Year 12 #1 - GCSEs are sooo last year!

[bpisok]

New thread to see us through to Christmas?

Happy birthday to your DD, Kick. 17 is quite grown up! Where did the time go?!

I have to confess that I am feeling out of my depth on this thread recently. You all seem so knowledgeable about the university application process, there's even a lot of talk about the specifics of applying to oxford or Cambridge!
Your DC are attending (taster?) sessions at universities, and you all seem to know what you are doing. I know nothing (and its beginning to make me anxious!).

Me: DS picked up his GCSE results in August, enrolled into a new school for sixth form and I turned my attention to the work that I let slip in the first half of the year when it was all about GCSEs.
Since then, I've had my head down 7 days a week trying to get an overdue project finished.
I've been waiting for the school to tell DS that its time to start doing something about university (and, preferably, exactly what to do), but I'm really doubting myself now. Maybe they are expecting things to be happening. DS isn't great at passing these sort of messages along.

Am I letting DS down by not finding out all about universities, courses and application processes? Please tell me straight. I have a lot of work to do but I'll make time for this if it is needed.

whistl for my part it has a lot to do with the fact that DD4 is my eighth DC! With DD1 (eldest DC) I was much less clear about .... everything!

Incidentally whistl DD4 hasn't attended any taster sessions at uni and has none planned, so she's no further on than your DC, in fact she doesn't even know which course she wants yet - so my being familiar with the process about isn't helping at all!

Don't be anxious though - no need. It will be fine.

about

Lots of staccato posts - sorry. Our Y12 Higher Education evening at school isn't until mid March. There really is no hurry in fact I'm not sure it's even a good idea to get too into it too soon.

goodbyestranger thank you! When I get a chance I will sit down and properly read the last 2 threads. I suspect there is just about all i need to ever know contained in them. Then i will feel less like a failure as a parent.

What I need is for someone to invent a way to stop time - for a week say. Then I could finish this project, do the company accounts, make the (now overdue) Christmas cake, clean the house, tidy the garden and work out what I am supposed to be doing to help DS1 and DS2! I think this a very reasonable request!

Whistl please don’t worry. All my knowledge is from when the dd s went through it. Ds has done nothing yet - partly intentional because I wanted him to enjoy the start of sixth form without immediate pressure to think about the next step, partly because he thinks he wants to do an apprenticeship and not uni and we have no idea what academic level he will be in two years so I want to let him develop in his subjects a bit before making a decision. Also like you gcse s seem so recent.

Finally there is plenty of time still - there is a lot to do and learn but that can be spread between gcse results and next autumn - or condensed into next Easter to next Christmas - I think you ll find the norm outside mimsnet is to do most things from next Easter to next Christmas (DD2 who got a Cambridge offer in a subject she did nt do at a level) didn’t really start researching until towards the end of lower sixth and went to open days June of year 12 - and like goodbye said the school ucas information day isn’t until next Feb

Hope that makes some sense

Happy birthday to your DD Kick. DS will also be 17 this month and for some reason it seems a lot older than 16!

whistl please don’t worry. Like goodbye the Y12 Higher Ed meeting at DS’s school isn’t until March and DD’s school was the same. Both schools send lots to Oxbridge/top universities every year and clearly see no reason to start the process any earlier. Taster sessions can be informative but are by no means necessary (I booked DS onto one because one of the courses he’s interested in isn’t a subject that is taught in school so he was interested to find out more about it) and attending one will never make the difference between getting an offer or not.

There’s plenty of time, don’t stress!

And what Oratory said!

Before anyone jumps in the statement above I know Oxbridge and medicine entries are October but that can still be done Easter to October (exception being work experiece for medicine) but I would assume most found med/vet would know already they want to go that route and what it entails

Whistl not sure if you saw the message about the further maths what next day in oxford in March (you can google it). Your ds like mine might not be looking at oxford or doing further maths but it’s a day designed to show dc good at maths what courses are out there and sample lectures. Again it’s aimed at year 12 s and is in March so suggests they are not expecting dc to be clear about their directions at That stage

Whistl - obviously my dd will not be applying to university but from looking at ds's school they have a Post 18 Information Evening with a rough timescale.

June - Sept is Stage 1 - Researching potential areas of study.looking at prospectuses & attending Open Days. September they are reccomended to speak to tutors about AS results (if applicable) and predicted grades

October - November is Stage 2 - Completing UCAS applications. There is an internal deadling of end of Sept for Oxbridge/medicine forms to be completed and mid November for everyone else. Mock intervies are held in October.

Then there is a section of applying for Student Finance etc.

Whistl all of the stuff is really not needed right now. Agree with a number of posts above. It really only kicks off after next term. I also think everybody is on a slightly different journey - in terms of are they happy with the choices they have made post GCSEs and in there is a bit of what I might want to do at uni. Some of it is also just making the most of opportunities when they come up locally. For what's its worth I think it's best to leave things till later next year. Even for medicine - I have a friend whose DD didn't decide on medicine till summer term of year 12. They will be less over whelmed more confident of their choices and able to me more decisive.

Happy Birthday to your DD Kick - are you planning driving lessons?

Also to add another point - I do think as parents we have felt suddenly empty after the onslaught that was GCSEs. And now are occupying ourselves with the next challenge. Sorry if that comes across as negative - don't mean to - just self analysing really. I am exactly in that boat. Ofcourse for us with half issues it's all up in the air.

With health issues that should have said.

I think eagle is spot on whistl. A lot of this isn't needed immediately and some of us are lucky to have dc who have very clear ideas of what they want to do, which makes it much easier. Btw, I'm not doing anything spectacular other than give ds reading lists and googling opportunities which I then send on to him! There is plenty of time and we also need to consider our ds character and how they operate best - for ds it's about having very challenging targets for himself.

Thanks for all the birthday wishes for dd

Yes driving lessons are planned. I'm hoping the cards from grandparents will contain cheques to get her started. I've bought her a stupidly expensive phone so I won't be contributing. I'll pay for the insurance though.

Her provisional licence hasn't turned up yet so no lessons or theory booked yet.

whistl there are no university visits going on here either. We'll start next summer. She might have decided what she wants to do by then

whistl - I'm not knowledgeable at all. But DS is. He suddenly realised Cambridge might be a possibility and started obsessively googling (ASD-style) for summer schools, accidentally finding the masterclasses and tasters along the way. None of it came from me. I just worked out the train times to Cambridge for our day out!

He's also the one who has found all these essay prizes and Pre-U reading lists, and is stressing over fitting it all in. But I'll tell him to slow down after reading this thread. They have 10-11 months before they need to decide, don't they?

eagle I agree about empty nest syndrome descending and battling it with a sudden surge of broodiness, helping them with uni stuff because it may be the last thing we can get so involved in with them.

Dd has just texted me. She says there are no words to describe what she has just seen. Nothing could have prepared her for it.

I hope your DD is OK AlexanderHamilton. Obviously the events themselves were the real horror but a visit must be so emotionally draining.

Alexander not sure if I have missed a previous update- hope al is ok.