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

We did the Birmingham open day yesterday and I surprised myself by how much I liked it. It is a bit of a building site at the moment but I thought the vibe was positive and they were very organised. We visited a few subject/course areas and had mixed impressions. Anyone going to Durham tomorrow?

I wanted to do Durham but DD didn’t and I suppose it is her choice after all! 😏.

Anyone doing Loughborough and Nottingham next weekend?

We're doing Newcastle next weekend.

We're doing Nottingham next weekend Eagle. Did Bath yesterday. We all liked it so definitely a possibility for ds.

Doing the university rounds with DD, I’m overthinking things. Latest ponder (light hearted) is the quality of the freebies.

DD tells me RHUL had free Candy floss and guinea pigs to pet. (10/10 from DD)

Surrey had lovely “gift” bags for storing all brochures you collect, and some rather nice pens. (GSA pen gives great bragging value, so scores 9/10)

Warwick simply handed you a booklet detailing the open day events. (4/10)

Lol the RHUL petting zoo is a regular fixture! SU also have puppy and reptile therapy termly, amongst other wellbeing activities around exam time.

Decorhate
We had a quick visit to Nottingham earlier in year. It wasn’t on DD’s list until we went but she thought it was so lovely it warranted a closer look!
I’m hoping they’ve not got petting farms, puppies or too many freebies! 😏😂

We did the Birmingham open day yesterday and I surprised myself by how much I liked it. It is a bit of a building site at the moment but I thought the vibe was positive and they were very organised.

DD was at Birmingham with me in tow on Friday and Warwick on Saturday. Her brother is at Birmingham and she has had it on her long list ever since she first visited him there, so it's a good thing that they offer something that she wants to do (POLSIS and French). I love Winterbourne and the Barber Institute and took myself off for a mooch around the latter while DD went to her first couple of presentations. Lunch with DS1, a poke around the accommodation on the Vale and a spot of retail therapy in the city centre made for a tiring but productive day.

So far, though, Exeter and Warwick seem to be joint favourites. Bristol not quite as strong as she imagined it would-be before their open day the previous weekend, although the facilities in the Language dept were enticing. And I got to go to the Grayson Perry exhibition at the Museum while we were there.

Visited Warwick as well at the weekend. DD booked in for two talks, two tasters and we did two drop ins and two accommodations so very busy. There's three really good courses for her, a single honours and two joint honours so we talked to Head of Department. It won't go against her if she applies for two, in fact, in that subject they see it as being totally focused in her single honours choice, as long as she can demonstrate in her PS what they're looking for. So very positive.

I didn't attend Warwick for any formal part of my education (LSE had the privilege of my company for that- back in the days when it was just another option on one's UCCA form and not so completely up itself as it appears to have become of late), but our wonderful and only a little bit terrifying German teacher used to take us out to the Cinema in the Arts Centre sometimes and more recently I have attended conferences there. So it sort of feels like home and I would be more than happy if DD applied there and had the opportunity actually to go there, should she wish to.

dd's on study leave today & tomorrow - though she'd got a hospital review that will take up most of the morning. She says she's working - who knows though.

Bangor this weekend - fingers crossed that she likes it (we always holiday in Wales so she knows the area quite well), it's hardly party central (!) but would make a really good insurance choice.

Then Southampton - with the rest of the school it seems. They give really good goodie bags :D That's all she's doing this summer.

So far she loves Southampton, Exeter was okay but she's be at the Plymouth campus which is extremely quiet (her cousin also looked at it & agrees) so Newcastle has taken that spot. So as thing stand she's applying for BSc & MSc at Southampton, BSc & MSc at Bangor and BSc at Newcastle. Except she's not - despite all the pressure from school to apply for deferred entry - she wants to wait until she has her grades.

It's interesting listening her friends - school is in West Berks & there are a few places that are really popular this year (Southampton, Bristol, Exeter, Birmingham, Oxford, Reading, Bournemouth & Brighton) ... it's funny how they are all pretty close to home! I was desperate to move away.

no-one is thinking about London (too expensive) or any of the northern cities which is a real shame I think.

On the applying for BSc and MSc at the same place, - after filling in his application form, DS was told at the Warwick offer holders day that if they apply for MEng but miss the grades, then they will be offered BEng anyway. So might be worth checking - DS had used 2 spaces on UCAS as he applied for both as he really wanted Warwick.

