Year 12 #3: Open Days and Predicted Grades beckon

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Yikes! The title has just hit me! It's too soon! I'm not ready!!

Thread number 2 link: https://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/further_education/3443840-Year-12-2-Carols-commutes-a-few-stocking-fillers

Kingscote - re PPE Some PPE courses require Maths A level.and some don't.

Again some Economic modules are merely theoretical or about the history of economics rather than calculation based modules. If considering which to do if the student is less 'maths inclined' seek out the BA courses.

I have found the following, Kingscote, on Warwick's website as they offer PPE as either BA or BSc and they explain there are 3 pathways and you choose one at the start. warwick.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/courses-2019/ppe/

UCL and LSE offer BSc whereas Oxford is a BA. It really is one of those courses where the student should definitelt examine module by module! Spreadsheets at rhe ready!

DS told me on Friday that he is really hating French. I knew he wasn't enjoying it and doesn't think much of the teachers, but I think he was trying to give it a chance, but has now lost hope! He wants to switch to Chemistry!! Although I am not convinced by his plan nor think they will let him, I am feeling happy about it because he actually wanted to talk to me about it and listened to my suggestions . He hasn't said much to me for ages so it was really nice to be able to talk to him! Twin maybe your DD will eventually talk/listen as well. It is sooo hard when they wont

He was also going to take A level maths this year, but is now not sure if it is a good idea or not. I'm not sure if its to do with his MH issues as he had a maths mock on a "bad day" when his "brain wouldn't tell him how to do the questions" . He has spoken to the exams office so they know and will chat to the maths teachers this week. It was a bit of a surprise, but I am just trying to be supportive and encourage lots of talking about it.

In other news we are still waiting for a psychiatrist appointment. Have had several phone calls to CAMHS to try and get things going. He has had blood tests done by the GP and all vitamin/iron etc levels are fine.

Abitofastate -- I think it would be really tough to switch to Chemistry at this late stage unless he is prepared to repeat year 12. This is not as uncommon as people think. Indeed my eldest repeated year 12 (mainly down to lack of work and appalling AS grades).

Also Chemistry is one of the toughest A levels with a big step up from GCSE. If his Maths is concerning him it is possible that Chemistry would possibly do the same.

Yes, I think its unlikely he will be able to swap to chemistry, but he wants to ask ... his plan is that he teaches himself all the AS from now until the the exams. He does the exam with those who have been doing it from the beginning and if he does well they will let him join the year 13 class next year! We shall see!

Maths isn't concerning him as such. But he joined the year 13 class (from the beginning of year 12) so that he could take it a year early (not normally done in his school).The idea was 1- he wouldn't be as bored in maths lessons and 2 - it would give him more time in year 13 if he also did step (as his school like everyone to do 4 A levels). He now wonders if his exam technique will be ready and also if psychologically its better to do them all at the same time. He only wants to do it this year if he can be pretty sure of getting an A*.

So if he is doing 4 and dropping the French means he goes down to 3 i think it becomes less of an issue. He is obviously clever if the school are prepared to let him go straight into year 13 Maths so perhaps Chemistry is doable for him.

Maybe once he drops the French which is stressing him out he will relax into his preferred subjects.

My DS started 4 but having decided he wants to pursue History as a degree dropped his Maths and feels much happier doing justice to his remaining 3 and EPQ.

If he does self-study it may be worth topping up with a tutor from time to time for topics which are a bit more stretching unless he has access to Chemistry Surgery at school or similar.

Just checking in too. Things have been hectic here to say the least. We also got a new puppy beginning of November thanks to the youngest and her boyfriend. He's almost 5 months old now and already bigger than our other dog. Was told he was a German Shepherd by youngest but have a feeling he's going to be a King German Shepherd. Google the size difference, it's frightening. Takes lots of walking and playing.

After her suspension, the boyfriend finally left for school in Australia, so youngest is now around a bit more often. However, school is not her favourite place. I'm not sure she even wants to go to university, so I'm not bothered about that at the minute. We shall have to wait and see.

