Year 12 / 6th form support thread

[minesawine]

The term is about to start and I though it would be good to have a support group to help us on our 6th form journey.

May the year be drama-free and our DC's study hard and without complaint

no advice, just wanted to let you know I hear you!
If your DD knows the correct answers but is misreading the questions then while it’s frustrating, it is fixable.
Do the school insist they redo the test if they get a poor mark?

Having a bad week with dd. She asked one of her teachers to sign something to say she could do an extra thing connected to her subject. "Oh you're not good enough for that" flipped out from a teacher who has set one test (beginning of October, and she got nearly full marks on) and hardly marked anything since.
Way to go to encourage your pupils!
Now she's back to wanting to give up Chemistry.
She's not well either, she thought she might be too ill to go in, and as she hasn't missed a day in 9 years this shows how ill she felt.

She has her 1-2-1 with her form tutor tomorrow. Fingers crossed she manages to get her point across to the tutor without crying too much, and the tutor has some reasonable suggestions. She's not a crier normally but she's getting to breaking point with the situation.
If that doesn't work, I think me and dh will have to step in. I'd like her to sort it for herself if possible though.

Oh my goodness Witch that's an awful thing to say. Hope her one to one goes as well as it can.

Laniakea can only send sympathy, it all sounds very her! I don't know if there's a solution, other than gin and hiding.

witch, I hope she got on okay today. It's such a difficult balancing act, knowing when to step in.

She doesn't have to do the tests again but she has been put on mentoring - her target grades are AAA* (ridiculous) most recent report was AAB, but that was before this set of tests - which means that everyone will pay more attention to how she's doing. They only mark up to As this year so she couldn't get her targets anyway but I think the report grades were generous. She has been late on two physics homeworks which I have absolutely no sympathy for.

She stayed after school to do some extra chemistry tonight & has promised me she will go to chemistry clinic next week. There's one particular topic (covered while she was ill) she had trouble with, at least that's something practical she can do. I've also made her record exactly how much extra work she's doing ... she seems to think she's doing masses (school say 15 hours a week) but so far this week it 6 hours. And she had another scan this morning, so missed chemistry again :(

We get 20 minutes per subject at parents' evening, dd & I have started a list of things we want to talk about. She been doing well with the maths so far which is good at least.

(she thought I was joking when I said I wasn't going to give her any money unless to got at least a B in the biology test next week)

She's an utterly infuriating mixture of moronic bravado & prickly defensiveness.

formatting messed up there - her targets are an A* for all three

Oh wow, those are superb predictions, what Is your DD looking to study after A levels?

Laniakea DD1 has BBA as her targets, but school has always been very conservative about target setting. Which is as it should be, better to overshoot than fail.

DD is predicted a B in English based on an 8 in English Lit GCSE but her teacher told me calmly that she expects a great deal better than that in the real world.

My DD has been given a min target grade of A based on a 9 in English Lit. Interesting how schools vary in their predictions.

those are her Alps targets which are based on GCSE performance & average score. I'm not convinced by them because I don't think she has the work ethic required. Regardless, she needs A*AA for the course she wants to do so is seriously under performing right now.

She wants to do an oceanography masters error.

I'm tired of it all!

I might be mis-remembering but did your DD go to Southampton to look at the oceanography course there ?

Just wondering how much extra things your Yr 12 DC are doing?

Am concerned that DD spreading herself very thin....
She works as a sort of au pair 3 days after school-picking up toddler, doing tea and bath and bed etc with all 3 kids-parents work on site but separate.
Babysits loads so lots of late nights. I think this is part of my worry as I am an early to bed and she is a night owl-
She is doing mentoring for Yr9's, and other duties at school-all great and she loves being in a leadership role but just all time consuming.
And youtube -hours at the weekend.....and new-ish social life....
I know she needs to find her own way and learn but it seems very full on.....

ugh how MANY extra things i did english at uni

that's right error :)

She just got back with another C for chemistry - doing really well until the last two questions when she ran out of time completely & got 1/9. The only feedback from her teacher was you need to be getting 90% rather than 60%* ... no shit! I've checked her folders & she's consistently getting As in homework, I don't know why the tests are so bad.

*the school grading is 80%=A, 70=B, 60=C etc

DD doesn't do loads of extra stuff - usual social stuff, creative writing (couple of hours a week?), D&D, she's done a future learn course & read a couple of books for the EPQ & she helps out with school science for the younger kids.

Thanks Atia" and Laniakea*.
Went good and bad today.
She's been told she shouldn't really drop Chemistry, which she's in a mixed state of mind about. Apparently the best way to help the chemistry teaching is to get a group of them to write a letter complaining. . Doesn't sound like the best idea to me, and she suspects she won't be able to persuade people to put their heads over the parapet (nor would she want to) so that looks like a point we may need to step in.

The other issue, her tutor looked at her grades last year, her predicted grades, and her marks so far and totally agrees that she shouldn't be put off at this point as she looks a good candidate, and she's going to ask the other subject teacher and if they won't sign it the tutor will themselves.

mumsie dd1's not doing much now. She did huge amounts until the start of year 11. What she does currently is 1 drama class a week, (1.75 hours) 1 rehearsal for panto (she has a main part) (2 hours a week), helps with junior chorus for panto once a week (2 hours), Helps with youth group (1.5 hours) most weeks, attends her youth group (2 hours).
She was learning the piano, had a break at the end of year 11 while she did her GCSEs and intended to take it up again. Unfortunately because mostly of the chemistry, she hasn't had the energy to start practicing again.
She doesn't arrive home until 5pm, so much less time than last year when she'd be home by 3:20 most nights.

