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!

Hi everyone! I was previously on the thread as SuperTrooper14 but I shut my MN account when I did a digital detox last month to avoid temptation and now I can't get that username back. So this is the 2.0 version of SuperTrooper14!

Lovely to hear how everyone is doing post-exams. DD spent most of July sleeping – I think the sheer effort of overcoming her exam anxiety (she had access arrangements etc) knocked her sideways. We're now on holiday and trying not to think about the 21st. 😬

Unfortunately she missed a college taster day for her Level 3 BTech because she didn't respond to the email quickly enough to secure a place but we're hoping that it won't make a difference in long run as she did attend two open days. It has, thankfully, made her more on the ball for enrolment. Plan is to pick up results at 9am then meet us at train station to go straight to college. Feels like it's come round so quickly.

Sympathies to those having to source Apprentice-style suits for uniform. I actually had a little pang in Asda seeing all the Back To School stuff and realising my days of needing to stock up on shirts and PE kit were over after a decade of pre-Sept 1 panic buying!

Sorry to hear about your DS's fallout @Sisublondie – has it resolved yet? DD appears to have been dropped by her so-called Y11 friendship group - she found out there was a picnic organised a couple of weeks ago that she wasn't invited to. She thinks it's because she's going to college while they are all going to same sixth form and she said she's not bothered because she'll make better friends at college. I was seething for her though!

Can't believe I've only just found you all!

DS had a couple of weeks of nothingness after exams - lots of gaming and sighing that he didn't know what to do with himself. The we were away for three weeks. Since we've been back I've tried to muster a bit of enthusiasm for summer work (prep for A levels he's been given) and his musical instrument; its not working! He's had a wobble about physics A level so says there is no point starting the summer work for that yet. But he's also said he doesn't know what he'd swap it to as he can't realistically see himself taking Biology (or anything else) either. He says he'll decide on results day when he might find out which teacher he would get for A level Physics.

He's on work experience this week so that's keeping him occupied at least; he came home pretty tired after his first full day yesterday. Then it'll countdown to the joint birthday/results day 😱

I'm glad I don't have to source anything in particular for sixth form - the most I'll have to find is a specific calculator for A level maths I think. He's staying at school so its just the same uniform as before, although he's 6ft 3in and we're already on the longest leg length so I'm hoping he stops growing (until the end of sixth form at least anyway)!

No bridging work here but she's trying her hardest to find a part-time job.....does seem to forget that she does need to actually be able to get to the places.when there isn't a bus route and we'll be at work....Also luckily, or not as we shall see, into 6th form with no uniform.. the fashion parade will be interesting to watch when they go back! Getting nervous for 2 weeks time now but everything crossed!

Can’t believe it’s only two weeks away! I wonder if they are all marked now and just awaiting grade boundaries or if the markers are frantically trying to get them done in time!

Does seem crazy...seems like yesterday we were all posting about the dreaded maths gcse 😀
A level results next Thursday 😳

@mojobrojo.. hey!!!

The gaming and sighing sound familiar! 😈😹! Hope the trip away was good..

6ft3!! Wow!! 😮 🤩!! That’s very cool! When DO they stop growing?! Good you don’t have to shell out more than specific maths calculator…. I think a lot of pp in our group are having expensive things to pay for! 🤯

Bless him for having a wobble….. it must be so incredibly difficult for them, with everything spinning around their heads about things. Does he know that he wants to do at Uni/post A Level ( in terms of thinking of alternative to Physics?)? Work experience sounds great! Is it in area he is interested in? ( I’ve heard of a few with it not being the case..🙀!). That made me smile…. The tiredness… My DS18 is off to Uni next month, has a summer job with NT and has just come back from weekend at a festival … the sheer “ drama”!!! of … “ do you KNOW how TIRED I am”???!!🙄😹

I hope the rest of his work experience goes really well! 🤞😸

Dd has now finished her maths summer work and is powering through biology which seems limited to a report on microscopes and some cardiology stuff.
I’ve ordered her a couple of suits to try (Mango and Ted Baker) so we’ll see how they do.

For a-level parents. The results go to the unis tomorrow for them to decide what they want to do with any missed grades. So my son’s future is sealed, and will be decided in the next week. I no assume the GCSEs are probably at the done stage or deciding on a few borderline cases etc.

I had no idea that for A-levels they now expected to do summer prep work! Grateful my DD doesn't have any for her college course or I think it might've finished her off. Kudos to all the kids getting theirs done after the slog of exams.

Wishing your DS the best of luck for tomorrow! I imagine the nerves are kicking in. What does he need to get?

The results aren’t out until next week but the unis get them tomorrow! So they are ‘final’! He needs A*AA to get to his top choice! Reduced to AAA if he gets A in further maths AS (which is the only result he thinks he’ll definitely get!).

Ah, got my weeks muddled! I see what you mean now. Weird to think their grades are set in stone now but there's still another week to go. AAA* would be an amazing set of results! Was he predicted to get that?

