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

@YellowphantGrey !
We are all 6th form colleges round here. You only have to be on site for lessons, everything else they leave to the students. (How well this works depends on maturity though...)

He once again stressed that the only C and D grades from the previous year 13 group were achieved by boys who took four A Levels, and that getting top grades in three is much better than good grades in four. Again, asking students to reconsider if they have asked for four. It sounds as though they are going to be ruthless in culling boys from FM over this half term.

DS's school is the opposite! DS was told in assembly yesterday that they are a 4 A-level school, so all are expected to continue their 4 A-levels, and the earliest anyone can consider dropping their 4th A-level is February half-term. We always knew he had to start 4 A-levels, but hoped he could drop one earlier (for all the reasons @Waspie 's head stated). We might need to step in......

That's a good result @steppemum Hopefully your DD will smash her November resit! So nice to hear that the college were supportive and helpful.

@YellowphantGrey I'm sorry but I really don't like the sound of your son's sixth form. Everything you have posted about it is extreme and inflexible. Hopefully they are just flexing their authority in the first week or two and will calm down after this. Fingers crossed!

I fail to see the point of your son doing a 4th A Level that he doesn't need to do @Newlittlerescue, particularly for a term and a half. Sixth form is a short two years and they need to focus on their core study and end of year 12 mocks. Do you have a parent's evening this term where you could bring up the subject of dropping the fourth? I do quite like the idea of taking 4 and dropping one at October half term, but February is a long time to continue with a subject you don't want to study.

It's DS' first proper day today and he has all three subjects so I'm looking forward to hearing about it when he gets back!

That seems harsh. Mines at college but can leave the grounds during free periods if they wish.

They can't leave school grounds at all. When they get to year 13, it's the same as GCSE and they don't have to be in school during the last two weeks of their exam period.

They still get negative and praise points and can spend the praise points in the reward shop. Still get detentions and still be sent to isolation for each 20 negative points you get

They are quite coddled there! Thankfully DS is active outside of school with responsibilities so he can cope!

My DD's school is also quite strict about attendance in school even at 6th form. They have explicitly said that all 6th formers need to be in school from 8:30am-2pm (end of period 4), even if they have frees and study time during the day. They can only leave at 2pm if they have no timetabled lesson from 2-3pm.

My DD is doing 4 A-levels and only has one day when she could leave early - Wednesday.

Regarding 4 A-levels, they are encouraged to take 4 if their GCSE average is 7.5+ (average grade across all GCSEs). However, they can drop the 4th at any point.

Oh and they also have made it mandatory to do one enrichment activity on top of the 3 A-levels. If you take 4 subjects, the activity isn't mandatory, only recommended. Enrichment choices are: EPQ, CCF, Gold DofE, sports leader award, teaching EFL, or a peer tutor programme.

My DD chose Gold DofE because it doesn't add much to what she already does (sports, volunteering, etc).

The DofE should be easy for her. If she's doing 6 months of volunteering and playing a sport, she just needs to find a skill and do the practice and qualifying walks.

DS has done his Gold and is just finishing off the skill and volunteering.

His sixth form you can do 3 A Levels or a combination of btechs and a Levels.

They also have to pick one core subject Maths, Psychology, French or Spanish but if you got 4 to 6 in Maths you have to do Maths. If you don't get a C or above in Maths exam next summer then you can't continue to year 13

at dds previous school in the sixth form they had to do a 4th thing, either a 4th A level or an EPQ or gold D of E.
At her new sixth form college I was all ready to fight for nothing extra (because she needs to work in school in her study periods, she doesn't work well at home) but they have assumed that with the english resit she is full.

All the sixth form colleges round here are basically - come in just for lessons. It is one reason that I think generally think school based sixth forms are better. I think most 16 year olds don't get up and work at home if their first lesson is 12 o'clock, but if they have to go into school they do work in their study periods.
Dd has to get a school bus to sixth form college, and she has agreed that she will be there 9-4 every day, so that she can do homework and flip learning. But because it is a college there is no uniform and lots of independence. So it looks like a good balance. We'll see how it goes.

@steppemum I think the college system can work well for the more sensible / mature, but less well for those a bit younger in attitude. I also think it will make the step to university less large when the time comes.

My DD is doing a vocational L2 course and finishes at 2.20 twice a week, and 3.30 and 4.30 the other 2 days.

I hope DS is allowed to leave the grounds during free periods (far and few between), because I booked his flu jab for a free period.

I do not think DS will do gold DofE. Not a fan of camping. The silver level camping trip (in continuous sleet in the North East) scarred him for life 🤣. Good luck to all the hardy souls.

Good start back. In the final twist of the drama saga the student who bailed decided he did want to do it after all 🙄

Ds generally happy with his teachers and the way his timetable works, although there's one very 'vocal' student who's in the same classes for PRE and Politics that he's going to have to learn to tune out. First homework has been set, it'll be interesting to see how on it he is as it's never been a priority in the past.

I'm hoping whoever is in charge of Y12 learning support checks in with him soon. After his diagnosis he had a mentor during Y11 who was amazing in terms of giving him the right nudges to keep on top of things.

