance and drama lessons 4 days a week, and dancing competitively, also teaching 2 dance classes a week, her waitressing job, weekly work experience at a museum, and has just started working towards Gold DofE.

She seems happy though and is managing.
Her teachers seem happy and there is no problem with the quality of her work.

We'll just keep monitoring and re evaluating.

Is this a normal amount of extras? I'm never sure what's considered too much. What do all of your dc do?

Dd may have wisdom teeth issues as her bottom teeth have started moving

She is currently doing 4 plus an EPQ. Gold DofE. Rainbows. Saturday job. Random modelling jobs at night. Boyfriend. And the horse which is every evening and competitions at the weekend.

And she can throw a mighty strop when asked to peel a carrot. 😜

All went well with parents evening. Lots of nice things said about DD, she's on track to get her targets, which are all very high.

Dd doesn't do that many extras. I thought she was quite busy, but not as busy as yours. She does school orchestra and choir, and another 2 music things. And she has driving lessons. No job yet, but one place says they take teenagers on in April so she should expect a call then.

I'm really happy for the positive parents evenings. Good stuff Mrs AD and Lobster.

It's amazing how many activities some can fit in and still have energy to spare! I feel knackered just at the thought.

Ds1 hopefully will avoid wisdom teeth problems as he had 5 teeth removed before his braces were fitted.

He does army cadets twice a week, his sport once a week and voluntary work on weekends. Through March he will train Saturday morning then go straight to a farm and stay until Sunday evening for lambing. He will then go back to volunteering in the local rescue on Sundays.

His work experience was fantastic and has given him a real boost, he is more determined than ever to succeed.

DS also had teeth out before his braces - 7 of them so hopefully he won't have wisdom teeth problems.

I though he was busy with football/goalkeeper training 3 nights a week and the shed load of homework - how on earth do they find the time to to all the other stuff?

He is doing 4 A's and an EPQ.

DS1 is not in the same academic league as most of the young people mentioned on here, but is finally settling into his two 'new' subjects and seeming a lot more engaged with his courses.

He has been looking at university courses (History) and has found a few that appeal to him (and are within reach with his likely grades).

The aspirational shortlist includes Leicester and Kent (average offer ABB). Probably out of his league but will give him something to work for.

His more realistic shortlist includes Essex, Swansea, Winchester, Aberystwyth.

Then there's an even more realistic shortlist (average offer BBC / BCC) which includes Chichester, Worcester and Northampton.

He is doing 3 A-levels (no EPQ) and doesn't do any sports, play any instruments or do any D of E type stuff.

In his spare time he babysits, goes to gigs, hangs out with friends, watches Netflix, plays computer games or sleeps. Not sure how he could work any of those into a personal statement.

second - that sounds very positive. It must take some of the pressure off you (and him) that he still various options depending upon what he achieves.
I'm not sure that DD will go to university - she is doing well with her two BTECs, but will be lucky to get more than a D in her A level. I'm also not sure that she will be sufficiently over her anxiety problems by then to want to leave home. I have a feeling that if she does H.E. at all, it would be at the local technical college.
I am sniggering at the idea of including Netflix, computer games and sleep on a personal statement!

TheSecond, he sounds refreshingly normal :) I'm really glad that he is finding his feet. The babysitting would go nicely on a personal statement. Shows that he is a trusted person.

TheSecond I'm glad to hear that he's more settled now and it's a really good sign that he's doing research on the next step (I wish mine would). I wouldn't fret over the personal statement, I didn't think that it made much difference these days unless you were going for something ultra competitive. It used to be the case that it was the space to sell yourself so you got the all important interview but many courses don't interview now. It's a numbers game.

We have the dates for AS exams, it's all getting a little bit more real now.

Fewer people were born in 1999-2000 than expected (the national birth rate dropped from 1999ish to 2002ish before starting to rise again).

DS1 is hoping that this will help his chances, as he really likes History and wants to continue studying it.

You've probably seen the graph before (for England and Wales), but for those who haven't...

That's really interesting. I wonder why.

I had never heard that fact or seen the graph - Thankyou for teaching me something new today second!
I wonder what the reason was?
I suppose whatever it was, it didn't affect any of us!

The only reason I found out about the birth rate dip is that in DS2's year (born 2001-2002) his normally oversubscribed primary school only filled 70 places out of 90. Parents with children in several other local primary schools reported similar. I wondered whether it was just our local area so I looked it up.

I wonder why.

Perhaps it's partly related to the dip in birth rate in the late 1970s. In the early 2000s, there were fewer people in their mid-twenties than one might expect.

Disclaimer: I know nothing at all about population studies; I didn't even do Geography GCSE.

I have seen it, mostly because of admission problems at the infant school I was a governor of.

There was a theory that the birth rate goes up in a recession.

There was a theory that the birth rate goes up in a recession.

Because people can't afford to go out, so they "stay in"?

Dd2 is 2001-02 too. Her year in infants was 32 , dd1 had 60!
I know at their secondary they've now gone up by two forms in year 7/8 and are oversubscribed.

DD's year at school has been tiny all the way through junior and senior school.