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

What put him off about Exeter, @Muchtoomuchtodo? We had a great visit there.

We’ve not been yet. We got the open day booked but he’s decided that the maths there is not as highly regarded there as at the other options that have overtaken Exeter

Ah I see - yes, it’s useful that they can get this sort of insight at the UCAS events so that they can be really strategic about which unis to visit.

Glad to hear the UCAS discovery days are helpful. Our local one isn't until June, so a bit to wait.
School are doing a mini version at the end of the month with "local" unis (Yorks/Lancs/NE/Central Scotland) and local businesses who provide post 18 apprenticeships (NHS/council/Forces/IT/finance/etc)
I'm hoping this will give DS some focus as to his next steps 🤞

I'm hoping DS can get this kind of insight from the Discovery Day too. At the moment we have open days pencilled in for LSE and St Andrews (virtual), Exeter, Bristol, Warwick, UCL, KCL, Birmingham, Oxford and Cambridge - basically any university offering his course within a 2 hour train journey! I would like to prune some of these to a more sensible number.

I’m going to be a bit controversial and say that I don’t think that UCAS discovery days are at all helpful (other than if you want tonnes of free pens and key rings and notebooks and the like).

All information about university applications is easily found on a university website. The people from Universities who attend UCAS discovery days are marketing people rather than departmental people. However professional and helpful those marketing people are, they don’t give out any departmental information beyond what is on a university’s website.

For anyone interested Warwick Open days in June are now available to be booked: Undergraduate Open Days at the University of Warwick

DD has spent most of this week revising for mocks which are starting in w/c 28th. She’s dropped EPQ but still has 4 subjects. It seems odd to think that it was 8 months since GCSE results and that in another 8 months she’ll be submitting her UCAS form!

I was warned that the A level years fly by but I’d underestimated it!

Yes, it’s revision central here too, @BlackBean2023. Exams in 2 weeks form the basis of predicted grades, and then school wants to see everyone’s draft UCAS forms by late June/early July for review. It’s all looming very large!

DS has got 7 AS level papers to sit over the course of the 2 weeks before half term.

Those grades will go on his UCAS application and form the basis of his predicted A level grades. He’s doing about 6 hours of revision each day but still going to his evening clubs which I’m pleased about.

It's revision-tastic here too. DS has his mocks in two weeks. Like JessyCarr's daughter they will form the basis of his predicted grades. He also has to have the first draft of his Literature NEA first essay in by the end of May.

He has his driving theory test today so yesterday was spent studying for this. I'm not sure he'll pass given that yesterday was the first time he even opened the app on his phone 🙄

(edited for typo)

Good luck to him! DD’s is in 4 weeks today - she deliberately booked after mocks!

I have to say that this lot of revision seems more self motivated than GCSEs! Perhaps it’s the reality that revision does help and mocks do matter or just that it’s fewer subjects but I’ve appreciated not having to do too much nagging!

Thanks @BlackBean2023. I have said that if he fails this theory test he will have to pay for the next one. That's motivating him to do mock tests this morning!

Good luck to your daughter too, both for the mocks and her theory test. Four plus EPQ must have been a vast amount of work. I hope she's finding the work load a little easier now that she has dropped the EPQ.

I agree regarding self-motivation. DS revises daily now and is in a good routine. He has a timetable for revision, notes write up, essays as well as his extra curricular activities. I'm quietly impressed as this time last year his GCSE revision was somewhere between chaotic and non-existent! .

I am another one breathing a sigh of relief that revision seems to be capable of happening without my steering it. DD is very motivated to get high predictions so is not needing to be hauled out of bed and actively separated from her phone.

If she wants help with a particular topic we’ll still sit down and brainstorm it together, but it’s nothing like GCSE where I had to take time off work to hover and chivvy in order to ensure anything got done!

Aaaah pulling my hair out DS has not touched a college book never mind actually revising for mocks or Core Maths AS next month. Just told me about mates doing 8 hrs a day !! Been nagging him today to start get OK but never starts. Git day off tomorrow so can nagg non stop till he starts 😂

@Waspie hope he does well DS used the app had to do a few hazard perception tests to get the hang of them, passed first time luckily.
Finally found an old banger took DS out for first time last night he has been out a few times with his dad.

