Thread 16 - Corona Cohort Year 12, 2021 Zooming through Summer Term

[orangecinnamon]

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Gosh orange that's a lot of info! We don't get any of that.

seeline Interesting to know they can move possibly...

@JustHereWithMyPopcorn my DD only gets attainment grades reported at ‘new school’ . She hasn’t had target or predicted grades to date.
That said, she only ever got attainment grades at ‘old school’ too- so we’re used to that!

UCAS predicted grades will be given after end of year exams but these can be revised in early Autumn term of Yr13.
Yr13- how scary is that?

Anyone finding it hard to get their DC engaged in looking at Uni? My DS is in his 2nd year now and seems ok, but my DD just doesn’t have a clear idea what course and therefore what uni. She’s worried she’s not good at independent study and I worry too much sway from friends etc

Happy to do a few ‘random’ open days just to get a feel for different campus/city types and maybe engage her, but this time with my son he had a list of places to visit already lined up and knew almost what course so was much simpler

She did bring up computer science again which she couldn’t do at A level as there weren’t any lessons available at her school. She’s doing maths, physics and psychology

That is good Paddington about DVLA.

I'm not sure about manoeuvres Popcorn? You mean like reverse parking and 3 point turns.

Ds is doing reverse parking now, on lesson 5. (But remember he could already do it all (possibly badly and nowhere near 'test ready') because Dh and I had taught him everything we knew/could.

ican, I had already chased driving app. I chased again Sunday night. Today I got offered mid July. Instead of the mid Sept we had. 2 months earlier. Totally thrilled.

DD has 'provisional predicted grades' and will get 'predicted grades' after her exams in June. Her 'provisionals' are in excess of what's needed for medicine at her initial choices and will almost certainly go up.

She's just finished all the online training for her volunteering role at the Royal Marsden, including data security 🤔 She's going to be a meeter/greeter...

Thanks so much for the new thread, and for tagging me, Orange.

Paddington, that's really encouraging news, re ADHD and driving. DD hasn't shown any interest in learning yet (much to our relief), but the point about not knowing how driving is affected is one I'll store for future use.

On the subject of predicted grades , DD's school gives what week to be "current forecast" grades, but given they are given every term, starting in the Autumn term of year 12, I'm not sure how much notice should be given to them.

@MrKlaw

She did bring up computer science again which she couldn’t do at A level as there weren’t any lessons available at her school. She’s doing maths, physics and psychology

Might be worth her checking out stemettes.org to help consider options.

Thanks for the new thread: I regret setting MN notifications up on an email address I never check! Just place marking to come back and read the news and gossip later

@Oblomov21 that's good. You could leave the app on if you want to go for earlier. Ds thinks his in mid August needs coming forward. But as he still won't come in the car with me, I don't want to move it forward incase he's not ready. He says driving is far too boring to come out with me.

I asked Ds when his next lots of exams are, but he just shrugs. I get annoyed when he won't tell me stuff. There's no point pushing him though.

We get given attainment grade as well as target grade. I found target grades spot on for most subjects for ds1 at gcse and A level. Ds2 says target grade isn't correct as he didn't actually take GCSEs as they going on grades for exams he didn't take. We will see on that one.

@MrKlaw: are you anywhere near Warwick?! The online versions of these are all full I think, but there's a girls only residential which looks to still be taking ppl on: www.smallpeicetrust.org.uk/course-page/6c97afcb-0e87-eb11-a812-0022481a46a3 (DS is on the waiting list)

Re grades: DS has (very aspirational!) grades that school think he should be able to achieve; which were set based on an updated Midyas type thing at the beginning of the year + GCSE grades, then regular attainment grades. DS did my head in surprised me by coming home today having put together a revision timetable up to his exams. He's dyslexia + autistic and that sort of organisation/executive function used to be such a huge struggle. It's odd seeing him growing up!!

I’ve seen an initial predicted for Maths, Physics and Computer Science. No FM one. Exams next month will be the predictions. They get some to do a paper at end of the summer if they were borderline then they can be increased after November exams.

