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!

Thanks for that link @Rollergirl11 really useful. DS was supposed to have send his first draft to a teacher at college about a week and a half ago but discovered yesterday the email had not actually been sent so he sent it last night. It's very very rough and far too short (I had a look to proofread - he struggles with writing.) Oh well I guess he has time to improve it over the summer.

He went off quite happily to his work experience placement this morning, fingers crossed it will go well. Then he only has four days next week and year 12 will be finished! How did it go so fast?

DD has two NEA to do. Made a start on her English Lit. one and is currently on her field trip to collect data for the geography one. Seems like a lot of extra work.

DD has looked at Southampton and Oxford Brookes so far. But she's confined herself very much to SE/SW England so hasn't really got a great deal of choice if she excludes London universities. Think she'd be better swerving doing her UCAS application until after she's got her A Level results, given that she's aiming on taking a year off after school.

Good to see you back @Silkierabbit .

Thanks Louis Good to see you too. It might be worth your DD applying this year anyway as a practice run to see what she gets.

DD has only visited Oxford and doesn't seem very bothered about visiting anywhere else, she said only 1 in 20 get in but if she doesn't get in she might take a year out and try again. Think her insurance will be LSE but she said their open day is full. She's got 2 very good jobs so a year out would be OK, she gets about £300 a day some days at one of them.

Still in talks for the school for DS but got PIP granted for him which is good to mid 2027. Getting work done on house as well incase need to move areas for DS.

Clearing is open for 2023 so it’s worth a look to see if any potential courses your DC are looking at are available. Would also suggest looking again the day before A level results day. Obviously it’s not a guarantee that this will be the same for 2024 entry.
https://www.ucas.com/clearing

Thanks for that link @PaddingtonPaddington. Surprised to see Medicine at Kings in clearing.

Thanks @PaddingtonPaddington if only DS could decide what course to apply for 😬. God only knows what he's been writing in his personal statement draft at school this week.

Thank you @PaddingtonPaddington. There's a lot of physics courses in clearing. Including the one that is DS's first choice for next year... 🤞🏻🤞🏻

DD doesn't need to submit a draft PS until a few weeks into next term, she's at a very small college so they don't have huge numbers of applicants. Having been through it recently with DS I feel fairly Ok about supporting her but it's just as well they don't want it in too soon as she hasn't decided what she wants to study yet. She's off to a couple more open days this weekend.

DD and I went to the Cambridge open day yesterday. I think it’s safe to say that DD loved it. The professor giving the sample lecture was genius and inspired everybody with her passion. We managed to look around 6 colleges; all of them were beautiful. Accommodation is the most affordable we’ve looked at so far given that you’re only paying for 30 weeks. So she will definitely be applying but doesn’t want to get over invested. Although it’s hard not to! I think she will do some research in to colleges now as she doesn’t want somewhere really pushy but definitely has more of an idea of what she does want now she’s seem some in person.

Glad your dd was inspired @Rollergirl11 .

What are all of your dc's plans for the summer? We're away for a couple of weeks but I'm trying to get ds interested in getting a job. Really don't want him sitting around doing not much all summer.

We might need a new thread soon too as this one is nearly full.

@Rollergirl11 - was that the Metaphors lecture? My DD is only Y11 but we went. We went to that lecture and I fully expected to fall asleep as it's safe to say I have a hatred of writing / grammar.

The lecturer was absolutely amazing. I found it interesting and she was so enthusiastic. I am sure she is enough alone to make a lot of people apply.

What are all of your dc's plans for the summer?

We are away at the moment, have another long weekend with family in August and DD has a couple of parties in her social calendar - apart from that nothing planned but I predict I will be trying to get DD to do some reading / MOOCs for her PS and she will be resisting.

There will be resistance here too @singingstones! Ds away on a school trip abroad for a few days now so hoping he'll have some fun with his friends and start relaxing a bit. He's signed up for a virtual Chemistry project but it's a self directed 30 hours. It would be good if he could get this out of the way quickly.

I thought DD was going to have a relaxed summer but she's determined to pick up all the extra shifts she can at work as she wants to save for a holiday next summer, get going on 2 of her NEAs and also look at doing some supercurricular for her personal statement.

(My other DC was the exact opposite and would have resisted any thought of extra work; so odd how 2 identically brought up children can be so diferent!)

We do have a week's family holiday (we gave both our DC the option to come or not and they both wanted to) so there will be some relaxation.
I suspect she might do some socialising as well :)

DD did a taster session at Cambridge a few months ago and it was the main thing that put her off applying ...

