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

Same as our sixth form nickname. I think this is quite normal if they do FM. maths the first year and FM the second year.

Yeah, I thought there was a one last chance, resit-only option, but maybe that's only in my head

I am wondering what AS marks will be like and how they will handle moderation this year. In our school, only students who started with 4 subjects and are dropping to 3 are doing them, so it is mostly very bright kids and they are expecting A grades. Another school I know of in Cornwall are entering all the students instead of internal EoY exams, but kids in private schools don't seem to be doing them. Apparently the number of entries dropped 14% between 2015 and 2016 and 39% between 2016 and 2017 so I am expecting another big fall. How will they moderate such an unusual cohort?

My DS's school are doing internal A Level exams. There is an expectation that the kids will get at least a grade D and have recommended that if they don't then they shouldn't carry on in September, although I have heard that they can no longer insist the kids leave, is this true?

I honestly don’t know wine. At dd’s they are pretty much all doing three A levels so can’t drop one if it goes badly. If the end of year exams are a disaster they have the option of repeating year 12 with new subjects. I’m not sure what happens if only one goes badly.

Dd has had a really rough time, school have been piling on way too much pressure. She’s been doing better this term but I don’t want to jinx anything by talking about it. The newest moan is that they are trying make her apply this autumn (for practice?) even though she’s been clear from the start she wants to take a gap year & apply once she has her results.

They have mocks after half term then they will be sitting either the 2017 or 2018 AS exams in June (it is still unclear which) but won’t get their results back until September. These are what their predicted grades will be based on.

Thanks Lanakea. Interesting they can repeat the year, at my DS's school they cannot and have to go elsewhere.

No AS mocks, although I suspect the internal exams will be very similar, they get their results in June, I think, which gives them time to decide whether or not they are returning for year 13.

I think DS will also take a gap year whilst he decides what he wants to do. School are being useless and so I am trying to guide him.

Our school does mock A levels (though only on the material that has been covered) and they demand DDD for entry into Yr13 as a minimum. DD1 is still working her socks off - got a proper dose of flu back in February that knocked her back and had a brief hospital admission week before last for mystery agonising pain, but she's doing fabulously. Her first draft coursework English essay was an A - she knows exactly what to do to polish it up to an A*. She isn't looking forward to the second essay as much as it's on TS Eliot and she isn't getting on with him.

She's currently on course for AAA with possible A* in English and I am so proud of her. It's been a tough year - major relationship breakdown for me, my alcoholic H is no longer in the picture and will soon be an ExH. But the girls have blossomed with him out of the house so it was the right thing to do.

DD2's target grades have been hiked and she's massively improved in maths and physics so all is well.

Oh pointy, tough year indeed. Glad to hear you're all feeling the benefit now.

Monkey that's an interesting point! I guess we'll have to wait and see!

minesawine how's your son getting on? Staying at school?

Are post-A level plans being started? Open days, uni choices, apprenticeships, jobs?

Ds has been to a departmental open day in Oxford with dh, I'm taking him (and possibly his girlfriend) up to Manchester next month, and he's considering Cambridge in July - might send him with his sisters! He's vaguely interested in Bristol and Durham, but I think those or other open days will be in September. He wants a city university, not London.

Sounds brilliant Pointy

Atia Bristol and Durham are this term, dd1 is going to both.
She's also planning on doing Lancaster and another I can't remember. She's going by train with friends so we're not going to any.

How did he find the A/S exams so far? Surprisingly dd1 found the applied easier than the pure, but she came out kicking herself for making a stupid slip on the last question.

DS doing OCR Physics AS. He was very stressed - spent Monday night tossing and turning, was in bed unable to sleep for 3 hours before resorting to a cuddle with the dog to calm down! But he thought the first paper was good. Is saying he doesn't want to do Biology AS though. I want him to do both so he can decide whether he should stick with Physics or Biology for Y13. Weird that stress level is so much higher than GCSE.

I am taking him to Newcastle 30th June, he is involved in a Cambridge outreach project which includes a 2 day residential in July. Otherwise he just knows he wants to go a long way from home!

I think all the universities have open days this term and next term, so no desperate rush.

dd has a Headstart course (the one she was desperate to do) in Southampton in July, she's going back down to another Southampton open day before that and she's going up to Bangor at the end of June.