Y12s have to be in school all day - during frees they're expected to do independent study - but can go into town to buy lunch. There's a Greggs, Subway and KFC within 5 mins so he's happy.

He's already had an EPQ session and seems to have several ideas he wants to consider. No way would he go near Gold DoE, he has too much else on with his tech responsibilities - he's the only current student who knows how to work the lighting desk and there's a musical, junior and senior plays to do in the coming months.

I've a feeling he'll be having a lie-in tomorrow 😁

@YellowphantGrey i can’t believe they think it’s a good start to set a detention for that! I don’t think detentions are a thing at dd 6th form.

dd had an okay day, quite boring I think, just in tutor, everyone in her tutor is studying maths. She sat down next to someone she thought was a girl and turned out to be a boy with sparkly nails and a ponytail! She said he was nice, but she wish she’d sat with the girls! She has one day when she’s only got one 20 min pshe type session, but her tutor said she’d try to change it.

Dd had induction on Wednesday and she was a bit shocked at how strict it was in some areas and lenient in others. Students are allowed to smoke but vaping is an automatic exclusion 🤔🤔

Looks like DD may be having a change of subject already. She took Bio Chem maths and an EPQ with a leaning towards dentistry.

She needs AAA with chem and bio essential to get in any dental school but the 3rd can be not maths. She was adamant she loved maths for years, got an 8 at GCSE after messing a paper up after being at a 9 running up to it. She got 9s in all other exams. We did talk about maybe choosing another option (psychology) instead of maths to give a better chance of the AAA, and it was her back up subject but she was adamant on maths.

After a few days and couple of lessons she has decided to drop maths for psychology. She has looked at the curriculum and thinks she will be too stressed trying to achieve an A when it is a tough A level. She is also one of 4 girls in the class (came from all girls school) and struggled with the overwhelming 'boys shouting over the top' when answering questions.

I am supporting her whatever but am secretly pleased she is thinking of this. She is worried everyone will think she is too stupid for maths if she changes. I think it is a more strategic move to her next goal of a degree to give her the best chance possible of As in chem and bio.

Urgh, I thought stress would abate for a little while!

@bluefineliner much better to make that decision now rather than later. Excellent to have a plan. DD really doesn't know what she wants to do next, and I know that's just fine, but The Guardian had it's university guide out today, and last week my DSIL (who is an academic) was telling me we should start looking at university open days soon, I got a bit panicky, I've talked myself down now!

Lovely thread! Thanks!

DD doing Business History Media.
She did better in English Lit than we thought. Nearly full marks.

So wonder if she should do English Lit? In addition or instead of business.

Any thoughts?

Glad to find this thread.
DD started back this week. She's starting with 4 but with a view to dropping one. Maths, Physics, Eng Lit and Politics. Bit of an odd combination and I have been worried about it. So far I think she's enjoyed all her lessons but I don't think they've really started on too much yet. Next couple of weeks will be interesting.

I think it’s important to pick subjects you enjoy, unless you have a particular degree in mind, a-levels are really hard (at least that was my experience) and it’s so much easier if you enjoy the subject. Might be worth talking to her teachers and looking at a couple of text books to see a sample of the content.

@bluefineliner - I agree with @wonderstuff that's it's better to have a plan and change now than later, or carry on with a subject that she doesn't really enjoy. My DS also doesn't know what he wants to do as a career - maybe law, maybe international relations/civil service, possibly even the armed forces or police service. He's doing three essay subjects so STEM is not really an option.

At the parent's induction evening we were told not to go to open days yet and to leave them until the summer, after the mocks, when the students would have predicted grades in hand.

The Head of Sixth Form did say that we (parents and carers) should start having broad brush conversations about next steps. So, we have had a couple of these this weekend using the new University guides and starting to look at the UCAS and Good University Guide websites. They were positive - DS in inclined towards remaining within a couple of hours of home (Berkshire) which leaves a lot of choice but rules out some great universities (the one I attended among them!) We shall see. As he gets older he may change his mind.

I also agree with @wonderstuff's response to @Flyhigher . Doing subjects the young person enjoys is so important. Changing Business to Eng Lit would narrow down your daughter's uni options (if that's her choice of next step) as all of the subjects would be essay based. Have you looked at Informed Choices website, it may help? Subjects | Informed Choices My son is doing History and English lit and the third is Economics.

They are four good options @LighthouseCat . i guess the obviously droppable ones are either Politics or Physics. Dropping maths may not be an option as many schools/colleges won't let a student take physics without maths. A friend of DS' who is starting year 13 is taking English Lit, maths and physics and really enjoys the change of focus English lit gives from the other two.

Hope everyone's weekend's are going well. No homework here so I'm trying to persuade DS to finish his Tennis LTA coaching course work today to get it submitted and out of the way before school starts ramping up next week.

@Waspie @Flyhigher would Eng Lit really narrow choices if substituted for Business? Eng Lit is I think traditionally regarded as the more academic of the two. I’d think a discussion with her tutor would be sensible if she is considering a swap.

