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

[Laniakea]

readyforsunshine there are always a few days every winter where dd gets stranded somewhere because the trains just inexplicably stop. She managed to persuade dh to drive her to the train station on Friday, it was raining, her bag weighed 7kg & she was tired

She's okay - so far she's had an hour of home work for every hour of class which they've said to expect & on top of that she's been doing EPQ stuff, creative writing & maths practice. They have two frees a week given over to 'directed learning' but she's not sure what that means. All in all it adds up to about 20 hours with EPQ & creative writing. She's worked out a kind of timetable that means she can have one weekend day free (wants to get a job).

Her girlfriend's dog had to be put down this morning so we're all feeling really sad.

[Azure]

DS has been at sixth form for a week (same school as before). He seems to be really enthused by his subjects, which is lovely to see. There are only 4 in his History class (Mediaeval; more do Modern), and around 8 in each of his other 2 subjects, and he's pleased with those small class sizes. He loves being able to go out at lunchtime, although it's a bit of a hike to get to a shop / cafe so probably won't do it that much in reality. He's trying to choose what to do for his EPQ at the moment - so difficult when it could be almost anything.

[readyforsunshine]

Sorry to hear that pesky rat but it is a comfort!
Laniakea no probs at all helping out but he was sitting faffing with his phone despite the time checks he was given & Dh had to leave for the station with dd so that she didn't miss the train. I followed with him as he assured me there was loads of time to get half way there when he realises he has no money & no train pass. He has been on this train since year 8!
I've made it clear that he will need to pay for a taxi next time but honestly the dog learns faster

[Laniakea]

honestly the dog learns faster



Azure how lovely that he got a choice of history, my dd would have loved to do Mediaeval but the school only do modern.

DD is off to an open day at Southampton tomorrow.

[errorofjudgement]

I've been scouring the thread to try and get a feel for how many lessons & free periods people have.
DD is taking 3 A levels.
On her timetable, there are 25 lesson blocks of 45 minutes, and she has 18 lessons pw, leaving her with 8 frees to start homework.
Anyone care to share how this compares?

[SoPassRemarkable]

Dd has 15 hours of lessons a week, 3 hours a day.

The rest of it is free periods, so I think 2x hour long free periods a day.

[AtiaoftheJulii]

Ds's college have 4 90 minute periods a day, with 3 lessons per subject per week. He's doing 4 subjects, plus has a tutor period, a compulsory enrichment thing, and two extra subject-related sessions (for now), so has 16 scheduled periods out of 20, and 4 frees study periods. Obviously if you were doing 3 subjects you'd have a lot more free time!

[Wiifitmama]

It seems to vary enormously. Ds has one double (3 hour with short break) and one single (1.5 hour) lesson per subject per week. He is doing three A levels. There is a tutorial once a week. There are three enrichment slots per week (all start later in the afternoon). So lots of free or study periods.

[Danglingmod]

Ds has, per week, 5 taught hours per subject, 2 hours of games, 2 half hour PSE lessons, 1 hr EPQ supervision and the rest of the timetable study periods. No "frees" until U6.

[BeyondThePage]

Ours have 4 A levels, 4 free periods of 40 min plus Wed afternoon for "enrichment activities" (sport/music/art/extra languages).

DDs Art for instance has 3 triples a week

[Laniakea]

dd has five 1 hour lessons per day (25 hours)
4 lesson per main A level subject (12 hours)
1 hour each for EPQ & creative writing
2 hours of directed learning (guided by subject teachers)
1 hour of PDP/tutor time

which leaves 8 hours of frees, it works out at about 4.5 hours a week of teaching time/subject (depends on which subject has the supervised sessions).

If you're doing further maths then that 2 or 3 hours a week (fortnightly timetable) rather than the 1 for EPQ. If you are doing the standard 3 A levels (most are, lots did EPQ with GCSEs) it is 12 hours of lessons, 3 hours directed/tutor & 10 hours free.

dd is in Southampton, she was very early & is now sitting outside the oceanographic centre looking very tired & a bit cold!

