GCSE '18s (19) - New Beginnings?

[whistl]

Following on from the GCSE 2018 threads as our DC enter year 12.
This the first thread in our new home in further education

We have also ruled out London on the basis of cost so won't even take a peek at any of them on the basis, so DS won't even be tempted, although I don't think he's ready for the London experience just yet.....we are quite rural.
I moved to London for work in my twenties and loved it, stayed for 10 years it was a great experience, don't think I could handle the pace now though!!

Don’t think DD will handle the pace of London. She admitted she is finding the bus ride into College exhausting which is about 40-60 mins each way. As usual she is her own worst enemy, I am sooo concerned about her at College and we are going to have a repeat of the last few years.

A lot of dd’s friends have gone to London or outer London colleges. She didn’t feel ready for that yet but wants to move there eventually.

DS is quite keen to stay in London (we live there). His argument is, why would I not want to stay in such an exciting city?! I mentioned the beauty and focused environment of some campuses, he says he's not the type to want to lie on the grass He says he can't wait to experience London as an adult, the concerts, jazz clubs, theatre. The problem is, he either stays with us or pays a fortune for student accommodation!

For me the experience of being away from home for the first time at university was really important. I chose a university a long way away purposefully (4 hours on the train). It was the making of me and I'd like the same for my DC.

I suspect they will come back to London for first jobs / early career so I think it would be good for them to experience life outside London. But of course if there is a strong pull to a London university we'd consider it. It would be a bit galling to be paying out for accommodation near home though and I'm sure all 3DC will not want to stay at home.

I’m really not sure yet what will work best for DS who has ASD - I wouldn’t think a London or other big city uni though. Maybe a campus uni - although I know after the first year it’s likely most students would live off campus. I don’t know yet if Oxbridge is a realistic consideration but the collegiate system would suit him. I suppose Durham has colleges too but that is rather too far from home. We are near enough London for DS to commute but I think he’d struggle with the journey if it involved peak hours, and anyway I’d like him to have the experience of living away from home.

I’m glad there’s another year before choices have to be made!

We are not looking at London Unis either. We live quite close and d's knows it well but either doesn't rate the courses or want to live in London. He is going to look at Oxford, Warwick, Bath and prob Nottingham.

He is going to look at Oxford, Warwick, Bath and prob Nottingham.
All four of those are on DS2's shortlist, along with Birmingham, York and Southampton.

Not started thinking about uni yet, seems to soon. Maybe after Christmas

Same here twin. DS still thinking apprenticeship rather than uni and I know we need to do some research as its a new area and I have the websites/exhibitions etc lined up (thanks Peggy !!) but sixth form A levels and boarding is all new and he's loving it I sort of want to give him a bit of time to breath. I guess if others are more confident and know what they want to do its sensible to take advantages of the opportunities on offer.

Totally agree with London for early work opportunities. Two of my nieces have done that in mid twenties and loving it.

DH absolutely exhausted, had a school event this morning so only really yesterday afternoon and this evening off. Not unusual to be tired after first week back so I hope he can get used to it after a bit.

Saw your concerns Twin - I hope things settle and she gets used to the commute (and everything else).

Thethird we will have to have some covert way of recognising each other at multiple open days!

Kilash I'm the exhausted-looking, overweight middle-aged woman accompanying the boy who looks a bit like a younger version of Sam from Atypical. DS2 looks about 13, so is fairly easy to spot at university open days.

Oratory1 missed the websites/exhibitions. Could you repost?

Back to reality after long weekend in south of France. Very sunny, lovely food, spent too much money!
Apparently DS had a bit of a wobble over maths homework but DH kept him on track and ignored the mutterings about giving up. DS perfectly happy this morning. He has double philosophy so in very good mood.

Are Sostenueto and Teenmum still around on these threads?

Just had breakfast in bed provided by the DC as it is my birthday! That means DD is definitely up, her alarm failed to go off Friday morning and she was late to school for the first time ever!

Happy birthday @PandaG
Hope you have a great day 🎂

Thanks @bpisok

Happy birthday, PandaG! Have a great day!

Loose, was it complex numbers?

Happy birthday panda 🎉 I am having to haul myself out of bed now for an aerobics class - have gone pretty much ever Monday for three years but some weeks feel harder than others! I have coffee with friend afterwards for a good catch up and gossip, sometimes we go straight into lunch as well

DS1 also had a maths wobble at the weekend - it was to do with surds and indices - and wouldn't believe me that if he was struggling then so were others so he needs to talk to teacher. He seems to think that the private school kids will have done way beyond further maths at GCSE and so know far more than him! I told him about the maths wobbles on this thread but it didn't help...

Happy birthday Panda love that you had breakfast in bed! Sounds bliss!
I need to get myself to the gym this morning and restart my fitness plan. MyFitness is telling me to step on the scales but I'd really rather not. Monday isn't a good day for that sort of madness!
Not sure what exactly set off the maths wobble but there were equations in there somewhere. They were doing surds last week. Sorry to be vague but I don't really do maths. DH does do maths but he said it was quite tricky!
DS seemed happy enough to have his new calculator though. Possibly because there's no maths lesson today so he won't have to use it...

Will do Twin when I get back tonight. Rotten cold scuppered the fitness plan after two days but hope to get back to it this week. DD1 back to uni yesterday - one more to go 😢

DS is ok with maths., but not so great with physics. He was sitting at his desk yesterday for 3 hours trying to do one homework sheet, 2 of those hours were stuck on 1 question.

Eventually, I offered to help although I was never that good at physics anyway and I haven't touched it since 1987. TBH I didn't have a clue, but luckily by trying to explain it to me, DS finally figured out how to answer the problem he was stuck on, and then he was able to do do the rest quite quickly.

I think this is when the need for resilience kicks in, and I'm hoping DS will be able to find it.

About the maths... I think your DC might be doing imaginary numbers. It takes a bit of getting your head around because its the square root of -1 i.e. a number that only exists in theory. the trick is to multiply a number with i in it with another number with i in it so that you get -1, which is easy to handle (and to accept that sometimes you end up with a solution that involves i and you can't go any further i.e. that's the answer).