Starting Year 13 - September 2015

[hellsbells99]

Welcome to Year 13!
Their final year of school;
Applying for university/college/work/apprenticeships;
A year of 18th birthday parties;
Going to their first nightclub (unless they already have fake ID!);
The year they turn into adults!

DD2 has been back at school for 3 days and has lots of work already.

DD's is in and she has had an acknowledgement from Liverpool this morning and also has an interview at Leeds.
Her friend has had a lower than expected offer from Bristol which she is chuffed about.

DD2s offer from Lancaster included a lower option with an A for her EPQ - haven't heard of any other offers which include the EPQ - anyone?

plenty at our school who haven't applied yet, there will be a big push after half term to get them in before Christmas judging by previous years, but there will still be a handful who only just make the deadline.

DS had an offer today from Bath.
Haven't visited there yet - may do in Xmas hols depending on what happens with other choices.

MyVisions welldone to your dd. Ds going to look at Lancaster on wednesday and is doing an EPQ so will pass that nugget of information on. He's doing the EPQ because he's heard of Bristol allowing a dropped grade if there is a good EPQ. The same course at Birmingham asks for A*AA or AAA + EPQ A - think they were told that at open day talk but it is in the prospectus as well.

Thanks Gloria - just looked on the Which uni website, and it is the standard offer. (Also interested to see that 96% applicants get offers )

DS1 has an offer for Glasgow. Very exciting, although it's his fifth preference!

lol about the fifth preference - same for DC. And just remembered it was also my fifth preference many years ago, had forgotten that till now!

First offer in the bag.
AAB from Warwick so plenty of leeway.
Phew.

Talkin - Congrats - out of the starters blocks!

Well Done, to Talkin's DC!

Second offer in- yay- from second fave realistic option (we have aspirational, favourite, second fave, filler and insurance in that order!)

Congratulations to Talkin's DD.

DD1 now has 5 interview/audition dates. Squeaky bum time approaching fast.

Gloria, I liked Nottingham much more than Bath. The campus is beautiful and far less isolated. But again it depends on the course and Bath has great links with employers. i hope you enjoy your day.

Uhtred
Well done to your DD - are the school starting to notice her existence yet

Gloria
Glad it was not just me thinking that the central bit of Bath is just pants.

TiP, I assume some of it is also a rural/city thing. After growing up in London, dd is likely to find somewhere remote quite a struggle. However we spend a fair amount of time on the South coast where children want to avoid London and set their sights for Exeter/Bristol/Bath/Southampton. Its good they are all different, and we are glad we have 4 options that DD is very happy with.

Talkin - I'm fairly sure the conservatoires audition everyone who applies! So no merit in getting audition dates. I think the university she has an audition/interview for do make a cut before inviting kids to visit so some merit in getting through to that stage with them, I suppose. The school has been really supportive actually, once it grapsed the task in hand. I suspect she has used up far more (senior) person time sorting out her applications than other kids have, even the medics, just purely because the process is so bloomin' complicated (due to UCAS universities and UCAS conservatoires having no crossover at all in any respect at this stage. I think there might be some synergies if/when offers arrive. But at application stage - everything has to be input twice and some things are subtly different to act as heffalump traps for the unwary). And she is also getting a lot of support from the music department - encouragement, understanding, that sort of thing - which again is probably far more than other kids applying for popular subjects, are getting - just because of numbers. I must admit I was very concerned earlier in the year that because she wasn't doing a 'normal' thing, and because she isn't all science-y, she would be dsadvantaged but it hasn't been the case at all, in terms of the effort they have put in to helping her get what she wants. And that's far more important than being in a sports team and getting recognition on the website for that, I have now realised. When it actually properly mattered, people couldn't have been nicer. :) And she finally has her AS referral too, so it's all good, after a rocky road earlier on.

DD has had an offer from the one place she has applied to that makes offers before auditions. EEE. So that's nice. If somewhat surprising (and I kind of think there might be some mistake somewhere...).

Uhtred - congrats to your DD! On in the bag to hopefully make the auditions less stressful..
Cant imagine having to go thru auditions - musicians are made of stern stuff!

Uhtred
I'm so glad the school have come up trumps when you and DD needed it - takes a load off your mind
and the unconditional is a lovely insurance