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?

MsAD DS1 quite enjoyed McDonald's over the summer, put away a fair amount of money. He has a standing offer of a job any holidays. He was at the out of town one. He wasn't so keen on the 5.00 starts he did one week though.

Chocolate that is awful, your DD is showing some real resilience to deal with that.

Well done on any offers I've missed and good luck for all the forthcoming interviews.

Ouch Ursula [flowers}

DD and I have survived our difficult week and she seems a bit more positive. Her PS is out again but she hasn't decided whether to apply yet this year. She is however keeping her options open by writing the PS and moving towards submitting.

School sent letters out last week, to try and move people along. I rang the pastoral head to talk a little about DD, and she told me the whole year group is being so slow at getting them in they are starting to worry about being able to get them all done. They are very concerned.

UCAS application submitted!!!!!

Bells and whistles all round.

(And my knee is feeling much improved today).

Fantastic news all round Ursula. Happy Monday!

I’m glad you and your dd got through this week Raspberry. If your dd does apply, it doesn’t mean that it’s a cast iron I’m going to university next year, it can be just a keeping her options open thing and she could defer, or withdraw and go for it the following year if she wanted to.

My friend's DD applied but not expecting to get the grades so was planning a year out. She surprised herself with an A in one of her subjects, got accepted and there followed a hectic three weeks of my poor friend trying to sort out all the finances and accommodation.

DD finally has an offer from Edinburgh, her favourite. I’m delighted for her, but sad she will most likely be so very far from home. Game face time!

Chocolate - hope your DD has a better week.

Ursula - glad your injury is improving and yay for your DD.

DS has had two offers. His first choice and his (points over grades based) insurance.

awww Inchy. Skype makes the whole world just a moment away.

raspberry I'm glad you and dd have survived the difficult week you've just had. Dd is in the McDonald's in town. She decided which one to apply to by looking at the opening times, lol.

All offers in now. Picked a firm & reserve and has an offer holders day in a couple of weeks!

Congratulations on the offers TheDrs starfleet and inchy

Big hugs to you raspberry

DD saw the offending teacher today - she said he was genuinely very apologetic. I was tempted to ask whether he is going to apologise in front of the whole class, but reminded myself that she's pretty much an adult now, and sometimes I have to stand back. So long as she's happy with the apology, it's fine.

First offer received. Yeah. DD is so happy.

Sounds good chocolate.Yes we go need to let them handle stuff themselves, hard as it is.

Very late to join this thread...I was looking in Secondary Education, didn't realise there was one in Further!

We've had a difficult week with ds1, who has been struggling to give in his coursework for English. He has ended up taking three days off school as he has now come down with something after 100 percent attendance so far this term. I feel like we have been arguing most of the weekend over the most basic stuff.

I felt cross about him applying to uni this year; really did not want him to give in his UCAS application - it feels like an unnecessary distraction and pointless when he predicted B and 2 Cs atm, but I've been thinking it over and discussing it with him and if he wants to apply, even with poor predicted grades, I think it is up to him. It will be good practice, and he has made the effort to go on two Open Days - Glasgow and Cardiff. His subject is one with quite low grade tariff, and a lot is dependent on his Grade 8 exam this year.

Anyway we will see.

I feel like the mother in those folktales whose 18 year olds who set out with a half a bannock with their mother's blessing. It is hard accepting that they won't necessarily take your advice but that it is worth letting them make some choices for themselves, even if they are quite obviously the wrong ones [from my 50 year old angle]

Ds's school are only submitting UCAS applications in the next two weeks, unless they were Oxbridge (which his isn't!) Ds is so excited at the thought of getting "offers" when everyone else gets their's; I just hope he isn't disappointed and gets one at least. Or better still, very high offer so he is encouraged to up his game!!!

I've been googling universities again, in hope that there is some undiscovered gem of a course somewhere that ds did not identify. I suddenly chanced on Keele's music BA, but the reviews did not look that encouraging for Keele as a whole. I don't think Goldsmith's will suit him either - too urban and gritty.

