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Original poster

Post GCSE’s 2022 - Year 12 2022/23 General support thread

999 replies

Rollergirl11 · 02/09/2022 14:57

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!

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8
aramox1 · 18/09/2022 07:14

Wow it seems so early to go to open days. I don't think ds even knows what subject he wants- could go in several directions and two of his A levels are new subjects to him. He's enjoying 6th form but sees no need to do anything extra curricular or get a job, and persuasion or pressure have never worked on him!

Womblesaremyfavouritefood · 18/09/2022 08:13

We're another one that doesn't know what they want to do .. very rough ideas at the moment. No idea of location either. Argh!

Lightsabre · 18/09/2022 08:29

It was really useful going to Imperial College yesterday. There was a hall with all of the subject stalls set out and Ds chanced upon a degree we'd never heard of that looked good for him. Also went to a couple of subject talks with details of admissions and dh went off to look at the accommodation blocks which, as we suspected, were £££.

We bumped in to at least 3 other dc from Yr 12 at Ds school too. Have booked for another one in a couple of weeks and some virtual ones. We'll leave some of the further ones until June/Sept. Ds toying with an Oxbridge application- we'd therefore need to visit in June for those. Don't think he's up for the extra work needed though so we'll see.

legosunqueen · 18/09/2022 08:31

DS has only been set two lots of homework so far - preparation for a maths test which was last Friday plus some history homework for next week.

At this stage he is looking at reading Economics at uni. Realistically I don't think that he is driven enough for Oxbridge. We think that the costs of living in London may be too expensive, so have discounted the LSE for the moment. I'm taking him to an open day at Warwick in October. We will also look at York & Bristol.

In other news he has picked up some casual labouring work which he did after school on Thursday & Friday plus this weekend. It's at a bar which is moving premises & the new place has been gutted, & the owners are doing the non building/specialist trades work themselves. On the back of his hard work there over the last few days he's been offered a pot washing & glass collecting job...really proud that this has all been driven by him & is a bounce back after the cafe. DH & I weren't sure how it would pan out as he has no experience of manual work...but he's obviously done a reasonable job plus his enthusiasm goes a long way...

LouisCatorze · 18/09/2022 09:10

I wouldn't encourage DD to go to university in London because of the expense, although she does have her eye on Royal Holloway as one of her five.

She hasn't even really decided what subject she'd read at uni, as geography (her favourite subject for GCSE) is currently on a 'downer' because she doesn't like her teachers.

Rome wasn't built in a day and I'm certainly not expecting DD to yet be exhibiting 'super studying' tendencies, given her previous 'form'. She does seem to be just getting on with her homework though, and I'm hopeful that the school ethos will gradually nudge her in the right direction to achieve what she's capable of.

Original poster
Rollergirl11 · 18/09/2022 09:26

Sounds like you had a good day @Lightsabre . I wish we were as organised as you!

And good job @legosunqueen DS for securing himself another job so quickly. He must be brimming with enthusiasm!

DD did her 7 hour shift at Waitrose yesterday. I don’t think she’s that enamoured if I’m honest. She doesn’t finish till 8.30pm so it’s kind of playing havoc with her social life. On the flip side she gets this Monday off work because of the Queens funeral. I said she’ll be happy when her pay plops in to her account at the end of the month and she admitted that she’d almost forgotten the fact that she’ll get paid!! 😂🤦‍♀️

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Original poster
Rollergirl11 · 18/09/2022 09:29

@LouisCatorze shame your DD isn’t liking her Geography teacher. I still find it quite scary just how much a teacher can impact on a students enjoyment in a subject and ultimately be a decider on if they go forward with that subject.

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sheepdogdelight · 18/09/2022 12:16

Also discounting London universities on the basis of cost here. Actually will be trying to steer DD in the direction of universities that are in a reasonable drive away from home as well. And ideally on a sensible public transport route. It's not as exciting as choosing courses/nice places to live, but I think can make a difference.

Agree that teachers make such a difference. DD has had the same history teacher all the way from Year 7 - 11 (extremely unusual at her school) and absolutely loved her. She said if this teacher didn't teach A Level, she would drop history straight away. Fortunately she is one of the 2 teachers splitting the course between them!

LouisCatorze · 18/09/2022 12:38

DD's geography teacher is new to the school so potentially being a bit 'off' as he finds his own way too. But really disappointing for her.

