Y12 2023/24 - support, discussion and looking after each other

[BonjourCrisette]

GCSEs are over and we are beginning the next stage. Let's hope it's a bit less stressful than this summer has been! All welcome to discuss, share experiences and support each other as our children move into Y12/BTECs/apprenticeships and start a new phase.

Very true!

Hats off to your DD - she sounds like a very capable young lady who's going to take this in her stride. (I'd be a nervous wreck, mind!)

How is it going, @Rowgtfc72?

She's not long rung me. No problems overnight,got herself to breakfast OK. Bit of a wobble before she got on the minibus with the others and lots of text messages. College was great. She's friends with the other girl on her course and a very quiet boy. There are two other 16 yr old boys,one younger than her.
They've made arrangements to meet in the restaurant later and tentative plans to set up a group chat. A couple of guys who are a lot further into the course have also asked if they can join them for dinner.
Her tutor is an f1 fan so dd is happy.

Just trying to sort out pick up tomorrow as the college is huge and she has no means to contact Darren the car man.

Perfect! Sounds like it’s gone as well as you could have hoped. Now she’ll always have a friend when she goes in the future!

Sounds like she’s doing really well - you must be proud and relieved in equal measures!

Always proud of my ginger ninja! 😁
We've always brought her up to be independent and confident. I was neither till I came home from uni. Life was hard work. I wanted different for her.
I'll be very pleased when she gets home though.

Sounds like your DD is doing amazingly, @Rowgtfc72 - well done to her and well done to you for bringing up such a confident young woman!

Thank you everyone!

Sounds like she's doing great. And amazing confident. I need her to give my DD lessons! Well done her and you.

Yes, your DD is inspiration for other DC. Well done to her and to you too!

That’s fab to hear @Rowgtfc72 glad shes doing ok.

How’s everyone getting on? Dd has had an assessments every few weeks to check learning and she is staying on track. She’s juggling a lot outside of college with her sport, competing at national level the training has been hard going (15+hrs per week plus competition & travel ) but she said she uses every available study session in college to get stuff done whereas the others are often in the cafe or hanging out. I’m proud she’s realised she has to stayed focused and she socialises via her sport. It’s not easy though juggling her needs and her younger sibling who has additional needs & currently out of school.

DS2 has been having a very rocky time. We've just had a private psychiatry assessment and he'll be starting medication soon. CAMHS just continued to block a psychiatry assessment and aaid hed have to do more talking therapy, even though it has made him worse.

His attendance hovers around 60% and noises have been made by the school about him having to leave.

School has just agreed he can drop Physics, so now he's just doing Maths and Biology A Level and an AS in Further Maths. I guess this means he won't get enough points for university, but his mental health is the priority. Everything is crossed on him responding well to the medication

Sorry to hear your son is struggling, @PennywisePoundFoolish - I hope you can get the mental health sorted. As you say, more important than anything else. And there are university options later when he is more on an even keel (foundation years, access courses etc).

@SummerChilling Like you, we have been consumed by extracurriculars, in DD's case the five billion shows she has signed up to be in. Still, one down only a few billion to go. She's exhausted. Roll on the end of term.

So sorry to hear about your ds, it is such a difficult time. Ds here seems to have settled into a routine and is busy with sport, work and exams looming next week. We went to a uni open day weekend before last which was great but scary!! Cannot imagine him leaving home. He is very ready for Christmas!

I hope the medication works well, @PennywisePoundFoolish and that your DS starts to feel happier soon. Sounds like a good plan to take the academic pressure off for the moment - he can always add more things in later if he wants to - they're all only 16 or 17. It's so young, and plenty of time ahead.

Here, DS is still enjoying sixth form, and currently trying to drop his fourth A-level. It's been harder to do that because it would leave him with maths, FM and physics - so lots of maths - but he thinks he should get the go-ahead any time now. He seems very certain that's what he wants, so I guess he knows himself best. He's signed up for DoE gold and is also going to the gym and seeing friends fairly regularly. Seems more relaxed than he was at secondary school – and much more interested too. I think it's helped that he's only doing subjects he likes now – except for vectors, apparently (whatever they are).

We won't look at any unis till the summer - he hasn't really decided what subject he wants to study (though it will clearly be fairly maths-based!)

Sorry to hear your son is having such a tough time, @PennywisePoundFoolish . I hope the support and medication that is being put in place helps him, and that you have some support.

DD is happily busy with college and doing lots of the things she needs to do to support her applications next year (medicine). So far, she seems to be keeping all the balls in the air and is managing to maintain a job and a social life as well. We've been to one open day, and will try to get to a couple in the summer. It goes so fast! IB final exams are earlier than A Levels (I think they finish mid-May), so she is already a fifth of the way through the course. GCSEs feel like a long time ago...

Sorry to hear your son is struggling @PennywisePoundFoolish - hope he gets the support he needs. Hope you’re ok too.

Here, it’s all going fine as far as I can tell - ds is very chilled about most things in life but seems to be on top of work and is very organised so can’t ask for much more

@Pennywisepoundfoolish sorry to hear that your DS isn’t so well at the moment. Fingers crossed the medication can bring about some positive changes. I am sure university will remain on the table for when the time is right. I know a huge number of people who've had longer spells of time between school and university for lots of reasons. The universities have been really accommodating, and to a man/woman they’ve excelled in their degrees. Don't forget to look after yourself as well.

‘Tis the season to be busy, if you are an instrumentalist, and so DC1 has five concerts over the next three weeks. Which basically means music A-level is getting plenty of time and attention, the others not so much.

So sorry your son is having such a rough time, @PennywisePoundFoolish :(

@PennywisePoundFoolish sorry to hear your ds is struggling. Hopefully the medication and talking will help him. He has plenty of time to decide which route to take next but dropping a subject and taking some pressure off seems a good idea in the immediate.

Good to hear everyone else's teens are settling well and enjoying life outside of school/ college. Good to have a balance.

@TheTurn0fTheScrew this is the first year since the start of school dd hasn't been involved in something musical at Christmas. She misses it a lot.

sorry to hear @PennywisePoundFoolish that your son is struggling - really hope things improve for him with the medication. Sounds like you are being a fabulously supportive parent to him.

@SummerChilling my DD is also spending huge amounts of time on her sport which she is loving but I have a few concerns. She moved to a (Sport England/governing body for the sport) accredited academy for 6th form and so we knew the commitment/offer was 20 hrs /week. She is doing the same as your DD in terms of getting vast majority of homework and private study done during the day at 6th form but we have less regular info about tests etc so I am not sure how she is really doing on the academic side. She did very well in GCSEs so started with high predictions but obviously A levels are a step up and I would love a bit more info to reassure me she is on course for those high predictions. Maybe it will take the mocks in Jan to either reassure me or frighten her!

I think my daughter is feeling a bit overwhelmed. She started working part time the week she went back to school and at the moment she is getting given far more than her contracted hours, I've said wait and see what happens after Xmas as obviously it's full on at the moment when they are so busy (high street chain)