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!

Sorry about the unintended bold...I of course wrote A star twice and made it bold by accident!

That's a fantastic set of results @MrsAvocet. We don't get ours til Monday - once the school is shut and there are no teachers there for the parents to complain to!

I'm expecting A/B borderlines for ds which the teachers all seem really pleased with. He's aiming for 2 x A star and an A and he seems pretty on track for that.

Next term we need to investigate the AS level further maths which is offered in U6th and will slot into some of his frees and the space his EPQ has left now it's in. DS seems really keen to take it. I only want him to take it if it won't adversely impact his other grades though so will need to chat to school.

We have a post 18 pathways meeting in the first week of next term and then they start the personal statement workshop stage. First draft has to be in for the last week of the summer term.

DS just got back marks for cooking assessment number 3. It’s out of 5. He got 5 :-)

@NameInUseAlreadyAgain how wonderful! You must be so proud.

Have a lovely Easter weekend everyone. DS is working two long restaurant shifts today & tomorrow. The focus next week will need to be on revision for the Maths AS level in May. This year really is flying by...I've got serious deja vu to our chats this time last year on revision!

well done to your DS @NameInUseAlreadyAgain !

@NameInUseAlreadyAgain - that's fantastic! Well done your ds.

Great results @MrsAvocet and @NameInUseAlreadyAgain

DD has her mocks straight after Easter break so is revising. @legofrostqueen I also have deja vu from last year when DD was right in the thick of her revision. Can’t believe how quickly this year has gone!

We have a few open days booked so far; Exeter and Durham in June and Lancaster for September. Going to try and get Cambridge and York in for July. And then possibly Warwick and Leeds for October. College give them 3 days off for open days. So far 2 of them are week days so she can take the day off college and one falls in the half term. But the others are Saturday or Sundays and she works a 7 hour shift on Saturday until 8.30pm so she’s either going to have to take annual leave or try and move her shift earlier or something so we can travel on the Saturday night.

We are having a chilled Easter weekend which makes a change. Normally we are in Liverpool with DH’s family but DD has to work today and Easter Monday so we went earlier on in the week and got home yesterday. Just enjoying some warmer weather. Hope everyone has a lovely Easter!!🐣

Can't believe the last term of year 12 starts tomorrow! Seems only yesterday that we were worrying over GCSEs but in a few weeks year 13 will have left to do their exams and our DCs will be the oldest in the school/college. Time is going too fast!
Hope everyone has had a good Easter break. Ours has been quite good. DS did some work experience at Lotus which he absolutely loved, and he passed his driving theory (huge wait for a practical test of course though) He's now talking about maybe applying for automotive engineering degrees but I am encouraging him to look at all his options. Work experience is great of course but I think it's sometimes easy to get swept along with whatever you've last done, especially if you have had an enthusiastic mentor, and whilst he has been interested in engineering for ages this passion for cars is fairly new. We shall see!

Yes year 12 is flying by so quickly @MrsAvocet. DS and I were discussing how the sixth form will be much quieter once the year 13 get study leave.
Trip to Loughborough was good, DS liked it and it’s definitely going on the UCAS form so that’s one definite. We had a look through modules for other unis too and getting a list together. Booked to go to Lancaster and York in July.
DS passed his driving test so has been taking himself to work and I’ll no longer need to do the school run ever again!

Well done to your DS @PaddingtonPaddington My DS isn't 17 until the summer but I can't wait to not be his chauffeur any more.

I can't believe how quickly the school year is going @MrsAvocet. It always flies by after Easter too.

My DS did a couple of university master classes over the holidays but is still no closer on to deciding what degree he wants to do. He is off to LSE open day this week and then Warwick and Bristol in June. He is still working hard at his supermarket job at the weekend and is loved up with his girlfriend who is also in year 12. I was selfishly hoping that he didn't have any romantic relations until university or later as he is very sensitive and I do worry about how he will deal with a break up. Fingers crossed it doesn't happen just before A levels like it did to me

Well done to your DS @PaddingtonPaddington - DD is getting nearer doing her test…

She and I are off to Oxford after work/school as she’s going to a choral scholarship open day tomorrow and we’re staying with XHs parents. She is intending to do some of the driving but most of the route from York to Oxford is M1 so it’s down to me 😂

@spacechimp79 I am partly glad DD isn’t in a relationship although I think she has feelings for someone in her close friendship group. Not sure whether it’s reciprocated or not though

DS got his timetable for his mocks yesterday...all concentrated in the week & a half after half term - so that's half term sorted 😂 of course he has an AS in May too, hoping that he'll settle into revision mode soon as very little was done over the Easter holidays.

