Year 11 - 2024/2025: And relax! Support Thread for the summer holidays.

[QueenMabby]

New thread to carry us all through the summer as we transition from dealing with stressed teens to dealing with bored teens!

DS2 will go in to collect his results. I will sit in the car chewing my nails.

So far he only has bridging work for History, but there is tonnes of it.
It's sitting on the kitchen table collecting dust at the moment, while DS lives his best life.

sorry to break the hols vibe I have a sixth form related question - trying to do my budget as once A level and GCSE results out I will be haemorrhaging money - DD Uni stuff (🤞) and DS Sixth Form stuff ( 🤞for first choice). DS still requires uniform for first and second choice.

The Bank of Mum will be very very busy in August! 😨

So my hols vibe breaking question is anyone know what type of calculator is required for A level Maths? checked a level options booklet no mention - board is OCR if makes a difference!

Plus why won't July just blooming end?

👍

I'm fully "head in the sand" mode about train fares, cost and logistics atm 😬🫣
Dh can sort it 😁

I'm waiting till they go back for the calculator. For gcse school recommended a particular model and bought them in bulk and sold them to pupils cheaper than buying it ourselves.

It said 15yrs 9 months on our letter, so that must have been a typing error.

I did think, why? you can't do anything with it for over a year.

During the online process for driving licence, you can type in the current passport number, and it brings up the photo they have on file.

As Ratty's photo was just over a year old he basically looks the same so I ticked use that.
We also had his NI number, and we haven't moved house, and all other details the same, it was straightforward because we are identity wise, really quite boring!

Graphical calculator - can be purchased through college at a discount details to follow in September!
Not much help

But when we were in "WHSmith" sort of a weird hybrid shop now round here, looking for a GCSE exam calculator, because I was insisting he had one with solar power back up, there were ones that said "for A level & GCSE" and ones just GCSE. Alevel ones were about £36-£40 so twice the price obviously!

Ratty's first choice of 6th form college, no dress code as such but decent is implied. As is "different clothes for using gym etc"
2nd choice - basically uniform without the blazer

Let's hope first choice is not a problem!

But he likes the teachers in both.

We have a list of textbooks but we are going to wait until results and confirmation of place before jumping with those, and equipment.

Ooooh!!! Top tips!! Thank you so much!!! I’m not at home at the mo, it’s on my TDL ( before DS asks if I d done it yet!!), but that is excellent news! I’m sure his passport isn’t that old ( tho, I should know, given I saw it at the airport recently!).. Good to know you got yours sorted! 🤩

@Sisublondie Sorry to hear about the fallout, any ideas what it was about, if it can be healed?

6th form will be a time of change for a lot of teens, some friends will be doing more apprenticeship courses, and have more money before our academic, wants to go to uni and keep bleeding parents dry for as long as possible, teens (yes both of them).

Ratty is going in on results morning, think it's only and hour window. He goes in alone whilst the whole family will be in the carpark waiting to take him to a, well done job done but you can't flake out your first A'level year sunshine or ok it's no the end of the world let's contact the other colleges lunch!

I don't know if his preferred college is going overboard, but for physics, he has a summer reading list, suggested movies, suggested days out, heap of QPR codes for links to online stuff, websites and social media!

He's still in bed right now just about to wake the lazy teen up!

The local driving instructor wouldn't book him in without provisional.
So we are now booked in for first lesson after college on his 17th birthday, prepared the exclusion zone!
They have both been to a couple of young driver sessions recently, last one they both got up to 50mph, on an track, with a dual controlled car and instructor, obviously, but it has meant that his first lesson can be an hour, rather than hour and a half, because driving instructor said the additional half hour was to go through the controls and gears and he's basically done that.

Bit different when on a real road, with other cars, and we are not too worried about the test taking a while, he has said "not sure I am going to need to drive really for a long time" he is just ticking it off as a life skill whilst on the parent's account. So it can take as long as it does as long as he is safe when he does pass.

