Christmas half term - Year 13 (another original thread title!)

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

Carrying on from previous thread

I'm so rubbish with thread titles. Anyway...

This time last year there was lots of chat about tests/exams/mocks at this point. Are there fewer of them, or is everyone more chilled about them?

:(

well, welcome back!

What is this Find my friends of which you speak?

lonicera welcome back!

Ursula - Find My Friends is like "Find My iPhone." If you and your DC both have iPhones, you can set up Find My Friends to be able to see where they are (unless they disable it of course)

I'll have to look into that - thanks for the info.

I do occasionally offer to sign up to what is known here as "the stalker app" whenever DS feels he needs to know where I am. We both know that if he gets to track me, I get to track him and so far he's declined to take me up on my generous offer.

I got a text this morning when he got to school and we also have the find friends thing on our iPhones so I know where he is 😉

Aw first day in his car on the school run.

Then they start complaining about where to park!

DD has finished off my car after 2 days of school run! I'm blaming the very loud music on its poor old lady chassis. It now has rattling noises DH says will cost too much to fix!

Hi all, need some encouragement! DS got Us in mocks. Is uni now a distant dream? i have no clue what he was playing at - he appeared to be revising. So frustrated with him - one subject went from C end of last year to U - how did he manage that?? (And that is a big part of what he wants to do at uni). Hoping this is the kick up the backside he needs - he has certainly seemed more focused this last week, but is it too little too late?
Trying so hard not to shout - have offered help in all ways up to this point - admin type tasks (printing out revision guides/exam papers), and tutor in one subject which he had seemed to be making progress in.

So sorry to hear that flat I would imagine it would be important to engage with the college ASAP. I'm hoping someone who is better informed will confirm, but I would assume that if the college is happy for him to continue, the mock grades won't affect university so long as he ends up with good grades. Otherwise it could be worth asking if it's possible for him to do another year? A lot of DD's friends are doing 3 years at college.

It must be a very worrying time for you - I do hope you get some answers soon. In the meantime, these are for you

:) Thanks chocolate
It's frustrating really - i know he can achieve so much more, but time is running out. He did well at GCSE (not blindingly brilliant, but good solid results) - he's just not bothered since.
Regarding contacting the college - I will (after talking with him) see if it is possible to have an appointment with his teachers. The College is more flexible than school sixth forms, less regimented and perhaps was the wrong place for an easily distracted and very laid back child.
Communication between parents/college isn't particularly encouraged, the onus is on the child to be the adult.

DD is also at a college, and I found it quite a shock to realise that I wasn't expected to be involved unless there was a major problem! Maybe it's a good sign that you haven't been called in - I know DD's college would contact parents of children at risk of failing, even though there is no contact at all apart from that.

Did he do AS levels at the end of Y12 or is he only doing new style A levels? Just wondering if he's at least got some qualifications.

flatmouse that is worrying but not necessarily the end. Ds got D,E, U in his mocks and AAC in his actual exams - now 2nd year at university. Some of his poor results were due to anxiety but I also think he hadn't realised just how much work he had to put in having coasted quite a bit at GCSE.

DD got her second offer yesterday. Lower than she expected and lower than standard. She doesn't have an offer day for that university until 4th of April which doesn't give her much time to make the final acceptance decision. There are pros and cons for both so it is a really tough decision even if there are only two to choose from.

Wondered if any of you were considering or could recommend Feb or Easter holiday revision crammer courses in and around London ?

Flatmouse it is a relief to hear someone else's child is getting U's and E's in mocks... Ds has now a tutor who looked over his exam essay (the timed kind!) and said that it was quite easy to raise to a C, as the info was there, just not answering the question in the right way. So they worked on technique.

In the meantime, with a surreal twist of fate, ds has his first Unconditional, without even interview. The other offers are interview dependent, wonder if they are all going to magically give him unconditionals! Still has to pass his Grade 8 though...and I don't think a U counts, only an E Funnily enough ds is now showing a bit of maturity and saying he possibly might not want to choose the unconditional. They've also given him a bribe if he gets better grades and makes them his firm choice. All very enticing. Not sure what to make of it, am being quite suspicious. It looks a lovely uni though, just don't want ds to stop trying. Offer day this weekend. A bit of a hike for us. Getting weary of the visits combined with sixth form visits.