There are only three places that do the degree she's interested in so not many places to visit! She's pretty much decided that she'll apply to two (MSc & BSc) in Southampton, MSc in Bangor, MSc in Liverpool and a joint honours BSc in Exeter.

She's not visiting Exeter or Liverpool because she doesn't really want to go to either. The grades for Bangor are much lower than Southampton (ABB rather than A*AA), it's less desirable & there's no year abroad but the course itself looks really good. She toyed with the idea of either Bristol or Newcastle as her 5th choice but the Exeter course is most similar to the others so will make writing the personal statement easier. She's still planning to apply post results so it all feels a bit academic tbh.

She's getting some work experience & summer job lined up atm, hopefully if it works out that will carry on over her gap year.

EPQ is going well, last set of results were good (she has more next week). I'm not very involved with the school side at all, just someone to offload on really! They've finished the AS modules now - end of module tests are next week then onto A2s.

Atia - Bristol and Durham are this term

Yeah, that was badly worded, I meant he'll go to the September iterations, not that those are the only ones :)

He thought the applied was quite tough, took almost the whole time! Think he's going to do stats and decision next year. He'd rather do two extra pure papers but obviously that's not an option.

The pure was fine, except he realised on the train home that he'd done something daft, hopefully only 2 marks out of 7.

Has anyone looked at the Birmingham Uni website recently? DD discovered that they have a page where if you input your expected grades and the courses you’re interested in, the university advises on whether they are likely to make you an offer. DD delighted to discover that if she applied she’s likely to get an unconditional offer for some of the courses she’s interested in.

I meant he'll go to the September iterations That's okay. I didn't realise you could go then, didn't want you to miss it.

He thought the applied was quite tough, took almost the whole time! Think he's going to do stats and decision next year. He'd rather do two extra pure papers but obviously that's not an option.

Dd thought the applied was better than the pure and found the mechanics easier than the statistics, which she was really surprised about because usually she is weakest at that. I think she probably spent much longer at the mechanics revision. She's looking at statistics and decision next year I think.

She said there was one question on the pure no one she knew had got it (except one lad who she says is head and shoulders above everyone else) and there was another one which everyone seemed to have different answers. She's worked through it now and decided her answer was wrong, but she should have picked up some marks from what she says. She estimated down in the low 50s for marks, but I think she's assuming she got no marks for those two and lost other marks. Hopefully she's estimated on the low side.

No AS here. DD's school have already done their own internal exams and given assessed predicted grades for A level. They won't change predictions (unless pupils can really prove themselves) as predictions are apparently very accurate. DD did really well and got an A and two Bs. Predictions are A, A and B. She really wants another A, so has asked if she can resit the exam again after half term in that subject. She's at a private school as she got a music scholarship, so I guess that's why she already has predictions for uni.

She's viewed two unis (one of which I badgered her into as it's closest and she doesn't want to go there) and booked the two she'd most like to go to. She's another one whose not viewing any others, I just can't believe this. Moving to boarding school was such a shock and she should know she needs to find out as much as possible.

minesawine - has your DS got any further in deciding whether to continue where he is or do something else?

error - DD looked at the Birmingham website and it was predicted she'd get a course with higher grades than she's predicted!

mineiswine wasn't there a court case a year or 2 ago which found it to be unlawful to weed out students on the grounds of poor academic achievement at the end of Y12

That Birmingham offer calculator is a very clever way to acquire people's contact details and presumably start sending you marketing material!

We may use your subject of interest and qualifications entered via the Offer Calculator to send you tailored messages about your subject of interest and the University.
...
If you would like to not receive any more communications from us in the future, please select the opt-out function which can be found at the footer of every email.

mineiswine wasn't there a court case a year or 2 ago which found it to be unlawful to weed out students on the grounds of poor academic achievement at the end of Y12 That was last summer/autumn - St Olave's a super-selective grammar school in Orpington, Kent.

Hi Atia, ifonly and Carycach. i have read the letter from the school again and it says DC's are strongly recommended to leave if their grades are not great, rather than being made to leave, although what is the point of staying if you are not going to get decent grades.