It turns out that only a couple of his close friendship group are looking to go to university now - I worry that this means that some of them will take the exams less seriously, which will mean that DS feels he's missing out on 'having fun', so far he is still motivated & ambitious so fingers crossed he can remain that way.

No official mocks for ds - just end of year exams as usual in may.

He's out tonight at an awards evening for his sport. Dinner Jacket and everything! It's an adult team he plays for so although there'll be a few people his age most will be adults and I suspect it'll be a fairly lairy evening. Ds doesn't drink but we'll see if that changes!

He has his first driving lesson on Monday but I want to take him to our local big supermarket tomorrow evening after closing so he can have a bit of a practice.

Exams at the end of June for DS. He's already had one lot but they use the June ones for the predicted grades so he needs to knuckle down before then. He had parents evening last week which was largely very positive though a few areas of weakness identified. He's got his preliminary prefect interviews next week. It's a two stage process which I guess means there are a lot of applicants so he's not getting his hopes up too much.
Strangely @QueenMabby my DS is also out at an end of season sports awards tonight too, though he's not wearing a dinner jacket, just a regular suit. Would be funny if it was the same one!

That would be funny @MrsAvocet! Ds had a good time and I hope yours did too!

Ds needs to pull his finger out as his first As real exam is on 15/5 - about 3 weeks time, the second is at the end of May. I do t think they've covered the full syllabus yet either and homework is still being set for all courses so the pressure is on. On top of that, the school wasn't a rough draft personal statement by mid June.

We also have to squeeze in some open days. Unfortunately the Oxbridge applications have to go in early and the school deadline is even earlier than that so we're toying with the idea of submitting some courses early and then taking a bit more time with the other courses so we can spread open days out into October. So glad I did some of these last Sept/Oct. There's a lot to do and organise.

Sorry about the typo's!

Good to hear all the positive progress that so many of your young people are making.

DD is plodding along okay. Seems to be putting more effort into upcoming (first set of ) mocks than she's done revision-wise previously. She admitted as much the other day. Thinking of taking a gap year after A Levels. Keen to study English at uni, do a four-year course, and spend a year somewhere like Japan or South Korea as part of it. We're busy wondering how expensive that's likely to be!

It's not beyond the realms of possibility that your DC could be going to the same sports awards ceremony, @QueenMabby and @MrsAvocet. There are a couple of MNetters on one of the university cohort threads whose DC were at the same university, and it soon became apparent that their young people were clearly in the same friendship group!

No sports awards ceremony here!
Good luck to your DS on the AS exams @Lightsabre. DS has just got end of year exams in June but no dates yet. He also needs to start thinking about geography NEA ideas.
Still waiting to hear back from some work experience places but he has got one week with York uni with the physics department in the summer holidays so that’s good news and something to put on his personal statement. DS now thinking of integrated masters and possibly a placement year or year abroad - lots of options.

Exams at end of June here too. And then mocks in November (which are mainly the ones used for A Level predictions, although I've told DD she should still be aiming to do as well as possible - which to be fair she would anyway).

Some advice from any seasoned open day goers sought - the ones DD wants to go to fall Friday and Saturday of one week and then Friday and Saturday of the one after (there's 2 others she wants to go to as well, but they are a bit more spread out). I think that 4 is a lot of Open Days in a very short timeframe and it will be too tiring. Especially as her exams start the week after the 3rd and 4th open days. But she's keen to get the places visited and not wait until September (we're assuming there will be more dates in September). Any thoughts either way?

With DS's older siblings we have done this where we went from one university to the other university town on the Friday night or Saturday morning. It can save a lot of time and money (eg train fares)if the universities are far from home.

Just noticed that AQA have released their provisional timetable for May/June 2024. Looks like we will be free of school constraints (DD is my youngest, and only one still at school) from Wednesday 19th June 2024!

I assumed it was one weekend followed by another. Certainly for us, it is Bristol on the 16th/17th JUne and then Nottingham/Nottingham Trent on 30th/1st which is two weeks later - but if there was one in the intermediate week I can well see there being two in a row.

Ooof @Naem - can't believe they've issued them so early! Think DS's maths and physics are both aqa. Chem is definitely ocr. Have just freaked out ds with the news. Hopefully that'll kickstart him into a bit of revision. 🤣