Continuing Year 13: January 2016

[Needmoresleep]

Only two more terms at school. Let's support each other support our DC in getting through to the end.

Glad everyone's History A2s went OK. And the Geology

I always wanted to be a sailing instructor in the Med for a long summer. Never quite made it - instructing on a pond for PGL adventure holidays was as far as I got! Also envious Needmore

Yay, well done to her!

Yes well done to Needmore's DD, sure she'll have a great time.

Glad history & geology exams have gone well.

If he likes smoothies I think a nutribullet is a nice idea dunlurking. Would be quite expensive to buy on a student budget.

needmoresleep what a lovely boost for your DD. I'd have eaten her canapés!

Thanks Bethan, nice to have the reassurance about the nutribullet.

Ds has done his Warwick accommodation now so at least that's out of the way.

Next exam is a week Monday so we will have an outing to buy a new prom suit this week, as a break, and there will be a battle of wills......he wants something cool and trendy but if I'm paying it will have to double as an interview suit! Any suggestions where to look? The last one was Debenhams as his waist was 28", which M&S didn't do. Now he has a 30" waist I could try M&S..... We have a House of Fraser we could check out as well but I'm expecting them to be too expensive. What are Next like for suits? Budget is £100-£200 but preferably the lower end.

Next are pretty good value (and washable!) . Topman good for smart. Both do 28 waist.

Dunlurking The problem with the likes of M&S is getting acceptably skinny trousers.
I second Next for a reasonably stylish suit. I bought one for DS which was smart enough for his Y11 Prom and has been useful since for interviews. It was about £120. He is 30" waist and 36" leg in many brands but Next 34" leg are just long enough. I also bought 2 pairs of trousers which was a good move as he wears them more than the jacket.

Thank you LIZS and Squirrels that is exactly what I wanted to know - the skinny legs will be a thing, so I won't bother with M&S and will try Next and Topman first!

Also.........does anyone know how they can get tickets for events etc at student prices over the summer holidays? How do you prove student status when you are in between institutions? I want to get him some tickets to Warwick University's musical theatre society's production at the Edinburgh Fringe but don't know if I can pay the student ticket price as they are supposed to show student tickets at the door at Edinburgh Fringe events (although in practice I'm not sure they bother to check most of the time). Any thoughts???

M&S here - they have skinny washable styles for around £100 and are much better quality than the one we got from NEXT which quickly bobbled and became cheap looking (and the trousers are a thinner material meaning DS froze in winter :/).

Mamia thank you for that - really helpful

Dunlurking Both mine have had NUS discount cards from age 16. They have paid for themselves in Pizza Hut discounts alone! That could be one way?

Thanks Squirrels. Do they have to put where they're studying though? Does he put the school or the university?

Hi Dunlurking, your DS can just put his 6th form down and then pay an extra £1 (I think) to get it delivered to home. As soon as you purchase it, you can then use on a phone with the unidays app - or something like that!
If you Google NUS extra, you should find it

Hmm. If he's quick he might get it through school.
You apply and pay online, I can't remember whether they send them to home address or school. They are well worth getting as often give more discount than just student ID. Valid in loads of shops and restaurants.

Thanks hellsbells and Squirrels that's really helpful. Ds is going to do it this week. He says he is officially still at the school until 31st July

Great news dunlurking, I can only imagine how much your DD will experience and grow in that time!

DS still has done nothing about either his loan or his accommodation. I have reached the point of explicitly saying to him that I am no longer going to nag or remind him. I'm so frustrated!

DD needs to find a room in shared private house in London for her RADA year as they don't do anything to support students with housing. It feels rather a big step, but thankfully one she's capable of taking

No major exam dramas. History ok and geography "really perfect questions came up". DD has 2 left then that's it! But is head girl so unfortunately has to stay around school til term ends meaning we can't take an early holiday

Amazingly DS has decided to be a Samaritan so spends his weekends being trained up.

