Year 12 - 2025/2026: Support Thread 2

[QueenMabby]

A new thread for us to keep chatting on!

Oh no what a shame!!

@QueenMabby what a shame- well done to her though.

and, without being too outing, it is kind of ‘instrument adjacent’… she is definitely playing something! I don’t think it makes her look silly particularly- though worry that this is going to have to be her musical party trick forever more.

Ahh it sounds fun and we definitely need some lighthearted fun don’t we! Well done to your DD in bringing fun to so many!!

@NotDonna I have had similar conversations regarding AI but on the bright side it is in the interest of global companies to solve that problem. I suspect they will start to increase recruitment again at some point to ensure they get the right level of expertise down the line. It is just those caught up in the turmoil who may struggle which may include our dc.

Fingers crossed the grad prospects improve - and all young peoples’ entry into the workplace not just grads! The high flyer report makes interesting reading (a bit depressing in places).

Yes, but also no, as the competition is very prestigious and she’s so excited!

One more week off for DD. She enjoyed her 4 days work experience in a local MPs office last week. She also worked in the pub Fri-Sun so feel proud of her work ethic. Feel she’s much more settled in college now after 2 terms. She’s done well in all the end of unit tests. We need to book on some more open days to look at Politics/International Relations. I’ve bought a 2 together rail card to help with the travel cost.
I was doing a work event on Manchester Uni campus and met some Economics final year students. One had got a graduate job offer locally and they had all done placement years in industry. The students get paid by the Uni to help with events for school children doing campus tours etc, were getting over £100 to do 6 hours work so worth looking out for volunteering opportunities on campus.

I hope the university job opportunities are on offer to all. Our school offer this but only for those with some kind of contextual disadvantage.

My uni DD applied to be a uni ambassador in yr1 but didn’t get the job as lots of girls apply and they wanted a balance - the boy she had helped write the application got an ambassador role though! I had zero sympathy!

Sorry I haven't been around. I'll try and read past messages. I've been so incredibly ill diabetically, I'm sure you'll all forgive me.

Ds2 has mocks tomorrow and the next day. PE and psychology tomorrow. Biology Wednesday. 3 hours in the school hall. Like proper! This will give the grades that are used for job applications / uni applications.

That’s early @Oblomov25- ours aren’t until the end of May.

Sorry to hear how unwell you've been @Oblomov25 . My DD also has early mocks, her start next week. I'm quite pleased because once they are out of the way she can start to focus on the UCAT test she has to sit over the summer in order to apply for medicine courses. They can't start them this week as quite a few are on their practice DofE expedition - I'm so glad DD decided not to do it (despite my encouragement) as she'd have been stressed having to do that just before mocks.

Good luck to your DS!

Y12 mocks started yesterday at DC2's sixth form although their first was 8.30am today. The biggest shock of this has been study leave! The school both DCs were at for Y7-11 (and DC1 for sixth form) had no such thing so this is a whole new experience.

I agree with @QueenMabby that it feels very early. I am trying not to think too much about the fall-out if it means DC2's predicted grades aren't looking high enough for the courses they've set their heart on.

DS mocks start in 10 days - he seems quite relaxed at the moment - more relaxed than he was with GCSEs . I’m not sure if that’s a good thing

Like some others I’m a bit worried what predicted grades might look like ( after the excessively high GCSE predictions he had I’m not sure I trust them anyway )

Good luck to DC doing mocks already - that seems so early

Ugh, dd has exams starting this week. She feels quite unprepared, but we did have a lovely Caribbean holiday at the start of easter! She needed the break. She's also picked up a second client for childminding, so hopefully that will give her some work experience and get her into a routine. She's having a nap now, then its all systems go for revision! Good luck everyone!

Good luck with mocks, it feels incredibly early. Lower sixth was a doss year back in the day, how times have changed.

DC opened up yesterday that he feels v unclear about subject he wants to do. School don’t appear to be doing much to support decision making. How do you support a child to make subject choices? I want him to lead so needs to be guidance. He has A levels in a STEM, MFL & social science (without being too outing) so options are open. Any advice when starting from a virtually blank sheet??

I would encourage supra curriculum activities in any areas of most interest. Also go to open days and listen to subject lectures. It can be local universities or online just to get an idea of what different courses are like. Ideally at university level you study something you love. Otherwise look into jobs with study, they are super competitive though.

