Year 12 - 2024/25 - Support, Discussion and Looking After Each Other

[BlackBean2023]

A survival thread for Y12 parents (24/25) now that GCSEs are over and our young people move onto KS5

Morning,
DD had a mini meltdown last night about career choices, which I sort of knew was coming. She was looking at dentistry as she has the academic ability and loves chem/bio. I knew her heart wasn't in it enough but went along with it and she has done an online conference on how to get into dental school etc. This has now made her realise the application process and pressure on extra curricular is just too much for her and I agree. So we had tears as she is desperate she needs to 'know' what she wants to do at uni.

We have talked a lot and reassured her she can take a gap year if necessary as she seems to not want to 'do' anything, she says she doesn't want to work in an office, in a lab, in finance, law... you name it. When I asked what she did enjoy it always comes back to human biology and psychology.... cue her looking at neuroscience degrees 🙄. I don't mind what she does but the lab thing is making it really hard as she loves the subjects but doesn't want to work in research! I don't know anything about the profession (even though I am an HCP) so can't advise. We will obvs go to lots of open days but has anyone got any advice?

I really don't want her wasting 3/4 years at uni doing something she can't get work in afterwards. She is very academic but also a real people person so thinks working in a lab will be boring. Urgh....

@bluefineliner Has she considered physiotherapy? My cousin (also very much a people person) has a great career in it with a mix of NHS and private work. Her daughter is now doing it at uni and loving it.

@JessyCarr thanks for the suggestion, her older sister is an NHS physio (done really well and done private work too), DD is not interested in the physical rehabilitation side of things. I had a chat with her just now (school has just informed us they are closed due to snow) and she thinks she would like research if it was about the brain and was interesting.

The good thing is she now feels the dentistry pressure is off which gives her much longer to research courses etc. I am treading a fine balance between trying to engage her positively and her getting snappy because 'she doesn't know' 😀.

I do remember going through similar with DD1 though, who changed her mind on doing an accountancy degree to sports science when we arrived at the first open day! Turned out she was right though, sports physio was her thing.

@bluefineliner Another option might be a psychology degree with a view to clinical neuropsychology, perhaps? Like neuroscience it would mean years of postgrad study, obviously.

https://www.bps.org.uk/neuropsychologist-job-profile

Is music rehab still a thing?
I remember a friend who did a music degree did a post grad and then worked as in music rehab. She went on to open her own business in a totally different field so no idea of the job opportunities these days. If your dd has interests in both music and psychology it may be worth a look.

morning all.
College restarted today, but dd doesn't have any lessons. She was going to go in to do the homework due tomorrow and not done all holidays, but was feeling really rough last night so decided to sleep in.
Only one piece of homework to do though, which is AMAZING for her.
She has rested an chilled a lot over the holidays which has been great and I think she is ready to go back.

We were talking about ND kids being burntout by school yesterday (one of our friends has a son like this) and dd said that she was really heading for burnout last year in the run up to GCSE, the stress was overwhelming. At the time we stepped in and told school she would not be doing 2 of her GCSEs so that she stood some chance of passing the remaining 7. It is interesting to hear her say that that is how she felt though, and certainly she is coping so much better now.

Thanks @JessyCarr and @Teadrinker81 I feel DD needs to do her own research in to this, at least she has time. Neuropsychologist sounds interesting. DD doesn't have a musical bone in her body but it is definitely as niche area combined with rehab.

Is anyone else being affected by the teachers' strikes? As I understand it, it only affects teachers at standalone sixth form colleges (but not academies), who didn't get a pay rise in line with their colleagues in school sixth forms and FE colleges. I have every sympathy for the teachers but getting a bit worried about all the missed lessons

@underrcover yes DD missing quite a bit due to the strikes. I think it's scandalous that 6th form teachers aren't getting the same pay rise (as a state secondary teacher myself) presumably the per pupil funding at 6th form colleges is lower, which seems unfair. I'm not too worried at this point about it, so much is self-directed anyway and I feel confident that the teachers will put in whatever is needed to support the students across the course, that said I do hope the dispute is sorted out soon.

DD had her first job interview (finally) yesterday at HMV, so we are waiting to find out, she says it 'wasn't terrible' who knows. Not really finding out too much from her, she seemed to have spent more time chatting than working today and is a bit behind on her work, but should be able to pull it back over the weekend. We're all very tired this week.

@wonderstuff fingers crossed for your DD. My DD loves her job so much I am quietly a bit concerned her focus will drift away from school! She has had some test results back from before Christmas and has done v well again so fingers crossed she can balance everything and still keep on top of the A levels. I don't want to nag her as she has always been v self motivated and capable, it is just strange seeing her widen her social life with this job (but also good too 😊).

DD's school is still not open full days because of the weather here, closed Mon and late starts every day since (11am). We don't live near so it is a huge effort to go in late just for one or two lessons, then home again. She would get more done by working at home with no commute rather than part days.

Just out of interest, how long did it take for your kids provisional driving licenses to come through? DD needs hers for early April.

Hi everyone, I haven't contributed before but I've watched with interest as I have a quiet DS studying in his state school's 6th form for Maths/Sociology A levels and Level 3 Applied Criminology. No decision yet on what he wants to do next, unsure about Uni. Not sure it's for him. Anyway, I just wanted to say @bluefineliner that my DS applied for his Provisional Driving Licence on 18th Dec and it arrived on 24th. So fingers crossed your DD's one will arrive quickly.

