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!

Still another week until half term here - DD doesn’t break up until 27th!

Thank you everyone for your thoughts for DS - it is all quite new to us and is a thing I would prefer not to be happening but hopefully will work out. As he had a year out last year would have been good if it could have happened then but wasn’t to be I suppose.

Need to check on DD soon as she has an alternative curriculum day but only needs to go in for one session although I’m not sure whether she’s going to or not

How is your DS doing @MirandaWest? Have been thinking of you.

DS has had receipt acknowledgements from all five of his uni choices so now the waiting begins. It's tortuous!

Hope your DS is improving and out of hospital now Miranda

Thanks for all the birthday wishes. DS ate a very impressive amount of DDs red velvet cakes, around one third of the big cake and 8 of the bakers 12 cupcakes in 3 days. He's still very thin so calories will do him good.

Half term here now. DD just has Oxford and LSE on form atm, will add Bristol after half term but did say she will take a year out if doesn't get Oxford or LSE though she might change on that. She had acknowledgement from both, LSE sent a form with first question are you taking FM, if not why not, and she had to choose prefer other subjects which she wasn't that keen on answering like that, think it's straight Economics there it's for. Oxford had TSA and she's compared answers with others and says all her maths ones were right but people can't remember answers to other section. She's getting bit jittery won't get interview as they only interview 30% of UK, overall 18% interviewed. 5% acceptance rate but 10% from UK. Not heard from Oxford college yet but that's normal. Says interviews are online and something like 6,7,8 Dec and a week later for second colleges.

@QueenMabby DS still in hospital (and likely to be there until Tuesday or Wednesday). He did see the consultant yesterday and hopefully will have an infusion of new meds tomorrow or Tuesday. He seemed brighter yesterday - I think having visiting hours filled from 1-7 with his dad and stepmom, his girlfriend, his band members and then me helped.

He’s better than he was when he went in there but as his condition is chronic then it’s a case of trying to find the right meds to help.

Seeing as this is DDs thread she doesn’t have half term yet but is glad to have done Oxford tests. She went out for cocktails with an also 18 year old friend on Friday but didn’t have too much as yesterday she went to Manchester with other friends to a Maisie Peters gig. As trains aren’t too reliable the mum of other (twin) friends picked them up which was good (we’re on the other side of the Pennines). I get to do a similar thing in December but Liverpool!

Hope the new infusion of meds will make a difference to your son @MirandaWest. Is he having to take a year out?

All quiet here, no news on any interviews or offers yet. Would be nice to have an offer through before Xmas but we're not banking on anything. I think ds will be told when his mocks are early next term so it will be head down for revision then.

Hope they find the right treatment for your DS and he is soon out of hospital @MirandaWest

It's half term here and DS seems to have been set quite a bit of work but so far he is ignoring it. He has promised me he will do some this afternoon, we shall see.

Heard on Friday that a boy in his maths class died last week so we're trying to process that. We don't know the details. I think DS knew him but they weren't close friends but it's still a big shock.

Sorry to hear this. One of DSs friends at Uni died in the holidays. It’s surreal and a real awakening to young people that we aren’t all invincible. 😢

So sorry to hear that @SooperOuting was it unexpected?

Yes. I can’t talk about it on here as too outing. Can PM.

Gosh @IThinkIMadeItWorse and @SooperOuting sorry to hear both your sad updates. It genuinely is a shock when we are faced with young people the same age as our DC’s losing their lives.

So sorry IThink and Super Awful when young people lose their lives.

I missed your update @IThinkIMadeItWorse - so sad.

So sorry to see the sad & shocking updates from @SooperOuting & @IThinkIMadeItWorse

Such sad stories. My heart goes out to their families. When ds was in year 10 one of his friends lost his older brother who was in sixth form. Just so tragic.

Seems too flippant to go from that to talking about homework. Ds has loads this half term and I'll just leave it at that. Lucky.

Sorry to hear about this @SooperOuting and @IThinkIMadeItWorse so sad

Really sad to hear of DC losing friends at such a young age. It really does make you put A-level/university angst into perspective.
DS is having a very lazy half term, don’t think he even bothered to get dressed today which is very unlike him.
I have resisted asking him if he has checked his emails today. I’m still convinced if I hadn’t asked at the weekend, he wouldn’t know about his Leeds and Sheffield offers!

Didn’t mean to thread-kill, sorry. Was just empathising.

It does throw everything into sharp relief when you realise how thin the threads are that keep us safe and alive. But also makes you super appreciative of what you have.
DS is very resilient - he has had other things happen when he was younger and is made of strong stuff.

DD is still being a bit too mañana about everything - hoping she will email her PS to a teacher tomorrow so they can cast their eye before school deadline next week!

She has picked 3 unis so far - two that are top choices and one insurance. May add the others in January, see what offers she gets.

Halfway through half term here. DD has been doing a decent amount of revision for her mocks that are the week after next. It’s been 2 weeks since she submitted her UCAS application. She’s had acknowledgment emails from all of her choices but no offers so far.

She is going to an 18th party tonight and then she is hosting a Halloween party on Saturday night.

Not much else to report, pretty quiet as half terms go.

Sounds like a nice one though @Rollergirl11. Ours is a quiet ish one too. Ds is full of cold but has work to do. We're currently visiting family for a few days but he'll get his head down once we're back. Acknowledgements but no offers here too. The waiting is hard.

@Rollergirl11 that sounds fairly chilled, apart from the revision.

We have a late half term this year and don't finish till Friday, can really tell it's late as DS is feeling quite weary. Only 3 more days to go.

We are off to Athens for a week on Saturday, looking forward to the sun and it ties in nicely with DS's Classical Civilisations A Level, he's planning on taking some work with him because his year 13 Mocks start the beginning of December, after all of the UCAS stuff and the HAT test it feels a bit brutal and I'm hoping he does just get some rest.

Hope everyone is enjoying half term/ or coping with the last few days of half term.

Fairly quiet half term here too. DD went to work at punting job but was cancelled due to weather after an hour, been doing school frisbee team and gym.

We have painters and decorators in doing outside of house, just working Mon and Fri this week. Kitchen hopefully being finished today apart from mastic man who comes tomorrow. We already have stuff back and appliances working but will be good to have it all done.

Have ordered some more cakes from the bakers as DS ate so much of DDs - half the big cake and 8 out of 12 cupcakes, and he needs calories.

Athens sounds wonderful Life The summer would be far too hot for me there but this time of year would be lovely.

Quiet half-term here. DD has mocks next week. We've been busy watching 'Gothic' films in the evenings to help her with her English Lit. paper. She worked on Saturday and today, otherwise, it's revision all the way here. Not yet submitted her UCAS application, as she's still tweaking her PS.

Wants to go over to visit her cousin who's on his uni year abroad. Only feasible window of opportunity is November/December.