I think DS is still quite scared about being kicked out of school if his grades are bad, because he doesn't want to think about any alternative option. He still has no idea about what he wants to do and cannot, for some reason, think about his future, even in the short or medium term. I think this has lead him to work a bit harder at school, get his grades up slightly, so he can stay another year and defer making any decisions.

I did discuss visiting universities, but he needs to decide on a course first. I am not going to push it, I just want him to get through this year and next and then decide on his future.

When I read about your DC's being so sure and decisive about their next stage in life I do feel a bit jealous because it would be nice for him to have a goal and not just use his A Levels as a way of burying his head in the sand.

dd has her last 'mock of mocks' paper today & her EPQ first draft is due in.

They've gone okay except for the depth in chemistry paper which was a bloody nightmare, she manged to stick it out until the end of the paper (lots left early) & didn't cry (lots of tears too) but yet again she's feeling pretty crap. Had a call from school re her attendance (92%) is there any underlying issues? Well yes, as we explained in the email I sent you months ago & yes she will be having more time off this term. I was short with them, they almost apologised. Roll on the end of school!

Have the mock time table - they start on June 27th - the original plan was they'd just be having revision lessons between now & then I wouldn't put money on that. They are unbelievably disorganised.

school are constantly testing them - they had another assembly yesterday where they compared their targeted grades to the results of the most recent tests (the mocks of the mocks) & bollocked them all.

24% are targeted A* in one or more subject (ridiculous) only 0.9% are expected to get them as things stand. To say morale is low is an understatement.

Anyway they've now finished the AS work & are moving to A2 for three weeks before going back to the mocks (2 days study leave, exams crammed into three days finishing at 6pm each evening). Given that the mocks of the mocks results were dreadful across the year I would have thought using this time for revision classes would be more useful but school disagree.

Anyone who doesn't get their target grades in these exams (everyone) will have to resit them in September & unless they improve their grade they will then have to attend year 12 as well as year 13 classes next year. I see so many problems with this plan.

Pretty much all of dd's friends are now saying they want to take a gap year & apply with results because these results have gone so badly. DD got AA/AA for biol & physics and then a B (just) and a bad result (she won't tell me how bad) in chemistry taking it down to barely a C overall. She's so frustrated & miserable - she's knows & understands the material but can't seem to stop doing stupid things. The grade boundaries are so narrow.

The chemistry teachers' response to more dire results ... shrug ... chemistry is really hard and it will just get worse. More tests! No extra teaching!

Rant over.

minesawine - I'm a strong believer in that whatever we go through takes us on the path we're meant to be, it's not easy though is it, they're so young and meant to be committing to studying subjects for two years plus. My daughter pushed so hard for us to agree to let her apply for a music scholarship at a private school, which means boarding away, which she got. She's still so passionate about music, but within six months was thinking about a Geography degree instead, that's now changed to Liberal Arts where she can concentrate on geography but do modules in other subjects or Global Sustainability - the last is so her but there's only two courses which really fit what she'd want to do.

DD has already been given predicted grades, but school have increased one (as she was only half mark off next grade in school exam) to A, A and B. She's applied for a retake in RE as the courses she really wants to do are more AAA or AAA. She won't even think about back up options which is worrying me.

My DD did the Birmingham offer calculator ages ago, and supposedly had a high change of getting an offer even though she she gave grades lower than they required. Makes you think, doesn't it.

they aren't giving predicted grades out until September, it doesn't really matter to dd (neither do these test tbh) as she was always going to apply post results but there's a general air of hysteria which is unhelpful. The whole only marking up to A then telling them they are failing to meet their A* targets has been counterproductive.

Thanks ifonly. Very true words you speak. He seems to be getting his head down with revision but is still struggling with maths. I have offered to get a tutor but he is not keen and I cannot change his mind. Big mistake me thinks.

I am very proud that even though he loves his job and having cash in his pocket, he told his boss that he cannot work for the next 3 weeks, as he has to revise, but will do loads of hours over the summer. Hes a good kids really

Exams are such an imperfect system - the more you learn about assessment, the more flaws you see!

AS Biology Edexcel - just under 54% got you an A in 2016. That is crazy; if the vast majority can't get half the marks, the paper is too hard and de-motivational.

On the other hand, for maths you seem to need 90% for an A*, so very little room for any silly slips or mis-reading the question.