It's interesting listening her friends - school is in West Berks & there are a few places that are really popular this year (Southampton, Bristol, Exeter, Birmingham, Oxford, Reading, Bournemouth & Brighton) ... it's funny how they are all pretty close to home!

Royal Holloway and Winchester always had strong showings at dd2's school too

Ds doesn't want a campus uni and doesn't want to go to London. Narrows it down a lot!

Son wants to maths. He would really like to go to Cambridge which means AAA and success in STEP. This will take work, which is where the problem lies. A four letter word.

The list of other possible choices includes Bristol, UCL and Durham.

I think he will end up having to get AAA for his insurance.

DD has looked at De Montfort, Birmingham City Uni and University of Birmingham so far. Nottingham next Sat. Also need to sort out Aston/Derby/Sheffield/Leicester.
De Montford (Leicester) had the best feel so far. Very approachable staff / well organised and she is really keen on the DMGlobal initiative.

no-one is thinking about London (too expensive) or any of the northern cities which is a real shame I think.

DD went to an open day at LSE (which did not induce nostalgia in me, apart from when I dragged her up to the Shaw Library, scene of many Tuesday evenings' Music Society rehearsals and associated hours of boredom for almost tone deaf DH at our termly concerts). Also did a Campus Tour at KCL. And, having originally said that she didn't want to go anywhere northern and therefore cold (must have a quiet word with her about the Midlands), now wants to look at Leeds, on the strength of a very enthusiastic and informative rep at a UCAS fair.

there are only three places that do her course & one she doesn't like at all (Liverpool) so while she also said no London or campus it's pretty irrelevant because she has no choice!

thanks error - she's really only talking about apply for the msc & bsc because she has five places to fill & only two that she wants to put down! When she spoke to the admissions tutor he said that while you can apply directly to the MSc you can transfer from the BSc at the end of the first year if your results are good enough. I don't know - if she gets really good grades she might just apply to both MScs.

I was desperate to go to London when I was 18 - dd hates the idea!

No-one has mentioned RH or Surrey or Bath actually which is surprising.

puppy and reptile therapy termly, That would actively put dd1 off.
Her sixth form arranged for puppy therapy one day, I think round the mocks, and despite being a "go in whatever 100% attendance" for the previous 9 years she seriously considered not going in.

Dd1's arranged lots of trips. Apparently her friends are feeling very sorry for her as their parents are all taking them, and she's going by train by herself.
She's done Bristol, got Durham coming up and Lancaster at the end of the summer.

She's finding the maths STEP/MAT lessons frustrating. Yesterday the teacher gave her a different set of questions because she said that dd1 couldn't do the ones that she'd just given them (despite her being half way through the first question-and she checked afterwards and was correct) and gave her some really easy ones instead. Today the same teacher said she was a genius and said that she was doing brilliantly and she expected her to get a great result in the above.

come on here to moan again ... proper mocks start tomorrow dd has full blown tonsillitis. I'm trying to get her a GP appointment tonight in the hope that starting antibiotics asap will mean she's well enough to go in on Thursday afternoon. Bloody brilliant timing :(

ds is self studying for STEP maths but really enjoys it. His exams are over for this year.

He liked University of Bath.

@Laniakea - I hope your DD is feeling a little better. Tonsillitis is horrible at any time.

DD sent me a great picture this afternoon, mocks are over and she was picnicking on the school lawn.
An hour later, another photo, this time with her mic in place for the rehearsal of the school production this weekend. So not much chill out time!

We are doing Nottingham and Loughborough this weekend. Need to leave at 6.45 am to get to Nottingham on Friday so that will be a relaxing day off work! We have done Sussex already and are planning to do Kent and UEA in the autumn. I am hoping those will be the 5 ds applies to but as we haven't got his predicted grades yet it is impossible to know if we are looking at the right places.

When dd applied we only looked at 3 out of the 5 she applied to before hand. She went to look at Warwick after she had her offer and really didn't like it so it was a complete waste of a space on her form. It is a difficult balance to strike - I don't remember looking at any of the places I applied to until I was called for interviews.

You have my sympathy Mrs B. We had a 7am start last Saturday & younger brother did not take kindly to being prised out of his bed so early.

Dd also found that the course st the one uni she had not visited was not quite what she wanted when she went for interview. Again a wasted choice which probably would have been avoided if she had gone to the open day.

I am sure he didn't Decorhate! At least we don't have any younger siblings to worry about this time round