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!

DD breaks up on 16th and back to school on 3rd January.

She has a close group of 6 friends and 4 of them want to apply to Oxford or Cambridge - two Oxford and two Cambridge. They all are clever and is good to be aiming high but I imagine this time next year could well be stressful.

I also feel a bit like they're at a selective school when in reality it is the local comprehensive.

DN went up to Oxford in October. He was quietly driven and managed 3A*s (he got a good mix of 7s to 9s in his GCSEs, for the record). His good leafy comp was very encouraging with Oxbridge applications with three getting in. Think it's better to give youngsters the opportunity than yesteryear when the less obviously super intelligent were often 'encouraged out of applying' by their teachers.

Son had an excellent review from the college restaurant. The course he cooked alone because the year 2 chef didn’t turn up, and he had never cooked before, the chap said it was the best dish of the evening. 40 covers he pumped out in half an hour. So proud.

he’s doing ok with the BTEC assignments. Passing them which is all we can ask. Not going to Uni so a pass is enough and who knows what he will do after the next 5 terms.

still so proud and in awe of what he can do when I’m not hovering over him in the kitchen.

this was the right choice. Bullying no more and he seems so happy. After being bullied (low level deliberately left out at primary school and nasty mental bullying senior school) it’s lovely to see him be just him and confident in himself for us. ❤️🧑‍🍳

That's so lovely to hear @NameInUseAlreadyAgain He obviously works well under pressure. I would crumble!

@NameInUseAlreadyAgain that sounds brilliant, particularly good that he is flourishing in a nicer environment

We had a good parents evening too. Very proud that DS has made a good impression on his new teachers. I did find out that there are some optional maths drop in clinics at lunchtime & after school on a couple of days which we will now encourage him to attend.

@NameInUseAlreadyAgain - that's so lovely to hear. Sounds like your dc is really flourishing.

@legofrostqueen - glad your parents' Eve was good. We don't get ours til next term!

Ds recovering from a sporting injury. Fortunately not affected his writing/typing. He has another assessment today - he seems to have had so many!

Great news @NameInUseAlreadyAgain - he sounds like he's found his forte and so good that he's enjoying it too.

Ds is plodding on but getting tired this week. There's been a heavy homework load. Breaking up Weds 21st but that last week is activity/Xmas stuff so shouldn't be too taxing.

Merry Christmas to everyone and their young people.

DD limped to the end of term and is now poorly (suspect she may have COVID). T'was ever thus. She seems to have a lot of homework to do over the holiday period, and another round of tests at the end of January too.

Last day tomorrow for us. DS brought his report home today and it's very pleasing, especially maths, where he is assessed as currently working at the top end of a B with the potential to improve to A. Having read multiple threads on Mumsnet warning of what sounds like almost inevitable disaster for those taking A level maths after achieving a 7 at GCSE this is a huge relief. We have got him a tutor and it seems to be paying off. He got the same grading for one of his other subjects and top end of an A for the third. Early days yet of course, and I don't want him getting complacent, but it's a good start.
Just waiting for the results from an interview for a very competitive work experience placement he's applied for now. They said it would be by the end of term, so they're cutting it a bit fine! None of his friends have heard anything yet either though, or I'd be starting to assume it was a "thanks but no thanks" for DS.
Happy Christmas to everyone. Hope all your young people enjoy the break and return to their studies with renewed vigour in 2023.

Has everyone had reports / grades? We had teams review meetings but they were designed for the student and teacher to talk, and parents were welcome to sit in. We haven't had any communication about how things are going other than that, and we weren't able to join one of the subject reviews as the teacher made it a call rather than a meeting and only DS could join.

DS finished on Friday and enjoyed not having to get up at any particular time this morning. He did some of his maths homework today but I'm not sure how much other homework he has. He says it is revise for the assessments in January but I will get him to check in more detail at some point.

@MyOtherProfile We had a mini report with "working at" grades just before parents evening. We have a parent log in for proportal which they upload test results to (well some teachers seem to use it more than others) so there is a fair amount of information available to us.

Well done to @NameInUseAlreadyAgain your DS, sounds like he is doing amazingly well. Also well done to @legofrostqueen DS and @MrsAvocet DS and probably others I have missed or forgotten. Hope your DD is soon feeling better @LouisCatorze Well done to all for surviving the first term of sixth form! Hope everyone has a lovely Christmas and a chance to relax and take a breath before diving back in, DS is back to college on 3rd Jan.

DD (kind of repeating y12) finished on Thursday. No work to do (though there is some we could do but she won't have the energy). Just going to relax for 2.5 weeks, and get some practical experience in giving medicine to a friend's bearded dragon.
We had a parents evening end November by phone calls with a report just before.