If your dc has access to Unifrog then I think it has the ability to input A-levels and it’ll suggest courses which might be a good place to start. Is there a favourite A-level that can lead the decision?

@Bufftailed - I also have a genuine allrounder on my hands. First thing is to point out that being good at it all is actually a really good thing in the long run! (And it is properly valued in most European countries with a Baccalaureate system) I have been tempted to sign DD up to something like myfuturechoice.com - have not managed to figure out how much it would cost though and she has UniFrog through school anyway.
School Sixth Form have deliberately told us not to lead them too much and let them figure it out themselves.
DD will now be taking her Science as an AS but continuing with the modern language together with another boy and we have realised there are a whole lot of competitive courses that offer a language plus another subject eg Law with Spanish etc. So I think we will go down that route in UCAS and so is her fellow pupil. They are both quite creative types too and we feel a gap year in a European uni will be great for DD. If she does not get onto the preferred courses we may just enrol in a quasi free European uni anyway at 18 for one year. It seems to be allowed. And then reapply through UCAS with grades in hand the following year.

Thanks all, useful advice. DC is young for the year and I think generally very unclear and slightly overwhelmed by having to think ahead.

@Araminta1003 MFL combo is a good one to consider, although not sure he would want a year abroad. Thing is by the time it comes round (over 3 years from now) he could absolutely be up for it….

@QueenMabby he has Unifrog so could look with him.

@RigbyRight he has v little time as has a paid job - he has done some extra activities/ roles at school and will definitely suggest podcasts/ online lectures

He even said living away from home is not a draw for uni for him. I think a year out would he good to create breathing space, but he said he wants to go directly from 6th form. Maybe uni visits will make things clearer

@Bufftailed i would get DC on a few uni websites - some are very well written with lots of info about what different courses entail . I like Uni of Bath for this . There are all sorts of options out there - that I’d not even thought of .

Also register an interest on a few uni websites and agree to their email marketing . DS1 has had a few useful invites to online events this way - one from Exeter and one from Manchester . The Exeter email had lots of different sessions on offer for different subjects . He found the engineering talk useful . Manchester talk is next week .

I was assuming we would be able to go to lots of subject talks at an open day - but it looks more limited than that where I’ve seen bookings open . We are a bit restricted as DS2 is 3 weeks away from GCSEs and is needing quite a bit of support

DD1 and DS both changed subjects there were looking between now and ucas application - makes it harder on open days to know what to look at. I think DD2 seem bit less clear from the off but is now more settled on chemistry.

We had a trip up to see DS he's settled well at uni and seems happy. DD2 Easter was me nagging to do revision and get on with the art project - which has only got so far as I pushed. We're in Wales so may is AS level which are 40% of fininal mark - and I'm now worried she'll get a shock come August as I don't think she doing enough - been there with older two.

She not got the summer school place she applied for - so will have to look at home projects more to show interest in her subject area.

Many of DD2 open dasy are in June/July more so than before few in Sepetember and once we have her AS level results can see where she is likely to fall grades wise.

@QueenMabby huge congratulations to your DD for her competition success so far!

@Oblomov25 hope you are doing a bit better health-wise, and you continue to feel better.

DD also has her mocks starting now(ish) (next week). I am really worried she is doing nowhere near enough. She has really high aspirations and she will need top predictions, but I just don’t see how she is going to get to achieve it with what she is doing. It is the first set of exams they have done, which doesn’t feel unreasonable (given the are just over 6 months in), but if she messes up, it will have a huge impact. Although, I think she could do work to get her predictions higher. But at this stage, it is in her hands.

@Onvacation- thank you. She’s very excited. Lots of prep to do and travel to plan but we have a few months.

I hope everyone’s mocks are going ok this week.

Hello. Sorry not checked in. My mum died rather unexpectedly 2 days before Dds first mock before Easter. She did all her exams that week though maybe not in the right order. Hopefully they’ll mark her leniently. East hols was spent in a blur but she carried in revising. She got 84% on her first psychology paper though. More exams this week and funeral next week so have been very low key.

Meanwhile I have been manic. Had a crash course in funerals, probate and death stuff! It’s not cheap and I could ready write a book about what parents could do to help you, especially if your other parent has died already!