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.

@Monstermunchy yes Leeds is on her list and that's the one I think will probably meet that criteria - also maybe Bristol, Manchester which are on the (long) shortlist.

Hope your son finds one that suits.

I went to Leeds - great city and great uni.

He has Sheffield uni booked for a open day as it’s got a very good reputation for the course he’s thinking about - but his friend told him the city itself is rubbish which seems to be clouding his vision - anyway let’s see!🙄

We've spent tonight planning open days. June has no spare days any more !

My DS hasn’t booked anything yet, he’s still not sure of which subject he wants to study but thinks maybe Chemical Engineering. Uni is a second choice though, as a degree apprenticeship is his preference.

I had parent’s evening for my other DS studying level 2 IT. He has never had positive parent’s evenings, he has severe dyslexia, but this teacher thinks that he is really talented at animation. It was lovely to get positive feedback, he’ll progress to level 3 and can progress to a degree level course involving CGI after the first year if he wants.

@Fluffycloudsfloatinginthesky I know a lot of kids who have been/are at Exeter. All seem very happy there.

Finally after a few weeks of gentle prompting nagging I got DS to focus this evening on pinning down some open days. Going to visit a couple of aspirational choices in June - Manchester & Liverpool. Then later in the year we've booked to go to Lincoln as a potential insurance choice - a bit dubious about this due to the recent press around financials but I know both the city and the uni have a decent reputation amongst students.

He's feeling a bit down this week as his first mock exams came out as BCC when he was hoping for something more like ABB. I've told him that it's his first run at it and there's still quite a bit of time to learn and improve.

I've not been overly enamoured with the college this far. It's one with a very good reputation and takes most of the higher achieving students from the area. You can sense the impact of what is probably teacher shortages etc. underneath the gloss.

They seem to sacrifice a lot of A1 teaching hours to prop up the A2 students. There's a lot more cancelled lessons/working online/last minute independent study days than I thought there would be. Although hopefully this means things will improve for him a bit when he gets into A2. I think it's denting his confidence a bit though.

I can't believe the first year is not far from over and we have to start getting serious about Uni applications soon. It's gone in the blink of an eye! I'm feeling quite apprehensive about the process now - I sneak a look on the Higher Ed board here and there and it all looks so stressful.

Open day planning also underway here. Birmingham and Manchester booked in for June. Will also do one or both of Oxford and UCL in June too (DD v keen on UCL, which terrifies me from a financial perspective, though I can see the appeal). Can't decide whether to go to Leeds, or whether three weekends in a row is too much. Also planning Sheffield at the start of September (may possibly visit Leeds then too, but obviously not an open day).

Agree with those who have said how quickly this year has gone. It doesn't seem long at all since we were mired in the slog of GCSEs. (Watching my niece do them this year and very glad to have a year off that before the fun of GCSEs and A Levels (or IB for us) in the house next year!)

Same here.
DD is very much in the "not really sure how to go about what she thinks she wants to do after A levels".

When asked says "either an actress or an Interior Designer" - but also wants to travel and also sees herself living and studying in the US!

Is doing Level 3 Diploma in Performing Arts, A level Graphics and A level Psychology.

Had shut us down every time university topic came up, until this week when she attended the HE fair at college and texted me saying Bath Spa is "perfect" ..... apparently they do placements abroad... including US!
We'd already booked the open day there for June, as she has spent time in Bath on sports training camps and liked the look of the Interior Design courses anyway..
Also booked on a UCA (Canterbury) open day.

So it's a case of putting all options in front of her (also mentioned considering Level 4/foundation/degree apprenticeships..) and waiting patiently for something to switch on a 💡 for her I think 🤔

Hadn't realised booking was open for the Manchester open days - thanks! DS and I are combining that one with a family visit and we're also going to Durham before sending him off to London to stay with other family and see Imperial and UCL on consecutive days. Planning Sheffield for September after reluctantly deciding we couldn't do MCR and Sheffield in a day.

Just hope his summer mock grades are up to it!