It's an odd parenting period, such big steps for us all.

Thanks all (including Bucking who I assume meant me). I think DD will gain a huge amount. The oddest thing about raising kids in Central London has been the way DC have been surrounded by ultra high aspirations and expectations. To some extent this has helped them, but there are so many other things that are important. At times it has felt as if A*s are essential, and so doing something different will be a good chance to pick up other skills and gain some perspective. Apparently they were impressed by her French GCSE, and have allocated her to a resort where she will need French. We are bemused, and wonder if she ought to put in some practice before winter. (French commentary for Tour de France, family nights watching film noir, Radio France London?)

How about TKMaxx for skinny boys. Its a scarey place but manageable if you head straight for one rail, pick out anything acceptable in your size and try it on. Even DS, who loathes shopping, can manage this. He found two great pairs of jeans last time we went in, so bought both. They can also be good for shoes, again as long as you accept that it is the luck of the draw and you can equally come away empty handed.

Bucking, well done to your DS on being accepted onto the Samaritans programme. I am amazed that they accept such young volunteers, but I wish him all the best going forward with that.

All this extra curricular stuff is what makes them rounded adults in the end. Qualifications are very useful, there's no getting away from it, but what they'll look back on fondly will be the gigs they've gone to, the friends they've made and the experiences they've had.

DS1 has his first exam in over three weeks tomorrow, STEP 1. Apparently he did a mock but has never had the results back. So that's useful!

Best of luck to your DS tomorrow Ellen, and others doing STEP.
This time two years ago DS1 was doing STEP. He did lots of practise papers but no one from his college could mark them. I remember when I asked whether there was any possibility of help preparing for him preparing for STEP his teacher actually laughed and said he couldn't understand it himself .
In the end just doing endless past papers for months taught him a lot. He did okay in STEP 1 and 2 but not so well in 3 and missed his Cambridge offer.
Not sure if this is the same now but the STEP results were available on the same day as A levels BUT not through school. Instead you are given a log in when you take the exam to get the results. They come online at midnight so you know the STEP grades a few hours before the A levels.

Interesting, secret. DS1 was assuming he'd get the STEP results from school (as was I!) DS has one friend doing STEP at his sixth form, but they are doing STEP1, 2 and 3 for Cambridge and have a clash tomorrow (doing a silly number of A levels) and are being supervised tomorrow night and doing STEP1 the next day.

They have had a STEP session once every two weeks after school with some mathematicians from Bath Uni. This has been based at his school (lucky for him) but has included students from quite a few nearby schools so they've had pretty good preparation in general. It's just the mock that DS1 did off his own back that hasn't been marked by his maths teacher.

Good Luck toyour DC, Coconutty. Chemistry here ........

Chemistry AND Psychology here today . Last Psychology paper went well, although several of DDs friends went home in tears after it (and the Student Room general consensus was that it was quite tough).

Then next week is exams Tue/Wed/Fri/Mon with two days of work in amongst that, which personally I think is stupid, but as DD is 18, her health is all her own responsibility and I'll just carry on picking up the pieces.

Would second/third recommendations for M&S suits, particularly buying two pairs of trousers per jacket - DH started off his working life in M&S suits, as has DD1s boyfriend, and they're still decent quality for the money AND lots of them can be washed in the machine rather than having to be dry cleaned.

The difference in helping with Step seems very unfair to me.

But evidence shows that having a few STEP sessions doesn't make a difference to the results - results are strongly correlated with ability and individual study/practice. Cambridge also adjusts STEP offers and acceptances according to the amount of STEP support given i.e. students from top private schools are asked to obtain higher STEP grades than those from state schools which provided little to no STEP support.

Warwick gives standardised offers but I believe they do take into account school background when looking at those who missed the required STEP grade.

BTW STEP papers are difficult for teachers to mark as detailed mark schemes are not available and it can be hard to work out how partially correct but incomplete or going off on the wrong track answers would be graded.