Year 13 2026/2027: Support Thread 1

[QueenMabby]

Sorry - I was not on it on getting new thread open. I hope you all find this one! I’ve updated the
year as we’re basically at the end of year 12 now. Scary!

DD is allowed to leave school in year 13.
However, we have already had drama. For some reason school imposed deadline for UCAS was last week. Not a draft, the full paid up thing. So I have survived a week of UCAzilla, but at least it is done now. I cannot remember my older two having to do it this early! DD says they have 1 member of staff who signs it all off and there are so many early applicants (lots of med/vet/dent too) so deadline is first week back and that is it. If you miss it, they won’t submit early.

That’s crazy early. Our meds/vets and Oxbridge have an internal deadline of the 15th September for personal statements and a deadline for everything of about the 22nd.

They;'re still creaking into life at DD's place. She's got her personal statement(s) and her recording pieces ready but they all seem to think she's a bit keen - and she's about as early entry as you can get - a full recording due on October 1

I think it's more the case that some schools don't let sixth-formers off site. DC1 stayed at their secondary for sixth form and although students were required to be there for morning registration, they could come and go as they pleased when it came to free periods, lunch, finishing early. DC2 is at a different school for sixth form, in a different borough, and they are also free to go off site during frees or go home early.

I asked DD about personal statements this morning and she said they’ve not mentioned timelines for ordinary applications as yet but she knows Oxbridge/vet/meds are the focus atm. We’ve a parent info eve tonight so I’m guessing they’ll give timelines then. I think hers is pretty much done.

DD has a deadline for the PS next week (Oxbridge) and school want all UCAS applications into school soon, and into UCAS by end of Oct. We thought this was early for non Oxbridge/Vet/Med.

They’ve hit the ground running though with exams for any predicted grade resits this week. DD is resubmitting her DT project and they are asking all the FM kids to resit that (though she got Astar last time and they still predicted A so I don’t know what the point is).

DD can leave school for frees, it’s a shame her new timetable gives her a rare free afternoon and it’s on the only day I have to work in the office so I can’t pick her up and no bus! She’s really hoping to pass her driving test this term now!!

We got an email saying predicted grades will be given 'on friday'. DD is at an open day- but she's early entry so SHOULD have them already. I'm assuming they will be what is on her report - apparently can't be lower.

Not really sure they've given her a deadline for UCAS. They described her as 'very organised', which suggests perhaps everyone else is chaos as I would describe what she has done as the absolute bare minimum given her deadlines. Tutor is going through personal statements, but she has to do 3!

In terms of leaving school, even though she lives there, she is not allowed into 'town' for frees but must sign in either with matron or the library/sixth form centre. Always in trouble because matron forgets to record it.

I misunderstood Ds. They are allowed to go home or go in late once we’ve signed the forms, but not in between lessons as they’ve added a new coded gate and they don’t know the code. So he can leave at lunchtime to go home (they have always been allowed out at lunchtime in 6th form) he can also go in at lunchtime one of the days when it’s afternoon lessons only. He just can’t leave off in between when it’s all locked. We have to fill in a form first with the 2 week timetable and what days he’ll leave. But has to wait until he’s passed his driving test as I’m often at work. I’ll go when I can.

I have not seen ds’s mock exam grades as he didn’t give me the letter. I had an email telling me they’d all been sent home their mock grades. Ds told me the letter was addressed to him, so it’s confidential 🙄
I know he got 100% in the mock maths. They don’t give them A* in year 12 mocks only A’s. So even with 100% they gave him A. I don’t know whether that’s what they put on ucas applications.

Wow 100 per cent in mock Maths is amazing @icanbewhatiwant - that must be an A star prediction.

DD is having a breather post UCAS panic, before the LNAT panic kicks in which is start of October for us. But year 13 mocks aren’t until Jan so I hope she keeps the momentum going. DD got her predicted grades ages ago.
There has been a hell of a lot of chat about 18th birthday parties since the UCAS panic last week. Disney Dad No 1 of one of her best friends is fully funding a girls weekend to Amsterdam for 5 of them. I am not sure if I should be worried or not! They are a well behaved group of girls on the whole, but I dread to think what I would have done in Amsterdam at that age. And no, I cannot veto it as the only parent.

Did the Durham Open day yesterday, DH and I were both very impressed with the academic offering in the subjects that DC are interested in. We also managed to visit several colleges, which was very useful as we'd not really had much idea what they were like.

DD drove to Durham open day yesterday with boyfriend. She wasn’t sure about the college system and her fit with their students but liked the city and course. Favourite is still Sheffield but she is looking at Leeds soon and Hull in November. Targeting places with good politics rankings.

We went to Loughborough- we loved it - DS1 says it’s now joint first choice .

Any one been / going to Nottingham -? We are going next month - but just read the section in The Sunday Times about it - makes the finances sound pretty grim . Be keen to hear what others think . Previously I had just thought that they were one of many

My friend’s son just starting at Nottingham doing Chemistry.

We went to Nottingham before the holidays. DS really liked it and it’s one of his top options

DD’s UCAS application is paid for and with school for final approval before submission. Exciting and yet scary. Her five are Cambridge, Imperial, Durham, York and Birmingham.

@waitingquietly as someone who works in academia I can say that the issues at Nottingham are no different to the general issues across the sector - my own employer included. Here is a regularly updated list of universities that are going through some kind of restructure/redundancy/course culling in order to save money: https://qmucu.org/qmul-transformation/uk-he-shrinking/. There aren't many universities that don't make it onto that list!

My DS likes Nottingham and it is his likely back up option - I won't even be mentioning what is happening there (although he is wise to the issues in the HE sector more generally because of where we work).

I think if you're worried about these issues then the approach you need to take has to be more nuanced based upon the course and uni your DC is looking at. Languages & humanities might require a bit of research to see if there is chatter about potential course closures. Declining recruitment numbers for any course might be worth noting - especially a course that requires heavily on the international student market (which has crashed due to immigration/visa changes). STEM subjects seem to be safer with regards course recruitment/course closures, although they are expensive to run - hence the increasing closure of chemistry departments across the UK. But that doesn't mean staff wouldn't strike in solidarity with other departments!

I can’t remember if I updated, but DS dropped chemistry as soon as he started back a couple of weeks ago. He’s relieved not to be doing it anymore, and I think it is the right thing, though I do also think it reduces his already slim odds for Cambridge, but he knows that.

His internal UCAS deadline is a week today, and I think he’s finalised his personal statement. He’s also had confirmed today that they’ll predict him A* for further maths as well, so now he just has to put the work in to actually get his predicted grades and to do well in ESAT in a few weeks.

@otherthoughtssareavailable thank you for your comment , that is kind of where my head was at until I saw the Sunday Times comments . So I will revert to sensible 😂.. and have a look at your link when I’ve finished school run - thank you .