GCSE summer 2020 thread 6 - Carry on Corona Cohort, Further adventures aboard the Corona Charabanc.

[FoolsAssassin]

The summer of discovidtent for the Corona Cohort trudging on towards results day.
Ofqual have done them a little video to explain their results:

Please feel free to join us to see what twists the next bit has in store for us all.


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[KingscoteStaff]

Lovely new thread. Thank you.

One school round here has done Leavers' Hoodies with 'Plague Year' on the back and a big red cross!

[FoolsAssassin]

Oh I love it

[AnneOfCleavage]

Wow thank you for the new thread FoolsAssasin.

These next few weeks are going to be nail bitingly nerve wracking til results day as then we'll know our DC next steps a bit clearer.

DD has already found her friends who are staying on for 6th form are already cliqueing and sharing on SM their meet ups. Her supposed BFF arranged a gathering yesterday and didn't invite her. When she asked (was so proud she phoned her and asked why this morning after crying herself to sleep after seeing a pic last night) and it was because I'd invited a couple who we're really good friends with out on BHMonday last month and their DD who my DD is really good friends with (same school) and didn't invite this BFF - never mind you can't share cars with non family and we'd met up with her family the Sat before. Girls eh.
I've suggested she branch out a bit so she arranged a walk with a primary school friend today and is seeing her cousin tomorrow for a picnic.

Ooh sorry for long ramble. Didn't mean to post all that but was awake a long time last night with DD so it's still in my mind a bit.

[AnneOfCleavage]

That's hilarious Kingscote. DD is designing her own leavers hoodie as she wants to have one to wear to her dance school like all the other students. We've found someone to do it - £50 - which is a hoodie in chosen colour and any lettering. Thought it pricey but it is a one off rather than 200+ that would have been made.

Thanks for that video clip Fools - I'll show DD for reassurance.

[sandybayley]

That's rubbish @AnneOfCleavage but that's girls for you. I try not to get involved because I know DD has not always been kind in the past herself.

DD has been keeping busy with some bridging sessions from current school and has helpfully discovered that she really doesn't like Economics. Useful as she's signed up to do it at SL IB. I need to email her new Sixth Form to inform them of the change of plan.

Her new Sixth Form has arranged an induction talk via Teams next week. Not as much fun as the BBQ they'd planned but at least it's something.

[EwwSprouts]

Leavers hoodies and meet ups are just not on DS's radar. He's back at one sport but not seeing friends casually. I don't think he's said no to anyone I think they're all in a rut of playing online. Quite a few of the parents are NHS so they might be encouraging more caution?

[ealingwestmum]

FoolsAssassin. Thank you for the new thread.

[OrangeCinnamon]

Thanks @FoolsAssassin for some reason I think in my head 50 pages = 1000 messages ...should just use my eyes really.

@AnneOfCleavage some of them can be so oversensitive yet completely lacking in empathy at the same time. A bit of distance and expanding friendship group does sound like a good idea.

[mumoftwodc]

@FoolsAssassin thanks for the new thread and the video. That hoodie sounds great @KingscoteStaff. No hoodies here unfortunately.

[Monkey2001]

This is a nice friendly start to the GCSE thread after some fairly robust discussion over on the A level/going to university thread! Whilst it is stressful for our GCSE students, it really is more worrying for the people (not) doing A levels. I remain convinced that it is better to be in Y11 than Y10, Y12, Y13 at the moment.

Love the "Plague Year" hoodie idea

[Monkey2001]

This video came up for me after the OFQUAL one, and I thought it was even more interesting....

[OrangeCinnamon]

There is something about.some of these tutors on Youtube...I love that he is just using a pen and paper to explain, its working, it's helpful, seem so genuine compared to some of the manufactured dross.

Unfortunately the school decided that the last mock results (early March) would not be released. One teacher emailed Dd before covid-19 (and that school decision)in delight basically saying 'don't tell anyone I told you ...but you got an 8' on the back of another convo.

I do feel sorry for the other years, it all seems so rubbish for them

[FoolsAssassin]

That’s a very helpful video Monkey. I think DS’s school has the potential to lose out a bit as a school but am still of the it is what it is frame of mind and having been thinking recently I am glad they aren’t years 10 or 12.

Had a look at the A level thread, it is certainly on the robust side ! I would like to think we could avoid that here as we move through the next couple of years and beyond.

We’re stopping DS’s hay fever spray as have read some people do react negatively and he has changed since being on it. But then the world imploded so who knows. But he just looks so flat and sad and is irritable so will see if stopping it makes any difference. To make things worse we are hoping to move which must be hugely unsettling for him which I get but he only has 1 friend here he sees and moving will put us nearer his new school. He’ll still have to board weekly but during holidays and weekends will make it easier to see new friends he will hopefully make. We haven’t seen DD since December which I don’t think is helping.

[Heifer]

Thanks for those 2 videos, very interesting. Especially liked the 2nd one which made a very good point that although about 50% of results will be changed from what the teacher predicted (up and down), adjustments are made every year anyway so the grades don't improve too much year on year..

