New Batch of Year 13 parents this way!

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

Hopefully this thread will appear on TIO! No need to use it til our old thread is done, but at least we have it for when we are ready.

Yes they are missing school. But it is a school organised activity.

OK, am now starting to get nervous about DD going back to college on Wednesday. I so hope that the girl that punched her doesn't cause any more trouble.

Good luck to your DD Chocolate

Is your dd going to go in with a friend chocolate?

Totally agree this is a lovely thread, and very informative, I am learning so much from you all, thank you. Driving theory test passed need to get lessons booked now, next open day at Durham and PS started last week. It seems a long year ahead!

Thanks Lonicera

Kitten I'll sit down with her tomorrow and look at her timetable. Once we know what time she has to be in, hopefully she can find someone to walk in with

Good luck to your dd chocolate
And that's good she's in a bunk house ursula my dd would be fretting about missing school
LoniceraJaponica
My dd turns 19 next week can't believe it time has flown by

We're planning to look at Leicester on Saturday. Our first (and possibly only) open day. If you're there, keep an eye out for us. DS1 is the good-looking 17 year old who'll be talking to girls about what music they like. I'm the fat middle-aged woman who'll be looking exhausted.

Chocolate hope the start of term is peaceful and uneventful for your DD.

Ooh. We are in Leicester on Saturday. DD has green hair.

I wonder if I can persuade dd that we need to look at Leicester

I'm so impressed with all the hard as nails D of E expeditioners on here. Plus the visiting universities and the finishing of UCAS forms.

Glad the horse is home Ursula, if nothing else that must have been costing a fortune in vets bills! I love my friends horses to bits but they cost so much to keep well, so I groom hers and sniff them have the occasional cuddle instead.

We have a minor victory here, as I suspected the whole world of choice out there and filling in of the UCAS form has over cooked DS1. I suspect this whole next 10 months is going to be a bit much for him. So, baby steps, we have registered with UCAS and he's nominated me as the person who communicates with them. So, a start. And return to the nagging suspicion that whilst he is incredibly bright Uni might not be for him just yet. I think we'll arrange a campus visit to the only course he wants to do to give him a better idea of university.

Good steps MrSlant :) A friend whose ds was in a similar position contacted some sort of inclusion officer or something at the units that her ds was interested in. They got masses of support from one or two places with preapplication conversations.

You could also contact the admissions tutor and ask whether your ds can have a visit outside an open day, which might feel overwhelming to him.

When you apply for prospectuses the difference in the universities inclusion policies is amazing. One course bends over backwards to cover all aspects of SEN. Unfortunately that's the uni that wants ABB or something which isn't happening. Although I suspect that if they have that attitude on the prospectus webpage they would be open to different offers to reflect different exam taking abilities. Hmm, interesting, I might give them a call. He has family in the city that one's in and is familiar with it. The main course he wants to do (and this is very outing to anyone who knows us!) is lead by someone who has known DS1 all his life and he's met other tutors at sporting events with him. So I can go straight to the source and find out about visiting that uni at school pick up tonight . I have no idea where the ethics on applying to that course are, the moment the tutor reads DS1's personal statement he will know who the applicant is because they have so many sport clubs in common! (He wants to do a sports science course with strong links to outdoor sports and gaining coaching and training qualifications along the way to the degree so a big part of the application is showing enthusiasm for an outdoor way of life and good level of fitness, I think this bit is as important as the A levels).

For a course in something like Law or English what sort of thing is required in a personal statement? (These are the first examples I can think of that are opposite to what we are doing!) I'm finding the whole process fascinating, be lovely to hear what other people put.

MrSlant there isn't an ethical issue - he can apply where he likes. For performance based subjects tutors will have come across some of the applicants before and may even have coached them/run workshops/given them lessons.

I think if there were an ethical issue it would be down to the tutor to sort that out by passing on dealing with the application to another tutor or something, It's certainly not your worry to deal with.

I only know what goes into a maths PS and it's all about what they have done with maths and which bits they love most, any competitions they've done, books they've read, that sort of thing.

He met all the tutors earlier on this year, our friend took him over and said "This is Slant's son, he wants to come and join us". He'd just done a hard as nails 70k charity bike ride with 20% gradients and a sleety headwind. I said "consider this our application" .

That's so interesting. I will start DS2 on Fermat's Last Theorem by Simon Singh then (that book made me cry, I think I get true geek credentials for that). I'd love to hear how everyone has tailored theirs to their given subject. Fairly sure when I did mine I managed to say such world altering truths such as I loved reading and travel. No idea how I got in.

do you use twitter MrSlant? Simon Singh has a great twitter feed.

Don't worry about the ethics, if it's the right course then he should go for it :)
I'll pm you.

I love Simon Singh (saw him talk once, he was amazing) but I'm hopeless with twitter. Not enough words!

I dunno about some of the ethics though, I've know the course leader since he was a teenager and if it looks like DS1's not getting in I could threaten to tell his students some stories .

MrSlant I know that a couple of the courses DD has spoken to has more than one admissions tutor. In her case it is useful because her subject splits into two main specialities, so it helps to have one of each. In your case though, it could be that it is a simple job of passing over the application to the person who doesn't know your DS.

I'd have thought that your DS personal statement could easily include something like "I have XYZ difficulty, which has made ABC a particular challenge. However I have tried to counterbalance that with DEF, and GHI, and have been successful to some extent, demonstrated by JKL."

DD has tailored hers (a science subject) by saying what things she has seen (during work experience, or at a science show) that have particularly interested her. She needs to work on WHY they have interested her...but she's still on first draft, so time yet.

Might your DS qualify for a contextual offer?

Dd hasn't even started writing a personal statement it's not been done here not for a couple more weeks I don't think?

I think it depends on what you are applying to do Fantasy. DS' doesn't need to be in until January but some courses are October. You can check on the course websites when they want the application by, most are after Christmas so time yet.

Contextual offer is an excellent way of putting it, that's what I was trying to say. I'm going to make sure he mentions his dyspraxia on his PS because it makes what he has achieved through sport all the more amazing and I think sometimes when you have struggled to get the hang of something it makes you a better coach yourself because you understand the different pathways. DS3 who can see a sport once and excel 5 minutes later would never be able to explain how, it just is.

I'm learning a lot for next time round too when we will be having to take things rather more seriously.

Also, off the topic of UCAS forms, does anyone else become a little bit teary when you think what happens if they are successful. I feel like sabotaging his so he stays home . How did we get this far? I remember some of you from when they were starting secondary school and I was all tearful about that too!

Need to post before this thread disappears from TIO.
dd has now been back at sixth form a week and has handed in all her holiday projects including a 25 page essay that took approx 1 hour to submit on the on-line portal (feel sorry for the tutor marking this one).
Most of her friends are continuing to Y13 at the same college (apart from one who lived some distance a way who has transferred elsewhere to take an Extended BTEC). She has the same tutors for 2 subjects but one has left for a job elsewhere so this is another adjustment.
I may have the opposite problem MrSlant in that I don't think dd will be applying for unis (at least not this year). She still isn't sure about what course she would apply for and can't really imagine herself studying 1 subject for 3 whole years! The trouble is that many acquaintances who know she is starting Y13 keep saying things like "you will miss her next year etc" and I don't really have the inclination to say that she may be following a different route.