I agree. Mine wouldn’t have wanted to work over the summer either. The exams were enough! Grateful his course didn’t require any work either. I do think it’s nice to have been able to have the summer off and restart in September.

We have two for A-Levels, one for GCSEs. The nerves are very real here! Good luck @labradorservant - DD1 'just' needs three bs - and foster daughter A and two Bs (contextual).

Glad dd2 didn't have any real work, her music practice is enough. Provisional licence ordered though, also 16-17 railcard (she turned 16 last week, finally). She has very annoyingly decided to mostly keep the curtains shut in her room and the lights on. Driving me mad, like living with a vampire.

These tall teens amaze me. 6ft 3! DD2 is five foot one, and a very important half.

The provisional licence turned up in 7 days here - but the first theory test I could get at our local centre is early November ! Securing a lesson is proving tricky - they seem to want to wait until the kids have their timetables in September . Some I’ve spoken to have no free space till after Christmas 🎅

DS is doing an hour a day on the A level work .. Hope that covers it - he gets stroppy if I ask if it will be - he really isn’t a stroppy kid normally .

good luck to all the A level siblings

The one advantage of the summer born offspring. I don't have to worry about driving lessons for another year! Although he says he never wants to learn to drive, so maybe I'll save a fortune (or find myself as a parent taxi forever).

Ratty was up at 6.30am and went for a cycle around the village whilst it was quiet!

No baby the pending results aren't affecting you at all 😀

Suggested when i saw him about 7.15am that he might want to direct some of all this healthy energy into reading something off the fun book list, which he did.......

Spoilt the good strange mood by taking them to the barber (long over due they looked like dandelion clocks), gave them cash, sent them into sort it out themselves, it's too short apparently, well that's not my fault is it?

Only lunchtime! There's two weeks of this

DS is doing an hour a day on the A level work

I think that loads - DD2 has started but won't do that much till after exams - just time after that is getting allocated for various things so is going fast.

I am starting to find it stressful. DS A-level exams results are next week though he's managed to get on an industry sponsorship scheme if he gets either firm of condition/second choice places - which is great- makes it worth the bitter fight I had with him about getting the application in on time - but adds some additional pressure there.

We worried with DD1 but knew DS has grades in bag mostly - as he'd already sat the maths and half the science exams prior - this time am a bit worried about DD2 grades. She should be okay - not as good as DS - but still getting a bit worried.

@SuperTrooper1111he was very generously predicted straight A*s after year 12 but that was very optimistic. He hit every gcse grade from 4-9 so he wasn’t a straight 9 student either. Just chose his good subjects. However he had a very nasty (red phone trauma call ) accident in the middle of his year 13 exams so he didn’t finish them. He bounced back quickly, luckily, got rest breaks and special cons in his actual exams. So if he does get the grades I’ll be a blubbering mess. Feel sorry for DD, her GCSEs are a bit of an afterthought.

Hi all. Does anyone know if schools ever consider bridging work if students land on the wrong side of their minimum grade needed? Asking for a friend really, as DS only needs fairly low grades which he should get - but DS of friend is on 6/7 border for maths and needs a 7.
She is trying to encourage him to do the rather extensive bridging work he has been set so that if he falls on a 6, he can say - but I have spent the summer working on algebra or whatever and am ready for the step up!
He is taking the "wait and see" approach and plans to do all bridging work at the end of the summer.

@mysecretshame Doing maths with a 6 (extenuating circumstances aside) would probably not lead to a good outcome in 2 years. Have a search for noblegiraffe's thread on this.

Our school accepts a 6 for Maths as the minimum requirement but all students are given a baseline test at the start of yr 12 to check that they have completed the required bridging units over the summer. Those with a 6 or scraping a 7 are deemed to be particularly in danger of not passing the baseline test and having to drop out regardless of grades achieved. It's worth asking if there is a test on the summer work.

Honestly, this is not me, I really am "asking for a friend". I mentioned Noble to her a while ago but her DS wants to do it (his main interest in computing) and thinks he can manage it, I can do no more.
I just wondered maybe if he did the work in the summer, if they might take that into consideration.

This is a great idea. I just looked at the bridging work (my DS is not doing maths but we were sent the link for every subject) and it does say that the work will be tested in a baseline test in September. From that point of view it might be better to wait until nearer the time to do the work, provided he gets his required 7 (which is by no means certain).

Wow!! I am so sorry to hear that… what an utter shocking nightmare. It must have been horrifying- thank God he survived. That is truly an accomplishment in itself to have sat his exams…. Huge positive vibes and 🤞🙏 that he gets his dream results!! He certainly deserves it! 🌟🌟🌟..

And, yes, how bizarre that the Unis have the results already! I always find facts like that unsettling, for some reason. I guess our DC GCSE results are floating out there in the abyss, too..!!! 🙀🙀🙀😹