Ds cannot seem to book a train ticket. Dh now says I need to "walk" him through the process of booking cheap tickets online, rather than abandoning him or doing it for him.

Ds1 has just had his first rejection. He took it very well saying it makes his choices (assuming he gets offers)easier.

I thought he would be devastated but he's ok about it. Hopefully the next one will be good news.

flatmouse perhaps the mock results will motivate him to start working harder.

DS1 thinks he did OK in 3 out of his 6 mock papers. In the others he didn't have a clue.

In the AS exam he did last summer, he got A in one paper and E in the other (same subject) so there's really no knowing with him.

He is planning to attend six parties in half term, so at least he isn't letting his A-level studies affect his social life.🤨

Thanks for the hand-holding :) He has had 1-2-1s with his teachers for both those subjects. Both think he is still capable of achieving C, and have advised him on how he can improve his revision.

Still waiting for the third result, which I'm hoping is higher (purely as it'd be one less to worry about!), but he's doing a great job of irritating that teacher by being late for lessons!
He makes it difficult for himself - he will be re-sitting one of his AS exams as well.

Second ds doesn't go to any parties, but he still doesn't do much work (although with music a level you can never be sure what is going on with the "headphones" so for all I know he is revising aurally!)
The few things that ds lets drop show that he is very affected by what his peers do and plan, I wonder whether in fact it is very good your son is going to parties, because that is where you hear other people say things like, I am planning to go to x uni or do x with my life and then you start thinking, okay I want to do that to, or do something different. Peer influence can be motivational if your friends are good eggs.

Flatmouse I am now upping the 1:1 for ds, school cannot really offer any. I think everything that is 1:1 gives him a bit more insight into his own thinking processes, although it is hard and he sometimes just tunes out.

Drummer ds still has not heard from his "top" choice. I am expecting them to reject him, it is Glasgow so much higher than his predicted grades although they said that they were not necessarily looking for an obvious academic profile (whatever that means - geniuses who cannot write but can compose symphonies perhaps?)

My DS is also waiting for his top choice. It's 1 grade above his predictions. He has an offer for a similar course at the uni and it's not impossible to change onto it whilst there if there are spaces.
But he's still struggling with migraines and stress and mocks are after half term. He's missed so many lessons I really don't know how well he'll do. I'm going to take the pressure off at home next week and so hopefully he'll be able to catch up the missed work. He is quite good at self directed learning when he has to be.
I think we might readjust expectations and he has next year to study at his own pace and resit any exams next year.

Nettle i micro-managed DS through his GCSE's - perhaps a mistake, but i felt it too important to let him learn from his mistakes. Every day would be a list of what to revise - and how (ie notes/mindmaps, questions, past papers). I had hoped he would learn from that and need less support for his A levels. In some ways he has, but not enough.
I think i'm going to have to push him through his A levels. If he gets to do the course he wants at Uni, it is much more vocational and more suited to him, we just need to get him there.
Sorry to hear your DS is struggling derek - there seems to be so much pressure this year with Uni applications/mocks/A levels/driving tests/growing up!
At the moment we are not talking to DS about "plan B" - we want him to assume that plan A will work. However, i'm going to do some research so that if things don't improve he has a starting point for a plan B without adding too much additional stress.
At the end of the day, if he achieves the grades he needs for his Uni of choice, he'll have done better than i did - and i turned out OK.

Btw, third subject results back today - looks like a C. Phew!

Phew indeed flatmouse.
derek ds was struggling in yr 12 and missed a lot. He repeated that year and it was good not just in academic terms but because he had an extra year of maturity before leaving home.

flat
Mock results are usually a kick up the backside and they serve as a good purpose for dd as they make her work...
derek
That sounds like what he might need, a rest from the pressure

Dd has had deputy head academic chasing her for her first draft of coursework however the subject teacher has failed to mention any concerns to dd. the school were well aware of why it’s incomplete dd is now having to rush it to hand in...
She also has final draft of English to hand in aswell as other essays for other subjects and she had a test today but was given notice on Monday..
Dd seems very very stressed