Ds is in love with Shakespeare plays at the moment, he is watching 10 plays from the BBC 1980's commissioned series. It is a start for someone who evidently dislikes reading!

I suggested he might like to watch Howard's End last Sunday but he said it was much too slow and he couldn't possibly watch something old... He did very badly in a Rossetti paper recently, so I handed a book on the pre-Raphaelite brother of C R and mentioned something about drug addiction. To my amazement he was actually looking through it when I returned. I think he cannot believe that these "boring" poets had lurid lives.

Fab news to all those with offers. Still not a lot to report here, the system seems to move very slowly.
Ds1 and I have both been reading threads and forums where students are worrying a lot and emailing to find out how their application is going. They are getting stock replies but I wonder how much time is wasted responding to unnecessary queries.

In the meantime it's a case of reminding him of the need to revise or he isn't likely to get the results needed when the offers do hopefully arrive.

Congratulations Ursula

Welcome nettles A friend's DD got into uni with lower grades because the uni had to take a certain percentage from tier 3 colleges. Other options if he doesn't get the grades for a degree could be a Higher National Diploma or a higher level apprenticeship. Has he thought about those?

Just found you all again! Congrats on offers, completing PS, submitting forms, getting interviews, nearly getting to the end of term !

DS submitted his form and has 3 offers so far, waiting on the other 2. Having thought it would be easy for him to decide where to go, I think he will now find it hard as they each have their pros and cons.

Mocks in January and March, so a Christmas holiday of revision....(and I have a DS doing GCSEs, so our house will be like a library (in my dreams.....!))

puppy I have two dcs doing GSCEs as well.. We have cancelled Christmas in our house (the arrangements I mean) because we are going to Lanzarote with dcs' hardworking cousins swots so crossed fingers there will be no distractions: sun books and exercise should be better than wall to wall telly competing with trifle and grey days

ah well, next year will be a doodle in comparison..

puppy if it is not too outing, which unis were your ds's offers from? I'm still looking for that magic fifth choice to replace Goldsmith's on his list - I don't want to go too high and I don't want to go too low

Chocolate he is determined to go to a campus university and do a BA or a BMus. I'm trying to persuade him to do a Foundation Year in Musical Theatre before he studies anything more formal. I don't think an apprenticeship is for him at this stage, whereas voluntary work of any kind would be brilliant if he had a GAP year.

sorry, not a campus university, so much as a University with Halls and student activities. He has a picture in his mind of how it is going to be, not entirely related to reality, but there we are

A call from school to arrange exam extra time access assessment. Now I have to persuade him to actually go and see the person who organises it. He refused at GSCE; it was a shame he didn't have that extra time, I hope he will listen to reason now. It helps that some other people are having extra time, and he doesn't feel singled out, but I am dreading the conversation with him when he says he doesn't have time to go and see the person concerned and doesn't "want" extra time. He has a diagnosis of dyspraxia.

Loads of pupils at DD's school have extra time - for dyslexia, being a slow processor or being slow at handwriting to name but a few. And one of those has applied to Oxbridge.

Knitting this is from many years ago, but a good friend of mine went to Keele. It has some odd course combinations, so I think doesn't always attract the more straightforward applicant. That would also affect where it lies in the WhatUni tables I think. However, she had a wonderful time at Keele, got a decent degree, was very successful in her first career, and is now teaching as a second career. If the course looks right, it might be worth a look.

welcome back Puppy and welcome knitting :) A B and two Cs would place him well for quite a few courses I’d have thought. We do have a few high flier dc on these threads, but don’t let them distort your thinking that high grades is what most dc get. Its hard this them getting to be adults business isn’t it! We can’t make them make choices we agree with, even we think they are being naive. I hope he is able to benefit from any extra support offered.

It’s been quite a fierce term this I reckon, with all the UCAS stuff on top of them studying. It will be nice if there is a bit of a stress free period over Christmas.

DDs Insurance Uni wants BBC according to the prospectus. Although she has not heard from them yet

Nothing wrong with Bs and Cs at A level in my opinion.