Year 12 #1 - GCSEs are sooo last year!

[bpisok]

New thread to see us through to Christmas?

Thanks for new thread. DD started on 4 Alevels, and is doing AS in all 4....i wish she would drop one as I think she is being stretched too thinly when her extra curricular and social life is also considered. She will only need 3 for the courses she is considering, and I would rather she did really well in 3 than less well in 4.

I really don't like this whole Halloween thing! Dressing up like a decompsoing body, or someone who has been brutally murdered... eeugh!

Now it has morphed into throwing eggs at someone's car??!

@TheFirstOHN - DS1 enjoyed the taster day. They had a lecture and then did a practical - extracting caffeine from tea and then refining their method.

He did say that it wouldn't be the course for him as it seemed more towards biochemistry than Chemistry. He also was very clear that he doesn't want to go to university in London as it's too close to home. I think we discussed the 'too close to home' preference a couple of threads ago.

It's all good experience for him though. He's hoping to do the York University Chemistry work experience in the summer - just needs to pull his finger out and apply.

He's home alone until tomorrow. Will be interesting to see how the house (decluttered for house selling) is.

Thanks for new thread!
DS got the meningitis jab yesterday and inevitably has had some flu-like symptoms (he was expecting that) but has gone off to school this morning. He wants to work on his music composition! Luckily, he's up-to-date with homework.
I'm pleased to say Halloween was very civilised where I live - mostly little children collecting sweets from houses with pumpkin lanterns outside!

I guess "penny for the guy" ended when children could no longer buy fireworks with the money collected and the big, organised displays took over?

That's how I rememer Halloween from childhood.

(Obviously DC risking being maimed by fireworks wasn't the best idea!)

Christians - or maybe just cathloics? - have a big holy day today. Its All Saints Day and tomorrow is All Soul's Day when you remember your dead relatives. Maybe the Christian festivals on Nov 1-2 derive from some pagan dead people festival on 31st October? And that's how Halloween came about?

I still don't like it though!

BlueBelle123 re the Oxbridge Assessments

Anyone can register to do them. There are different tests depending on which course and which Uni. Oxford used to have more but since AS levels have (mainly) disappeared Cambridge has also introduced more this time eg. Oxford - History Aptitude Test (HAT), Cambridge didn't used to pre-test but now has History Aptitude Assessment (HAA). If you go to the admissions page for which uni you want it should show under requirements which test they require.

Some courses also require written work to be submitted too.

There is a date each year by which you have to register to do the tests and they are usually held at the end of October (so after the UCAS application has gone in if you are applying to Oxbridge). Some other unis also recommend pre-test for certain subjects too such as Imperial, Warwick etc for maths warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/maths/admissions/ug/aeastep/

Usually the testing will be done at the candidates own school/6th Form or possibly as an external candidate at another local school. We do check ID for all candidates even pupils attending the school as a requirement.

The results of the test do not carry over so if grades are missed and you reapply after a retake the following year, for example, then you will have to retake the test too for the year of admission you are applying for.

Spoke to dd last night.

This is going to be so outing if anyone knows the school but it really confirms that dd is a train girl (remember the bus debacles last summer when on two separate occasions she got on buses heading in the wrong direction) on Monday it was the Auschwitz Orientation Meeting. Dd thought they were travelling by car but it turned out they were going by train.

At the station car park the teacher was struggling to get the ticket maching to work so she sent the girls ahead to get their tickets. They had to get a particular train to arrive on time. The minutes ticked by and still no sign of the teacher. In the end dd and the other girl had to get on the train and head off alone.

The other girl had never been to Manchester, dd has a few times, mostly when younger but she doesn't know it as well as she knows Birmingham. But she managed to navigate ou t of Picadilly and they walked to the destination. Had a bit of a problem finding the building but that was becasue the address hd given one name but the building was called something else.

On the way back (teacher turned up half an hour late having caught the next train) they couldn;t get a direct train so had to change at Crewe. Now this is a stationdd has passed through many, many times. The teacher however got confused and was trying to get onto a trin on totally the wrong platform. Dd was virtually screaming at her, no Miss, get off that train its not the right platform, trust me I know this station like the back of my hand. (Teacher would have ended up in Birmingham!)

