GCSEs 2018 (18) Well that's all over, let's get the party started

[Stickerrocks]

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/secondary/3341060-GCSEs-2018-17-What-will-be-in-your-coffee-cup-on-Thursday

Glad you've got all the forms ready.I hope the enrolment goes well today.

whistl I remember being trapped on an endless reading scheme at primary school because the teacher didn't believe I could read more difficult books. Luckily we moved.
I think inevitably we'll be keeping an eye on them. I definitely need to keep an eye on DS2! (Year 9, say no more!)

Just catching up on the thread after a weekend at CentreParcs - I see some dc have started Y12 already and others are due to start this week. Looking forward to the updates and hearing how it all goes.

Dd is in the minority starting next Monday - she's being pretty vile at the moment which I recognise as symptomatic of anxiety re next week. Its a big change moving from a small independent school where the entire year was around 25-30 pupils (split between two classes) to a Sixth form college of around 2000 students per year. Apparently there are 15 separate tutor groups for biology A level alone . I've told her what doesn't kill you makes you stronger (helpful )

She is freaked out about wearing her own clothes to college (acutely self conscious) and is worried that people will comment if she wears the same top on separate days too close together. I've tried explaining that she may be the centre of her own universe but that she barely registers on other peoples universes (I am not good at pep talks), but she isn't buying it. In the end I suggested that she prepared 10 days of outfits and photographs them all, and then simply puts them on in that order with a recycle span of two weeks before outfit one reappears again. She is considering this

Just noticed - page 37, only 3 pages of this thread left!

Moving to further education soon. We are grown up!

aaaaaaaaaaaaaagh finally got round to trying on uniform just to check and he looks like Tom Hanks in Big. He's not got much taller but I didn't realise how much he's filled out and broader in the shoulders. How can someone who does no exercise and is allergic to fresh air suddenly sprout muscles and a body builders frame - it must be hormones (or excessive computer use building arm muscle), very unfair !! Emergency visit to the school shop tmrw. At least I'm not completely redundant yet.

Good point. Bought DS3's trousers in June...

LOL at Tom Hanks in 'Big'
DS is back tomorrow and has just tried all his new suit/belt/shoes/shirt & sixth form tie on... He's well over 6ft now and looks about 25 . Where did my little boy go??
I took a photo in the same spot in the garden as the day he started secondary school (5 years ago) and he's now busy on photoshop creating some side by side image to post on Instagram (which is apparently a 'then and now thing' he & his friends are doing. Had I suggested doing this on Facebook for my friends it would, however, have been dismissed as 'cringeworthy' )
Meanwhile, I have realised that we really must get someone in to cut the bushes back...

I'd get your 6 footer to do it!

Yes! Why didn't I think of that?

DS is home and day 1 went well. (thank goodness!)
Only another 600ish to go!

yes, its time to move to further education...

are we still going to use the title:-
GCSEs 2018 (19) Wait there's more?!

Whistl brilliant news!
DS eventually returned from a successful enrolment, with all his choices approved. Yay! Doesn't start till next Monday so I hope he will make himself useful for the next few days...

Ah that’s great whistl, really pleased to hear it.

Excellent - hope the rest of the week goes well too.

Limitsup please assure your DD that my DD lives in the same pair of jeans made of holes with denim attached and tennis hoodies, so she will not be alone. Every single one of them will be venturing out in their own style for the first time. They will fret for about a week or so, then nobody will as much as register what anyone else is wearing. (There are 800 doing maths).

Whistl you can start in Further Ed with whatever takes your fancy if mmzz and I don't get in there first. I can't remember who else has started them- Peggy and of course the great Dontbringlulu who we will always be indebted to.

P&O released their summer 2020 cruise itinery today. I have an urge to book a post A level, 18th & 50th birthday treat and she doesn't even start college until next Monday. Meanwhile whistl has started a countdown to leaving!

I think we need to talk .. backpacks! I've just had a really long hunt around the web to find DS a laptop backpack that is big enough, "cool" enough, strong enough, black enough and sleek enough! Not that he's fussy or anything!

Let me know if you find one whistl, I’ve been looking on and off for about 4 years since DD started sixth form. They never seem to make them big enough. Or cool enough.

@whistl - they're expensive but I'd recommend a Samsonite one. I got one for DS1 last year and it's lasted exceptionally well. He can fit A4 folders in it and it has good straps to carry the weight. I'm about to get DS2 one as well..,

Ooh sandy, never thought of looking at Samsonite. I might be able to prise DS’s knackered old Adidas one from his sweaty grasp with one of those...

All of DS's sixth form friends seem to have Herschel or Eastpak laptop/backpacks...

Fashion-conscious DS1 (who already has a newish Vans rucksack) has been supplied with a strong, sleek, black laptop backpack as part of his DSA package for university. It is deliberately unbranded (the DSA equivalent of NHS spectacles) but it meets with his approval.

I tried to hint to DS1 that he might want to donate one of the rucksacks to DS2 for sixth form, but he feels that it will be essential for him to take both with him.

So DS2 is carrying on with the North Face Recon he has had since the beginning of Y7. Not the most stylish bag in the world (and looks a bit outdoorsy/hikingy to wear with a suit) but it is ergonomically the best backpack we've come across, which is important for DS2's small frame and hypermobile joints. Luckily he doesn't care about image or fashion.

DD bought a load of stationery today ready for 6th form. She (and I) haven’t thought whether they will fit in her rucksack.... oops.... best go and try them out for size .. still no sign of the missing/lost homework