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!

May I join you? Not sure if I have posted on here previously or not. DD is at college taking biology, chemistry and history and wants to apply for biomedical science. She has been a bit "rabbit in the headlights" about uni choices so far, I am having to nudge a bit as I know this year will go quickly. We have been to an open day at RHUL which is fairly close to us and she is planning a weekend away to do Lincoln and Leicester in July. I have a DS in his first year at uni so I have been through all this before but he wanted to stay fairly local to home which made the logistics a lot easier.

How is everyone getting on? Half term here and in the thick of revision for end of term/predicted grades tests. Glad that at least we'll know which universities to aim for/which are realistic.

I've got a rotten cold and hoping ds doesn't get it. We need all the energy we can get for trekking up and down the uk in a couple of weeks.

Welcome @EversoDisorganised - we loved the campus at RHUL but sadly ds not keen on the science offerings.

Thanks, yes head down revising for exams next week here, unfortunately we have got builders in (we didn't know when the mocks would be when we booked them) so that's not helping. No further on with uni decision making though.

Neither are we so I'm starting to panic slightly. Ds not even sure of the course - keeps going back and forth between 3-4 options.

Flitting between maths and photography here. Maybe that's university and apprenticeship. Can't have the conversation without getting shouted at the moment so I've given up. I might email the 6th form and see if they can offer any careers advice - I think they focus on their Oxbridge candidates.

With DS (just finishing year 1 of uni) it was fairly easy as he wanted to stay within 100 miles of home and not go to London so that whittled it down to about 10 straight away, even though he hadn't decided on a course. It also meant that Open days were all easy to get to.

I probably sound like a broken record as I say this so much, but I really think there is benefit to taking a year (or more if necessary) out if they're unsure what they want to do. I think a lot of young people feel that they have to go to University/start an apprenticeship straight after school which can lead to them making choices they later regret just so they have "something" after A levels. Given the cost of a degree now, and how hard it is to get funding for another if you later want to change direction, I think it makes sense not to rush into something that you are not at least reasonably sure about.
I used yo think thay gap years were basically just for rich students to go travelling or something in, but my elder DS stayed at home and got some work experience. I think even doing a job that you don't like has benefits. The extra year certainly helped him decide what he did want, and he grew up quite a bit. The fact he is a few months older than some of his course mates now is neither here nor there, and there are others who are older anyway. I know it feels like there is huge pressure to decide right now (and schools can contribute to that pressure unfortunately) but there doesn't have to be. Better to admit that you don't know than to jump into something that turns out to not be right.

Heartily agree @MrsAvocet
I have a DS just finishing Y1 and he's decided he wants to switch subjects but stay at the same uni - none of the available courses grabs him particularly but he's determined to choose the least worst option just so that it's settled and he knows what he's doing for the next three years. I am trying to explain that getting it wrong once is fine but twice is more of an issue, and that it's ok to take a year or more out, get a job and figure out what he wants.

He's at Nottingham and annoyingly won't even consider NTU, even though there are many more options available and some interesting courses with good links to employers. Aargh.

Hope everyone is enjoying the lovely weather. DD and I are off to Exeter Uni open day on Friday. Travelling down there tomorrow and staying overnight. I’m actually really looking forward to it. Not sure about DD. She’s literally just broken up with her boyfriend at the weekend so is heartbroken. I’m hoping a night away and a glimpse of uni life will take her mind off it and get her excited for the future.

Oh no @Rollergirl11 poor DD. Hope you both enjoy Exeter open day and it takes her mind off things for a bit.
My DS has done hardly any revision this week sadly and is out all day tomorrow and Friday at gigs. Then working at the weekend. Fingers crossed he gets the high predicted grades he needs.

I agree about the year out too, DD is adamant she wants to go next year. DS considered a year out but was mindful of his year being the last before student finance changed and having been at boarding school felt it would be a bit of a retrograde step to come back home full time again.

@Rollergirl11 - your poor dd. I hope the open day can help her with something to look forward to.

