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

It’s funny isn’t it the decisions we make, I absolutely wanted to be at a campus university and London would have been bottom of my list I think! I think it felt a bit less scary, now I love a city and I love spending time in London. In the end I picked Sussex based on the fact it had more bars on campus than anywhere else on my shortlist. I think my decision making has changed considerably since I was 17!

Thanks for the replies on the provisional licence, no rush to apply for now then. DD needs a new passport too so I'll probably do both together. Interesting taking the test in Leeds was mentioned, we are not that far from there but I would not like to take my test in the centre of Leeds! It is a big city and busy so I am hoping our local test centre will be ok. DD's friends have said it is 6 months for practical test so they need to get their theory passed as soon as they can.

@wonderstuff it is interesting thinking what unis they may go to, DD didn't even know what a campus uni was until recently when we were discussing Keele. I think she would be better in a campus but DD likes Manchester and we are familiar with it as we go shopping there so who knows. As to knowing what to do I really think most kids don't know at this stage. DD just knows she loves all her subjects (chem, bio, psch) so will be looking at biochem or neuroscience courses to start with. I am hoping by visiting unis in the summer it will open her mind to other things out there too. Sometimes it is hard to know because as I was told at the beginning of my degree course 8 years ago 'you don't know what you don't know!'.

Exciting though, I'm looking forward to going to open days again.

Dd is getting confused about what unis she would like. From a financial point of view, going to Manchester means that she could live at home and commute as you can literally see the students accommodation from her bedroom window. Her dad would most definitely prefer this, as girls going to uni isnt common in our culture at all, nevermind moving out. She would be supported completely financially. However we recognise we live in england and there may be better unis elsewhere for her subject she wants (law). She also very much wants a city. She loves london , but the cost is putting her off.

Yes accommodation and living costs in London would be huge.

Anyone eles a kid adament they are not doing full-time uni?
Planning on apprentice route which is just as good for career if planning to do accountancy.

My DD is searching for apprenticeships in the theatre ( backstage) she is adamant she does not want the debt associated with Uni

We plan to do lots of open days in the summer too. DS is quite set on London but I think it's because he doesn't understand the benefits of community a campus uni could give him.

We live about 30 mins train journey from central London so he could easily commute if necessary and save on accommodation costs. DS' grandparents live in London so I have suggested he lodges with them but neither DS nor my parents were that keen on the idea!

Happy news.
DD resat her English GCSE, she's just got the result, she got a 5!!!

So pleased for her. I really wnated her to get a 5 not a 4, just to show unis etc that she can do it.
Good for her to see that she isn't useless at English too.

Well done to your DD @steppemum

Brilliant news @steppemum. Well done to your DD! 💐

@steppemum well done to your DD was thinking of her when college mentioned the results last week.

Oh that is good news.

Well done to your DD @steppemum. What a relief.

Open days are proving expensive! I’ve been booking hotels , we’re doing two nights in Scotland Easter week as St Andrews open day is then, and we’ll go and see Glasgow as well, and a night in Durham in June, plus flights to Scotland and a train to Durham. It’s really going to add up. Teenage costs seem never ending

@Countrylife2002 That does sound expensive! DD wants to go to summer open days in Manchester and Edinburgh, though neither has released dates as yet. I am hoping to wave her off with her railcard and a posse of friends rather than go along with her.

I think this is the way to go. Going overnight and staying with a parent was never the deal when I was their age: you went on your own or with a few sixth form friends. I’d have looked at you gone out if you’d suggested I take my mum along.

Good for your DD thinking outside the box. London costs are mad, so she might be better off elsewhere but if she is capable and money isn’t an acute issue, it’d be a huge shame for her if she went local just to appease her dad.

A good law degree from a good uni will set her up for life, and will also give her independence and resilience. your husband is going to have to let her go at some point.

@steppemum congratulations to your DD! What a relief and how proud you should be.

I will be going to open days with DD, I did with my older DD many years ago at their request. I may not go to all, I am hoping school will do some trips to cover some of them. With DD being so undecided I would like to be there with her to ensure she sees everything she needs to rather than be sidetracked by others needs. We are encouraging closer unis to us in the north as I can't justify the extortionate London living costs if the same course is offered outside of the captial.

I wish DD would look at apprenticeships, maybe she will as time goes on I want her to remain as open minded as possible for now, it feels like such an uncertain time now doesn't it!

Yes I did too but I didn’t see unis in Scotland or far north. We’re seeing 2/3 in Scotland on the same trip. The trips I’m going on are all too far for a day trip so we’re making it a little break and staying in a fairly ok hotel and having a meal out together. My parents would never have done this but we had quite a diff relationship. DD will see any closer ones on her own, but she’s not interested in going to Scotland without me. I think it will be fun, we’ll see the cities as well as the Unis - which is important to dd (it wasn’t to me)

My mum went with me to visit unis, I didn’t have friends looking at the same places as me! This was in the 90s. No one in my family had gone to university before so we didn’t know where to start really! Remember deciding against Portsmouth pretty quickly and liking Southampton and Sussex.

We had a university applications session at school this evening for Y12 and parents/guardians. They have to hand the first draft of their UCAS form in to school for review before the end of the summer term, and there’s lots of momentum to get all applications for UK universities submitted before the end of October so that full focus can then go back on to studies. If they want to go to open days they are strongly encouraged to do so in June rather than waiting until the autumn.

I was pleased to hear that, as DD is now prone to spending lots of time dreamily looking up university accommodation (ensuite only, apparently!) and sports societies etc, while conveniently forgetting that she has to bag a few A Levels first.

Hope back to school/college went OK, ds seems to be back in the groove, thankfully
About open days, all my friends with older children and DS friends' older siblings have all gone with a parent, unless a local uni.
I know ultimately it should be ds decision, but I can't imagine dropping him at the train station and just letting him get on with it!

I am so proud of dd.
She has been ill for 10 days, and missed college.
In the past, this would have triggered a spiral down, due to the pile of work to catch up on and being overwhelmed by the amount to catch up on. She would have struggled to attend any lesson where she hadn't done homework or caught up.

Instead, while still ill at home on Tuesday she wrote up a chemistry practical. She went in for a 3 hour computer lesson on Wednesday including a test that she hadn't been able to revise for. While in school on Wednesday she found her maths teacher and asked what she needed for maths lesson today, and did that last night with plans to catch up over the weekend, and found her chemistry teacher and arranged to do the practical she missed this morning in a free time. She also did the prep work for that last night.

She is still not 100%, cough is truly awful, but I just can't get over this pro-active and independant approach. I am so proud of her and how far she has come.

That’s so good @steppemum its so lovely seeing them grow and become more independent.

Great parents evening all happy with how he is doing. Even had a teacher recommend he is tested for extra support due to his hand writing, will see how that goes. Seems to be lucky with his teachers as they seem to enjoy teaching still going by the way they spoke. His GCSE teachers where a mix some didn't seem to want to be there and could be talking about any kid think one mixed him up !!
Hope everyone else's kids are doing well.