My DD still happy, though exhausted from a week of new places and people. She knows her way round now and has found nice people, though I don’t think she yet knows who her real friends are going to be. She does have two girls who came from her old school, but they are BFFs with each other.

Still loving Economics, which is a very popular and successful A Level at her school. I think they must have excellent teaching as they really seem to inspire them. Not loving Psychology though. I suspect this is because she did the GCSE in it (same board) and because not many do it at GCSE there is considerable overlap in the content. So maybe that will be the one which gets dropped. We’ll see.

Love for Economics here too so far. DS has now met all his teachers and thinks Economics, History and Geography will all be good. His second Maths teacher is an improvement on his first, apparently, but still in these early days it's looking like Maths is likely to be a slog rather than enjoyable.

We'll see how it goes. The trouble is of course that if he properly falls in love with Economics and decides to take it at uni he'll need to keep Maths going for uni applications.

Busy weekend here as we are still trying to finish packing up the house and move (moving in with PILs for the rest of the building project we are now in the middle of), so when DS isn't doing homework he is packing and helping to lug around boxes and furniture. Hope everyone else's weekends are more restful!

That sounds like good advice @Waspie thank you for sharing. I told dd about The Guardian guide and she had a little look.

What are people doing about pocket money/ allowance? It's costing dd approx. £4 a day to get to college and back and then she obviously needs lunch, she can of course make herself a packed lunch, but dh and I don't do that often so it seems unreasonable to expect her to everyday (plus her brother is in an independent school with amazing catering while she went to state school). So I'm giving her £200 a month to cover those and expecting her to get a job to fund her social life, but I'm not sure if that is a bit mean? For school she had free transport and we paid for school dinners and then she had an allowance, so she's probably a bit worse off now, but I'm saving towards uni, she'll get the minimum loans so I'm expecting to fund her accomodation, of course I've only a vague idea what that will cost at this point. We've cut right back on holidays and we are trying to put money aside each month, but I want to have some fun money too.. I'm thinking I will see how this month goes and adjust if needed. The student bus pass is probably more expensive than single tickets due to the £2 cap, so that might change in January, she's 17 in November and we have agreed to insure a car her aunt is gifting her, so we are doing other things. I also don't want her to be comfortable enough to not get a saturday job because I think it's such a good thing to get more independence, I was working from 15 and I think that was such a good disipline. I don't know, my parenting leans towards strict and for various reasons we are financially in a fairly strong position, which neither dh or I were in as kids, I want to be really supportive and I'm scared of spoiling my kids. Sorry for long ramble. Parenting never seems to get easier, there's always a new dilemma.

DS doesn't really have any expenses. He gets £50 of his child benefit and the rest goes into savings. We buy his clothes and food. In terms of clothes, say he needs, new jeans and trainers, we might say right here's £100, anything above that you need to put the rest. That way he's learning whether the extra is worth it. He likes Zara jeans which are £29 a pair and I'm happy to pay that. I give him £70 for trainers when needed and he will add the rest, same with football boots.

Out of his £50 a month he has to buy any sweets, or save for extras and birthday cards or presents. He rarely spends and choses to save. He doesn't ever ask for money.

He works and gets paid between £20 and £60 a week, depends on how many jobs he accepts on a Saturday.

He also plays football once a week with his team and trains once a week. This is about £500 for the year and we pay this.

He walks to and from school and makes his own lunches but will buy himself a school dinner maybe once every 3 weeks when his favourite one rolls round again.

His socialising is either gaming at weekends, going to the six aside pitches or going to play basketball, all of which he pays for when needed.

He's quite low cost to be fair but also busy enough he doesn't really spend much money

I agree @JessyCarr - best discussed with the school and in conjunction with next steps.

DS is another who is enjoying Economics. No GCSE in the subject so it's all new and exciting.

Going back to the discussion about work/study split: DS has 6 periods of 50 minutes of each subject each week. Two period of compulsory PE , 1 of PSHE and 8 study periods. He spent the study period he had on Friday walking around the school and exploring the LRC. Two days he doesn't have to be in until 10.20am - this lie in opportunity has made him happy in a way only a teenager can really understand.

In terms of allowance he gets £75 per month. We pay everything for school, his phone, his tennis lessons and rugby club subs. He pays for his gym membership and social life.

@wonderstuff I don’t think £200/month sounds mean at all - on the contrary, it sounds rather generous. I have to admit we have not settled on an allowance figure at all as it’s all a bit ad hoc here. DD walks to school and has lunch included there, so has no day to day costs. She had gifts of money recently from grandparents and godparents for birthday and GCSE results so has spent some of that on clothes for 6th form. She earns decent money from babysitting which easily supports her social life. We pay for dance classes and are about to start paying for driving lessons. Frankly the girl is in clover! But it’s interesting to see what sort of level others are settling on.

NB you mention insuring a car - have you found a decent quote for that? From what we have seen it seems not too bad when they still have their L plates (and are therefore supervised) but monstrously expensive when they pass their test at 17.