Looks like we might bump into people from here in Leeds , Sheffield and Manchester. We need a secret wave

Ds not far off study leave here for his AS Levels. He breaks on the 14th may and goes back a month later. He has 6 exams. He has booked into Bristol in June and will do Nottingham in September. Already done Oxford Brookes which is front runner due to the sport he does. He has no other ideas on where to look.

We have signed up for Birmingham and UEA. The subject DD wants to do is not available that widely so we don't have a massive choice of places to go and see. We will also try to get to Nottingham, Exeter and Sussex.

As far as D's is concerned his main concern is finding open days that are during the school day not the weekend.
TBF to him, he's rehearsing practically every weekend until almost July, but I suspect even if he wasn't that would be a high priority anyway.
He doesn't want to go to uni either, would prefer an apprenticeship.

Also looking for weekday open days due to Saturday commitments. Trying to get sorted for Birmingham, Glasgow and Edinburgh. In case it’s of interest to anyone else, Birmingham have a really good music scholarship for non-music students, where they’ll fund music lessons with a conservatoire teacher for 3 years in return for a commitment to orchestra and chamber groups, and that’s definitely turned DC1’s head.

Checking in!
Exeter and Leeds booked in here.
We managed St Andrews and Edinburgh in October half term. Also Durham city but not an official open day. Hoping DD can get to Oxford and Cambridge too( week days so no parents available!)

How everyone doing? Mocks coming up for my ds is June. Still achieving really low grades in the small subject tests especially in Chemistry. He seems abit more motivated and is going to do past paper questions and look at mark schemes. College haven't said it's a problem or anything so he needs to decide whether he can turn things around or try something new in Sep.

Past papers are definitely the key @Letskeepgoing - my ds needs to do a bit more of that for psychology - and get his head around the mark scheme

Thank you!!

How quick has this year gone. X

So quickly - bit scary to think A levels are this time next year, my other ds will graduate next year too - it’s flown!

I agree, it’s gone so fast.
My DS has finished mocks and only has one test left before the end of term, which may alter predicted grades for Maths. He has booked Southampton and Sussex for open days and has a school trip to Oxford.
Good luck to everyone’s DC who have mocks coming up!

DD's college does AS levels, so she's off revising with her best friend. She's not under so much pressure because she wants to go to art college, so will be doing an art foundation course after her A-levels which gives her more time to think about what she wants to do.

DD starts AS exams in a weeks time with two on one day ugghh feel sorry for her that the first big exams and she gets biology and Pychology on the same day. Luckily the paper 2s the following week are on different days. They have to get a minD to stay on the Alevel courses. She’s actually feeling the pressure a lot. Her third A L subject doesn’t do AS level so it’s separate 2x exams in first week of June.

DD has mocks in June. She's starting to get quite anxious.
@Letskeepgoing she isn't doing chemistry but lots of her friends are and it seems normal for them to still be getting lower grades in that subject compared to others (Cs, Ds, Es whilst other subjects getting As and Bs). At DD's school they seem to use v tough grade boundaries for chemistry.
DD has now booked 3 open days. I can't believe we're at this stage already. This time next year 😬

I have a query about contextual offers. DS has a flag on his college account (I can see this via the parent portal) relating to having attended a school achieving below the national average at GCSE. He attends an extra curricular for all students that have this flag.

However when we've been looking at prospective Uni's and we've used the contextual offer calculator inputting our postcode and the school he attended it always comes up with zero context for both.

Does this mean it's purely a college based/FE flag and won't translate to HE applications? I will be asking his tutor but just wondered if anyone had any insight?

I think there are a number of factors involved in a contextual offer, postcode is one and the school itself, if it has a lower number of students going on to higher education. UCAS would have good info i would think.

It depends on the uni as to what they use for contextual offers, I believe.

Some go by postcode living in, or postcode of school, or school performance and some a mixture.

It's a bit of a blunt tool really, and I'm not sure if unis let on what method they use to allocate them, but there will be some that do, and some that don't look at that.