No chance of DS doing a job at the moment with his travelling and workload. Am a little worried about that but will see how he is at end of the year His already limited frees have gone down to 2 a week with exam entrance preparation and I felt he was looking the worse for wear last weekend.

Having said that this is pretty much one of the last weeks of full timetable for year 12. Next 2 weeks they will be working independently in the afternoon and for a couple of days after half term. 3 days the rest of that week then the next week (or it might be 2 )are assessments then only one or two weeks and that’s the end of year 12 😮

DD working most Sundays and also selling stuff on Depop.

Yes, depop is working well for Dd too. She mainly just recycles her clothes on there but it means she has that money for new clothes and can use her allowance (£60 a month) on going out and birthday presents. She could still do with a job though!

Ds earns money by playing games for Swagbuck! It’s a productive way of using his long journeys to and from school - the alternative is sleeping!

@Oblomov21

That is good Paddington about DVLA.

I'm not sure about manoeuvres Popcorn? You mean like reverse parking and 3 point turns.

Ds is doing reverse parking now, on lesson 5. (But remember he could already do it all (possibly badly and nowhere near 'test ready') because Dh and I had taught him everything we knew/could.

ican, I had already chased driving app. I chased again Sunday night. Today I got offered mid July. Instead of the mid Sept we had. 2 months earlier. Totally thrilled.

Yes, those sorts of things. DS has had four lessons with an instructor but, similar to you, I had been taking him since he turned 17. I have started to teach him some basic ones but don't want to do it incorrectly!

Good news about your test date!!

Thanks all for the predicted grades feedback, very interesting. Im a bit worried about them being based on GCSEs as while they were OK they were not a string of As and A*s but DS will need 3 As for the course he wants to do as that is the standard offer. Oh well, we shall wait and see.

College explained that part of their predictions is looking at the grade they get in the summer then comparing it to the end grade that previous students attaining the same summer grade went in to get at A level if that makes sense.

There are websites giving advice on teaching your child to drive. I read somewhere that the hand position is now quarter to three instead of ten to two because of airbags. I think Confused.com and RAC may have been where I looked. They also tell you the most common reasons for failing.

Fools Yes, that makes sense.

Monkey I have watched a few YouTube videos to see what the latest teaching is but not seen the most common reasons for failing one.

@Monkey2001 that's interesting about the hand position. I find my bmw steering wheel annoying as it has a part where my hands are meant to go at quarter to 3 like you say...but I don't find it natural to hold it like that. Also when I was taught to drive neither hand was allowed past 12pm and over to the other side, also we fed the steering wheel back until the wheels were straight, none of that is done now. I found all this out when I went out with ds1 I'm glad I didn't teach him all the wrong way to start with. He had 8 lessons before I took him out. DH likes to slow down using the gears when he drives a manual car (we both drive auto) I don't think they do that now either.

DH has been taking DS1 out every Sunday to practice his driving just to get his confidence up. He hasn't done any reversing yet because he said he doesn't want to teach him wrong and will wait until instructor does. DS1 has had 4 lessons so far with instructor so will see how he gets on.

Not a whisker of predictions here yet. Exams looming in June upon which predictions will be made. No driving lessons yet, school work seems so full on that I'm thinking it might be best if ds postpones it till after UCAS submissions.

DS has exams in mid June which will form the basis of the UCAS predictions. His previous report did have predictions on but they were based on home-set exams. I know DS messed up the timing on one of them and got a bad mark so he is hoping to drastically increase that one.

He has his first 'proper' driving lesson at the weekend. I had a chat with the instructor and told her we had done basic driving but no manoeuvres at all. He is also nervous on new routes so am anxious for him! He is looking forward to it though. I hope I haven't taught him too many bad habits!!

I'm sure you wont have @20newnames, I think DS has only been corrected on one minor thing that I actually think is a personal preference rather than a requirement. I think when we teach them we go hyper aware of how to drive 'properly' - or is that just me??

@JustHereWithMyPopcorn - nope, not just you! I helped teach DS1 3 years ago with the same instructor so hopefully I shouldn't have done too much damage. I just find it so hard to work out whether he's looking in the mirror etc as I'm too busy concentrating on whether it's safe to pull out!