Dd is going in on results day.
If you want your results emailed to you have to request it.
I used older dds passport photo for her provisional licence online, but dds passport is older and she's changed a lot! :)
I'll ask her about it again after her birthday.

@ThisPerkySloth2these are the ones recommended for DD. Doing Edexcel though.

And for any recommended books, I always used Amazon market place and got 2nd hand rather than pay full price. However I think the psychology syllabus has changed this year so the book will be new 🤦🏼‍♀️.

Awesome books is also good for 2nd hand books and they donate books for every book bought

Thank you… it’s really upsetting as they have been friends since primary school.. ( M is one of his very few friends, one of the only two he ever sees).. they sometimes have little fallouts but this was unexpected. They had seen each two consecutive nights, all good… plans to meet on the Sunday in town. Dropped DS off, and M was sat in McD with DS’s ex, who m is friends with. DS tried to be nice and hang out the three of them, but M apparently started not laughing at things he usually would, and siding with the ex.. anyway, DS called another friend and ended up leaving. Difficult as they have longstanding plans to go on a big day out next week for treat, and M didn’t respond to DS asking what had happened and why he’d invited the ex, tho he’d read his messsges….. so DS sent text going “ well, know you’ve read them, but not responded, so let’s leave it”..and got a 👍 so…….. I don’t know. But, the planned trip puts a time constraint on it. I’m concerned what he wrote sounds like an ultimatum, it DS18 keeps telling me to butt out 🤷‍♀️!
The school yard drama doesn’t seem to end!…🙄😸

Can’t find the post now but someone was asking about calculator - a specific one was mentioned on our school website for a level so might be worth a check . Our school wanted this Casio fx cg50

DS doesn’t really have a choice but to go in for results, if they don’t go in themselves or send someone with a signed authorisation they get posted to them - seems a bit old school!

His college I think get the calculators at a discounted rate and advised to wait and buy through them.

@frozendaisy thanks i will hang on then - worst case always amazon next day delivery! Had noticed they are more expensive!!! 🙄

@labradorservant thanks for this information, i will also google to see if anything for DS's board OCR. Cheers

@labradorservant wow just looked up the prices of graphic calculator 😱.

Quite a lot of parents I know have bought them as Christmas presents. I can just see the look DS would give me if I tried that one

3 weeks today is results day

I am not sharing this fact with dd! 😬😀

Morning all! So, I’m away with my Mum for her 80th Birthday today .in the nearby lovely town where DS hopes to start college in September.. it’s in a lovely building right next to the hotel and we walked past it to pop for food last night after swim ( saving hotel £££ restaurant for tonight!).. .. so, given the “three weeks tonight” fact, the nerves kicked in…. (not bettered by fact that … NOWHERE serving food after 9pm!!! 🤯🙀🤯🙀!!! (Pizza Express were first to kick us to the kerb at 8.45pm!).. we did a loop of every place here, and ended up styling it out by creeping in with a bloody Domino’s! They should give a heads up! Mind you, I live 25 minutes away and precisely the same there, so why I thought it would be any different?! 😹😹😹).

But, yep nerves fully here now- plus, obviously, it’s my “ August” fear. I’m going to man up and call the college first thing on Monday to see what a PlanB would look like. I admit I haven’t called yet, as I felt ( and still do) so disloyal to DS … but….. 🤷‍♀️.. well.. you know what I mean!

Anyway, at least DS was happy with the Domino’s choice ( non choice!).. he wanted me to Uber some up the main road to him!😈😹😹😹.. Hope everyone has a fab Friday!! 😻

Oh, and Good Luck to the calculator people! How much?!!! Insane! What’s wrong with the ones that spelt BOOBS?!! 😈🤷‍♀️😈🥳😹

😹😹😹😹… I’d try that, and be quite successful, but it’s also DS18 birthday, so it’s inadvertently bloody done daily!
But, yes, I’d defo keep it up with DD!!! 🤞🥳