Year 12 - 2025/2026: Here we go again!

[QueenMabby]

A new thread for the new school and college year. A friendly thread for parents of those going into year 12 in September 2025.

Just to add, it was not the norm at DD's school to use a laptop - she has one because of hypermobile finger joints that make writing by hand almost impossible and very painful, and dyslexia (has editing software). They are very much a paper and pen school.

College they provide them all on-site in these things that look like old fashioned hostess trollies - you just help yourself at the start of class, store everything in the cloud, and they all have usb memory sticks on their lanyards.

Hey, I’m so sorry, I don’t exactly know…. But., I wanted to say I’m really sorry your DS is having a nightmare at the moment… I really hope his remarking is successful.

What I would do, tho, in your position, is go to the late enrolment at college and explain the situation, and enrol there if possible…. on the understanding he may not attend….. if that is ok with them. I know you say he doesn’t want to attend, but in the unfortunate situation that he may be in the position that the second sixth form can’t take him, then…… perhaps that might be a necessity for now.

As I said, sorry I don’t know, but I think basically I didn’t want to scroll past…, so just can only offer a friendly hug and good luck!

Thank you @Sisublondie , much appreciated! It’s been a horrible couple of weeks.
I’m going to phone the college first thing and explain the situation. And then chase up the 2nd sixth form to hopefully get a definitive answer!

We would let someone enrol and then change their mind. Easier to do that than other way round.

I agree @scrumdiddly123 that he needs the college back up even if he’s not 100% keen. Has he had an opportunity to look around it previously? Either way the enrolment will give him another chance to see it and hopefully get a more positive impression of studying there. Good luck!!

@TheLivelyViper I may have misread but is your post saying you have to have history A level for a single honours history degree? bc that’s not the case – my link from Leeds shows no history is required, and I recall coming up with a number of other unis where this was the case. Liverpool is another. I was surprised tbh.

Laptops weren't the norm at my DCs' comprehensive but DC2 used one from mid-Y9 after a broken bone resulted in nerve damage affecting their fingers and ability to grip, or sometimes even to hold, a pen.

The school was brilliant about it and offered to ensure DC2 had use of a school laptop in each lesson but as it looked at though it was going to be a long-term problem, we chose to purchase one based on advice from DC's physio and the spec DSA use for similar issues. Although we sent it to school without WiFi and various other functions enabled, individual teachers got in touch and asked us to change that, arranged for IT to connect it to the school network, printers etc so classwork could be printed out and handed in along with everyone else's. The English teacher in particular would send the lesson resources to DC2 at the start of the lesson so they could type notes directly onto the materials. It made a huge difference to DC2's ability to engage in the lessons as they could touchtype instead of needing to handwrite with their non-dominant hand. It is still DC2's preference to do annotations by hand as they find it a much more effective way of remembering content but on days they were unable to hold a pen (even the chunky ones designed for elderly people with arthritis), they had no choice but to type. I spent many an evening during Y10 and Y11 being used to handwrite annotations onto the poetry anthology and AIC, neither of which is published in an accessible edition i.e. double-spaced and with large margins to facilitate annotation by those with motor or visual difficulties.

For the exams themselves we provided the exams office with an equivalent device (older model via FB marketplace), keyboard and mouse (DC2 can't use the tracker pad mouse on a regular laptop because of the injury). This was done before the first set of Y10 exams, IT set it up as an exam machine and it was only returned to us at the end of Y11. Working from a hard copy exam paper and having to visually track between that and a screen is exhausting for exams that require large chunks of text to be processed, and calculation-based subjects couldn't be done by typing so those were mostly done left-handed. Using a laptop was a means to an end but DC2 would far rather have full and consistent use of their writing hand!

There are very few unis available which allow you to do a single honours History degree without the A-level. Your choice will be heavily restricted, even for unis that say it's not compulsory, they still say it's highly desirable and the majority of applicants will have done History A-level. Its not like Economics where theres still quite a lot willing to make Maths not mandatory, I'd say its a lot stricter than that. So you'll be shutting off unis straight away by doing that and quite a massive amount of unis, some high profile ones you might have had hopes for but across the range theres very few who don't say its mandatory.

Not every uni as you've pointed out, but if you aren't aware of this, you might change your decision around A-levels. It seems Leeds, Leicester, Birmingham, Liverpool, LSE and Oxford and Essex (with a foundation year) don't have it as compulsory, but highly desirable/recommend and let's be honest the majority of their intake will be people who have done it, it will be harder to have a competitive application without it, as you'll lack those history specific skills, but classical civilisation is similar, so a better chance.

None of the universities I considered (quite a long list) allowed not havinf History A-level when applying for History and Politics at degree. Which in a strange way has more unis making it mandatory at A-level for History and Politics than the single honours History (the majority of unis already do this for single honours though anyways). And Politics A-level wasn't mandatory but desirable, but evem if you had it - it wasn't an either or. As in either have History and Politics, it was you must have History and then a good addition if you have Politics. English and History does seem the most flexible though, on having to have done it at A-level, with a broad range of unis accepting either English or History, so that's good but I still think if someone is entirety put off by the A-level, they should reconsider whether they'll enjoy it at degree and also as I mentioned earlier, I'd be worried about the fact they haven't developed the skills needed, which they should have from the A-level and do differ to other essay subjects. If classical civilisations her thing, I'd be applying for Ancient history degrees or Classics.

