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 struggling with maths, but there really isn't anything else offered by the school that she wants to do. She got a good solid 7 in the GCSEs (the school required a minimum of a 7 to go on), but now she is wondering if it was sensible. She feels they are going so fast. I don't know what to say. I agree that there is nothing that is really a good alternative offered by the school - and she has always been OK at maths. Never a top performer, but in top set and managing. Other schools take DC into maths with lower than a 7.

Sorry to hear your DD is struggling @Naem There's a really interesting thread about Maths A level you might want to read here.

www.mumsnet.com/talk/secondary/4007205-How-maths-GCSE-result-predicts-A-level-maths-result-important-for-grade-6-7

Thanks for that. DD isn't aiming for top grades - her current thinking is veterinary nursing, for which Bs and Cs would be fine. B would definitely be fine (and I confess I was rather going on the, drop one grade between GCSE and A level). And her 7 was half way to an 8, not a scraped 7. But the chart is worrying, as a D might be problematic, and I am particularly worried about her feeling like she is struggling. A levels are really a means to an end for her, particularly the maths one. The subjects she might do better in are languages, but French is not offered at her school, the other language that is offered she really does not want to do, and doesn't really want to do the French either even if she moved. Essays she has always found tricky.

@Naem My DS has just finished A Levels and in retrospect I wish he hadn't taken them. He was in a different case to the norm in that he was the cohort who should have taken 2020 GCSEs so came into A Level study very cold, and then had more Covid disruption in Year 12. However ... it was obvious from a very early stage that he was struggling with maths. (He ended up with an E for reference and that was with me giving him intensive tutoring during Year 13 - maths A Level is hard to get a higher grade if your ability just means you're picking up the easier marks across the papers). Looking back, I wish he'd swapped to BTecs as I think he would have been happier and potentially done better. Easy to say with hindsight I know! If your DD is unhappy already and not wedded to maths, I'd strongly suggest having a look at what else she could do - even if it means changing schools/sixth forms. It's a really hard decision though - I hope she can make the right one.

(Appreciate your DD's situation is totally different; but just wanted to share my experience).

@Naem You may have looked into this and discounted already, but would she countenance a switch to a Level 3 Animal care (with pathways to science)? See here: www.sparsholt.ac.uk/courses/animal-management-level-3-with-pathways-in-science-zoos-animal-management/
This college even has boarding houses for those who would have to travel too far (though I suspect they are all full at this point).

If A levels are a means to and end, there might be routes that suit her better.

@Naem Maths A level is a huge jump from the GCSE. As your daughter is already struggling with the A level it may be wise to look for an alternative eg does she do Biology and could she switch Maths to Psychology (includes some maths and Biology works well with Psychology). My DS and his best friend both enjoyed Maths, got high As (close to A star) at GCSE and ended up with Cs at A level. Their other friend went in with a B and ended up switching to a BTEC at the end of year 12. It was clear from my older kids cohorts that English/History/Art/MFL and some other subjects led to similar grades for the same subject at GCSE and A level but for Maths,Physics and Chemistry there seemed to be typically around a 1-2 grade drop. This includes those who went elsewhere for 6th form.

DD's first priority is staying at her school with her friends, so no interest in transferring to do animal care elsewhere. I confess I also feel that doing something like that is narrowing her options very early - which doesn't seem sensible if she can manage more.
She is also doing Biology (she got an 8 at GCSE in it) and Geography (only got a 6, but she is really enjoying it and finds it interesting). In theory Psychology is an option, but she has always struggled more with essay subjects than with maths/science (and she is primarily interested in animals, not people).

I am also not sure what "struggling" means in this context (even though that was my description). Her general way of working is that if she doesn't get something in class, she goes off and finds youtube videos on it and teaches herself that way (the ADHD/slow non verbal processing has often required this). I asked her if she thought she needed a tutor, or she was getting it after watching the videos, and she said she was getting it after watching the videos, but that it was clearly taking quite a bit of time and she was a bit overwhelmed by the amount of work. We had a bit of a discussion about alternatives, but struggled to find any. Happy with the Biology and Geography by comparison (well the first day of the Biology she came home and said the teacher could have been talking Chinese for all she understood, but she got out the videos/CGP revision book I had got her in anticipation and seems to be now on top of it, or at least is by comparison with maths). I have ordered the CGP book for maths, and will look for the textbook in both Maths and Biology (textbook for Geography arrived yesterday, as well as a revision book). Happy to get her a tutor if it will help, but she is very fussy about tutors - they have to be a certain kind of patient yet interactive personality - otherwise it doesn't gel. Invariably female and young. Never needed one for maths before.

@Naem Psychology is a science subject and there is an overlap with Biology that makes them work well together. You need to have Maths ability to do the statistics part of it. When my DD did the A level, she said those that struggled were those who didn't expect it to be a scientific/mathematical type subject. For degree level Psychology Unis typically ask for either a 6 or a 7 at Maths GCSE.

The other reason it somewhat has surprised me/her is that the bridging work for maths she said she found really quite easy, and it was the biology bridging work she found difficult. So I guess she wasn't expecting it.

Sorry for those not settling- it's such a big moment and there's so little prep really.
Ds doing absolutely no work except at school and hw which is easily done in frees. It's week 2 so I'm thinking I should leave it another few days- but it does seem ridiculously idle! He had or did very little hw until y11 so will happily coast on. How explicit are teachers being? Otherwise all is calm, lucky us. Needs a job but never spends any money so is not very motivated

Lie in tomorrow - 9:30 bus instead of 7:30. I'm so looking forward to the lie-in. For me.