Yes, totally agree that teachers can really make or break young people's experience and even results. There is nothing more inspiring than a really good teacher (as your DD clearly has for history @sheepdogdelight), and how much easier it must make learning for those in the class, even if it's not in a subject for which they necessarily have a natural aptitude and/or interest.

singingstones · 18/09/2022 15:33

I'm so impressed by all these 16 year olds knowing what they want to study and even where in some cases. DD has no clue about either! I think we might start visiting uni cities for a mooch around in the spring and have bought the Sunday Times today for the Good University Guide in the hope it might help with some ideas. I seem to remember still visiting unis during the October half term of Y13 with DS 😱

QueenMabby · 18/09/2022 20:51

@legosunqueen - we'll be at the Warwick open day too and at B'ham the week after. I don't think ds will want to go to either (too close - they're both within an hour or so) but I think they're good ones to go to just to see what a university is like.

Ds needs to research for more serious choices but possibly bath/Bristol, Exeter and Manchester all of which are good for Physics.

MirandaWest · 18/09/2022 21:27

DD is thinking about Oxford, Durham and Edinburgh at the moment so setting her sights pretty high! She’ll go to an Oxford open day later this year and will see some others too at some point. She’s not sure what exactly she wants to study yet but will hopefully have some Spanish in it and either History or English as well I think.

DS only visited one and that was at the beginning of December of year 13 and all worked out fine. I really don’t think they need to be rushing to go to open days at the moment.

MyOtherProfile · 18/09/2022 23:17

Anyone have kids planning to go to university but absolutely not doing open days just yet? Or are we the only ones?

singingstones · 18/09/2022 23:31

Open days have not been mentioned here yet @MyOtherProfile and I don't think we'll even start thinking about it until after Christmas.

Womblesaremyfavouritefood · 19/09/2022 08:41

@MyOtherProfile that's us too.

MyOtherProfile · 19/09/2022 09:29

Glad it's not just us! Actually I did check with DS to see if any of his friends are doing open days and he looked at me like I was mad and said "Mum, we just started 6th form!" So maybe it's more of a thing in some places than others.

zighead · 19/09/2022 11:15

The main issue with leaving it until next year is that lots of the university open days clash or are in clusters of weekends. You could easily miss a whole lot just by being on holiday abroad for a week.
My DS works at the weekend so can’t be taking weeks off at a time and it’s also the expense/time involved.
DS checking out 3-4 this autumn and then will do a couple next summer and probably a few more this time next year.

singingstones · 19/09/2022 13:29

Yes I think it depends a bit on the subject and whether the DC have other easy ways to narrow it down. DS's subject isn't taught everywhere and he didn't want to be more than about 4 hours from home. So we looked at course information online and had a wander around some unis when we could. He didn't go to any official open days until offer holder days.

StColumbofNavron · 19/09/2022 15:58

I think for us it’s similar, just spreading it out and to get some early idea of what he definitely doesn’t want.

@MirandaWest we are on the same subject(s) journey so I’m sure will end up in some of the same places and I’ll be interested to follow as your DD thinks it through.

IThinkIMadeItWorse · 19/09/2022 16:53

No thoughts about university open days here yet, he hasn't really decided for certain what he wants to study (maths? physics? some kind of engineering?) so too many variables. We do live in a (very famous) University city though I think he will discover that most other universities are not quite like our local one! I am glad there is now so much information available online including virtual tours etc, might help us to narrow things down a bit before open days.

I think he has really enjoyed his first week of lessons and is upstairs doing some homework now. I was also really pleased when he came home on Friday and said he had spent lunchtime chatting with a couple of people he knew from his school, they are doing different courses and it's a huge college so I was glad they found each other.

CornishGem1975 · 19/09/2022 19:57

We're not doing open days yet @MyOtherProfile Probably after Christmas, we will. DD has a rough idea of the ones she'd like to look at but no set decision on what she might actually like to study, other than knowing it will likely be down the Biology/Chemistry route.

So far settling in to Year 12 okay. DD is doing Core Maths so isn't doing an EPQ - she briefly considered it but didn't like the sound of it!

Sistanotcista · 19/09/2022 20:17

Womblesaremyfavouritefood · 19/09/2022 08:41

@MyOtherProfile that's us too.

Us too x

MirandaWest · 20/09/2022 11:17

It's DD's birthday today - can't quite believe she's 17!

IThinkIMadeItWorse · 20/09/2022 11:59

Happy Birthday to your DD @MirandaWest has she got anything special planned?

MirandaWest · 20/09/2022 12:05

@IThinkIMadeItWorse today there will be cake and presents after school, then a choir practice and after that Bake Off :)

Another friend has a party this weekend and then she's having (hopefully) a picnic with (same) friends the next weekend :)

She and I also went to London this weekend to see two shows as it was my birthday earlier on in September as a joint thing for both of us :)