DS did his provisional online and had it back with in a week.
Good luck to anyone getting resit results today.
Got first parents evening next week so far he is on track with first report A core maths B geography and business studies and C for accountancy teacher not concerned as just missed a B by couple of marks
No strokes our way thankfully
Hooe all your kids affected gets the support they need to catch up.

No strikes affecting any of DS' friends as far as I'm aware, although DS has been ill (this horrid virus that half the country have had, or currently have) and hasn't been at school since Monday. Hardly ideal timing as economics are starting new sub modules this week. He was well enough to do some work from home yesterday and will again today to try and catch up. The teachers post all of the lessons on their Teams channel and DS has got some notes from class mates. Hopefully he will be able to catch up.

We have parents evening next week too @Tebheag. Is your DS going to carry on with four, or does he plan to drop one at the end of the year?

Fingers crossed your DD gets the job @wonderstuff!

Hi @GenerationXer, those courses sound interesting, hope your son is enjoying them. DS had the same experience applying online for his provisional licence. They seem very quick at the DVLA at the moment.

I hope the weather improves for you @bluefineliner. Partial opening sounds like the worst of both worlds for your DD.

@Waspie core Maths is only an AS level so will finish next year. Hope parents evening goes well ours is on line so will be quick !!
DS has got his theory next month took a while to find a Saturday and till he has a code from passing it was told he can't book the driving test which is meant to have a long wait in our area.

Apologies @Tebheag it didn't register that it was core maths! Is your son enjoying the course? I would have quite liked DS to take it but they didn't offer it at his school.

Good luck to him for his theory test! Getting driving tests is a huge issue. I know the Government are supposed to be trying to hire thousands of examiners but that all takes time. We're in Berkshire and to get a test reasonably locally is almost impossible. Most people I've spoken to locally seem to be getting offered Leeds as the test centre with dates which is 200+ miles away.

@Waspie He seems to be enjoying core maths was one of the reasons he went to 6th college instead of staying on at school as they where over subscribed wasn't till the day he accepted college school told him he could do the subject and apologised for ir the delay in letting him know.
Wow 200miles away that would make the test harder as not much chance to practice driving in the area.

That's rubbish on the part of the school. I think I remember you posting about this at the time now actually. Colleges do seem to have a wider variety of subjects on offer, and can offer subjects to larger numbers of student, although none near us were offering Core Maths unfortunately. I'm glad your son is enjoying it and that the move to 6th form college has gone well..

To be honest had concerns about college 6th form especially as it is so big. But we have had a lot of feedback, friends who stayed on haven't had reports or a date for parents evening yet they seem more focused on the years doing exams in the summer.

@Tebheag my son is at 6th form college (not a lot of choice here) and although it's big, there are a lot of choices of courses and also clubs etc.

does anyone else's year 12 have no idea what they are going to do next? I'm on a group on facebook for parents of kids at university or applying because my eldest has applied for September 2025. There are quite a few parents of Year 12's on there who are already going to open days and I'm wondering if we are way behind. Ds2 wants to go and do something with with either maths or music but other than that he doesn't know. I'm not sure if he is capable of going to university to be honest as he got mostly 4's and 5's in his gcse's with a 6 in maths. Also I'm worried about him going somewhere too far away as he has autism and selective mutism.

We do need to get organised and get to some open days.

DS is looking at maths too. Possibly at LSE or Oxford - I have got a steep learning curve ahead! Luckily he’s in the Seren Foundation and they will be supportive as well as school. We’re waiting for them to release dates of their Oxford summer school which I think will help DS a lot with his decisions making if he’s selected to go.

@elliejjtiny my son doesn't have any clue either!

He has never been really passionate about any subjects so I've been trying to get him interested in degree apprenticeships.

He is in a scheme where he gets a mentor from within business or finance so I am hoping they will inspire him.

He actually has to sit his full maths a level in the summer - I'm not sure if that has fully registered yet! What he gets in that will really help determine which direction his next steps are.

JessyCarr linked to the UCAS Discovery Events a few weeks ago: https://www.ucas.com/providers/events-calendar-2025

DS has signed up to go to one although he may end up not being able to go now unfortunately.

I've been reading the "Law at which?" thread in the Higher Education topic as this is one of DS' maybe subjects. He's also thinking PPE or PPL or something History +.... The only conclusion so far is that it's not too far away. Birmingham is probably going to be the furthest north he will look at. He's most interested in UCL/LSE/Warwick. His school pretty much expect all students to apply to Oxbridge (over 30 got in last year) so he will apply to Oxford but he's not expecting to get an interview.

I think there’s still lots of time, oxbridge and medicine are a bit earlier and dd college has talks on these coming up, but dd is not going down those routes. Her college has a big careers department and I’m trusting them to direct to things, dd was told to make an appointment by her economics teacher and they basically said don’t worry you’ve loads of time to decide.

I am going to encourage her to go to the ucas thing as there’s one close to her college so seems a no brainer.

She is considering London for university, and I’m not sure really, we’re an hour outside, so just about commutable, but my worry is she isn’t thinking about other cities, we visit London a fair bit, she’s at college in a very small city, the rest of the country she doesn’t really know too well, we are thinking of booking a couple of weekend city breaks to try to get her to consider going a bit further away, but not sure where..

DD has no idea what she wants to do but does know that she will take a year out after A levels. Her older sister was sure that she wanted a city university rather than a campus one but ruled out London due to cost. @wonderstuff I persuaded DD1 to look at a couple of campus universities so that she knew what she was rejecting 😁Going away for a few weekends to look sounds like a good idea, helps to make an informed choice.