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

@zebracat does your school offer core maths or could she re-sit in Y 12 to get a better grade? It might be good to plan to repeat Y12 if she is still catching up from trauma in the past. It would be good if she could aim to have a great set of results at the end of Y13 as that would open up more options for her, and everybody is entitled to 3 years of sixth form if they want it.

If she wants to head in a computer science direction, maths would be very helpful.

She’s a great kid. She’s done lots of the transition work, she likes it. I’m worried that she will want to sit exams if she doesn’t like her grades, and then she’ll be trying to refresh on 9 CCSEs and take 4 a levels. I Feel that she is becoming more social, she was quite shut down when we got her, so there will be otHer demands on her time. Just don’t want it to all go tits up.. sorry for random capitals.

She does seem inclined towards science, although her English is good. I think Maths would have been right for her, but she just had too much to catch up with there and would have been lucky to get 4-5.

That’s really tricky, it sounds like you’ve done a fab job since she’s been with you. Has she looked at the transition work (if they’ve been given any) for those two subjects? My dd found it quite helpful as working through the material confirmed her subject choices.

Also, she had a look at A Level papers for the relevant boards to see what they looked like. She sounds very motivated so self study for one subject may work. After all, if we have more lockdowns she might be self studying all four!

I’m sorry to hear about her troubled past. I can see why continuity is important.

Not all universities count Psychology as a science, there is a lot of written content. DS1 is starting medicine, so that is what I know about, and most would have no preference between Psychology and Sociology.

Sociology fits nicely with History but Psychology may go a bit better with comp sci. Nice diverse set of subjects!

She’s not sure what she wants to do. She’s had some trauma. This college is attached to her current school and she needs that continuity, but it is small and so has less choice.Her first choice was Biology ,Computer Science and Media.
She wasn’t really at school before year 10 ( not our fault, we only got her then), so she looks like a very average student on paper, but actually she’s extremely bright, works really hard and is making ridiculous progress. The best local college rejected her as they didn’t think she would get the grades. Her predictions were 4-6, but all her teachers thought 6 - 8, and Her media Teacher was certain she would get a 9. I think these allocated grades won’t be kind to her.
I could probably make a fuss and get her in elsewhere, she is previously looked after, but she loves the local college as many of the teachers work across the sites.
She is determined to take 4 a-levels, wants to do distance learning Biology. I am really worried about the load on her, but she loves studying. Really don’t know what to do for the best.

What does she want to study at university @Zebracat? I wouldn’t imagine it would make much difference what her third A Level is unless she wants to do a course that requires 2 Science A Levels - Psychology counts as a science.

It seems a shame not to do her first choice subjects though. Is there nowhere else she could go?

Thanks all for the thoughts re clothing. Next issue Is that all dds a level choices were in the same column, so we have really had to scramble. She is torn between psychology and sociology. She found psychology very dull at GCSE, and the syllabus for Sociology looks good. Which is looked on more favourably by universities? Her others are Computer Science and History

DDs school given the choice of going in at 8am or getting an email. DD chosen to go in. Letter from school to say social distancing, no parents allowed in the school, no subject teachers will be present and they must not contact teachers to discuss grades. If they want to discuss results they can make an appointment for the next day with a member of senior staff/head of year.

No cash rewards for grades here but some money for working hard for year 11 is going towards a new piano that DD has been saving for.

Still no confirmation about whether Nando’s are doing Free Chicken With A Results Slip like they did last year - DD would appreciate that reward!

8am results email here. Absolutely no suggestion that DD’s school were ever going to do an in-person results collection, sadly, even though the year group is about 70 so staggered pick ups a reasonable possibility.

DD hasn’t even bothered ordering a leavers’ hoody...it’s all a bit sad, really.

She tried to arrange a celebration glamping night for her friendship group, but a couple are hoping to be away on holiday with their families, so she’s got nothing planned so far.
I’m hoping to arrange a treat day for her.

