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!

Yes I think that is what we will do, pay tuition and she does have 2 jobs already and said she has saved 10k from those so far.

But everyone gets just over £4000 minimum towards it, plus the normal student loan to pay the tuition fees so that brings it down to around £7000 max to pay per year.

I think the other thing that can be easily forgotten is that once your DC moves away you do see some reduction in household bills which does at least partially offset what you are spending on the university costs. When my DD went away we saw quite a decrease in the water bill, plus I was no longer spending £200+ per month on dance classes. With DS1 the change wasn't as noticeable though obviously I'm buying less food, we use a bit less electricty etc and our school bus costs over £1000 per child per year so I'm saving that. DS2, besides eating like a locust has a couple of hobbies that involve a significant amount of travel which obviously I'll stop once he is away. So whilst I don't deny that University costs a lit more than having them at home, if you calculate all the things that you are no longer spending on them it doesn't seem quite as much extra as it first appears.

Btw for anyone who lives in Wales who might not know yet - student finance is different for us, the DC can borrow the full amount of maintenance so parents do not have to find £7k a year per child.

Didn’t see the post sooner, but @QueenMabby re physics work experience, I’m a scientist but not a physicist, people often ask me about work experience, you would be surprised at how many small science businesses there are tucked away on industrial estates all over the place, you often don’t really know they are there because the work tends to be business-to-business therefore they don’t have flashy signage and adverts. Try googling your local area with things like physics, calibration, lab equipment servicing, lab equipment supply, metrology, analysis, water testing, satellite, space engineering, research and development, you name it really.

DDs year 12 exams start today - she has two today and tomorrow. Am finding myself getting a bit too stressed about them but hopefully keeping it from her!

Shes got her driving test in a couple of weeks time - and her driving instructor has had to stop teaching! Not sure entirely why it was but glad she was planning to take it in our car anyway.

How did yesterday in Oxford go? I loved it (and the history course) - the sample lecture was on a 13th century Islamic astronomer which I thought was great as opposed to the usual British or Empire focus. Another parent in another talk brought it up and asked why such a niche choice had been made for the lecture which I was slightly 🙄about. I think we can assume most unis cover Britain, Europe so I thought it was refreshing, also most likely that person was available to do the lecture. I thought it demonstrated the breadth.

Anyway, DS1 was far less keen than me. He didn't like the 'we are Oxford after all and better than Cambridge because ...' and its too spread out. It seems that Leeds showing him a campus has won him over. He said he might still apply, but we'll see.

Yes that's true MrsAvocet I also remembered I worked a year between school and university and spent that there.

Hope exams go well Miranda

StColumbo I like an unusual topic that would have interested me. DD went with a couple of other students but they went round separately as different courses. She seemed to love it both the course and the colleges, she just moaned about some of the mothers and said some children have very annoying mothers who have no self awareness. 😂She now has a preferred course and college though is concerned about the 5% acceptance rate.

Whilst the lecture was going on I was sitting in the info area reading my book and the huge number of parents at the SU stand was hilarious.

Has anyone been to one of the UCAS information days? We've just booked one as I saw there was one coming up at a venue within reasonable travelling distance for us. Looks like there are stands from quite a few Universities that DS would potentially be interested in though I don't know how much we'll actually be able to see, as you get a timed slot which is only a couple of hours. Can't do any harm though I guess.

DS1 went with school when there was a local one. He mostly collected tote bags.

@EversoDisorganised - thank you that's really helpful. I've given ds the task of finding five local places to send his cv to with a request for work experience if possible so I'll guide him in the direction of those search terms.

Went to Oxford today - absolutely exhausted now. Another 20k+ steps! It was heaving but we enjoyed looking around the different colleges and the talks.

she just moaned about some of the mothers and said some children have very annoying mothers who have no self awareness

Haha! Had something very similar from DD:

Me: do you think you'll apply?
DD: I dunno, I'm not sure I'd like it here with some of these people. Actually to be fair it's the parents that are annoying me.

Soooooo many people and the trains were absolutely heaving, like rush hour on the tube with people trying to squeeze on and everyone breathing in until the doors closed. But a useful day.

Ds now digging his heels in and refusing to visit any more unis (after a total of 2). Unfortunately I've already spent £££ on trains. Battle of wills! Disappointing exam grades aren't helping but we're hoping for better predictions. This is way more emotionally exhausting than I had expected!

Oh dear. Disappointing exam result here today. Well below his marks in the first exams of the year and all his coursework. Not quite sure what has happened there. Bit of sulking going on so no point in pushing the issue just now, we'll discuss it in the morning. We did have an insanely busy couple of weeks in the run up to the exams so he perhaps just wasn't well enough prepared. Hopefully it will be reversible- he was said to be the best in the class at parents' evening. 😕

Sorry to hear about the disappointing exam results @MrsAvocet and @aramox1. Seems a bit gut wrenching when they've put a lot of effort in and there's so much else going on for them too. Hopefully their schools will review this before the UCAS deadlines. Unfortunately ds school are pretty rigid about grade predictions and have already sent a long letter basically saying do t try to get your dc's grades changed, it 'ain't happening, They're giving the official grades the day before school breaks up so they don't have to deal with the fallout I guess.

Apart from the very competitive uni's, the courses ds has looked at luckily offer quite a way under what we think he'll be predicted thank goodness but the challenge with that might be to keep him working hard.

don't

Well I'm very glad we can negotiate on DS's predictions! He was predicted AAB which is good but the B is in physics and he needs that to be an A so I'm going to email the school.

There are plenty of unis where ds can study his subject with AAB but he has his heart set on Bath which should be AAA if he gets an A in his EPQ.

We've had a chat about it and he's willing to put the work in and he is capable of an A in physics so 🤞🏻 we're successful!

Yeah it's rough. I got rubbish grades all through sixth form and applied to top unis, it's hard to grasp how different it is 30 + years on!

Disappointing grades here too, although with a chance to re-sit in September. DD started a weekend job and we were having renovations on the house during the exam period which probably didn't help but there's never a good time to have house renovations in these few years (our other DC is 2 years older). She is wavering on uni subject choice too between science and humanities. One open day done, 2 more next weekend, can't do any more because of the weekend job. I think she will have to give that up in September.

DS has done better than expected really well in his exams & the UCAS predicted grades are enough for the Durham course that is top of the list...but it's such a popular university that we will ask if one of the grades can be adjusted up, to give him an edge & because we think he is capable with hard work of achieving it. He took these exams with an injured hand & after focussing most of his revision on the AS level that he took two weeks before. I have no idea if the school will be flexible here but it can't hurt to ask.

DD has now done 4 out of 5 exams and as the next one is Tuesday then she is actually having a day off from what I can see. Although she does need to do some more driving practice but I suspect will be "too tired"

Sorry to hear all the DC’s with grades lower than they wanted and hope they are able to get something in place so they’re not disappointed.

@Aramox have you managed to persuade DS to visit a few more unis? Must be frustrating in you’ve already shelled out for transport.

Well done DS @legosunqueen and fingers crossed for Durham! Good luck to DD @MirandaWest for the rest of her exams.

DD and I have a very early start tomorrow as we are heading to the York open day. There and back in a day is going to be exhausting and will be rushed as anything but DD working till 8.30 tonight so no option of going up there today. Catching train @ 6.30 and probs won’t be home before 9pm so think we will be shattered!

Has anyone done an open day at Leeds Art Uni? We haven't started yet...