Parents of Year 12s - exam time again! (oh no!)

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

Just noticed we were running out of thread!

dds college have a sports afternoon every week, but the sports on offer are so diverse, it's hard to object.

Sports was compulsory back in the early eighties, I went to the principal to point out that my physics, maths and chemistry combo would be better served by an hour and a half in the library rather than on the hockey pitch. I was excused, or rather they mumbled about being well rounded and I took that as agreement and stopped turning up. There is a gym at college now but no sports in the general timetable.

I have no idea if college mentioned summer activities, that information would have to pass through the DS filter to get to me and he'd have Views about school work in the holidays.

I'm looking at a pile of clothes, we're off on holiday today.

Nothing compulsory past year 11 here.

No sign posting about summer uni things here either. Lots seem to need school links and there's v few Uni's in our area and the far-away Uni's don't cover dd1s course at summer school

It stops being compulsory in Y13, but they are expected to be doing something. It's just 1 period of 'games' and DD actually didn't mind it until Easter. After that she had so much revision and was cutting down activities, it seemed sensible to lose that and keep something she really enjoyed.

I just noticed my autocorrect above from extra curricular to extra cost, which also seems appropriate.

Actually thinking about the school sign posting for uni, though it was mentioned in school Im not sure how effectively, as DD was aware already.

Certainly they had people writing uniq application and PS on the last day, when DD had submitted already

All my research and "signposting" came from you helpful lot on here.

DD was far too stressed and tied up with revision and exams to do any online research any earlier than the middle of June which IMO is far too late. I realise the school has been busy with GCSE and A level exams, but a letter home to parents 4 or 6 weeks ago to flag up looking at university and other higher education options would have been appreciated.

DD only got her Unifrog log in on Thursday and has been too busy since then to look at it. She says this would have been really helpful before we started going to uni open days as she changed her mind halfway through one visit about what she wanted to do.

She went to a UCAS convention on 16th June and some universities, like Edinburgh had their open day the following day - again too short notice for us to go (the irony being that we had been to Edinburgh for a short break a few days earlier).

We will now have to go to university open days in the autumn term, requiring missing school for the further away ones at a time when the coursework will be ramped up.

I just think the whole UCAS process could have been handled better at DD's school.

Thank you to all of you on here for your guidance, without which we might not have done any university visits at all because I wouldn't have had a clue where to start.

DS went to a UCAS convention with college which was good but he'd been to three open days by then. He is a musician so if he'd only started thinking about HE options in June he would have already missed the open day window, the separate form for musical snowflakes has to be in at the end of September so the open days next term will be aimed at 2019 entrants.

Note to self - get off here and get some packing done before DH fills the suitcase with tech.

I think part of the issue is sixth form seems like a ridiculous treadmill. For a lot of the summer placements they needed to be looking really around Christmas time, but of course they had only just got there and itseems that a lot of students had mocks.

Then about 15 seconds later they seemed to be needing to plan open days. We were really vigilant and yet still some were full a day or two after bookings opened.

Has anyone else's dc gone prospectus mad? dd seems to have them arriving almost on a daily basis for places I'm sure she's not interested in. I do apologise for her contribution towards fees going up for students

"DS went to a UCAS convention with college which was good but he'd been to three open days by then."

The thing is we didn't know much about the open day process before then. Besides DD had AS exams until mid June so wouldn't have been able to focus on anything else.

You are spot on Kitten about the treadmill. DD found year 12 incredibly stressful, and struggled to keep on top of her workload of 4 A level subjects. She was given 16 pieces of homework for October half term and 12 pieces for February half term. She didn't have the mental capacity to think about anything else.

Iam aside from the Uni summer school, DD is in exactly the same place as your DD regarding visits. And this is my second DC, DS1 has just finished his first year. DD couldn't handle thinking about anything else.

DS1 started visits at the beginning of Y12, he was ready, and it was much less stressful!

We are planning to look at some over the summer, just looking at the campus and the area, DD already did this with Liverpool, and will go to offer days, she received offers!

Just catching up on all your posts - a lot of activity here since I last posted! We've had 4 milestone family birthdays just after exams finished & then did my back in for a while - very inconvenient timing! Glad to see you've all got through rest of AS exams & mocks.

kitten couldn't agree more with your last comment! It's a ridiculous treadmill in sixth form. DD finished exams, then uni prospectuses have to be quickly scanned, uni days booked miles away, back to school for whole UCAS week, first draft of PS in by last week(!!), UCAS main form bits expected in by Monday, coursework set in all subjects & deadlines Monday & just done a week's work experience! It's then A2 curriculum until mid-July. She has dance exams now & is shattered. Left her sleeping in bed & she's now panicking about Monday's course deadlines - ridiculous pressure!