@christmastreefarm yes it was! How funny you managed to guess correctly out of all the lectures that must have been going on that day! She was fabulous wasn’t she? I was just dumbfounded by the speed in which her mind worked and how she managed to work with the audience and incorporate things happening around her without pausing for thought. She was also just so incredibly witty. It was akin to watching a stand up comedian in some ways.

Plans for the summer; we are away for 2 weeks at the beginning of the holidays. DD is going to Reading festival at the end of August. She will be working throughout and will possibly pick up extra shifts. She also informed me last week that quite a few of her friends will have free houses at different points over the summer holidays so their (very large) friendship group will all be doing mass sleepovers for days on end at said houses and this will pretty much stretch from when we get back from holiday up until they go to Reading. I didn’t have the energy to put her straight on this but this very much won’t be happening. 😂🤦‍♀️
In the real world she will have her EPQ to lick in to shape after she gets first lot of feedback on it back. She will probs need to do some CELAT prep for Cambridge entrance exams and work on some supra curricular stuff.

Cambridge sounds really inspiring - we had a similar experience in the Durham History session...by the end, both DS & I were desperate to apply 😀

We don't have a family holiday booked this summer, as we're still counting the pennies after our Christmas New Zealand trip. I might take DS on a European city break but it will be last minute as he is keen to work extra shifts at his restaurant job so we'll work around that. My DBrother & family will be over from Hong Kong & are staying with us at the end of July for a week which will be fab - DNephew & DS are the same age with very similar interests so will have a great time together.

DS is going to Leeds Fest (@Rollergirl11 I'm having deja vu as we were angsting about the festivals this time last year). I think there will be a lot of socialising too...in between work & the History project plus some super-curricular stuff!

We're off on holiday nest week and ds is trying to find summer work and work experience.

He's also got a lot of summer work. He's keen to pull his ucas grades up one so will be working on that. Dd(14) takes one gcse a year early next year and has a lot of work to do for that too so she'll keep him company.

I’ve been at conference where I happened to go for dinner with a couple of academics from some of DS1s options - Leeds in particular, so did a bit of history due diligence.

We were meant to be away for a few weeks at the beginning of August with DS1/2 potentially staying on but during our half term holiday I managed to break a limb so we aren’t going ☹️ as there’s still some recovery to go and it’s quite a long and bitty journey.

He has said he might join the gym his friends are attending and he has started looking for a retail job. He has a small once a month job, and has always been quite content to just be at home but he’s quite bored now, which is new, but welcome.

DH still has the first two weeks of August off but I’ve been working from home since my accident and am now desperate to get to the office, so cancelled my leave.

Sorry about your limb @StColumbofNavron ! What a pain. We have a holiday coming up, ds has some moocs to do and a fair amount of work, plus thinks he might go on holiday with a mate... I was hoping he'd find some paid work as this phase of life is ££ !

@legosunqueen yes we were weren’t we! How quickly has this year gone?! 🤯

Cripes @StColumbofNavron what a nightmare for you that you’ve had to cancel your holiday because of your injury. Hope you’re healing okay. Breaking a limb as an adult is no joke! Been there and got the tshirt.

My two are so ready for the end of term. Both of them are worn out and fractious and counting down till the holidays.

We’re going on holiday to a cottage in north Wales at the beginning of August with DD and DS and his girlfriend. Not sure exactly what DD's plans are but she and her friends have a shared calendar to work out who is away and busy when!

I just wanted to clarify something actually with you wise Mumsnetters.

DD has been told on 2 occasions now by teachers/careers officer at college that early applicants have to submit all 5 options on their UCAS application in October. I’m pretty sure I’ve read that you can add universities/courses with later deadlines at a later date but her college say no. I can’t seem to find the relevant info on the UCAS site.

You are right @Rollergirl11

You can add your choices all in one go or in dribs and drabs. There is a lower fee for just a single application.

See the fourth FAQ below

Or point 5 here if you want a link to show them:

www.ucas.com/undergraduate/applying-university/filling-your-ucas-undergraduate-application

@Rollergirl11 yes, you can extra options later.

It's on the "filling in your undergraduate application" section https://www.ucas.com/undergraduate/applying-university/filling-your-ucas-undergraduate-application (under section 5)

"You can choose up to five courses (all now or some later)."

and in "Making changes to your undergraduate application" https://www.ucas.com/undergraduate/after-you-apply/making-changes-your-ucas-undergraduate-application under "Adding more choices"

"If you didn't use all five choices, you can add more choices one at a time from your application as long as it's before 30 June and you've not accepted any offers or been declined by your choices."