[errorofjudgement]

Oh no, just realised I can't count.
28 + 8 is 26 periods, not sure where I've magicked the extra from.
So DD has 7 free periods each week.
PE, PHSE etc is covered by the vocational training in the afternoon, so her academic sessions are purely A level.

[errorofjudgement]

Laniakea DS1 went to Southampton and loved it there.
I liked that the main campus is so compact, even though it's not a campus uni. The accommodation at Glen Eyre is really close by, and plenty of private rental student accommodation within literally a couple of minutes walk.
I hope your DD enjoys her day, is there a particular department or course she's interested in?

[Laniakea]

error she wants to do oceanography - Southampton is literally the only place she wants to go at the moment (Liverpool do it too but they don't have their own boat & mini-sub!). She really wants to do the MSci oceanography with year abroad which is A*AA.

I'm taking her to see Bristol (earth & environmental science) & she's got a list a of about 8 places that do similar courses but she wants to know if she can put Southampton down in all 5 UCAS spaces

She just messaged me to say she's chatted to someone about ocean floor chemistry & the admissions tutor & apparently the director of the BAS is there & the place is LUSH :D

They are about to go & see the boats!

[errorofjudgement]

DS2 used 2 of his options for Warwick as he liked it so much. All 5 might be a stretch
So good to hear she's having such a positive experience

[Laniakea]

she's considering waiting to apply post grades rather than deferring (she'll be taking a gap year either way), if she does that it will be easier to decided where & what to apply to. She also hates uncertainty & likes the idea of applying with results in hand.

My sister did that a few years ago - she hated school & was one of those completely overlooked kids who was considered just average (got all As at GCSE but not all A*) so the (private) school wasn't really interested. She got into UCL to do a science degree & has just graduated with a first. I doubt she'd have got an offer if she applied the usual way.

[CiderwithBuda]

It's great that she has such a passion for something Laniakea.

I need to have a good look at DS's timetable. All I can remember from him reading it out last night was he has the first three periods free on Thursday mornings. He thinks he can just stay in bed. I think we can put something in place for Spanish tuition as he needs to do his Spanish GCSE this year.

He is doing Early History - only boy in a class of five. He is also the only boy in his English Lit class. More boys in his Economics class. I think mostly girls will be good for him as they seem to work harder. He is a bit (lot!) lazy. I don think he will get away with it and won't want all the girls to do better than him. I'm hoping anyway!

He is also going to do an EPQ but that's as far as we've got.

[Danglingmod]

That's interesting, Cider.

Ds's history and lit classes are predominantly boys (1 girl in lit, 2 in history- and only one class of each subject; there isn't a parallel set).

I think "clever" girls are now much more likely to do STEM subjects maybe with music or something thrown in.

[Laniakea]

she sent me a picture of the boat. Last text was 'it's brilliant'.

Fingers crossed this will keep her motivated. They have tests at half term.

[Cafeconleche]

Wiifitmama - my DS has exactly the same lessons, frees and tutor times! They're not at the same North London 6th form college are they....

[Wiifitmama]

Certainly possible! The one near Angel tube?

[Cafeconleche]

That's the one! Small world

[Azure]

Laniakea Oceanography sounds amazing. It's great your DD has a strong idea about what she wants to do. I hope DS will start to look at a few unis in the summer term; hopefully he'll have an idea about what he might want to study then. As 2 out of 3 of his A levels are new subjects to him it's early days yet.

DS has a two week timetable with 6 lessons per day but it averages out at about 6.5 lessons per week per subject (1 less for Economics, I don't know why). There seems to be 5 supervised study periods and only 2 completely blank periods per week - I think some of those supervised study periods will end up being EPQ ones as that's not in the timetable yet. He has an afternoon of games and the sixth form equivalent of PSHE as well.

[Wiifitmama]

Cafeconleche- what subjects is he doing? My ds is doing maths, further maths and computer science.

[PeskyRat]

wiifit and cafe I know which college you're talking about, small world indeed. It was my DS second choice and he would have gone there if things hadn't worked out for his first choice.