Year 12 #1 - GCSEs are sooo last year!

[bpisok]

New thread to see us through to Christmas?

Its good that she has come to a decision she is happy with Sost

Am gutted because she would have got at least an A in geography. A great loss to the department the head of geography said. She purposely did not go and chat with him till she had made her decision because they would have tried hard to dissuade her. She told me on my birthday then cried because she thought she had ruined my birthday. I was both heartbroken and relieved. It was a decision she had to make on her own. Am pleased she did that and I didn't show my disappointment and had a great birthday! 4 A levels is really hard and we were getting quite concerned about her mental health. She is happy doing maths biology and psychology. She hopes for A* AA and that is fine by us!

I’m sure she ll do brilliantly sost. And definitely good to concentrate on what she s going to take forward

A1ways I hope she's able to find a solution that works for her and fits in with her health needs.

Sostenueto congratulations to her on the English Literature prize.

@Kilash when is your DS's G8 exam?
DS2 has four weeks to go. Most of his scales & arpeggios are secure now and the pieces are sounding dramatically better, with only the occasional phrase still being problematic.

Alde I think it depends what you do when you meet up & how frequently their DD is busy. Is it the kind of friendship where you could justifiably suggest doing something the would bore the teenagers rigid, because it would be fun for all of you. If their DD is busy every weekend then in makes it easier to meet up without the DC there.

TheFirst It's next Thursday (eek!). He is mostly prepared, scales ok, a few could be better, pieces ready, sight reading could be better. I think we will both be relieved to have it done. It will be strange, no more trekking to the exam centre after 10 years, 2 instruments. Another milestone.

Sost she's made a good decision and has a clear view of the future but sorry to hear she's had to give up a subject she loves. Wow! To the English literature prize, though! DS seems determined to plod on with 4 but it's masses of work.

Good luck for Grade 8 Kilash and TheFirst!

Yes good luck with the music. DS birthday next week, can’t belive he will be17. Also very strange he won’t be here.

Sounds like the right decision for her @Sostenueto . It's a sign of maturity that they're starting to make these decisions for themselves.

Best of luck for the music exams. DD is working on Grade 7 piano at the moment and I find it amazing how far she's come (and how much work she's done) to get here from 'Me and my piano'. I think getting to grade 8 reflects massive perseverance and commitment.

DS1 still carrying on with 4 A Levels. He seems to be coping fine and is still managing to fit in rugby and other things. He got his 'Headstart' application in for Chemistry summer courses at either Kent or Manchester. There was even a mini PS that he wrote - good practice for UCAS next year.

House moving still preoccupying me though. Loads of viewings but no offers. Grrr!

I'm just going to rant slightly about data sheets! DS got one this week. The working at grades looked surprisingly low (apart from music) so he had a chat with his form tutor. Form teacher has told him to ignore the working at grades and focus on the effort in class and handing in work grades, which were mostly excellent. It turns out they have to send this data sheet out even without having much to go on (and against the teachers' wishes) and the first useful data comes out after the January exams.
Sigh. I blame Ofsted.

Morning everyone,

Just a quick post to thank you for your contributions. I’m taking them all on board to discuss with DD and DH over the weekend (he’s been away this week).

DD’s preference would be to drop down to two A levels, try and finish year 12 and then commence study at a difference establishment focusing on her preferred subject (not doing A levels). The experience she’s gaining during year 12 will far outweigh any final A level certificate she’ll miss out on (her words).

We don’t know if the school will be prepared to drop an A level and we possibly won’t be sharing the plan to move on next Sept as we’d rather hear from them what they’re willing to do to support her through the entire process.

I don’t know the repercussions of dropping out of year 12 due to ill health with the fact that education is still compulsory, so will be seeking clarification there.

She took yesterday off sick as was close to breaking point and we had a lovely lunch out, plus a long chat about what she wants to do. It did her the world of good to hear that there are other options out there for her because her sixth form is pedalling nothing but the university path which brought her to tears on Monday.

I’ll update when I can, but thank you all. I’m forever grateful.

A1ways I think your dd's plan is good and her attitude is very mature. I'm sorry to hear the school isn't supportive but I'm sure you can insist on dropping an A level on health grounds. It doesn't sound like that school is the best for her in the long run if they are so fixated on just one path.

At the information evening for parents of new Y12s, we were told that they (and we) would be receiving the first progress report (to include target grades) in "the week beginning 19 November". No sign of this so far.

I suppose the week isn't technically over yet...

So DS is excited after having done work experience at Grant Thornton in summer and a placement on the Deloittes Career Shapers programme in October half term he now has an interview for BDO Summer School for next Summer. He had to get past 4 rounds of online testing first too! It is just so competitive. Imagine having to go into London for an interview for work experience/summer school.

Ha Is he trying to tick off the big 6 (or 4 or 5 or however many it is now) before he stars work !!! Great experience though and well done to him.

Need to get ds to look at some work experience or tasters as he cant really visualise what things (uni or apprenticeship type job) might really look like on a day to day basis at the moment

He also rejected an EY one because it was for apprenticeships after A level and he definitely wants to go to uni

Thanks to those who replied to my rather odd question!

There's a bit of a story to this, but, its made me realise that I am not good at being chased into a stronger relationship than I want and that is why I am mentally trying to make deals around it - the latest being "I'll do it if you don't force your DD to come along".

Our DHs have been friends since school, but that friendship has massively drifted. They live about four hours away! About two years ago, the wife decided that she wanted to see us more and has been trying to increase the frequency from couple of years to every month! She didn't ask, just told me that it was her new year resolution and since then she has bombarded me with texts until i set a date for the next meet-up. Usually the texts starts the day after we last saw them. I like them / DH likes them, but not so much that we want to give up a day a month to them and i don't like being pushed like this.
Their DD coming along and making it obvious that she doesn't want to be there (nor do my DC, btw) just makes it worse. She is downright rude and her mother just happily titters when she does it like her DD is being cute or something!
I'm very willing to leave our DC at home from now on. But really I need to find a way to explicitly say that DH and i are not available every few weeks because until now I've just been using excuses to try and avoid committing and the wife is responding by trying to pin me down now for dates in December and January. She just seems to think that we are all part of a much closer friendship group than we actually are. Whenever I see her, she continually asks me when I last saw the others and is sad/ looking for me to explain it to her why the other wives apparently didn't mean it when they wrote in last year's Christmas card to her that "we must catch up in 2018".

Very best of luck a1ways. You and your DD, as last year, are being so sensible and brave I wish you all the best

a1ways - pleased to hear you sounding hopeful about navigating a different pathway for your courageous dd. Have this urge to hug you both!

Alde020 she does sound rather eager..........can't you not just suggest you meet up every 3/4 months? Regarding the DC at their ages they definitely won't want to come so I would say your DC won't be coming anymore, if they insist on bringing their DD then I would say hello and that would be it, I certainly wouldn't be making any effort to someone who was just going to be rude to me.

Good luck for the grade 8's!

A1ways please keep us posted on what path your DD decides to take.

DS has been awarded the maths and physics prizes at his school. I think his Physics teacher is running a bit of a charm offensive on him to try and peruade him to not drop it at AS level and I think it might be working

BlueBelle123 congratulations to your DS on the Maths and Physics prizes!

DS2 has been given his GCSE certificates. I don't think he'll be winning any prizes.

Yes DS passed me an envelope the other day that he hadn't even opened. It was his GCSE certificates and he had had them a few days.