DD1 has just got back into archery, but that isn't much time. She has an active social life with her friends, but most of what she does is school work - she is doing a lot of extra reading for both History and English Lit. But she enjoys it.

DS does many, many hours of extracurricular music weekly - a couple of weeks ago we looked at the diary and realised he was rehearsing or performing every day from then (early November) to 17th December.

He has since dropped the one thing he can - an adult voluntary band - but retains school show, school orchestra, school jazz band, county jazz band plus its spin-off small higher level ensemble, county orchestra, county music centre, music lesson working up to 2x grade 8s by the end of Y12 .....

As one option for after school is a music performance course, he can't exactly drop anything, but in a school that still does 4 ASs + EPQ, he's busy!

Hi all, glad to see most are working hard & doing well.
I’m hoping for some advice as things are not going at all well. I was concerned that ds may be struggling, he’s totally disorganised, point blank refuses to pack his bag the night before yet gets up at the very last minute. Consequently he regularly leaves behind books, homework, train pass etc. He has missed the train & been late on a number of occasions too. None of this or my years of trying will persuade him to sort it before he goes to bed. I have also not seen him do any work at home at all, he assures me he’s keeping on top of it in study periods.
I contacted his form teacher & said I had concerns that he may be getting behind & he arranged a meeting with his head of year.
Since then we had a tracker, 2 x Cs & a D. All effort etc markers the lowest or second lowest. Had our meeting last night & it went badly, it couldn’t be much worse frankly. Dh spoke to ds in the car afterwards & he was just defensive. I spoke to him when we got home & tried to get him to open up & be honest with me but he didn’t want to know.
Anybody who remembers my posts from gcse will know that this comes as no surprise to me, I just don’t know where to go from here, how best to support & advise him.

He’s bright but not studious.
He’s disorganised & lacks motivation.
He’s immature for his age & late summer bday so also one of youngest.
He has no idea what he’d like to do.
He’s currently at his grammar school sixth form which he chose but not studying his first choice subjects as he didn’t get gcse grades necessary.

The alternatives are find an apprenticeship, school has suggested that since he’s bright he’ll be very bored as he will be given menial work. He has no idea which direction re apprenticeship as he doesn’t know what he’d like to do.

Local college to do a different course, again, no idea what. The college is good but not so good as his sixth form. He originally dismissed it partly because they have relaxed hours rather than a full school day. He did at least recognise that this wouldn’t suit him as he lacks motivation.

I’m really hoping it’s been a wake up call, he’ll turn over a new leaf & start to put in some effort but the reality is he probably won’t. I just don’t know what more I can do, does anybody have any advice?

We have talked so much about future/lifestyle etc & he is bright enough to take all this on board, just not enough to do anything about it.

I totally get that he’s not interested in studying but what the hell do I do with him?! It seems to me that since he’s bright & has no idea what he wants to do the best thing would be A levels but I don’t want to be in the same situation by the end of the course.

Sorry it’s so long

ready so you know you are not alone my DS is also struggling and is one of a group of boys who are messing about horribly for their poor inexperienced and pretty poor Spanish teacher. I am so ashamed of him...

he has no motivation, no aspiration, borderline A level ability and doesn't care. 'Mocks' next week and I am expecting spectacular failure and shit hitting fan at home.

He does no extra curricular. Sometimes this thread makes me feel worse. Sorry goys. I know that isn't the intention

I tried to talk to him yesterday when DH was out. No effect.

He got sent out this week because he couldn't stop laughing when a classmate farted. FFS.

I don't think they have enough lessons and two of his subjects don't set enough work (another reason he resents Spanish which does) and his school has never been god at pushing the able slackers. The very able keenos do very well there.

btw, I contacted the head of dept ( a Food teacher with a French name???) who told me to speak to the teacher (classic!). Things have obviously got worse in the whole class and the teacher has sent various main messages to students. Several emails between me and teacher and no she has told me I have to speak with the hod : the very one who won't deal with it! Grrrr

I have no choice other than to be 'that parent'

ps ready mine is also summer baby! Never goes away that issue...

Oh dear, it does sound as though your DS is not enjoying his current A-levels.
A close family member struggled through A levels and didn’t get the results he was capable of, in hindsight it wasn’t the best course for him (he was at a superselective Grammar). After the disappointing results, he started an engineering BTEC which has suited his learning style and interests so much more. It meant he was older than the other students but he’s so much happier and is looking at University or higher level apprenticeships next year, neither of which were possible with his grades 2 years ago.

Sorry that was in reply to readyforsunshine

Piggy - Spanish department sound rubbish. I hope you get it sorted.

Re extra curricular , DD has started at a specialist boarding school so the A level study is crammed into the morning (8 till 1pm). Then it’s 4.5 hours drama training (inc dance and singing) every day.
So no time for anything else really. Though she is still managing a fair bit of socialising most weekends!

Thanks both & sorry to hear you’re dealing with similar piggy.
He’s at a specialist engineering school but no interest sadly. I feel that if we could spark some interest we could then find some direction to give him focus. I get it, totally. It’s boring, who wants to study when they’re not interested, much more fun hanging out & having a laugh BUT!!!!
I’m happy to go down btech route, infact i suspected it would suit him better than Alevels, but doing what & how do I find something that interests him when he only knows school subjects?

Also, he can get a bus from our village to college but I will have no way of insuring he is on in time day to day as hours are flexible. At least where he is it’s 9-3.30 so I put him on the train & know where he is.
He was such a gorgeous baby!!