Dd finds tains logical, she loves London and the tube.

AH the teacher struggles to use ticket machines and can't work out which platform to go to?
I hope this isn't the same teacher who is taking the students abroad! How will the teacher cope if something genuinely challenging happens, like she has to deal with a medical emergency or someone's passport is stolen?

To be fair I think the parking ticket machine wasn't working properly. And Crewe station is big.

The teacher is going on the trip but not all schools taking part have a teacher present. The charity who organises it is essentially in charge, but a small number of accompanying teachers are allowed to go on a rota type basis I think. The teacher only found out a few days ago that she had been alocated one of the places.

Dd had to do her orientation in London somewhere by Canary Wharf so had to find her way by tube from Paddington and first time accross London by herself. I remember several reassuring texts that day. I do think it’s goid for them to do these things alone though however nerve wracking the first time. The trip leaders and organisation at the airport was first class Alex so hopefully the teacher can sit back and enjoy the ride !!

Your ds should be feted at school fur saving the day

Whoops dd

Dd would be in her element in London despite us living hundreds of miles away.

Each year the year 11's at her school visit the houses of parliament and they are allowed some free time around Covent Garden. Dd was horrified at how some of her classmates were so poor at navigating London. She seemed to spend the entire trip showing them to one side on the tube escalators (stand on the RIGHT) and hissing at them that of they planked heavy bags on the left they would be kicked out of the way.

Anyway at the meet up time/place (outside Covent Garden tube) two girls were missing. They were eventually found in Leicester Square but time was running short and they had a train to catch from Euston. The teachers were going to walk everyone back to Covent Garden to the tube but dd pointed out that it was far easier to get the tube at Leicester Square especially as it was then direct on the Northern Line to Euston rather than having to change at Leicester Square anyway and besides Covent Garden is a much busier, more difficult station.

But back on a seriosu note oratory - dd is very much looking forward to the trip. She said it was very moving hearing the Auschwitz survivor speak

Its good that a new generation can still hear the stories of the survivors in person.

Soon the generation who survived the Holocaust will be gone. To remember anything, you'd have had to be at least 7 by 1945 and that would make you 80 now.

Thats what I was thinking. Soon there will be no more survivors left. And in the light of recent events it appears that rather than lest we forget, lots of people have forgotten.

Alexander and oratory. My dd is exactly the same. She drags me round London, glances at the map / display board and steams off leaving me scratching my head. She's the same in airports. Buses on the other hand she gets all anxious about.

Glad they found their way.

Alexander - well done your dd. That reminds me of when my dd organised everyone in the airport on a school trip to Spain - guiding them through check in, security, boarding etc because the teacher was getting flustered!

The teacher in your case must have had a moment when she realised that her charges (albeit in their teens - still her responsibility) had made their own way without her

It was very moving for DD2 as well Alex. Pack tissues. But it is fantastic that the charity is there to keep the memory going (or trying too)

The other student going with dd is from an Eastern European country that was affected and the majority of the jews killed.

We are still in the EU, so we still get free roaming when we use our mobile phones in other EU countries (as long as we have a pre-paid data package). Ditto calls and texts.

So, the teacher (and her students) can use google to help her find her way, if she gets lost again.

Its there and back in a day and I get the impression its highly organised by the charity who have been leading these trips for years. Its just two students from each school but I don't know how many schools in total.

They run the trips many times a year and they are organised in regions - I recommend it for anyone interested. If it’s not done at dc school they can get the school to sign up. It’s only two from each school but as it’s done in regions dd connected with girls from other local schools she is still in touch with now.

I think it was quite influential in her switching degree choice from English/history to philosophy religion and ethics.

We're in Italy at the moment. Most businesses have closed for All Saints Day and loads of bells are ringing (possibly calling the faithful to evening mass?)

When DS2 goes to the Cambridge taster day he needs to get the train and then walk from the station to the college (and then do the journey in reverse). He has used the tube a few times, but this will be the first time he has taken an overground train. The ASD makes it slightly harder, but I will print out instructions, maps and contingency plans for him.

It’s vary handy being on the end of a text line in need of rescue or reassurance 😂