@aramox1 DD has apparently more homework/prep work than DS ever did. Yes, they chose completely different subjects, but I think there is the "bare minimum" and then you are expected to read around/explore the subject more etc.

DS did the bare minimum. DD is probably doing too much while she finds her feet.

She has a weird timetable -it's basically a full school day on Monday-Wednesday and then she has 1 or 2 lessons on Thursdays and Fridays. She was saying last night it does make it hard when she is, say, set work on Monday that needs to be done by Wednesday (for next lesson), as she has no study periods to use at all during that time.

Yes @sheepdogdelight that was my assumption but so far ds does not seem to have absorbed it! I'm so hoping he will pick it up independently rather than me having to give him a shove. He's moved away from a v demanding academic school which complicates it.

DD has a compulsory trip to a university for her Philosophy & Ethics course today. They are taking them in the school minibus but expect them to make their own way home this afternoon. It’s an hour long train journey that requires 2 changes. I’m a bit annoyed to be honest and don’t understand why they can’t bring them back. To top it off they are expected to make up the work for the lessons they are missing. DD is not best pleased.

Anyone's dc started going to university open days?

We're off to Imperial tomorrow and have a couple of virtual ones booked. We thought it might be good to start looking as there might be clashes during the main open days in June and i don't fancy trekking around the country every weekend in June whilst trying to work full time. Trouble is ds still doesn't know exactly what he wants to do but we have narrowed it down to science/earth sciences, possibly finance type courses.

We went to our local (not that local) university over the summer just to "see". I think it was quite useful for DD to understand a bit more about what a university was like and how it operates, but we're now thinking that going to further ones will be of limited value until she's got a bit further through her courses and is a bit clearer about what she might want to study or specialise in.

DD is disabled, so we have a further conundrum in terms of considering how she can best live independently, and having to pick somewhere with her disability in mind (she has limited mobility, so anywhere where you typically have to do lots of walking or go up lots of stairs/hills is out)

Yes, that adds another layer of complexity I'm sure @sheepdogdelight. We have a very local university but it's not somewhere ds would choose to study at. I'm thinking the London uni's will be £££ for accommodation - he could live at home and commute in but ideally I'd like him to gain some more independence. I think Ds would be happy to stay at home and be looked after!

Haven’t done much research in to uni open days just yet. But DD quietly has her sights on Oxbridge. I say quietly as she very much doesn’t want to shout about it. But she’s already pretty much decided that she wants to do something with English Lit at uni and her English teachers put her in touch with an exe student who is in her 2nd year at Cambridge. DD met up with her in the summer and she will sort DD out with a tour later in the year. Also my DS has a young lad tutoring him for Maths who is also in his 2nd year of a Maths degree at Oxford and he has kindly offered to give DD a tour also.

We are close enough for DD to go to a London uni but she wants to go somewhere with a campus. We also have a couple fairly local (Royal Holloway and University of Surrey) but like @Lightsabre i don’t think DD is interested in studying at either.

My dd (yr 9) did a girls in stem day at our local university this week and came back with some bumpf that she gave to ds. They have an interesting mix of physics degrees so I might try and persuade ds to go for a look.

Sorry to hear DD is struggling with maths @Naem, the jump from GCSE to Alevel is supposed to be harder in that than anything else.......agree that Psychology works well with other choices as a swap. Many moons ago I did Chemistry, Biology and Psychology and it did complement the sciences.

We had our first meltdown on Thursday, combination of homework build-up, general tiredness, football bruises worse than usual and an outside qualification being more demanding than usual 😢. Apparently this is quite common and DD's tutor is looking out for them, she's been round them all asking for their subjects and our combination is one of the worst! Also I didn't realise until this week that school would normally have set bridging work for sciences over summer but decided they needed a complete break. I'm happy that they did BUT would have thought that teaching would have been adjusted, however they're starting at the same point without the benefit of the extra work 🤷.

We're leaving open days for now, DD knows what she wants to do - Environmental or Earth Science but football could dictate her location so waiting until at least spring before thinking about it. The plan is to look at course content online and bring up a shortlist based on that (and places already ruled out as we've been and didn't like the city - Liverpool and Cardiff!!!!)

Goodness that was long, hope everyone has a restful weekend!!

@Rollergirl11 Might be pointing out the obvious, but if your DD 'wants something with a campus' then Oxford & Cambridge are not it.
(Though to be fair to some extent Cambridge just feels like one gigantic Campus, and if she went for a college near where the Eng Lit department is it might well feel like it even more.)

Hah hah yes @TeenDivided there is that! I think as you say DD just feels like the cities themselves are one big campus!

I think DS1’s Oxbridge plans (or lack of them) will depend on how his Spanish goes. He is likely to opt for history/ancient and medieval history, but there are places that have a mix modules (currently) that he might like more. However, if languages continue to prevail then I think he would try for the European and Middle Eastern languages at Oxford perhaps. He knows I’m aware of courses etc so when he needs it he will come and ask (usually 11pm on a Sunday night.

I have to say though, the amount of work so far has been huge. He is constantly working!

Oh blimey, still not seen my DS do any work

He has been to a few uni open days now and planning on visiting Manchester uni in October and Birmingham uni in November. Thankfully not considering Oxbridge so we won't have the additional stress that they cause. He decided he wouldn't like the short and intense terms and I agree that they wouldn't suit him at all. Also a bit too far from where we live. Will look at Durham and Warwick next year however.

DS is at work again a fair bit this weekend. He's going to have more money than he knows what to do with soon as he's not a big spender.