Lots of our friends are leaving and we have been the half-way house once the packers have been in before they finally leave the country. And my sister comes on Friday to recover from my niece. Oh, and the Pope is giving mass two minutes up the road next week, and I'm still not sure if I will be able to leave the house and get to work!

I love dogs and was intrigued by King German shepherd so I googled and found this www.allthingsdogs.com/king-shepherd/ - sounds like you have a lovely boy on your hands .

On the walking, you do know that with large breed pups its only supposed to be 5 minutes walk per month of age until fully grown? So,15 mins twice a day when they are 3 months, 20 mins x 2 when they are 4 months, 25 mins x 2 when 5 months etc. Otherwise you potentially bugger up their growing joints. Sorry if you know this already, its just when you said the needs lots of walking it threw me ...

Yes, we did know that, but he needs to go morning, afternoon and evening, or he just winds up the other dog, who is 11+ years old, and is too grumpy to put up with a bouncy idiot. As are we.....

Oh blimey, I remember those days well - the boundless energy of puppies. It is exhausting

abitofastate DD is been seen by CAMHS and results of blood test show vitamin D defiency. Is she taking the vitamins the Dr has prescribed. no
And she wonders why I worry about her when she won't open up.

On the puppy front, colleague brought his puppy into work to socialise him. Puppy gave us a little present......

...nice. abitofa DD had a similar plan when she wanted to switch from English to Politics at the start of term. Get him to talk to his tutor and look at all options. She wasn't allowed to switch and (luckily) got an A star in her exam last week, which may have made her look at it more favourably again. Meanwhile, her tutor is encouraging her to take up FM in year 13 as an AS alongside her 3 A levels and EPQ. No!

DS has now been told he can do FM AS in year 13. So he now has three choices for FM, full A2, AS or drop it and do neither. He s sticking with it for now whilst he s coping as the lessons are mainly racing through the ‘normal’ maths syllabus and even if he does some FM that doesn’t end up with an exam any maths is probably useful. The work is definitely starting to ramp up though.

Huge best wishes for abitofa and Twin.

Sooooo - when DS had the ALIS testing there were some odd results which lead to his school testing for SpLD and it turns out that he has dyslexia and slow processing so will qualify for extra time.

I feel like a bad mum that I haven't spotted it previously. However LSA said that because he is jntelligent basically he has his own strategies and coping mechanisms which have in effect masked the problems until now. Having now read up about both it now seems blindingly obvious. He is happy thay doing 3 essay subjects he will qualify for extra time!

*excuse my typos.

DS2 has received an email from his sixth form asking if he's interested in applying to the Eton College universities summer school.

For those who haven't heard of it, this is a (subsidised) residential course for Y12 students from state schools who are thinking of applying to Oxford or Cambridge.

Lovely idea, but the dates of the course mean that attendees will be unable to attend the open days at either Oxford or Cambridge.

I realise that Oxford has an additional open day in the second half of September, but this is on a weekday and also at quite a late stage for the application process.

Is there a departmental open day or taster day or college open day he could go to instead.

Your DS has done remarkably well to cope so far Shalom. Hopefully the extra time will make life a bit easier for A levels.

Hi all, I haven't read the thread and apologise if this has already been mentioned. My DD is on a gap year at the moment but I wanted to mention summer schools as I only found out by chance that they need to be applied to this early.
DS went to a 5 day summer school at Bath University and DD applied to the Sutton Trust summer school for Cambridge she didn't get a place, but through them she was then contacted by Homerton College, Cambridge who offered her a place.
They both enjoyed these summer schools, meet new people and got to experience university life so I highly recommend them.
DD also applied to the Eton summer school but didn't get a place.
Some universities offer masterclasses in subjects, keep an eye on their websites and the visit us pages, these class can be handy for personal statements.
I remember how much I had to find out for myself when DC were in Y12, I hope this helps.

