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.

Hope those with Reading-itis are feeling a bit better today.
Last Friday of the summer holidays for us. Dd is fitting in as many meet ups with non-school friends as she can - why do they always leave them to the last few days?!

@QueenMabby At least they aren’t leaving the school shoe hunt til the last day!!

@SB1971 an 8 does bode well for his philosophy- love that he’s a ‘deep thinker’! I think it’s quite hard to not have our own ideas based on what we’d prefer or what we think we may find interesting. We just need to keep it zipped. 🤣

Aye,you are right,keeping it zipped however is not my strongpoint! I am working on it though…

We got ours yesterday. 🙈

We just heard back and Language is unchanged. We had also requested the scripts but were never sent them

We had physics review come back and they managed to find the one extra mark needed for a 9 🙌 Still waiting on Further maths….

And @scrumdiddly123..

Oh, I’m so sorry to hear that. Good luck waiting for the other.

DS waiting to hear about Lang, Lit and Combined Science.

DS is my youngest (of 4) and starting Y12 next week. Only 2 more years left of schooling and then we are done, it feels a bit odd. No bridging work set by his school. He's had to change his subjects to be able to stay on at his school but he's feeling quite positive. We have done our shopping this week, some in town and some online. He has to either wear a suit or smart trousers, sweater and buttoned shirt. Had to explain so many times whilst shopping that tracksuit tops are not sweaters! Anyway, he is all kitted out now (includong smart shoes) and I hope one of the other kids can take a back to school photo for me as I'll be at work before he gets up

I teach A Level. In terms of stationery, I've bought DS lever arch folders for each of his subjects, pads of paper, a ring binder folder for everyday - to put all notes/handouts in and transfer to subjects specific folders at home, extra wide dividers, punched pocket folders to go in the everyday ring binder in case handouts aren't hole punched and highlighters. I did try to get sticky tabs but he insisted he didn't need them. He tried to say he could just put the handouts in his folder (they will fall out and get lost) or just make holes with the ring binder - I try and hole punch everything I give out and on occasion I do forget and it annoys me no end when I see students do this. I usually remember about the punched holes and say I'm sending around the hole punch so use that but some will ignore and do it anyway. I've also introduced my students to reinforcement tabs to keep the holes from ripping but they don't usually need these, it's only when they try and cram too much into 1 binder. Anyway, hope this helps if anyone is unsure about what they need. I still need to order his advanced scientific calculator

oh I’m sorry 😞 we’re still waiting. His teacher has his scripts so going to ask her to send me them if it comes back unchanged

Good for you. AQA? P1 or 2?

Physics was Edexcel and they found the mark on P1. Further maths is AQA and P1 yielded no change so all hopes on P2! He only needs one mark!! But not the end of the world if not as he has his 8 he needs for A level.

DD2 had a good morning - met some new people in each class and is all set up for next week.

We have some stationary in the house - but DD1 and DS had differenet perfences - DD1 liked a box folder and plastic carry folders but DS liked books and arch leaf folders. So have to see what she needs going forward.

No more uniform - so that's easier and she seems okay with buses and has done the bridging work. DD1 back in Uni town, DS off soon to Uni and DD2 is ready to start A-levels next week - feels odd but positive and they all seem happy.

Has anyone who sent an AQA English Language paper off for remark had it back yet (we sent both papers)? Waiting anxiously here for DD’s, school exams offer said it’s the one that most remarks are requested for so can take a bit longer, but she said she expected it back in a few days, a few days ago!

Yes, me, but DS still waiting- tho, I think delayed due to EO only sending off Lit and C Sciences first. She also just said “ a few days”… Good luck 🍀!

🎊🥳🎊 Yay! Well Done!

Someone on the review of English thread just got AQA English Language back and increased by 9 marks

We’re still waiting, it was sent off last Friday. Thought it would be back by now!

DD’s was sent on the 21st. Just hoping it took them so long as there were so many extra marks to add on 🤣
Seriously, this result has meant she can probably scrub one of her preferred unis from her list for applications 😢 just praying for the grade to go up so that it might be a contender again.

I didn’t realise there was an English thread - I will take a look for it.

Good luck to your DS too!

Oh no! What uni is that?

Nottingham. For medicine they score your top 8 GCSEs which must include bio, chem, maths and English lang. they score 9 with 4pts, 8 with 3pts, 7 with 2pts and 6 with 1pt. So scoring a 6 in English lang means you drop 3pts. They add all the points together with points based on your UCAT score (university clinical aptitude test, sat in the summer after yr12) and then all applicants get ranked in order of their score. Dropping 3 pts on a GCSE could make the difference between interview and a wasted application.

Some med schools just ask for minimum 6 in maths and English lang, so she’s fine for those, but Nottingham was one she was keen on, and the UCAT is extremely tough, so if she could have got lots of points on the GCSEs it would have taken the pressure off the UCAT a bit.

Doesn’t mean her dream of med school is over, just that Nottingham would probably be a wasted application, so she won’t be able to choose it. It’s so hard to get med school offers that they recommend you only apply to those that you are likely to get an interview with.

Ahhh ok! I didn’t know that about Nottingham and rating the GCSEs. I’m surprised they don’t hold a LOT more store in the UCAT. Albeit there’s a few med schools where you don’t need ucat at all. So she’s currently a 6 in English and hoping for an uplift of 3 grades? Was she predicted 9’s in English? I think it’s pretty tough being brilliant across the board. A lot of ppl are brilliant at stem or brilliant at humanities. (Or me at neither). It’s a tough ask to be brilliant at everything! Good luck to her! Medicine is becoming trickier and trickier.