Well he passed the theory test - somehow! I may have to buy a lottery ticket as a few good things have happened today so it might be my lucky day 😂

I have also booked the Bristol Open Day in June. DS still seems fairly set on a London university but seeing the great sports facilities at some of the campus universities may change his mind.

Like JessyCarr's daughter DS' work motivation is the hope of a well regarded/high ranked university for his under graduate degree.

That sounds so frustrating @Tebheag - just like nagging them to revise for GCSE's was. Is your son enjoying his subjects? He may be doing some work and revision but just keeping quiet about it. His friends' claims of eight hours a day seems excessive though. Best of luck to him for his Core Maths and mocks. Best of luck to all our DC for their upcoming exams.

@Waspie congrats to your son. Remember to log in Monday 6am for booking the test.
😂 I wish he had done some unfortunately he told me he has done zero hours, he is currently at the gym and his college bag is exactly where he dumped it when he got home from College on Friday.
The friend on 8 hrs a day is a high achiever so wouldn't be surprised.

Did have words with DH that if DS doesn't do well in mocks he might as well try applying for apprenticeships there a couple in our area for accountancy from GCSE level.

@Tebheag my dd is also not doing revision. She's gone to London with her friends today and seems much more motivated to socialise than work. She is very focused on passing her driving test - I agreed to take her our yesterday to the next village along and back, I found myself having to remember to breathe, it's so stressful. She's wondering if she can drive to Brighton in August (test is in July) I'm saying no, it's at least 2 hours and involves the M25! I really hope she passes in July, currently she's still finding gear changes tricky, so there's work to be done.

I don't think she'll be ready to put in her UCAS form this year, I have suggested we plan to go to some open days, but she hasn't really engaged. She's coasting at college and I do worry she'll regret this, but her argument is that she doesn't want to put herself under lots of pressure. She is struggling with anxiety, she says school where she knew everyone was more comfortable, the learning was not as interesting, but she felt more secure. She's finding the amount of free time hard, she says she becomes a bit overwhelmed with what to do when she has so much choice. Again I think she's prioritising her friends, she wants to spend her free periods with mates, rather than going and studying!

I wonder if she will be better on an apprenticeship than traditional degree, she'll have more structure, but she's convinced herself it's too competitive. We'll see. I have to keep reminding myself it's a marathon not a sprint, she doesn't have to get every decision right, plenty of people are successful who take a slightly different path.

@wonderstuff I'm trying to roll with the indecision for the moment as DS genuinely has no idea what he wants to do.
It's a huge decision for them to make.
I did a profession specific degree so there was little choice to make, but he could do almost anything.
One of our neighbours 2 daughters, have just left Y12 and 13 respectively, the youngest to go and work as a groom in an Eventing yard and the older one to be a hairdresser
It takes all sorts to make society work and we can only help with decisions.

Well done to @WaspieJr!

@gingercat02 I'm 45 and don't feel like I've ever really 'known' what I want to do, I've fallen into a reasonable job having worked out a few things I really DIDNT want to do! She is enjoying economics and wants to earn lots of money, so that's a sort of a start..😂

DD has her heart set on university - we’re starting to get slightly panicked about the cost now! Back of a gag packet calculations look like we’ll need to top her up by about £120 a week to cover the shortfall in accommodation costs and for food.

I was a young mum when DD was born so lots of my old friends are currently in the pre-school years and moaning about nursery costs… with driving lessons, gold Duke of Edinburgh, phone etc. I don’t like to tell them it really doesn’t get any better!!

Teenagers are soo expensive! We have DS in independent school for various reasons, which is eye-watering, but he is in year 10 and going to state 6th form (provided he pulls his finger out and actually passes his gcses) and dd is taking a year out, so we will have a year to save again before hit with her uni costs. Having spent on DS I feel we have to support her in whatever she wants to do at uni, she's talking about London and to me that feels ridiculously expensive, especially as she isn't looking to get grades for top universities there, but having spent on her brother I feel I can't say no. At the moment she's very indecisive, so hopefully will land elsewhere. DH worries we'll never afford a holiday for ourselves again!

One thing that we realised was that DS’s child trust fund matures when he’s 18, so the value of that is worth looking at. May well be several thousand to contribute towards costs.

No child trust funds here as DC were born overseas. How much do they get out of it at 18? Or was it a question of parents having the option to top up, so completely variable?