Year 13 -2025/26 - Support, discussion and looking after each other - thread 2 - exam time

[SilverBlue4]

Here we go

@ComingInByAnsible she has had the absolute summer of her life! Hope your ds comes home also suitably relaxed and loving life! @SilverBlue4 @JustHereWithMyPopcorn my dd is hoping for Bath too on Thursday. Keeping everything crossed for her as I fear she will be devastated if it doesn’t happen 🫣

Yes I have the same fear @Onthesofawithmydog keeping everything crossed that our young people all get the places they want. 🤞🤞

Ooh it's getting real!! I am also far more stressed than DS who only recently asked when results day was! He is fairly confident that he will get his insurance and refuses to consider clearing.
However I have found university of Nottingham has some good clearing options listed at the moment ACC for financial maths/straight maths or ABC for maths and economics.

I will be glad when we all know what's going on and where our kids will be going in September.

Deleted as it posted twice

I swore I wouldn't be sentimental about the empty nest. Genuinely looking forward to post-childrearing freedom. But I woke up at 5am from a dream where dd was 6 or 7, jumping along beside me, her face all lit up, and I missed my little girl so much. Also my son, until I woke up fully and realized I never had one. DD is ready to fly and it's a good thing, but bittersweet all the same. It's been just me and her since she was tiny.

DD is a bag of nerves. I’ve actually come into the office to work today to get away from it.

Yes I know what you mean. I put together a photo album of her life for her 18th birthday and it was quite emotional looking through all the old photos and videos. I'm usually not a sentimental person but I'd love to go back just for one bedtime when they were about 7-8 years old and relive it again. My husband suffers really badly with nostagia and will just start crying if I say those kinds of things to him. He can't bear to look at old photos as he just gets too emotional! This is my first child to fly the nest and my goodness is she ready, but also yes its very bittersweet.

I have a 9 year old DD who is the spit of her big sister so I physically relive it on a day by day! I don’t so much yearn for the younger years (probably because I’m still in the trenches and it’s harder than you remember!) but I will miss DD1 terribly when she goes. I can’t think about it too much else I cry and DH gets cross with me!

Oh yes, those times were harder than my sentimental memories, @BlackBean2023 ! That's rather touching about your husband, @Onthesofawithmydog .

How have these results crept up on us so quickly?!

DS’s plans have changed quite considerably after being offered a job overseas! Warwick have agreed to defer his place for a year providing his meets his offer grades.

That means there’s no point in looking at clearing, if he doesn’t get the grades needed he’ll have to have a rethink, possibly reapplying with grades in hand next year!

I’m starting to feel quite anxious but he’s still having an absolute ball of a summer, he’s hardly been at home!

Good luck to all of our dc collecting results on Thursday . They’ve all worked very hard and I’m sure things will work out brilliantly for them all xx

@Muchtoomuchtodohow exciting! What’s he going to be doing?

Checking back in on the thread after trying to forget all about exams and the results, I hope all the y13 DC and their families have had a good summer! DS is another one who has barely been here - we did have two weeks with him and younger DS for our family holiday but he’s been on a few holidays / trips since then with another two planned. I did ask him how the finances were holding up, seeing as he only worked for 6 weeks over Christmas plus his fairly tight allowance from us, but sounds like he’s been budgeting pretty well. He dropped any idea of getting summer work after getting his degree apprenticeship offer as (assuming Thursday goes to plan) he’ll be earning then. One downside of the DA is that he wouldn’t get much of a summer holiday compared to normal uni, so he’s right to make the most of this one.

Day after tomorrow, yikes! Nerves are emerging a bit, his and mine, even though DS has some wiggle room between his predicted grades and his DA offer. The YouTube algorithm seems to be feeding me ‘opening my A level results!’ videos from the last couple of years, it must be listening in!

Coaching his favourite sport! It all hinges on the embassy granting him a work visa, but the club have done it several times before with no issues so they don’t anticipate any issues 🤞🏻

Sending hugs to all who need one. Really feel for you waitibg to fibd out about uni I struggle with the unknown like everythibg planned.
DS still not found an apprentiship (cant spell feeling brain dead) He is now applying for anything !
What time do they hear from uni about places ?

@Tebheag for UK unis it’s 8am on Thursday when UCAS updates.

DD is lucky in that her offer (French uni) is unconditional, so doesn’t turn on Thursday’s results. However, she does want to go there with grades she’s proud of, so is nervous anyway!

Her biggest challenge at the moment is that she doesn’t yet have a French student visa. Her passport is with the Consulate and we just don’t know whether it will come back to her in time for induction/welcome week beginning on 24 August. We were supposed to be going to France for a family holiday and to get her set up in her flat, but have had to cancel as there is no point in the rest of us travelling if she is stuck here without a passport.

Best of luck to all those awaiting results and decisions. Amazing adventures lie ahead!

Thinking of all those who have been on this journey with us (whether posting or lurking), with an extra-special mention for @Ventress and her DS.

Just checking in with you all before the big day tomorrow. It seems most of our YP have made the most of their summer and we are now all ready for the next step.

DD has worked a lot at a new job she loves and which she can come back to in uni holidays. I haven't seen much of her as she works evenings and I work days but tbh she'll make me more nervous talking things over and over anyway. So last day of work for me this week, booked the rest off as I knew I may need to be around. DD is excited to go to uni but then swaying to how she can't face people if she misses her offer.

We have plan B and C in place so it is just a case of waiting a little longer now. The absolute best of luck to everyone getting results tomorrow, I will be checking in to see how you all are. Thank you to all on this thread, some of who have been through all this for GCSEs two years ago and are still here!

Fingers crossed for a good day tomorrow 🍀

I can’t believe it’s tomorrow! Dd still refusing to talk about it - apart from the plans to go to the pub afterwards. I think she’s done enough to get into her first choice. But she worked so hard for most of her time, I’m just hoping the giving up in the last few weeks hasn’t been too detrimental

There are some great clearing spots being advertised (the clearing thread is listing some of the main ones).
My DS' insurance has dropped to ABC for his course which is hopefully achievable so it does take some of the pressure off.

I did the same for DS and he's my first to go too. It feels like the blink of an eye that I was worrying about why he wouldn't walk without holding my finger at 18 months and now I barely see him as hes out all the time!

Apparently various places do free offers for kids on results day if they show their paperwork. I had no idea about this but DC was looking up where the offers are. Though bizarrely their school doesn't seem to have communicated what time they're supposed to come in for them.

And they say they are likely to hear acceptance from uni before they get results as well.

Wonder if Wetherspoons does a results day offer? :)

Checking back in here as the nerves build for tomorrow. Mine, not DS's, he keeps things very low-key, which I'm glad of, but feel like I'm the only one tense. Sure he'll be fine whatever happens as his insurance (Lancaster) is a safe/low offer and in clearing so no doubt they'll take him, and even Warwick cs is in clearing this year so they may take him anyway if an A star slips to an A. But it's the whole unknown of it, plus the fact that it's this last landmark before he goes, that just makes the feelings swirl around inside somewhat. Hope you all have the smoothest possible rides through it and update us on the other side...

We will need to keep and eye on the post counter tomorrow @SilverBlue4, we are over 900 already. Do we need a results day new thread?

Oooh, yes please to a results day thread - get it ready for less than 20 hours time!

anyone got any tips for making time go quicker… I feel sick with nerves today.

Going to sink 3 hours of it into Ulysses... Bring on the morning...arrrgh

Also feeling sicky with nerves was fine for gcses but with no job lined up really hoping he has good grades to help him find something.
DS grades are posted on portal at 8am
Edited to say good grades for him are passes