No money rewards here but I am making a Bakewell tart, which was all DS could think of that he wanted, so we will celebrate / commiserate over a slice of that. DD Yr9 is much more materialistic and she got a new pair of tracksuit bottoms for a good report and for coping with schoolwork during lockdown. She found it a real struggle at times and there were many tears, but she persevered and did end up getting everything done. Definitely worth some recognition and hopefully that feeling of accomplishment will stay with her 🤞

We would have taken DD out for a steak dinner, regardless of the grades. No cash, no way. Not sure what we'll do now...

The cash for grades thing goes totally against my principles too! But generally speaking ds has smashed all my pre-children parenting principles! The usual approach doesn’t work with him. But we’ll see, he’s a very young year 9, so hopefully he will mature.

That makes sense that the schools know the grades the day before.

I found the release. It's a slight change in rules which confused me. Schools still get them the day before (although in practice this is about three people). Nothing can be released to students or via UCAS until 8 am whereas usually it is 6am, apparently!

I think they wanted to set this so schools weren't emailing stuff out too early.

We have just been promised emails ‘early in the morning’ whatever that means. It also comes from the woman who takes at least a week to answer any emails so I won’t be holding my breath.

We didn’t do rewards for results. Our DC have different academic abilities so even if I agreed with the cash for grades (which I strongly don’t) then it wouldn’t be fair anyway. The aim was to reward effort so with DS1 I took him abroad for a few days just the two of us after his exams and had planned the same with DS2 but obviously that got cancelled. I have planned a treat the day before exams but no other plans as yet.

@Piggywaspushed Perhaps they said 8am the day before? I really don’t think schools could hand out results an hour or two after receiving them. Even if everything went smoothly it would not be enough time to download & print them

It may just be that they aren't to be released via schools until 8 am. There was also something about A Level and UCAS.

I was going to do that with Ds as a last ditch motivation attempt but base it not just on the grade but a realistic prediction of what he is capable of.

Eg at the start of year 9 based on data from his previous school & cognitive tests Ds was predicted Grade 6’s. So he would be rewarded for achieving that with extra for achieving above that.

Whereas Dd could get mostly 7’s without breaking a sweat as she retains information much easier so her bar would be higher. (She got mostly 8’s in the end with a couple of 9, a 7 & a 6 in her worst subject.

Decor, I am not sure that is happening this year. There was a press release thing last week. I may have misread it but it definitely mentioned 8am.

I'd always reward the effort and not the results.

We've bought dd a guitar as a 'reward' for effort - even though she hasn't had to put any work in for the last 3 months! But she worked hard in the run up to March and we wanted to recognise that, rather than reward grades.

There's no right or wrong though. I remember a friend of mine at school who was offered a certain amount per A/B/C. I remember she got quite a lot more money than her older brother! I didn't think it was a good idea, but I'm actually considering it with ds, as a way of motivating him. I mentioned it to dd recently and she thought it was a great idea, knowing her brother - who at the moment sees no point in aiming much higher than a 5! - which is fine if that were his natural ability level, but it's not!

@Piggywaspushed Schools get the results the day before so they have time to check than and print them out

I'm a bit surprised by these 8am promises! The schools aren't getting them til 8am this year (it's normally 6 am).

My dd school results by 9.30am via email followed by the grades that school submitted to the centre via email by midday. Head and co-head of year 11 and head of sixth form all available via email on the day for questions and queries.

I’ve decided to work from home that day just in case there are any problems that will need my help or support. Sixth form enrolment is a week later and I’ve taken the day off for that just so I can drop her - it’s a new college for her as she’s not staying at current school for sixth form.

This is my first experience of exams - what do people do to celebrate- do you give gifts etc? We had a international holiday planned for straight after exams as her ‘reward’ but obviously had to cancel that.

Didn’t know what the norm was in terms of gift - if any? I’ve known a few parents with older siblings bribe with cash for a* etc - but wasn’t something I was prepared or could afford to do. Was thinking just getting her a voucher for clothes store so she can kit herself out for college - no uniform rules to consider so she’ll be needing some new gear.