So far she's done Taster days at King's & LSE as closest to home. LSE's Bronze award in the TEF results must have hurt them! We've done Nottingham, Leeds & Newcastle (me hobbling around!). She's keen on the northern Unis but so far from home!

Anyone got any/had any DC go to Newcastle, or anyone visited it recently? Any feedback very welcome as their course ticks a lot of her boxes

Good luck everyone with Uni hunting.

Just popping back to wish Icouldbe a lovely holiday!

I know students at Newcastle and they love it.

DD will definitely be considering it.

Newcastle is the one DS prefers most out of the ones we have visited.

We were at Sheffield today. Not sure about it. Halls were quite nice though.

Ursula & Starfleet thanks for feedback. It had a nice feel about it all & went into real depth on compulsory & optional modules, which DD really liked & Careers Dept seems switched on. We had lunch in the centre & it had a really nice vibe - helped it was a really sunny day too! What subjects are you both looking at?

Iam Ds1 school has been running annual career fairs which he has gone to since year 9. He heard about veterinary summer schools through that. The cost was a major issue for us so when I read on here about Sutton trust I encouraged ds1 to apply for a place. He had been told about Sutton trust in school but had written it off thinking his school (grammar) didn't qualify. Fortunately for him he met most of the criteria to be accepted.

I have had most of my knowledge of the ucas process from here, we went to Liverpool at the start of year 12, partly to see it and speak to people to find out if it would be right for ds1 but mainly so I could try and get an idea of how the process works. Neither dh or I have any a levels let alone a degree and neither had been near a university (other than as sports venues) so had no idea at all on how to support ds1.
It was a very sharp learning curve.

On a plus note ds1 looked at Cambridge yesterday, he loved the town and one of the colleges he looked at but is still not sure about the course as it's not as practical as Liverpool. He is much less stressed about the process though.Given he hated the whole idea previously as rumour has it everyone who goes there is very wealthy this is a good result, at least he has comparisons now though.

lashings - hopefully Geography (obviously dependant on grades). DS liked the course structure at Newcastle and pretty much everything about the place really. He was also interested in the course at Liverpool but wasn't sure about the city, although he is going for the day with a friend next week so maybe that might change his mind.

"Anyone got any/had any DC go to Newcastle, or anyone visited it recently?"

We went last weekend. DD liked it. She prefers the idea of a city university rather than a campus. We have family up there as well, so she already liked the idea.

Dd is very much gravitating towards a city. And we have family and friends in the North East.

Dd is looking at Psychology/Criminology

My DD also has Newcastle on her favourites list.
We're planning a visit over the summer - I have family up in the NE too so it's an area we're fairly familiar with (and love!)

They could all end up together!

I went to Newcastle, many years ago now. It's had a bit of a facelift since I went there. The university and the city centre have always had a really nice vibe to them. I'd recommend it to anyone. Dd doesn't even want to look there, it's nowhere near meeting her criteria. She definitely does NOT want a city university, she wants a uni like Durham where it's not so busy, she really, really does not do well with city centre crowds.

Starfleet DD wants to do Geog BA - she really liked the human topical mix of global, urban, economics & politics. Is your DS interested in that or the BSc?

Astonished Ursula Lobster & MsAwesome DD likes feel of city Unis too (she loved Leeds also) & although Nottingham campus only 10 mins away she immediately said she preferred being in a heart of city uni. I think because we're used to going to London, so she feels more at home & the cities also feel on a smaller scale to London. It's good that they are all weighing this up too as part of their decision process.
Yes, wouldn't it be funny if they all ended up there!

MsAwesome one of the students doing the Newcastle accommodation tours told us that the old demolished halls were really grim & had a reputation for being party Central a few years back. We really liked the mix of accommodation there - new, house-share type set-up & converted older building apartments - gave it character. It's nice to hear such positive feedback from you all too as the Uni doesn't always seem to crop up in the usual list/discussions from what I've seen.

He wants to do the BA as he prefers Human Geography. The course is offered in a way that he could in theory do all Human related modules and not really touch too much on Physical.

DD thinks she wants a City based Uni, but not Newcastle as too close to home in her eyes. It's not commutable but that's how she feels!

She is very drawn to KCL, I'm hoping this changes. I was talking to someone today who's son has an offer, and he has just been offered expensive accommodation in Stratford, which I don't think is what DD is imagining.

Dd1 was preferring campus but did like Cardiff and Durham which seemed a balance between city and campus.

Neighbours ds went to Sheffield and has told me horror stories about the neighbourhood the halls are in. I think dd1 will go off it when we visit but will have to wait and see.