Absolutely nothing happening at my house! I'm so glad we had end of year exams before we broke up. Both my children are having a proper break. Ds has to write up a physics practical but that's it for him. He bought himself the new Zelda game as an end of exam treat so has basically been glued to that all week! I am dragging him out for a walk today though to meet a friend who is likewise dragging her ds with her so some social interaction for our teens at least!

Our open day treadmill starts with bath on the 17th and then one for the next three weekends after that it's going to be a busy month!

Ds was also thrilled last month to learn he's been appointed to the Senior Bench (basically like a prefect). It's a selection process including peers and staff at school so a lovely thing to achieve. I'm so proud of him! He'll have duties this half term coming at things like open day etc. so that'll add to the busyness of the calendar. Roll on July!

Wise words @MrsAvocet - dh and I both had a gap year and really enjoyed it. Unfortunately from the few enquiries we've made it doesn't seem to be looked on that favourably for /science/maths courses - apparently the 'fresher' the maths skills, the better. However, we'll ask more pointedly at the upcoming open days.

Hope the trip is a distraction for your dd @Rollergirl11 - nothing worse than a first love break up for a teen.

Oh dear to first love break up. At least it's in Year 12 rather than Year 13.

DD has opted to swerve sixth-form romance completely.

Are any of your DC doing uni open day visits on week (i.e. school) days? DD has booked to visit Oxford Brookes on a Friday later this month. Not ideal but I can see why (she has a Saturday job). Is this likely to be approved by school, do you think?

DD unsure and uninspired about writing her personal statement. Not only does she think she's likely to take a gap year, but she hasn't even decided whether to study English or Geography!

My elder son is doing a STEM subject now @Lightsabre
It may have helped that he did work experience in a directly relevant industry during his gap year and I also booked him back in with the tutor he had for maths A level for a refresher in the few months before he went to University. He wasn't wild about that bit to be honest, but we'd always said that was part of the deal if we were going to fund a year out for him, and he did grudgingly admit it was helpful afterwards! 😂
Obviously things will vary from University to University and course to course but it's worth investigating at least.
I regret never taking a step back in a way. I went straight from school to University then straight from University into professional training and climbed the career ladder very much in the expected way. I can't complain as such - I've done pretty well for myself - but I do feel I was started on a conveyor belt at 18 and didn't get off til I retired. Maybe I would have done it all the same anyway, it's fairly likely, but I do think I was set on a path in my late teens when in reality I was still pretty immature, and that was that. I think schools do tend to want everyone packaged upand "sorted" at the end of year 13 and for many this will be absolutely fine, but not for everyone. My kids have seversl friends who have either been unsure but gone away anyway or just snatched at "anywhere" in clearing and later regretted it so I've been keen to avoid mine doing that.

@LouisCatorze We are doing Bristol on Friday 15th - she will only be missing one lesson (Biology teacher has rearranged her class on the Friday for another day - having found a slot everyone in the class could make). I had this vague understanding that schools were required/generally accepted going to Open Days as a legitimate reason to be off school during Year 12/13 (I have this idea that they allocated something like four days to it - but my understanding could be wrong - my DS didn't end up going to any Open Days because of Covid, but was planning to go before Covid hit, and we had understood that was the case in his school at least).

I second (or third) the gap year recommendation. I did it, and it really helped me, so have been pretty insistant that my DC do it. DS had a wonderful year (and it meant he avoided pretty much all of the Covid aftermath at university), although he did find getting back into study and particularly exams a bit stressful after a year when May/June, for the first time in as long as he can remember, didn't come with exam stress.
DS applied for a deferred place - there is a box on the UCAS form, so it is really easy - and it was just so nice knowing he was sorted during the year - although we know other DC who have reevaluated.
School have also suggested that even though one might be taking a gap year, go the deferred route, so that they can get help from the school. Only thing that DD has pointed out, is that she has to write a personal statement this year, but it sounds like if she applied next year, she wouldn't. She was trying to understand what is involved for the change of form - but I am clueless, anybody know?

