Post GCSE summer

[llareggub]

I am looking for ideas to suggest to my son, who will be finishing GCSEs this summer. Left to his own devices he will spend it gaming and sleeping. He was 16 last October and pretty mature.

He is very interested in politics and will be doing A Levels in September. Ideally I want something to widen his horizon and grow his confidence.

Hi,
Eldest is the same age. These are some things she and her friends are doing/have talked about (nothing groundbreaking I'm afraid, but might be something useful in there):
Get/do jobs - DD works a couple of evenings a week and will step that up a bit over the holidays. The friends who don't have jobs will get them after exams (we live in a holiday town so this is relatively easy)
NCS - week long residential for 16-17 year olds. Cost is £95 so relatively cheap for such experiences.
University open days - lots of these are end June/early July so might be good for some inspiration and focus
Work experience - didn't do it at school cos of covid so a couple have managed to find their own
Travel - DD and a friend are going to Paris to visit my cousin for a few days. They'll have her to show them around and stay with, but getting there on their own will be an adventure. They are planning a couple of UK visits too
I think some proper downtime, whatever that looks like for them (in DD's case, it's binge-watching Netflix in PJs), is definitely going to be a good thing after exam season too!

I've suggested to ds that he goes away camping or to a youth hostel for a few days with friends. Not sure he will and I will be a nervous wreck if he does but would be good for him.

Ds will be working quite a bit, we have a holiday planned and he also has a sports training camp. The summer will fly by i think.

We have a holiday planned, my son has a job as bank staff lifeguard so will take on more shifts. He’s applied to volunteer at RIAT air show.
If your son is into politics are local candidates out campaigning - could he get some experience canvassing or working in MPs office?

I've found some volunteering for my DD as she would be the same.

They want to work with children so they're going to volunteer in that industry.

My DS is currently doing GCSEs and will be 17 in September. It's been a stressful time like for all of Y11 but also because his best friend died of cancer 8 weeks ago. It was expected but nonetheless life changing for him. He has paused his out of school activities (football and piano) because he just doesn't feel like it. He is sad understandably alot of the time as well as feeling angry and being in denial and all the other emotions in the grief cycle. He mentioned the summer but rather than looking forward to it, his view is "what am I going to do?" We will be away in July for 3 weeks but other than that it feels like a big chasm stretching out. Any thoughts on what a nearly-17 could do to fill his time?