Year 13 2024 - General support thread part 2

[Rollergirl11]

All welcome as our young people head in to their last full term before the summer exams. Between UCAS applications, receiving offers/rejections, learning to drive and taking driving tests, revising for mocks and sitting them the pace hasn’t let up for our DC.

This thread has been a lovely supportive and immensely helpful place to talk as we guide our DC’s through this challenging time!

Old thread here https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/further_education/4851165-year-13-20232024-general-support-thread?page=40&reply=132323436

End of an era here too. I've had at least one child at the same secondary school since 2009 and apart from a few minor bumps in the road they've all been extremely happy so it does feel sad to be leaving it all behind. DS has his leavers' hoodie, last parents' evening has been and gone and last report is due out next week. They have a 6th form ball in the Easter holidays I think. DS is going though fairly indifferent about it it seems as he couldn't remember the date when I asked him! He did say he wanted some new shoes though. He's also got the last end of season dinner at one of his sports clubs coming up soon. He hasn't played much this year due to prioritising school work but it's been a big part of his life so he wants to go to say goodbye.
We are going to a subject specific Offer Holder's day at his probable firm choice University in a couple of weeks, and by happy coincidence I already had plans to meet my DD to look at wedding dresses in the same city that day so I am looking forwards to that, but I'm definitely feeling a combination of anxiety about impending exams and melancholia regarding the empty nest now.

Going against the grain here - can't wait for her to finish! This year is like year 6 all over again... 'certainty' is pulled out from under them. And this time it's when it gets hard she's avoiding. And it's all about German. So I will be hugely relieved when the speaking test is done in particular as will she, tbf.

Love the idea of a prefects' soirée 😁

DD is at a huge FE college, no parents' evenings, I haven't been through the doors since the open day in Y11. So no angst about that, only about her leaving home in September 🥺
(Although I'm hoping it won't be as bad second time around)

My daughter has just been invited to an offer holder day and will get a £30 voucher for going! She's very impressed

Ooh, where's that @socks1107?

Agree with the PP who said that 5-7pm is the empty nest time we'll notice it most.

@MrsAvocet that's a very long time to have DC at the same school. It really will be the end of an era.

I thought we'd seen the last of parents' evenings here but there's one more to sit through in a couple of weeks, online this time though. DD still hasn't got any of her mock results back and is getting increasingly negative and anxious, the more time goes by. I don't think she will have done very well and am worried that rather than galvanise her, middling to low results might floor her. The teachers have apparently been giving all sorts of doom and gloom (re results) comments which doesn't sound like a great approach to me.

Think DD will have a prom but no word of it as yet. She has a couple of LBDs (both Anthropologie sale finds) which would work.

I am quite fearful about becoming an empty nester but it won't be for at least another year, so putting off thinking about it

Stoneysongs it's Canterbury

I am hoping that DD leaving home won't be as bad as when DS did - that really felt like the end of something, our family unit was changing and would never be the same again. I didn't feel like there was much that was positive about it. Whereas going from one at home to zero does mean a new chapter for me and DH which I think will be really nice in some ways. Plus DS is really happy at uni, so that helps. It's been lovely to watch him change from a Y13 into an undergraduate and I'm sure DD will embrace it just as wholeheartedly 🙂

Did a final offer day visit at the weekend - DDs last minute add on as 5th choice on 30 Jan - and we all loved it. It’s moved up to likely insurance place.

I think she is likely to confirm her choices in the next week or so.

Exam timetable finally in and no clashes and only one day with two exams so not bad. And all done and dusted by 11 June.

DS was ready to leave home when he was about 10. 😂 He’s living his best life many miles away and I remember the utter relief when he went as he was desperate for independence. He's old in the year though, and has always been independent. DD is the baby, an August birthday and a real home bird. We thought she wouldn’t want to go to uni but she’s very determined. She knows she will find the first 4-6 months tough and sensibly isn’t picking any unis more than 3 hours away so she can come home for the odd weekend to recharge her introvert batteries. She’s sociable and wants a uni with good nightlife as a priority but needs time alone too. I’m a lot more nervous about her going than I was DS.

Not too much to report here. DD is still awaiting results from her recent mocks straight after half term. She has 4 days out of college this week and next week; a combination of inset day, offer holder day and super curricular history trip. Then we only have one more week until Easter.

DD informs me that they still haven’t finished the content for History and their one and only subject specialist for one area has just gone off on maternity leave.

No real revision started yet that I can see. And her boyfriend is taking her to Paris for 4 days for her birthday in the Easter hols. All very lovely but will mean her second week of the holidays is pretty much written off in terms of revision opportunities. I am sure DD has it under control and knows what she’s doing but it’s a stark difference to her GCSE’s where we were having to tell her to stop for fear of her burning herself out.