Wow Shalom they say the ability masks the disability and vice versa.

How clever your DS must be to have got all the way to doing essay subjects at A level before anyone saw it?!
My DS only made it to year 6 before the red flags were appearing everywhere

I felt the bad mother thing too, but, I don't anymore. This is how I rationalised it (maybe it will work for you too?):

1. The 100+ teachers who have taught him have seen 100s or 1000s of children each and they didn't spot it. So it must have been well hidden.
2. It's a bit like being stuck in a lower gear than your intelligence would normally dictate. However DS was bumping along the top of the class not being challenged anyway so it would have made no difference if he had been diagnosed earlier as he was already doing the most challenging work the teacher was willing to set.
3. I'm not an educational psychologist!
4. DS found it hard coming to terms with the word "disabled", so the extra years he had undiagnosed gave him time when he didn't have that label to cope with.

One thing I didn't know until DS was diagnosed is that it's hereditary. Neither DH nor I thought it could have come through us. Then I read up about the dyslexia and realised that it was widespread in the generation before me on my dad's side. It made me reappraise some long held beliefs where people rather unkindly described them as "thick". It makes me wonder what their outcomes would have been if their teachers had been able to recognise dyslexia, dyscalculia etc and help them the way DC are helped now, rather than be written off age 7ish.

Looking back Shalom were there any previous signs?

I suspect that ds is dyslexic (his sister is and had extra time in GCSEs). He attends a different school to his sister. When I asked her Ed Psych to test him she advised that I should go to the school SENCO first - but the SENCO gave me very short shrift. I am wondering whether to push it or not. He is in year 10 at the moment and his weaker subjects are maths (not unusual for dyslexics), English and French....

Shalom it often goes undiagnosed. I know several people who weren't diagnosed until sixth form or even later. There are quite a few students who arrive at my college who are referred for screening because it's obvious to us - but for some reason dyslexia wasn't picked up when they were at school. The most amazing one is my friend's dd who finally got a diagnosis in the third year at Cambridge! Her coping strategies had worked very well up to that point (they also diagnosed dyspraxia).
I admire any student battling their way through school with dyslexia - it is exhausting for them.

The daft thing is my step son does have dyslexia but I never was involved in any testing. We also think that my DH probably has it (looking at traits etc) and also his Dad! They all always think I read really quickly but perhaps itis down to them being slower because of it.

Again yes up to year 8 top all the time at his prep school so wouldn't necessarily be worried. Year 9 moved to superselective and was in lower sets but hay its a superselective! At gcse level did a mix of letters and numbers but in effect 9 x A and 2 x A . One A in mfl - now read tougher for dyslexics to learn languages. The other he missed A by one mark in an essay subject that he ran out of time for. It was his first written exam and he made sure he didn't for later ones and indeed got 100% and 98% on 2 other essay gcses!

Looking at signs - prem birth tick, glue ear tick, speech delay and therapy tick, family history - well half brother tick and strongly suspect dad and grandad (lawyer and teacher) undiagnosed!!

I am not sure he realises it is classified as a disability yet. However he is quite a laid back character and is happy to get the ET. He also said that he will probably feel the benefit more than his friend who has had et since primary as he has had to cope without it through 11 gcses! I suppose that is quite a mature way to look at it.

Well we have a very strong family history with dd who is dyslexic, whilst my brother has three children with dyslexia and I suspect that my sister and her son are dyslexic too (undiagnosed). I also believe that my father is dyslexic but it wasn't screened for back then.

Hmm - I think I will pursue it with the Ed Psych despite ds' school's cowbag of a SENCO being so dismissive. Because he is excelling at geography and history (currently 8/9) and doing fine with the sciences (currently 7/8) he can't possibly have an issue was her perspective! (so not relevant that he is 5/6 in English and French and struggling with some of the mathematical language then ). Thanks for sharing this Shalom as it has crystallized my commitment to pursue this

Great attitude Shalom and probably partly what’s helped him cope so far