Current Year 11 - 2 more weeks of exams!!

[Rollergirl11]

New shiny thread!!

@Akite how did your DD enjoy Glasto? Great weather for it! DD and I watched it on Iplayer over the weekend and there were some great performances!

I get very emotional at things like that @StColumbofNavron, feels like the end of an era.

Ds had sixth form induction with all of the new girls starting. Looked smart today but need to get him a couple of suits for sixth form. He seemed quite excited at the changes when he got back. Mulling over whether to do further maths or not. I keep hearing how useful it might be for engineering type courses but also how, if you do 4 A levels then you get offers based on 4 which might be too much pressure as he has to do an As level too. Also can't do an EPQ other further maths either.

Might start a new thread to get some insight.

DS came home to say goodbye to his grandad. DH has been with his dad most days but it is imminent. I have a deadline on some coursework so have sent it in not at my usual standard but one less thing to think about. DS on a whole school trip to Thorpe Park today and we pick up Saturday where school is out. Can't believe 6th form next. Also will be suit shopping this summer, will wait a bit as bound to have a growth spurt and is keen to join the gym (he is so skinny). lol

Oh she had an absolutely brilliant time! Slept for HOURS when she got back. Great thing to be able to do but I think home is a bit boring for her now. We live in a rural area with not much going on and she's definitely getting itchy feet around that.
She looked absolutely gorgeous all dressed up for prom ❤️

Sorry to hear about your father in law @salsamummy . Wishing you all strength 💐

Thanks so much

@Naem really sorry to hear your very sad news.

And @salsamummy my thoughts are with you re your FIL .

Just when you should all be celebrating, there is sadness.

DD swerved her graduation (due to legacy issues) which is very sad particularly as she's not staying on there into the sixth form. So the end of an era marked with nothing more positive than the last GCSE paper last Thursday.

Anyone else that the end of exams already seems a long way into the past. Can't believe it's only a week.

DD has just got extra work for next week. At this rate she won't be sitting around twiddling her thumbs at all over the summer.

Hoping all the proms are great fun and that the young people are enjoying getting properly dressed up.

Prom for us tonight. Finally. It's felt like a long time coming. Hairdresser currently here, then make up...

Unmumsnetty hugs @Naem and @salsamummy

@Lightsabre - ds plumped for the EPQ rather than FM. First because he doesn't love maths - is doing it for physics and secondly because if he gets an A for his EPQ then some unis give a reduced offer for the a-levels and he feels that will help psychologically! He's even picked his topic!

He had two days' 6th form induction this week which went well. Prom too which he enjoyed - he went en masse with his friendship group - they've been friends since Y7 and since Y4 for a couple of them so it was great to see them all together.

Sorry to read about your Father in law @salsamummy

Just about recovered from Prom (or more accurately, from the afterparty) on Thursday. I loved seeing our DS & friends in their suits & the girls in their beautiful dresses. They deserved to let their hair down after the gruelling last couple of months/years.

DS has an interview for a Saturday job with extra hours in holidays on Monday, fingers crossed.

Hope everyone is relaxing into summer, & that Cornwall works it's magic on @Silkierabbit & family...

Thanks so much lego Off next week to Cornwall will be lovely. DD has just been out with friends and otherwise relaxing, did not want to go to final day or Prom but seemed happy with that. She is still in bed now with Mr Floof at 1.30pm!! Still nice when you can do that. Glad your DS had a lovely Prom and hope his interview goes well.

DD has Cornwall then a summer punting job on the river and meeting friends plus 6th form taster days so plenty of nice things lined up. I have finished chemo now and call about radio on Monday but probably a few weeks before that and hope just a week of it. DSs education is still in chaos and y10 so having to sort that.

Hope everyone has a good summer.

Very sad update on the cancer support thread from Chicagocubs sister Kathy that Chicagocubs has sadly passed away but she asked her lovely sister to update MN with her DSs GCSEs results. He has done amazingly just to get through them and he sounds like a wonderful young man.

