Starting Y13 (y12 support thread contd) - number 3

[Littleham]

Thread continued folks...

Mumslife, great news on 5 offers! Well done your DD! Just the grades to get now! :)

Rabbit I'll be here again next year, have a y12 as well!

Waiting that's great, the 3 coveted B's

mumslife 5 for 5! So nice to see that all that preparation paid off :)

Munslife Well done to your DD having 5 offers so quickly. Is the AAB from Cardiff the higher end of their published range?
How long does she get to decide now all offers in?

Muffin hope your DD doesn't have too long to wait.

Auditions not going too bad, but never can tell. She's been reasonably calm, more nervous over the performances all in the same fortnight.

DS has just been invited to an Open Day at York for Computer Science. The letter says he will be interviewed and if he impresses at interview they will lower their standard offer AAB to ABB. (No actual offer as yet so guess they can also reject him so a bit scary) Any one else? He has asked at school re interview practice but they are just sorting themselves out for Oxbridge interview apparently and haven't got anything in place yet! DS is at a bogstandard comp and has had very little experience of speaking in public/interviews.

This isn't really the thread for it I know but I've been talking to you guys since we were watching our kids go through GCSEs - my Y10 DS, who is severely dyslexic and not at the grammar with his sisters (he would never have passed the 11+, luckily he didn't want to go there but it's not like he doesn't know he isn't as successful academically as them and the fact that there's a reason for it (he's just as bright as them) doesn't make it any easier for him to live with) has just texted me - he got an A for his first GCSE English written assessment. I am so proud of him. DD1 also got an A for an assessment today - history - but that was expected. DS's mark wasn't (I was hoping realistically he'd get a C and pipe dream hope was a B). And it's one that will count, so - it's a great start to the GCSE course really. He's a lovely boy, and he has been dealt a rougher hand than the girls, so this is a really nice thing to have happened for him.

Rabbit, Well done! DD is dyslexic, though good at maths/science, and it has been difficult with a clever older sibling.

She had a good English teacher for GCSE and started gaining confidence. One thing we did was send her on a Justin Craig revision course during Christmas of Yr 11, as we wanted her to get a reasonable grade to keep as many doors open as possible. It worked really well, she gained a lot of confidence and a better understanding of what examiners were looking for. It can help to have someone else repeat what you have been told in class.

She repeated the course at Easter and she ended up two grades above prediction, far better than she had dreamed of. Essay writing is still difficult, and something she needs to continue working on, but at least she has the bit of paper.

Hi Need - glad you found the thread! :) You will see that there is MCUH discussion of all types of uni (and music college) here!

We might look at revision courses for DS next year (but how to fund it - that's the question. Unfairly so much of our 'spare' cash goes on the girls' music and drama (to be fair he does music and drama to but not to nearly the same extent as them) and next year we will be spending a fortune on DD1's auditions :( ). DS is also good at maths, very good in fact, certainly better than DD1 and possibly better than DD2 (difficult to say though because she is younger but seems to be by some margin the brightest of the bunch so far). He doesn't have much 'obvious' work ethic though - but that's partly (not wholly) because everything is a struggle for him. He doesn't have to battle the physical environment like the girls, door frames hold no fears for him - but anything involving reading is just so much more effort (he can read fine, but it's an effort for him, even when he loves the thing he is reading - when he doesn't it's doubly difficult and sadly GoT is unlikely to be on any syllabus).

Sorry for taking the thread OT for a moment but I was just so very proud of him. Silly really.

mrsminerva Ds is waiting on a response from york for comp science, fingers crossed he joins your Ds in receiving an offer day!. Think horsemad's Ds has also applied there.

Hope your DS hears soon Waitingaround, I know there are quite a few offer days, all on Saturdays thank goodness, so they don't have to miss school. I just feel really nervous for DS who is very young in his year and not at all experienced with interviews. He has two offers already but a rejection from Bristol, not really surprising as it was an aspirational choice but he wanted to give it a shot.

Littleham, I am trusting that you wont mind me continuing off-topic. Even if I am a Year 12 interloper.

Rabbit, DD has never read for pleasure. I think it is simply too hard. However Yr 10 was quite a big turning point, when she started overtaking the traditionally bright girls in maths and science, and started to believe she might be clever. This obviously helped her engage more, plus she started to be friendly with other top set girls. All of which seemed to help with more difficult subjects.

The English GCSE still seemed like a huge barrier. Though the aim of the revision course was to give her enough extra to enable her to get an extra grade, my feeling was that anything that helped her English skills would not be a bad thing. I take your point about money, but it is so nice for her to go into sixth form, and next year's UCAS, with a decent grade in English. Thinking about it, the real boost came from increased confidence and a belief that she could do alright. I hope the A means your son starts to believe that he too can do it.

End of hijack and good luck to everyone with UCAS. DS was waiting on three Universities until late March. Not something I would want to repeat.

Need - the only books DS has ever read for pleasure are GoT. He is currently reading the coffee table 'world of ice and fire' thing that came out a few weeks ago. DD1 polished it off in one night, he is plodding through, but I'm genuinely hugely proud of him for sticking with it, as I was when he stuck with the main books for so long (it took him about 4 months to read them all, it took DD1 and me less than a week). You're absolutely right about confidence and the importance of English (silly thing is, he can follow a plot better than any of us, he is always the one we ask if we have missed some salient point in a film or play, and he has an amazing memory for detail). I did check out Justin Craig after you mentioned it sadly nothing anywhere near we live (Devon).

I must say I have found these threads incredibly helpful in terms of info about the process and about different universities, all the posters here are lovely and generous with their information and support (I've met one IRL and she is lovely too). I will really miss them next year when their kids go off to uni and DD1 is still in Y 13.

Oh my goodness, DS has an offer for Warwick!!!
It's AAA to include Maths, but I'm so so happy!

MsMinerva - where else has your DS applied to?

waitingaround - he took York off the list... for Warwick! I really wanted him to go to York

Mumslife, wow 5 offers, that is fantastic, I'm so pleased for your DD .

Quick bit of further hijack. About your son's age, DD started reading science magazines. Articles are a more manageable length than books. She is the queen of American TV drama. Like your son, she follows plot and detail well. I assume the memory has developed to compensate for her slow reading speeds. She has a very good ability to retain what she has heard in class. We also worked out about year 7 that she revises orally. It was useless sending her to her room to read notes, so I found myself doing a lot of testing her out loud. Luckily the format of some GCSE revision guides lends itself to this.

She now has a better sense of how she learns best so is able to get on with it on her own. Though she says there is quite a jump to AS in science, she says she is coping as well as anyone. It has been really nice to see her start to believe she can in fact be as "clever" as her brother. Tell your son it can be done.

Well done Horsemad Warwick is fab, DD loved it there :)

Thank you cathyandclaire The waiting is horrible isn't it?!

Thanks mumslife, you're right, I have been worried!

If there's an easy way and a hard way to do things he'll always choose the hard way!!

Lovely news Horsemad :)

Horsemad Well done to your DS. does that mean you win the bet with your DH (I think that was you lol).

Rabbit Great achievement for your DD, hope the A is a real boost to his confidence. So worrying when they have difficulties in such an important core subject. Agree, such a supportive thread here and a wealth of knowledge. Great for us first timers to have the benefit from those that have been through the orocess before.
I'm sure us yr13 parents we will still be posting next year. Indeed some of our DC's could be showing yours around on open days.
Also met 2 or 3 from MN in RL, though not all on this thread. All a pleasure to meet.

Thanks Atia AND, I have just realised I have won my bet with DH - he said DS wouldn't get ANY offers !
Hah! Nice bottle of vino he owes me