Post GCSE’s 2022 - Year 12 2022/23 General support thread

[Rollergirl11]

This is a thread for supporting all young people post GCSEs 2022, regardless of their educational setting.
Our DC’s may continue down various pathways ( employment, apprenticeships, higher ed)
Everyone is welcome!

DS also did SMC and found it hard, especially the questions towards the end. I pointed out to him that year 13s will have been doing it too!

DS said he thought the last few questions were particularly hard, he's done it the last two years and got gold and kangaroo so it may be that this year's paper was a bit harder and the boundaries will be a tiny bit lower? I think results usually take about three weeks ish.

Well he came home tonight after week 2 of the college restaurant being open, buzzing! He was in the kitchen tonight. From the look of the chefs whites it was pea purée and something orange ha ha ha

@NameInUseAlreadyAgain sounds as if you'r DS is having a ball on his course. Good for him!

DD now recovered from COVID and back in school but with a lot to catch up on.

Hello all, what is SMC?

Senior Maths Challenge, I think.

@TeenDivided thanks, I wonder why DS school doesn't do this (or perhaps only some students do it)....

Sounds like a lot of mathematicians on here! DD (taking English/Humanities) was not best pleased to find that she has been put in a tutor group where there's only her and one other girl who are not taking maths. And their tutor is a maths teacher. She was desperate to give it up at the end of Year 11, but apparently now has to listen to a certain amount of maths talk!

@NameInUseAlreadyAgain , quite envious of you having a chef son - do you have amazing meals cooked for you?

He does cook for us yes but starting college and also working at a pizza place I’ve given him a break! But after half term he’s back cooking on a Saturday night if he’s not working ;).

Missed that there was a year 12 support thread although I am not sure why I didn't think there was one as I was on the year 11 thread under a different name.

Ds2 is loving sixth form. He is doing 4 A levels, maths, further maths, computer science and economics with a view to doing economics at uni. He has had a few tests with some great marks back.

Re homework Ds1 tended to get everything done within free periods in school. Ds2 will no doubt do the same. They start with just 1 hour per subject per week then move up to 3 hours per subject per week by Christmas. Ds currently comes home at lunch time 2 days a week which will increase to 3 when his enrichment finishes. That is only for 1 term. He will no doubt come home, raid the fridge and get all his homework done in the afternoons. He also did all his summer bridge work in July so he had August free of work.

His older brother is at uni so no open days for us yet as he attended all the ones his brother did so he too could get a feel for it all. He has an idea of where he wants to apply to but says it is all a bit soon but is researching the universities online. He has also spoken to his economics teacher about it all too.

We've made it to half term here, been a bit of a rocky ride but DD seems to be really enjoying her A level subjects.
She's helping out in the art department with some year 7 classes too during her study periods. We think moving schools for A level was the best thing for her and hopefully it will show in her results.

That's good to hear MrsPnut.

DD is also loving school and her subject choices. The only thing she's slightly struggling with is EPQ - the teacher teaching it is new, and I don't know if this is normal at this point of term, but all they seem to have done so far is choose a topic and generally discuss what is involved. I've said to DD if things don't pick up, she should drop it (she was in 2 minds anyway as she's already doing 3 essay based subjects, 2 of which have NEAs).

Good to hear positive stories - it's a big change for our DCs.
I'm very proud of my DS. They have a peer mentoring system which he volunteered for. Most of his friends were allocated quiet year 7s who are nervous about starting secondary but DS's mentee is a year 11 needing help with his GCSE in one of DS's A level subjects. The mentee is known to be bright but troublesome and several of DS's friends had said "ooh you're going to have your work cut out there". I was a bit worried about the school's wisdom to be honest but DS said he was ok with it and well, he's old enough to speak for himself now, so I minded my own business. First few weeks were as predicted, but DS came home last night very excited saying "X came to mentoring spontaneously this week - I didn't have to go and get him out of class AND he'd done the revision exercises I'd suggested last week and says they really helped".
I think it's probably given DS as much of a boost as his mentee. Maybe the school do know what they're doing after all.😁

Happy half term everyone! I was so pleased to turn the alarm off this morning!!

Just found out today that DS qualified for the BMO1 follow on round from the SMC so he is pleased about that. Only three and a half weeks to prep and it looks really hard, hoping his college can give him some support but not sure if they will be able to.

Fairly chilled out half term planned here, hoping to meet up with family and friends but also just relax at home. At one point it was saying it was going to rain all week but I think the forecast is looking a bit better now. I suspect DS will have some homework to do (including a Chemistry mini project/experiment he has been ignoring up until now) and he has assessments coming up in mid November I think.

Hope everyone has a good half term.

Good to hear positive reports on DC's progress.

DD is finding the step-up from not working very much for her GCSEs quite challenging. She is working harder but clearly is not used to exercising her brain muscle quite so hard! I don't think she really clocked quite what a step-up it would be.