DD is pretty set on veterinary nursing - hence Bristol being top of the list. We did a tour of the RVC and that will go on the list - but I am a bit concerned about the veterinary nurses being four years at Hawksmead (the veterinary med students spend two years in Camden first, so by the time they get to Hawksmead they are older, and have already bonded). Somehow having 50 in your year and equivalent in the years above and that is pretty much it for a social life seems a very restrictive university experience. At least at Bristol they are two years on the main (Clifton) campus and only on the rural campus after that.
And just about everywhere else is also rural and miles from anywhere - we had thought about trecking up to Nottingham Trent, but again where the veterinary nurses are seems miles from the centre of Nottingham. And there is a tiny college outside of Leeds (which are doing it as a degree through Middlesex) - but again she won't really get the Leeds experience (and the only open day they had was for two hours of an evening, and we thought about getting the train and then the bus all the way up there - we are in London - just for two hours, and then coming back after midnight, but it all seemed two much).
Veterinary nursing options seem so limited - but it is really what DD seems to want to do. I was very worried when she said she couldn't face two years of Chemistry A level, as it really cut off her veterinary med options, but when we toured the RVC - the tour was for both - her response was that the veterinary nursing course was "more animals, less science - what's not to like" - so I guess it is the right choice for her. Just hope the working environment post university is not too brutal.
The big advantage of Bristol is also that she gets a proper BSc out of it - as best I can tell - so presumably if she then decides no longer to work in veterinary nursing, it will count as a regular degree. The RVC, although it offers the BSc as an additional year - when we spoke to the veterinary nursing students there, most of them were planning not to bother as they wanted to get out and working - and I could see the loneliness being out there for another year on the Hawskmead campus, with very few of those you started with, and the incentive of being able to walk into a job is likely to mean DD wouldn't bother, and might regret it later.
I kind of wish she would also explore some of the geography/environmental options - just to make sure she doesn't want them instead. I know she is obsessed with animals, and yes it is a career - albeit an awfully paid one. But maybe if she gets a Bristol degree, she could then do a masters in that kind of area if she decides later she wants the bigger picture.

A surprising number of DD's friends are planning to take gap years. (Surprising as in, I thought it would be the odd one but it seems rather more than that).

DD has considered it but, as she's disabled, simply living independently is likely to be enough of a challenge for her, so being able to do it with university support feels like not such a daunting step. Plus she is 100% sure what she wants to do and has been for some time!

She is wondering about a gap year after finishing university when she has (to quote her "more life experience") which I think is a good way of taking a break from the "treadmill" someone else mentioned.

We have a our first Open Day on Saturday - Sussex - which is not one of DD's top choices but might be an insurance depending on her predicted grades. We've had fun trying to plan the day - there simply is way too much to fit in (even allowing for the fact that there are some talks we'll do at just one Open Day) to the time available!

DD has also been offered the opportunity for an "Offer in Principle" at Birmingham if she speaks to someone at the Open Day (and she meets whatever their criteria are presumably). We decided it was a no lose situation so she's applied for it. Anyone else aware of this?

@sheepdogdelight yes, similar for my DS, who has SENs, he had been boarding at a special school and finding a small supportive university rather than coming home has served him well as a next step towards living independently. He has done his first year in catered halls, will be doing second year in self-catered and hopes to do a shared house for his final year.

DD says none of her friends are doing much uni-wise, they are either thinking gap year or apprenticeship or straight out to work. Her degree choice is a STEM subject so we are a bit wary of the gap year as mentioned upthread in case she forgets everything, she did Latin GCSE last year and every time a Latin question comes up in our weekly pub quiz she claims to have forgotten it all already, hmm.

So as of 2024 personal statements will no longer be required, so it seems. See this article

@Naem thanks for your reply to my question. I thought likewise but thought I may have made it up (or read it on MN previously?). Anything is possible!

Well no ps as such but they still need to write why the want to do the course and what they have done for it. Etc. More structured maybe.

The new approach looks more of a challenge to doing the PS in my opinion!

How do you convince your kids to start looking at universities? I haven't managed to ask the question in a way that just doesn't result in being told it's not something I need to get involved with and it doesn't matter anyway.... 🙄