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.

Happy Christmas all 🎄🎁Hope some rest and relaxation is able to be had.

Anyone found any good AQA Alevel biology revision resources but not videos? DD doesn’t like videos unfortunately as I was looking at uplearn but she said no. She doesn’t mind Seneca too much, all the college work books etc are online but she likes writing so Im wondering if it’s worth getting a regular book she can write in?

We don't have any revision books yet. Ds has exams the first week back but revision is a long way off !

Sorry I didn’t specify but she has to pass AS levels in Biology and Pychology to stay on the Alevel course in May so the mocks in Jan are AS mocks. It feels very real already they have covered Paper1 AS level content now and working on P2 content upto Easter

Good luck to your DD! Mine didn't get along well with Biology, unfortunately.

It's really unusual for places to stick to do AS levels outside of Wales! Won't she have to answer questions on the content all over again in the A level?

No it’s not Wales but England and explains why the college has high pass grades as they get rid of about 20% after one year by doing this ie if you don’t get grade X you can’t carry on the A level course. It’s tad scary as she’s fine on two subjects but biology it could go either way so I’m a bit worried.

😮

My eldest had these books - not sure how good they are (he struggled with biology and didn’t use them as much as he should 🙄) but I think they’re pretty comprehensive (Available in lots of places not just here)
https://www.awesomebooks.com/book/9781789080261/a-level-biology-aqa-year-1-2-complete-revision-practice-with-online-edition/used?gclid=CjwKCAiA-bmsBhAGEiwAoaQNmiELzR8yc7g9tXTB54i-RIZAEPTNgx0SqTrkPam6Zn1Lrea3W5lfgRoC5z0QAvD_BwE

Thanks @Monstermunchy I’ll show them to DD. Everything at college is online but she does like a book and I wonder about the impact on eye sight too reading everything online? Shes already a glasses wearer.

Dds 3 month probation on her apprenticeship is up- she's actually done 4. They're very pleased with her progress.
Her trainer came up from Coventry for the one hour meeting that actually lasted 3.
She's doing much more indepth stuff than they're asking for and she's all ready ahead of schedule. Thankfully she has an excellent mentor.
She just needs signing off on the basics now.

First time I’ve come across this thread, hope it’s ok to join. Have enjoyed reading about everyone’s dcs experiences so far and picked up some good tips already.

Dd1 is in year 12- literature, classics & sociology. She is loving the independence of being at a-level college and only doing the subjects she’s into. She not good at revision / homework, did very little (no) work for GCSEs- horribly stressful for me- but just scraped the grades to get into her college. Happy to say she is now actually doing some work - mostly making flash cards- I hope it’s enough. Mocks next week and will be good to get an idea as to where she is at.

Hope everyone else’s dcs have a good start to the new term

Is it just me who's child struggles to get up in the morning? At my wits end, sleeps through alarm, takes ages to get him out of bed. When he finally gets in shower he takes so long he hardly leaves himself time to get the bus. He's also missed it a few times. He's then really angry with himself.

Any ideas greatly appreciated!! I'm so stressed with it all. Was hoping it would change when he got to college. He likes his courses just can't ger up.

@Rowgtfc72 Brulliant to hear how well your DD is doing. Is she learning to drive soon, given her careeer choice? DS turns 17 next week but is happy to wait till next year (till we’re past paying for braces) but I slightly worry he won’t then have time to pass his test before uni.

@JamNittyGritty It is amazing when they suddenly start working harder because they are interested. DS is doing so much more than for GCSEs.

@Letskeepgoing Is your DS doing a new and harder journey now or is it more just being a teenager? My DD has several alarms set, which she reckons helps a lot.

He was like it during school too. He finds it genuinely hard to organise himself and to get himself going. I have visions of ringing him whilst he's at uni every morning to get him up!

And January is just the worst time for getting out of bed too, @Letskeepgoing. I think it just has to become a habit. I read something recently about optimistic timing - which struck a chord with me, because I always think things will take less time than they do. One trick was to have an earlier thing to do - so even if you are late for the first thing you are still on time for the second thing.