We have Durham and Exeter offer holder days next week and then hoping DD will be in a position to decide on her firm and insurance.

First interview tomorrow - starts at 13:30 and DS has to stay on the call until 16:00 he thinks. I suspect he hasn't read the email properly. Still good practise for the interview next week for his favourite place. He was thinking about going to the offer holder days but he's under time pressure to get course work handed in and the college has usually decided to hold y12 mocks a week before the deadline so the dark rooms won't be available, nor over Easter. Disappointing really. The college he did his GCSEs in was open a few days over Easter to allow the students access to the art rooms. His sixth form college only cares about Oxbridge and doesn't care about arts ....

How did it go @Rainsdropskeepfalling ? Hope it was a good experience for your DS.
We got DS's last report today - the last ever school report I will receive. Feeling slightly emotional and a tad disappointed, not with the content which was fine, but by the fact it was electronic. I kind of wanted to keep it. I know I could print it but it's not quite the same somehow!

@MrsAvocet he said it was informal and uninformative. But he wasn't angry which is the current default position so I'm taking that as a positive.
I don't know which universities he's applied to nor what grades they wanted (he was more about finding the course in a place he wanted to be) and I suspect he isn't going to get the grades for any as he won't have though about selecting one or two as insurance options. The college doesn't really guide through the process (unless it's Oxbridge or Russell-Red Brick) but I'm hoping he can find a foundation course in clearing. Really need next week's interview to be a non negative event (doesn't need to be fantastic but if he hates it then I think that's him all done)

Frankly it was a relief when my eldest left just before he turned 18 - actually not so much left but decided to stay as me and my DD moved to London for her sixth form. He lived with his GF til they split in a spectacular fashion two months later. Now three years on he's settled more or less. But he's been on his own too long and we do things differently and I don't think we could live together on a permanent basis again.
My DD was away for a month recently and actually it was fine. I thought I'd miss her but it wasn't that bad at all (ironically I spent a week visiting my son). At Uni they aren't gone for long before they are back for holidays anyway!
@Rollergirl11 we are at Durham next week too and Glasgow the following so interesting to compare and contrast!
Still waiting on Bath and LSE. Still would like her closer than Scotland but it's up to her.

DDs prom dress arrived today (from somewhere that needed customs charges paying…) but she has tried it on and loves it and made a video of her swirling in it 😃

She’s going to a party tonight to celebrate having given in history NEAs yesterday. Quite a few of her friendship group do history and those that don’t see happy to have a party. They are going to create cocktails to do with their NEA subject matter….

She’s been generally a bit more reasonable recently which is nice. Am sure as we get nearer exams she’ll get snappier but am enjoying it while it lasts

Given the deadline was Nov, I was surprised that DS2 isn't any getting his provisional english NEA mark until a week or so into summer term. Fingers crossed is ok as likely to cause a major panic if not that close to exams starting.

Why do submission dates for NEAs vary so massively? DD only handed in her geography one last week. Ridiculous having them anxious over those so close to A Level exams. She submitted her English one before Christmas.

No mention of prom for DD yet. Sure I saw something that suggested it's a post A Levels event at her school. If it was just before/after Easter, they'd surely have info about it by now?

Weird isn’t it? DDs Geography NEA was due in November and she gets result in a couple of weeks. I hope it’s as it’s a different exam board as giving some an extra 3-4 months to complete it isn’t fair either.

Although don’t start me on NEAs. I put them in the same category as anything with a portfolio. ie open to massive abuse. We didn’t help DD with hers at all because it’s cheating and that’s not something we believe in. In one of her GCSE subjects many others in her class admitted that work was completed by siblings etc. Makes my blood boil!

Are students told what their NEA mark is? I'd assumed it just went into the mix for the final grade...

They have to be told their NEA internally assessed mark in case they want to appeal. We won’t get my son’s mark back until late April and the appeal deadline is 3rd May. Internal deadline for submission was February half-term.

I think it is fine for different schools to have different internal dates for the NEA - more time isn’t necessarily a good thing and it is better to get it done well before they neee to start revising. I think the exam board dates for submission is mid-May for external moderation.

It is far worse for EPQ - essay deadline was September and everything else (presentation and log book etc) had to be submitted before October half term. We knew we wouldn’t get the result until August, but apparently we won’t get the internal mark until late April for that too.

Thanks @Jaxx I didn't know that & neither did DS apparently.

@legosnowqueen np I only knew as school emailed us a couple of weeks ago.

I think DS is worried about his History NEA, as the last few weeks to finish it coincided with mocks (which didn't go so well). Do they just get a mark, or can they see the marking scheme & the marked submission?

I thought NEA was due in May til ds let slip it was today. He would never accept help! Unfortunately his last mock is today too. Had a painful moment when he realised just how close Easter and the first exam is.