Year 13 2023/2024 - General support thread

[Rollergirl11]

It’s now the time for our young adults to sit their final year at sixth form/college. Everyone is welcome!

I've vaguely been following the last thread so just checking I'm here so I know where the next chat is.

Thanks @Rollergirl11.

Ds was meant to receive his predicted grades today but apparently it'll be tomorrow now. His won't be a surprise I don't think but i think that some might not do as well as they'd hoped and that the school don't really want to deal with the inevitable parental backlash so are stalking for as long as possible. I might be wrong.

Still not many summer plans apart from a mid Aug holiday, reading for PS and a short course, a bit of sports and hopefully some uni entrance test prep.

Thanks for the new thread @Rollergirl11

Thanks for the new thread!
DD doesn't have predicted grades yet either (or all her Year 12 exam papers back). Hopefully there will be no surprises!

Thanks Rollergirl for new thread.

Thanks for the new thread @Rollergirl11 quiet start to the holidays here :)

Thank you for the new thread @Rollergirl11

Just checking in. Holidays have started for my yr 13. No sign of any work being done though!

Checking in. Can't believe they're half way (or over half probably) through A levels. We're currently in Greece (not the terrifyingly hot bit). DS was doing physics practice questions on the plane....

Checking in, my DS broke up last Wednesday, he has his predictions and has his sights firmly on uni so he's been working ever since he broke up! So motivated, I don't remember being like that.

We haven't got a holiday booked but I've been looking at flights so might book something.

He's applied for a couple of volunteering jobs in the area he's interested in but nothing doing yet.

Thanks for the new thread @Rollergirl11

Thanks for the new thread @Rollergirl11 I honestly can't believe it's DS's last year of school 😳.
This year is going to fly by I'm sure!

I'm very impressed with the DC doing school work over the holidays. DS assures me he will be cracking on with his maths revision in August to try and get his predicted grade increased to an A.

He is currently abroad with a school friend so the house is very quiet. He gets home Thursday and then we fly to Portugal on Friday. I can't wait!

I'm dreading starting the nagging about the personal statements.... Still haven't visited any open days..

@Rainsdropskeepfalling If you have to nag about personal statements, maybe university isn't the right choice atm? Would a gap year be more worthwhile at this point? (I got far too stressed over my older DC not engaging with Post A Level plans; in the end it was better that he just got on and did his A Levels and then figured out afterwards what he was meant to be doing).

Alternatively, your DC might get more motivated when everyone else starts creating PS in Year 13?

@sheepdogdelight DS did talk about a gap year... He wants to do photography but would consider a maths degree as a back plan. But there's no personal statement which will allow him to apply for both. He has the grades to do what he wants (and annoyingly did no work for them) - just seems a waste of opportunity as I know it's a bit easier to get on the university treadmill at age 18-20 than 25-30.

@Rainsdropskeepfalling maths seems to be the degree where universities don't like you to take a gap year. It must be tricky to decide when his options are so different!

Re nagging - what DD doesn't understand yet is how full on next term will be. She looks at the January date and thinks she's got ages, but I know from experience that if she doesn't get on with some reading / MOOCs for her PS now, she will regret it. We had a long chat while we were away and I hope it's all gone in and that she will leap into action soon!

I have transferred my worries to her gf, who has narrowed her course choice down to "something in the humanities", no PS prep, no idea of where she wants to go, no open days, no parental support. We will be taking her along with us on a couple of open days in the autumn so hopefully that might help. It's such a complicated process if your school is not great and your parents don't know much about it.

Thank you for the new thread @Rollergirl11 :)

It is wet here. DD got some exam papers back yesterday. One history one was not as good as she would have hoped but was a horrible one, and although she hasn't had the other one back yet she knows her overall mark and so knows that was very good.

Not sure about English but think some up and down but predicted grade will also be fine.

She had Spanish speaking today which does stress her somewhat so hope it was OK. She'll get more papers back tomorrow I think (and maybe Spanish back today).

She's gone to a friend's house so not quite sure when I'll see her again....doesn't need me to pick her up now!

Can't quite believe I am nearly into my last year of having a child at school - somehow DS finishing year 13 was OK as there was DD but this time next year she'll have left too. And she doesn't want the gap year DS has had so in just over a year neither of them will be here. Will have to talk to DH 😄

Thanks for this thread. We visited bath university today, not an official open day but you can can download a self guided tour. Campus is lovely, accommodation costs are expensive and dd loved the sports village and the ducks.

Agree it has a nice vibe @ShanghaiDiva and it's definitely going on ds list.

Predicted grades today and just as ds thought they would be plus a good report. Almost the end of term now and he's looking forward to a bit of a rest.

DC has a shortlist of unis she might want to go to but didn't go to any of their open days 🙂. She had visited them though during various holidays.
None of my other DC had started on PS till after the summer holidays so not in a panic...

We are limping along till school finishes tomorrow. Feels like everybody else has finished but us! 😫DD is absolutely shattered and slept for around 14 hours on Tuesday and is still tired. Our holiday on Tuesday can’t come soon enough.

I think Rollergirl must be me ... Also limping on till tomorrow and going on holiday on Tuesday.

DD did manage to get hold of an elusive Taylor Swift ticket yesterday so suspect the elation will carry her through the rest of the week.

First day of the holidays for us. DS is yet to surface! The next couple of weeks are a bit hectic due to his sporting commitments but I'm hoping he will get some decent down time after that. He did work experience in Feb half term and at Easter then worked for money at May half term so he hasn't actually had a proper break since Christmas, and he worked quite a few shifts then too. So I am actually encouraging some lazing around doing nothing this Summer!
I felt strangely emotional yesterday when we got the end of year school newsletter and it dawned on me that it's the last one I will ever receive, after having at least one child there for nearly 15 years. There were also several retirements of very longstanding staff yesterday so it's starting to feel like the end of an era. Everything about Year 13 feels like it's focused around preparing for them to leave. I'm going to have to start preparing for my empty nest!