Not here - DD has told us the result of her assessments (which seem to be every few weeks!) but no reports or chance to talk to teachers. I think they consider the first term to be a lot about settling in. Although I am assuming no news is good news :)

Her school (thankfully) view the Christmas break as a rest, so no work to do over the holidays (they do work right until the last day of term though; I'm always surprised on MN threads when people talk about the last week of term being a waste of time)

Great new re maths @MrsAvocet -long may it continue!

Happy Christmas to all and here's to a successful 2023 for all our young people!

Grades for my ds. Two for each subject. An A and a B for Physics and the same for maths. Both subjects say he should be aiming for the top grades.
Two Cs for chemistry which he's surprised to be finding really hard. His teachers say it's not a lack of knowledge though, just rushing and not enough detail. Something he can work on next term.

He has a bit of work over the Christmas break and quite a bit of EPQ work to do. He's currently in bed properly poorly though. Not covid (we tested him) but a shocking cold with a very high temp. He's had it for over a week!

Hope everyone else's dcs are all finished now and ready for Christmas.

DS has three BTEC assignments to do over Xmas. One is a bit hard as it’s planning six recipes and then sorting out all the ingredients for ordering when they get back. Another is planning four events from scratch and the final one is something about planning a wedding reception. Plus he’s got about 25 hours from work this week.

i thought after last years solid mock revision he would get a break but clearly not !

That sounds like a heavy schedule @NameInUseAlreadyAgain.

Ds gets target grades and whether he's on track to achieve them. I'm a bit nervous about this approach as it happened for GCSE and we didn't really know until the mocks that he was under achieving in English. It was stressful for Ds having to pull out all the stops. They think he can achieve 4 A stars but this puts a lot of pressure on him. We'll see.

Hope you all have a good festive break.

We had a nice day today. DS got a call from the scheme run by a consortium of local businesses that he'd applied to, saying that all the companies he was seen by at the selection day have offered him a placement, so he got to choose the one he liked best. Then we got a letter in the post from the Head of 6th Form saying that DS has been selected as deserving of special commendation for his work this term. There's no prize or anything, just a pat on the back, but I hope it will give him a bit of a confidence boost. His friendship group consists of pretty much all the most academically able pupils in the year, so he has a tendency to compare himself unfavourably to them, and it's nice to see him getting a bit of recognition.
He can't cook though...your DS's schedule sounds tough @NameInUseAlreadyAgain but what an amazing skillset he is developing!

I'm feeling gobsmacked today realising ds will turn 18 in the next year! Anyone else? He seems so young still, mostly hanging out at home, I think we fall into treating him the same as in lockdown. On the other hand he halfway acts like he's in a flatshare, eating and sleeping on his own schedule...
Hope everyone got through xmas well!

Here too - he doesn’t seem to be like I was when a teen. Although maybe that’s a good thing !

happy new year fellow GCSE survivors ha ha

Happy New Year to everyone.

DD has been pretty tired over Christmas but perhaps not getting enough of a break as she should have been doing. She will be doing 50% of her holiday work on Monday and no doubt return to school feeling less than 100%

This coming year will be a big one for the DC with mocks, predicted grades and UCAS applications to do, quite apart from their personal life 'coming of age' milestones.

Yes, Happy New Year and good luck for 2023 everyone.
Time seems to be accelerating ! I think it's partly because DS2 is my youngest, so his departure for University will be very strange for me. I know it has to happen, and I am excited to see how his future pans out, but at the same tine, I don't like it!

Happy new year to you all. I'm also a bit anxious about the year ahead - the thought of ucas forms, exams, deadlines. It feels like there is a lot of pressure ahead and Ds isn't really engaging with the whole university thing yet. We'll just have to take it one step at a time.

Try not to worry too much @Lightsabre
In my experience, schools do have a tendency to push pupils into making decisions and getting University applications sorted out early - understandable of course as they don't want hundreds of last minute problems to sort out. But in reality there is plenty of time, and of course you don't have to go to University straight from school. There is pressure, and it is easy to get swept along in the process and to believe that you are doomed if you don't have your life plan sorted at 18. But of course it's not true. In my opinion it is better to take time out than end up on a course that doesn't really suit you, especially given the costs these days. My middle child took a year out and it was definitely the right decision for him as he matured hugely in that time and is now really enjoying his University course, but I do remember feeling quite panicked when all his school friends seemed so "sorted" and he wouldn't even talk about what he wanted to do.

Thank you for the wise words @MrsAvocet. I took a year out too and had a great time. Definitely something to mull over.

Advance happy new year wishes to you all. Ds has been really unwell for the last fortnight - has mostly been in bed. Up now but still really weak and with very little appetite. His grand plans for getting ahead of himself on his EPQ have come to nothing although he has managed to complete his set work for his a level subjects.

We all feel rather like moles having been indoors so much over the Christmas period - all our plans bar Christmas Day were cancelled!