This may help explain later to DD if she doesn't get a certain grade which she believes she deserves . For example an 8 in PE, she has been working at this grade, never getting lower in tests or homework etc, got an 8 in Mocks - didn't spend as much time revising as some other subjects so COULD have got a 9 in exam but who knows. It's possible that she will actually be awarded a 7. Her school cohort this year are much lower predicted grades in PE, most of the class were working at 3/4/5 apparently, so I suspect that the results in previous 3 years weren't many 8s. This may well mean that although she deserves an 8 she won't get it. And even if she was at a school where lots had 8s before her, the grade could be reduced to a 7 if lots more people also predicted 8s nationally, which would have happened anyway even if they had taken exams and too many got 8 results. I don't think DD is aware of this happening every year and it wasn't just about what score you got on the exam itself.

I can see some tears coming tbh, if DD doesn't get the grades she believes she deserves, but I am guessing that in some subjects her grade may be higher than she believes (fingers crossed anyway).

I've tried to get across to her that it doesn't really matter if it's a 7, 8, or 9, or 5,6,7 (Chemistry as she is around a 6) as long as she gets what she needs to do the next thing, at the school she wants to go too (another story as she still hasn't decided to stay or go)…

DD seems more unsettled now that the exams would have been over, even though she has met up with friends, it's now that she knows she would be having "the best summer of her life"..

She is doing some A level bridging work, but not lots. Seems to be sleeping later and later. (going to sleep later as well as waking up later). I am leaving her to her own devices at the moment. I can see from her message board in her room that she is doing some work, stretching, exercise routine, tidying her room, sorting clothes etc - she is like me in that she loves a list to tick off :-)

August 20th seems so very far away, so fingers crossed we all cope (us and the Yr11s) !!

[Northumberlandlass]

Thanks for the new thread.

DS’s school have produced Leavers Hoodie’s but I was disappointed they were just the usual design - I thought ‘Lockdown Leavers’ might have been a nice touch.

Apparently they are organising some social online engagement instead of a Prom - not that DS was that bothered. They are holding some American style prom awards which made my teeth itch - so I sent an email to the school about such superficial shite being included.... “who is most likely to be a millionaire” “most likely to win the internet” “likely to sleep through exams” ...

[OrangeCinnamon]

Sounds a recipe for disaster @Northumberlandlass teethitching indeed

[Northumberlandlass]

DS found it rather amusing really & I could hear his eyes roll when I said I had emailed the school 😬
He said that the students on the ‘Prom Sub Committee’ were all Queen Bee’s & Sporting heroes - so it was all rather self serving.

It felt like ‘Star of Week’ at Primary all over again!

[KingscoteStaff]

@Heifer another one here with a whiteboard list!

Lots of clothes being sorted out - possibly to optimistically make room for a new 6th form wardrobe (no uniform)!

[ChristopherTracy]

Just place marking for the new thread

[postingintotheabyss]

Could somebody please point me in the direction of the main A level thread? Is it here in Secondary Education or in the Coronavirus topic? Thanks!

[RedskyAtnight]

No suggestion of hoodies here.

DS is sleeping in till lunch, doing a tiny bit of bridging work (mostly to avoid being nagged) and then gaming. We scarcely see him apart from meal times.
I suspect he must be bored though, because yesterday he was looking at the Chemistry bridging work and he has absolutely no intention of studying Chemistry further. Although as he has no intention of studying so many things, he doesn't what he actually will be studying next year, perhaps it's a good thing he's broadening his horizons.

Is he the only one that doesn't know what he wants to do next year, and how do you move beyond this?

[Wheresthebeach]

It's so depressing to think that kids will get lower marks than they deserve due to previous cohorts. DD's year was expected to get the highest marks for years because they are able. It will be gutting if the teachers predictions, which I think reflect her work, get downgraded. I've started to dread results day now.

This was supposed to be their most careful, best summer ever.

[ProggyMat]

Thanks for the new thread Fools
I can’t stop laughing at the Plague Year Hoodie 😂
I told DD but she just gave me a withering look...
We’ve actually had a prom dress fitting this week but it’s really cheered DD up and if it languishes in her wardrobe until Yr13, so be it
Heifer I don’t think I could as cool if DD was given a grade less than she’d ‘attained’ for 2 years plus achieved at Mocks. DD would be absolutely livid!
I read on an A level thread, some time ago, that whilst schools can’t give the grades prior to ‘results day’, afterwards a request can be made under data laws to ascertain how the school had graded and ranked a student’s subjects.
Does anyone know if this is the case?

[Monkey2001]

@Wheresthebeach if you watch the video I linked earlier you will see that they also look at SATs results in moderation, so a strong cohort should be picked up.

@ProggyMat I heard on Radio 4 that students will be able to ask what the school have as the assessed grade, but NOT where they were ranked.

[Wheresthebeach]

Thanks @Monkey2001 - Fingers crossed. I always worry about SATs as DD dyslexic and wasn't given extra time. Also increased print size wasn't allowed for her (eyes obs) so her SATs weren't indicative of her ability. However if it's cohort based then should be okay. Just feeling down about it all I think.