@Silkierabbit that's an incredibly sad update about @Chicagocubs, that poor boy & family. Cancer is so cruel & arbitrary. So good her DS came home for the weekend & kind of her sister to update x

Thank you for the update about @Chicagocubs @Silkierabbit . How incredibly sad and unfair life is :-(.

Have a fabulous holiday in Cornwall @Silkierabbit .

DD seems non-stop busy for the first three weeks of her 'holidays'. She's going to get back from the Nice trip exhausted.

Really shocked to hear about @Chicagocubs - sounds like she waited for her son to finish. That poor family. XXX

Ah. Such sad news about @Chicagocubs. Life is so shitty sometimes.

That's desperately sad news. So utterly awful for the family and friends.

Has anyone helped their teen write a CV for a summer job? We are struggling to do this today. I have tried a couple of free CV writer sites which turn out to not be free once you try to actually do anything with the CV.

Any advice or links to genuine free sites?

Well, there’s some general advice on cvs and covering letter writing on: www.prospects.ac.uk/careers-advice/cvs-and-cover-letters/how-to-write-a-cv

I confess what we did was we looked at all these supposedly "free" CV sites to get an idea of what we liked, and then we reproduced one of them in Word. Ie we just typed in the headings they had and made a table to make the layout (DS liked the layout of having a coloured banner down the side with his contact details and name and then the substance in the much wider second column). It was a little fiddly in Word, but quite manageable in the end (using colour fill), and then it is yours. There might well be better packages than Word, but Word was what we were familiar with and knew how to use. The key thing (besides just a sense of layout) we took from these sites were the headings (education, work experience etc) but then had to modify as he didn't really have work experience (I think we ended up calling it work experience and volunteering - and it was really mostly the latter, except for a week of shadowing he had through school)

For DD’s CV, we just used word and wrote out her 2 previous jobs - paper round and volunteering at the charity shop for her D of E. She described the tasks she did and skills she used.
She also wrote a sentence or two about what she does in her spare time and then at the bottom she had written about just finishing her GCSE’s and what A levels she was planning on studying.

Not much content but she was offered a trial and then the job. It’s a rubbish job but having a paper round really can show that you can get up and commit to something no matter the weather. DD has kept hers at the moment because it pays weekly and she uses that money for her day to day spends.

sorry for not tagging people but thanks so much for sending your good wishes. DH is busy sorting his father's funeral and thank goodness he wasn't at sea as normally away for 4 months but not due back until next month. DS has been offered some work on Thursday playing with someone's dog and letting it out for a wee. He did ask how much it was paying and whether it was worth his while . Cheeky sod. I told him beggars couldn't be choosers and he had to start his work life somewhere. lol
We go on holiday next Friday so looking forward to that and now taking MIL with us.

@salsamummy it does amaze me that young people are so switched on about their worth (in terms of jobs). DD is very lucky that she's paid £10 ph for the tutoring she's currently doing, more than her friends who are just starting work in retail. But surely any money earned is better than no income?

DD's non-working habits since finishing exams: spend, spend, spend; rewatching her favourite films (Twilight in particular) on loop; and spending what seems like hours just scrolling through TikTok. So I'm glad she's earning and doing something constructive with some of her time!

DD had her prom last night. I know she was quite nervous for it as she’s had a turbulent few months culminating in a mass fall-out with her friendship group. But she had a really good time and went to an after party where she had an absolute blast. Ended up getting McDonalds at 3.30 in the morning. Given that this time last year she was in full blown eating disorder and she still really struggles with eating out/fast food I’m taking that as a win! She’s been in bed virtually all day sleeping off an epic hangover.

She has also got an interview for a supermarket assistant at Waitrose at the end of this month. Given that it’s the one and only job she’s applied for I’m pretty impressed. 😂

@Rollergirl11 that sounds like amazing progress. Good luck for the job interview- ooh, Waitrose discount 😍

DS had an interview for a cafe job on Monday which he thought went really well but hasn't heard back so we fear the worst. Difficult when there is so much competition. We go away next Friday so think he will pause the job search until early August & in the meantime he has a few babysitting jobs.

Post script - DS got the job! Or more accurately, a trial shift. Good start to the weekend...