I agree for sure that it’s a good idea to have A level history if taking, or planning on taking, a history degree. I was just pointing out that there are some universities, including highly rated ones, that don’t require it.

I’m surprised that any require politics for history and politics joint hons as lots of sixth form settings don’t offer it. Searched Birmingham and Warwick at random and neither requires politics (tho both want or prefer history).

Induction day for us today!

Poor @scrumdiddly123
What's the last you heard from school, do you know what the actual delay is? Did they explain?
Chase the school more, email HoY, exams offer, copy in Deputy Head, or someone just so that it's logged with someone from Leadership, ask when you can expect a resolution?

@scrumdiddly123 if the 2nd 6th form said he could resit English with them why couldn’t they accept him there and then? What’s the delay? Will he be able to do his original choices with them? Has he visited and happy to go here? I’d probably chase first thing today if that’s his preference and try to get that confirmed. If it’s still not a certainty then I’d encourage enrolment at the 6th form today, just so he has a back up. What a faff! Huge good luck x

Good Luck 🤞 🙏🤞 to all today’s starters!

🍀 🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀

Good luck today’s induction crew

Thank you ! DS starting at college today, he's quite chilled but wants me to drive him for the 1st day. He is happy to get the bus after that. I hope he has a good day..

Good luck everyone! (DD has now finished Maths bridging work and half of Spanish.)

DD starts today, she was a bit nervous but I think she will be fine. Meanwhile in Scotland one of her good friends from primary school who moved up there in year 7 is starting University soon!!

P.S. I was on the previous threads but I have changed my name :)

Hi, I'd like to join you if I may? My DD started 6th form College today in the next town. She was fairly nervous but looking forward to only studying her 3 favourite subjects at A level. She has gone with a couple of friends from her school, which helps. We are also waiting on a GCSE English Lit re-mark which seems scarily common! (not affected her college place thankfully). Good Luck to all of today's starters.

DD’s English Language remark came back this morning - no change. A bit disappointing, but a relief that it didn’t go down which is what we had started to worry about!

No I was saying that they don't accept Politics A-level as a replacement for History - when you're applying for a History and Politics degree, in the same way they do for English and History (which is much more either English or History A-level). For History and Politics degrees, even when someone has Politics, the vast majority off unis still ask for History A-level as compulsory.

Dropped DD off and they saw someone they recognised from induction.

Just looked at the 6th form calendar and these 2 years are going to fly by.

@scrumdiddly123 just wanting to wish you and your DC luck today - I agree with other posters about phoning second choice sixth form and registering at 3rd choice just in case . There will be people all over the country hedging their bets so you may not be the only one .

We are also still waiting on a review - a bit surprised really - but do wonder if it’s just the sheer number of them .

Off topic but does mumsnet have a new automatic scrolling feature … it’s driving me mad as it’s so slow - wondering if it’s just me though !

@scrumdiddly123 Good luck to DS today.

@waitingquietly Ive noticed the slow scrolling. Have to keep closing the web browser to stop it. It’s most annoying.

DS was back yesterday. He’s relieved to only be studying 3 subjects 😄

@teabag thanks glad it’s not just me

As all you Mums of 16 year olds will know, the last 6 months has been really stressful, and I know I have personally been incredibly focussed on helping DD2 with GCSE revision and DD1 with A Level revision. Added to that, my lovely Dad was diagnosed with Alzheimer's recently, and despite him living 120 miles away, I am his main carer. So to say it's been a busy and stressful period is something of an understatement!

I have been battling with a chest infection since around March, and have seen various GPs, had 3 course of antibiotics and 2 of steroids, but was soldiering on, getting more and more breathless as each week passed. Until a couple of days after GCSE results, when I finally felt like "my work here is done", and my lovely DSis was staying with my Dad for a few days, my body just gave out.

I'm home now, after 10 days in ITU with bacterial pneumonia. It's been a pretty scary time, but I am just so happy to be home to be able to make the most of the last couple of weeks before DD1 heads off to Cardiff for Uni, and to listen to DD2 chatter excitedly about her A Level choices and all the new things she can't wait to learn!

One of the main things I kept thinking about when I was in that hospital bed was how excited and happy DD2 was when she shared her hard won GCSE results with me. It really kept me going.

Anyway, I just wanted to pop this here because several people have said to me that I spent months feeling increasingly unwell, but it was the "power of Mum" that kept me going until the results were in, we knew DD1 had her uni place and DD2 could do the A Levels she wanted. I'm sure I'm not the only one who put their own wellbeing to the side during this stressful period, but perhaps a reminder that we need to ensure we look after ourselves, as well as others (or not have kids 2 school years apart)!