Can’t find the piece I was reading but here’s another I just found which seems to have some useful tips: https://www.stylist.co.uk/health/mental-health/how-to-be-on-time-lateness-timekeeping/826659

@Letskeepgoing dd was like this all the way through school. Absolute nightmare. I don't know what's clicked into place for her since she started her apprenticeship but she seems to be able to organise herself so much better. First month we checked she was up and good to go and had everything. In four months she's overslept once , forgotten her Pack up once and left some bolts at home.
I'm wondering if she's just knackered and doesn't have the energy to overtime.

@Changes17 she's currently looking at cars. She won't be able to afford one until she's 18 and her child trust tund comes through but she's planning on getting her licence after March when she's 17.
She's had lessons through the vauxhall young driver course since she was 11. She can drive a car, just needs road experience

Ds has always been an early riser. In fact until he has his appendix out in 2020 I don't think he'd ever stayed in bed beyond 7:30. Even now I know if he's not up by 830 he's probably quite ill.

But the girls were a different matter. They can sleep all day!

I don't think the dark mornings this week have helped though. Driving ds to school on Tuesday I don't think I've ever known such a dark morning on a school run. I was muttering about sending him in a a florescent jacket because it was so dark.

@Letskeepgoing does he have adhd? It’s a classic symptom the inability to keep focused to be organised and be on time as you have described or it could just be a teenager! My youngest is 12 and autistic but there’s huge overlaps with adhd we have now realised as she really struggles with any form of self organisation and especially getting up and out the house. At his age is there an element of let him fail and miss the bus and deal with the consequences? It’s a hard one as they do need a lot more life scaffolding around them. Maybe worth looking up some techniques to organise adhd kids.

DD is gearing up for mocks in a couple of weeks time. The weather this week hasn’t helped it’s been so very wet, dark and windy we’ve had more transport delays with local flooding. Also the added pressure of competition season ramps up more in Feb & March for her sport. She’s competing on 3 weekends in Feb, she is normally super organised though with studies but I worry it’s a lot to cope with.

@Rowgtfc72 well done to your daughter

Hope those struggling have a better term, mocks go smoothly and everything else slots into place. My ds is working on coursework for one subject already but doesn’t have exams till march.

He’s applied for and been offered a place on a work experience thing for July which is a relief as school warned us it can be tricky to sort out. He wants to find a job next but seems to be extremely picky so not sure how that will go!

@SummerChilling we wondered about some form of adhd and dd. As a child she wandered round in ear defenders and was fussy with clothes textures. She seems to have grown out of those but the inability to organise and the jumping from one idea to another remains.
We asked her to tidy her absolute tip of her room and we found her calmly sat in the middle of the floor carefully folding socks. For an hour. She hadn't registered the mess around her.

Yes that type of inability to focus and organise but have an odd hyper focus can be an indicator for ND along of course with many others especially as girls are rarely diagnosed it’s actually really interesting as it’s lots of women (like me) who get to 45-50 and our hormones go bonkers - like teenage girls- who then realise they have been struggling a lot but had to develop coping mechanisms until the hormonal changes disrupt it all again. Worth exploring the types of support which can help. Our youngest is very tricky to parent because of this but my eldest uses the very fixed discipline of sport training to maintain her balance in life. Many couldn’t cope with what she does but it’s actually what she needs. I often think half her sports club have form of excess energy or neuro diversity to have that level of focus and intensity to Train the hours they do.

We go back on Monday and ds had mocks before Christmas so he is dreading going back and getting the results. We have parents evening this month as well which will be good.

Best of luck to all who have already taken mocks or are about to. It seems very early. I don't think we have any exams until the end of the year, thank goodness.

DD is back on Wednesday and feeling tired at the very idea. She had an awful cold at the start of the holidays and has just managed to pick up round two. Hoping she is a bit better in time for the start of term.

We had input from a great tutor for GCSE - she also teaches A level and may be able to help. google Eaglesmith Education