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.

Maybe peer pressure will MrsAD?

I'm dreading next weeks super early starts. Double whammy in your house though.

With regards to TIO, I found that mn had helpfully accidentally hidden FE so that it never showed up on my TIO. It was only when I went on my pc that I was able to discover this.

As DD doesn't start back until Wednesday, I'm hoping for at least a paragraph of PS by then.

Exeter was a hit today apparently.

It's a Friday start here, it seems an odd day but I think it's a Monday start for everyone with a UCAS/jobs day tacked on at the front for Y13. I don't know yet which day the college bus service starts on, I'd love for my suspicion about this to be proved wrong.

Is anyone finding university open days an expensive business?

We have had two overnighters and have another one next week, plus expensive travel costs.

No overnight stays here although it's a possibility later in the process if he needs to be there early for an interview. There was one where the train ticket was a ridiculous price for the distance involved but I didn't fancy driving into a city centre that I didn't know so I drove part of the way and he took the train for the last leg.

The courses that DS is looking at all interview so he could be looking at visiting three times if he gets as far as the offer day. So far open days have eliminated one course, if he'd looked in detail at the course information on line then he would have seen sooner that the emphasis wasn't what he wanted.

It has been really expensive. :(

Train fares are quite shocking really aren't they?

The train fare that was a shock came in at £89. I knew the train fare to A was £20 and B is twice as far away so I was expecting it to be about the £40 mark. I couldn't believe £89.

It's something to factor in when comparing study at both A and B

It is. It's cheaper to fly to southern Europe for a couple of days than it was for our visit to Durham. Which shows how wonky things are, because flights really shouldn't be that cheap and rail shouldn't be so expensive.

I'm driving and putting my faith in my map reading skills. And my blue badge for parking. Yeah. Go me.

Agree, train fares are ridiculous. As are bus fares here.

A friend came to stay from London. She gets free rail travel and discovered that she could get a train to our local station. I laughed at the notion. She was determined to prove me wrong. I was right. I ended up picking her up from one of her changes as she was stunned that our trains are only once an hour. And we are not particularly in the sticks. Just the NW.

We have a ridiculously busy 2 months ahead. Dd has realised she can only work one Saturday in that time.

We've been lucky in that DH's parents live bear the furthest away one from us, but it's partly why she has done some as a self guided tour.

I just realised yesterday offer day's are going to be expensive!

Tell me about offer days

Oh cripes, hadn't thought about the practicality of the offer days. I guess though that you don't need to go to all of them, you see what they offer, then decide whether it's likely to make one of your final two.

It's worse than the Apprentice this going off to uni lark.

We haven't found it too expensive, but that's because dd has been very cautious about choosing which unis to visit. All have been within a 2 hr drive from us, and we've managed to do each one as a day trip in the car, which has been fine. Of course, that's because she doesn't fancy going too far away, the practicalities of being able to come home whenever she wants to easily have been high on her priority list. She's also decided against going to any Scottish unis because it would take an extra year, and going straight into second year wouldnt work as she doesn't have an A level in computing so needs them to start from the basics.

Our return rail fares to Bristol are £158 , and that is with a student railcard. There is no way I am driving there on a Friday afternoon, and it is too far to do in a day trip, so we have overnight hotel costs as well.

Back in the day I went for an interview at Bristol. The journey from Rotherham was enough to put me off the course, it was raining when I got there and I couldn't find the bus from the station. I cannot remember anything else about the place, course or interview except that I was tired, wet and felt very far from home.

There are very few places that offer what DS wants to do and all except one are a couple of hours from home.

Ha ha knitting we are travelling from Sheffield.

DD is looking at Bristol on Monday on their way back up north.

We were very lucky with DS1. He didn't particularly think about distance, but the combination of ideal course and campus came up an hour and a half drive away with easy motorway access at each end

It's not been too bad here, just as well or I would have had to say no to some.
We have a friends and family pass which has been useful this year.
So far Liverpool has been the furthest, although I don't know anyone there personally, a friend has family there if he needed immediate support. She volunteered them.

Ds1 has just announced his first draft is complete.

Well done to all the DCs who have started working on their personal statement.

Question about driving tests: Is it just the practical test that changes on 4 Dec 2017, or will the theory test be changing too?

TheSecond the details say nothing about theory, just what will change in the road driving test so presumably theory will not be changing. I hate driving from the SatNav, she never answers me when I say "what, this turn HERE or that one?". DS does a much better job with directions - "follow that red car, turn where the bus went" and he's improved no ed since he started driving himself.

DD has completed her D of E expedition. Drenched but safe.

dd goes back to college on Weds. They had info about post-18 options at the end of the Summer term. She has holiday tasks to finish off but is ready to go back now.
We are restarting driving lessons with a new driving school / instructor. Wasn't too happy with the last one - changed too many lesson times around at the last minute. Including one where he was supposed to pick up dd from college and the first thing she knew about it was when he didn't show up.
If anyone wants tips for Bristol University, please ask either on here or send a pm. I went to Bristol University and still live here. Am shocked by the train fares now - it was a 4 hour train journey from my parents house but it was manageable. It would be cheaper to fly here now than use the train (Bristol does have an airport) and there are also cheap coach options as well.
There are currently roadworks around Temple Meads station which are making the bus journey to the uni very slow. My tips for train travellers would be to check out the local train to Clifton Down station to avoid the traffic (much nearer the uni and fewer hills).
My only other word of caution is that there are 2 other events on in Bristol that weekend. The first is called Bristol Doors open Day and has a chance to look round some buildings that are usually not open to the public. (some are close to the uni and may give members of the family who aren't interested an alternative to looking round the uni buildings.) The second is the anti-austerity protest march which will close down many roads in the city centre for a while and probably cause traffic chaos.

Top tip for next September. Do not watch Toy story 3. It's on today, and I remember crying watching it last September ahead of DS1 leaving for uni. I'm wondering if they show it in September deliberately!

Thanks for the tips cats