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

Yep we had to juggle open days as ours fall on 2 weekends in June and one in July. It has ended up with a sat/sun one weekend at Manchester/York and Newcastle the following Saturday and Sheffield the Saturday after that. Couldn't work Liverpool in to that mix so if she is still interested it may have to be an autumn one. Luckly none of the ones we are going to are more than 2 hours drive away, some only an hour so not too bad for travelling.

Are any of your children on study leave whilst taking mocks? DD has 2 weeks off at beginning of June whilst taking her mocks. This will really help with her revision as it runs on from May half term holiday.

Yes @bluefineliner DS has the week of exams and the following Monday off.

DS only has to be in school when he has an exam next week @bluefineliner then he has half term and then work experience week. He won't be back in school until 9th June. He has exams each morning but, by fluke, none in the afternoons so he can use this time to revise. It's helpful that your daughter has half term to revise.

Those open days sound good. I hope your daughter (and you!) enjoy them. Manchester clashes with Warwick and DS decided on Warwick (closer to home). I did try and suggest we travel from Warwick up to York after the open day and then do the Sunday York open day but he wasn't keen. Open day overload

We shall have to work out a secret sign for MNers at open days so that we can recognise each other @JustHereWithMyPopcorn

@bluefineliner ds only needs to be in when he has an exam this week and next week. Back properly after half term. He has 7 in total, 2 done so far.

The 2 1/2 hour pure maths paper this morning was apparently ‘pretty easy’ ! Let’s hope his confidence is well placed

DS I think is booked in for open days at Bath, Warwick, Southampton, Imperial, Sheffield, Cambridge and looking at adding in LSE. It’s all more complicated as he’s not sure on subject yet, so spanning maths/economics/engineering options.

Anyone else considering applying once they have results?
dd is really bright but struggled initially with maths and has worked hard to get her results back on track. She is unlikely to have got the a she would like in her mocks but is determined to get it in the end! 😊 she is wondering if she’d be better having a gap year and saving some money and applying once she knows her results. She’s likely to want to do English lit. I suspect it will be too much for her to do exams and applications in the same year as she’s terrible at decision making and swaps and changes.

@Teadrinker81 I have had that convo with DS who was getting himself over anxious about the June exams because that's what his predicted grades are based on. His course(s) all seem to require As and more so if he doesn't get the grades he needs then he will probably wait for results and then make decisions based on those. A gap year saving some money is a very good plan.

@Waspie might have to revive the infamous mumsnet scarf! 😁

@Teadrinker81 - my son is the same as JustHereWithMyPopcorn's DS. If he doesn't get offers he will consider a gap year and reapply with grades in hand.

@MiniMidiMaxi hopefully the open days will give your son some clarity on his course choice. I think a lot of our DC are undecided to a greater or lesser extent - I know my son is.

😂@JustHereWithMyPopcorn I shall start rifling through my cupboards. I know it's there somewhere

I wonder what MissionEmployable was saying on a support thread that got them deleted. 😂

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My DCs have their grades for the recent mocks. Apparently they don’t predict up for STEM subjects as it’s knowledge based?
DD got Astar, Astar A so all good there and hopefully enough for medicine.
DS got ABB and hope that he’ll be predicted up as he’s doing Humanities with a view to study Law.
We have uni visits booked in for Glasgow, Sheffield, Leeds, Newcastle and Hull York.
Busy times.
Good luck for all those sitting exams of any flavour!

@Curlyshabtree that seems harsh on the STEM, a lot of it is knowledge based like all subjects but a huge amount is understanding the mark schemes and that can always be worked on. Good luck to your DS, hopefully they'll up him to what he needs for law. Where is he thinking of applying?

@Teadrinker81 yes, definitely applying with known grades here. DD2 isn't sure what she wants to do so it's better for her to wait a year. She'll probably do an art foundation year hopefully alongside a part time job. DD1 applied with known grades. I have no idea what she put on her UCAS form as she refused to show us but as she got onto the niche course that she wanted it must have been ok. 😁

First core AS done after being upset last night saying he is going to fail after doing badly on a past paper came home bit more optimistic.
Good luck to any other kids doing AS or ALevels.

@Tebheag good news on the exam. How many AS level exams will he have?

I guess there will be some who are doing A level Maths now who then do Further Maths in y13 - good luck if so.

How far do they predict up? DD is semi hysterical about politics. I’ve had to take some time off work to go through and explain flash cards to her (knackered !). She is desperate for an A but fears a B or a C. So far this year she’s got all As and A stars and one B . Her top 3 uni choices will all need her to have a predicted A. She should get A star predictions in her other subjects - will they look at that?

This is so alien to me - I thought Bs were brilliant when I got them!

no idea why half that post went bold

I tried to say plan b could be a gap year and apply with grades in hand but that was not received well! I thought y12 would be fairly stress free year !

You will need to ask the school how they do predictions. It's very variable between settings.

DD says they’ve told them it’s mainly on end of year exams.
sigh..

@silverbullet our school usually give predictions of what you get in the June exams, if they've gone a bit wrong but you have got consistently higher marks prior to that then they may be a bit more generous. Schools all do their own thing it seems.

@Countrylife2002 Yr 12 has not been stress free at all in this house! 😂 DS has his prefect interview today, I'm hoping he gets over his chronic authority fear and actually lets them see a bit of his personality. 🙏

DS' school say that these exams are an important part of the UCAS predicated grades but that performance through the year will be taken into account. There will also be a resit opportunity in September.

DS seems confident in English Lit and History, less so in Economics. They have had a temporary teacher for micro for the past several months who has not been very good at explaining terms and concepts. DS has found him frustrating. However, he seems to have gone now and the HoD is now taking his micro classes and has confirmed that she will be teaching them from now until the end of year 13. DS is very relieved as she is an excellent teacher. He will spend the weekend revising before exams start on Monday.

I'm glad your son was happier with his Core maths paper than he feared @Tebheag

Best of luck to your daughter @Countrylife2002

Hope your son's prefect interview goes well @JustHereWithMyPopcorn Year 12 has been stressful in our household too. I'm already dreading year 13!

First Maths A level is on the 4 June so at least has the half term to really knuckle down as I've not seen much evidence of hard work!
Son will only therefore have economics mocks but he has not told me when that is - laid back is an understatement!