you'll be fine Ducks...   ok initially, you won't be, but honest..   I was bereft for a couple of weeks when Ickle left for school (you might remember )...   but within weeks I started to adapt.

I'm not saying that its all rosy from then on...    as you know, as you have lived through it with me...    they continue to do & say stuff from afar that has your guts churning & at times drives you insane with worry...   but you get through it.

And Duds is a sensible lad..    waaaay more sensible than the girl (especially the girl at 16)...   

and we'll be here for you xx

I know

Too sensible! I'm praying he gets there and lives it to the full!

Ok, maybe half full

with vodka, kleenex and a seemingly endless supply of rude pics 

Don't forget the Rex in police uniform pics.....they're not rude but I wouldn't want you forgetting about those!

hahaha

SOLD!  One Son to Hull University...  for photos of Rex in a police uniform! 

Got to get the priorities right...and she has!!!!

Congratulations to all members little big ones on their results 

In all the excitement I forgot to say thanks to everyone for all you support and congratulatory wishes yesterday - thanks!!

Ditty, now the dust has settled, how is Ickle?

I hope she now realises her results were great, by any standards.

awww... thank you for asking Yogi.

She's fine now...   actually she was fine last night.      Last night I asked her how she was and she said that she actually thinks this is a good thing, as she now realises that the degree course she had applied for perhaps wasn't the one she really wanted to do... & now that we have said "follow your heart, not your wallet", in terms of courses she applies for, and she has decided to apply for Chemistry Degrees she feels happier.

She wants to be a Chemistry teacher (in her words "A chemistry version of Ducky)... 

So, all in all I am very proud of her..   for coming to this frame of mind so quickly.

She's a little subdued this morning, reading her friends results...    but she's ok.

She's still going to take the year out before going to uni, and is going to start making enquiries at her old school & at the 6th form college to see if there is somewhere she can attend this year, to make up some of the stuff she missed due to illness last year, and then resit some exams.

That sounds like a good plan, Ditty.

She's a really smart girl, who will make the best of any opportunities which come her way.

I have no doubt she'll be successful, whatever she chooses to do - and a Chemistry version of Ducky sounds brilliant.

thank you Yogi... 

I do sometimes wonder when I will stop worrying about her 

My boy seems so much easier (at the moment...   this may change )

Never is the answer - it's in the job description, in very, very small print.

great! 

I can confirm this - I never got round to reading the small print!!

I always miss that bit as well. 

  A chemistry version of the Duckster 

taking a year out of uni and going to the 6th form sounds like a good plan.  A science teacher is one of the most sort after (along side mathematical ones).  It might be a more relaxed atmosphere  at her own school or 6th form as I'm sure Ickle is still recovering from her illness but not too relaxed that she becomes horizontal    I still think she did bloomin' marvellous   as did everyone else's offspring 

---------------

we've just been up there Pengy...     its a bit complicated...  cos the bloody exam boards are all different 

However, can't fault her old school today...  the teacher we sat down with was really really lovely.. understood how debilitating GF can be (which tbh, the boarding school she has just left never really seemed to understand this)...    and kept telling Ickle that the results she got were good results without the GF.

Happy for her to attend lessons for A2 physics there...   but there is the problem with the exam board being different.    she's going to make enquiries to find out if Ickles current AS physics (which is AQA) is transferable over to the OCR syllabus, so she can just do A2 physics there.

otherwise...   we might be looking at her binning the AQA physics altogether & her doing OCR physics A Level in a year up here at her grammar school.

whatever, I am really really touched & impressed by the grammar...  there's nothing in it for them to take her back & help her get back on track...   but they are bending over backwards to find a way of doing it  (at one point even saying they would see what the mechanics of them getting hold of AQA exam papers for her to sit there.. . just for her!!)

the private school could learn alot from this kind of care

on the plus side... 

on the way back from her school in the car just now..   she said  "I am actually really really happy Mum...  I feel excited about doing a chem degree & the prospects of teaching a subject that I love...  it feels right.   I didn't know how wrong the other path was til now"

Awwwww....so glad everything seems to be sorting itself out for Ickle...and good on the school for doing all they can to help....with that kind of support and the support she gets at home, she can't go wrong xxxxx

hopefully MrsB... 

I ain't tempting fate by saying what could go wrong (the moment I say that the devil comes along & farts in my face! )

but.. yes... things looking up..   & the smiley bouncy teenager I have today is completely different to the sobbing mess I was trying to sort out yesterday at this time 

All sounding very positive Ditty - I'm glad she hasn't allowed it to get her down - pretty amazing that it has actually given her time to think properly about her choices - if she'd have got the grades she needed she may well have carried onto a path that ultimately may not have made her happy.

Good to hear about the old school pulling out all the stops too.

thank you Soozy..  

I am dead proud of the way she's handled all this

That's great news Ditty - and the grammar school deserves a pat on the back.

So happy everything seems happier today.

Glad to hear she's happier with the new plan.

No pressure for Ducky, though, huh?

Congrats to all those forum members kids, you must be all so proud  

Yeah... I thought that.     In a few years time, when she's there...   doing the job..    and she finds she hates it..  

she'll be back here & duck hunting! 

Yeah, when we find out Ducky's made it sound too good.

Baby Moomin has got his confirmation letter and some info from Hull today. But still nothing about accommodation. Ducky - did your son get the info about accommodation with all the rest of the bumph or was it something separate? When should I start panicking that he is going to ne homeless?!

He got his accommodation info a couple of months ago Moomin.

I don't think you should panic yet, but do try and get as much info on what's happening as you can, cos the sooner you know what's going on the better. Has your son been in touch with the uni to find out what the process will be for him regarding accommodation? I would tell him to give them a ring today if he hasn't already done so.

Ok...I need to cover my back here!

Be warned.....I did spend a lot of my training year in the store cupboard crying! (I did the GTP rather than the PGCE so was in one school for the whole year, training on the job whilst being paid....thankfully there were 3 of us in the same subject doing it at the same time.....so there was always someone in the store cupboard already crying when you got there   )

I did train at a very very tough school though..... and once you get past the horror of training and actually become good at your job every tear was worth it

Resurrected thread for all those whose little ones get their GCSE results today

*camps out and waits for Muffles to tell us his result for maths* 

I was cleaning my bedroom at 7am waiting for son to get up. in fairness he was at the school for half eight. 

A*'s in English Lit, Biology and RE (I will enjoy conveying that to the loathesome work colleague who told me I was a failed parent for not introducing my atheist son "to the glory of Jesus"), A's and B's in the rest. Not bad considering I never saw him do any homework and only had the briefest glimpse of him doing any revision. 

He's back to the 6th form next month to do Psychology, Biology, English Lit and Drama. 

congrats to junior Mr Cariad 

Way to go young Cariad Well done

I am still waiting to hear from my daughter about my granddaughter I hope that means my granddaughter is too busy  out celebrating with her mates to let anyone know  

A friend of mine had to drag her daughter out of bed to go get hers. 

Max came home with his results slip and headed out again immediately to spend the day fleecing his mates for pennies playing poker in the park. 

Daughter is in year 10 and has had some very good interim results too. I'm really proud of both of them...only another 3 years of this until they both finish 6th form!