Finding the physical geography quite challenging (they started with the water cycle) but apparently it's usual for them to do the most difficult stuff first. Now considering doing English for her degree, although psychology seems to be the subject she's enjoying most at the moment.

Unfortunately, DD is a late to settle to work type (she's more of an owl than a lark). But finding it difficult fitting all of her work in without compromising the early(ish) bedtime she needs to get the required number of hours' sleep.

Happy half-term (and Halloween) everyone!

Morning! So glad it’s half term. DD has been in a school production of Matilda, rehearsing all day every Sunday since the start of term, plus two evenings a week. This week was show week, and she’s loved it so much, but is very tired. I’ll be glad to see her get back to her books now! Assessments straight after half term, so she’ll need to crack on.
She’s got a party tonight, and we’ve got a night away on Thurs.

Hi everyone, nice to read some updates and see how everyone is getting on! Can’t quite believe we’re at half term already. Think from now until Christmas will fly by.

DD has settled in nicely to 6th form. They had class assessments a few weeks ago and were given a report with estimated grades and teachers feedback to assist them with choosing which subject to drop. So there has been a flurry of people dropping subjects and changing on to different courses. DD has dropped Psychology and is continuing with English Lit, History and Philosophy & Ethics. All weighty essay subjects but that’s what she’s good at so playing to her strengths. I assume that they will start to work on their EPQ’s after half term and that some of the frees that will have opened up in their timetable from dropping their 4th subject will be attributed to that.

DD has also pretty much got in to the swing with her job now and is certainly enjoying earning some money. Think she has a couple of shopping trips in to London planned over half term and a Halloween party that she’s frantically trying to get a costume sorted for! Gone are the days of spooky costumes though. DD is going as Alabama Worley from the film True Romance, as made popular by Cassie from TV show Euphoria. I suppose at least she’s seen the film! 🙄🤣

Glad to hear some good things. DD has also settled really well thank goodness. She’s doing 2 academic subjects but then went with a single BTEC in Dance to balance it out and she’s loving it! Dance has always been her happy place since she was little anyway and the sixth form course is proving to be her favourite. I think the combined course of ALevel mixed with BTEC is the perfect fit for her so I’m just happy she’s happy.

Early assessment grades all good too so I’m just so relieved.

Good to see everyone's updates.

In some ways this first half term has flown by, but DS is definitely ready for a break. He's enjoying his subjects & has done well in the assessments. The job situation has been a bit squiggly - his temporary job finished at just over a week ago. The glass collector job offer was withdrawn as the license only allows over 18s to work, but the bar owners have given him a glowing reference. He has applied for lots of jobs over the last few weeks, dropping his cv in & applying online etc, & I've been appalled that he's not even heard back, is a rejection text or e mail that hard??

Happily he did a trial shift as a junior waiter at an Italian restaurant last night & they've taken him on (our Ukrainian guest started work at the same restaurant in the kitchen this week, & they've bent over backwards to help her, so it's nice that they are both there!).

It's a quiet half term for us as DH & I are working, & DS will be working next weekend. He's got some mates around to watch the UFC tonight, so DH & I are hanging out in the kitchen with DDog.

Have a good half term!

Anyone else's teens exhausted? Mine is loving 6th form, really likes his choice of A levels and his teachers, Seema to be juggling study, social and a few hours of paid work a week but is exhausted every day. I guess it's all new and he has a lot to adjust to.

Thank goodness for half term break!

Yes "I'm so tired" is definitely DD's catchphrase this year! We have another week to go before half term too. But she has settled in well and seems to be coping with the workload. EPQ hasn't started yet though, and she will have a first set of mocks after Christmas, so I'm expecting things to become more fraught as the year continues.

Tired dc here too. He's had a great half term and is enjoying his subjects. He's just back from a school trip abroad (a sporting trip not an academic one) and had a fab time but is now stressed about getting his holiday work done.

He had grades for this half term. B,B,C which I'm trying not to stress about (it's only been six weeks!) and school said not to focus on them at this stage. I do think he needs to be doing more work than just his homework for each subject though.

Anyone with ideas as to what extra work in sciences/maths looks like? I did all humanities subjects so reading around the subject was a fairly straightforward thing to do. I'm not sure what to advise for maths physics and chemistry!

Glad it's not just mine! I guess it's normal...

EPQ - mine has had a couple of tutor sessions about this but has no idea what to do. Everyone around him seems to be doing stunningly creative projects so I think it's a bit daunting.

Anyone with ideas as to what extra work in sciences/maths looks like? I did all humanities subjects so reading around the subject was a fairly straightforward thing to do. I'm not sure what to advise for maths physics and chemistry!

For maths at least - practice questions, then more practice questions, then even more practice questions. probably the same for physics and possibly chemistry too.