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

@sandybayley DS1 is starting medicine at St A in September, and my brain is stuffed full of medicine application info. He thought he would like to apply to Edinburgh, but was utterly underwhelmed by the course talk when we visited although he loved the city (who wouldn't!) He thought the Leicester talk was much more inspiring so switched Edinburgh for Leicester. It is a particularly good idea for medics to attend the virtual presentations for as many medical schools as possible - we had a 4 night mini-break to see St Andrews and Edinburgh, which was only possible because he was on a gap year.

@singingstones - I agree but DH and I met at Edinburgh and DD's godfather studied medicine there. I think we may have talked it up somewhat.

I've just signed up for the 'advance ticket' alert for train tickets and am thinking about booking a hotel which can be cancelled if needed.

I am hoping he might avoid Scotland, partly because of the expense of travelling to open days and partly because if he did go there he would be (sob) so far away. But let's see..

DD is aiming for medicine. She likes the look of Edinburgh and will also give Oxford a go. Not sure what else will be in the list but given that applications for medicine need to be quite strategic I suspect the list will narrow down when she has GCSE results in hand and we have some insight on BMAT and UCAT.

We're hoping to get to Edinburgh in the Autumn but if not she'll be there next summer to perform on the fringe (postponed from this year),

@Monkey2001 if it were me, I’d keep St As in the mix too!
That said, I think we’d have to visit so she could see that there was a good social life to be had -if that makes sense?
@singingstones it’s really scary how quickly time is rattling on and worrying that it may not be possible to visit all potential Unis from a temporal perspective let alone a financial one!

Monkey
Virtual open days are a good idea, I might suggest that at one of his more receptive moments.

Proggy
Great that she has found out about courses already, I think that might be very motivating when it comes to working hard for A levels. DS is currently leaning towards neuroscience but so far all he knows is that UCL is supposedly best for it. He reckons he's got loads of time but I think the next year will go in a flash.

DS wants to do engineering and will probably go for Cambridge as the aspirational choice, but has not started to look elsewhere yet. DH is an engineer, so knows lots of people who can talk about their experience at various places.

The virtual open days are a brilliant way of getting a "quick dip" into a university with very little cost/hassle, so would be very good for getting a shortlist of places to actually visit when you can.

@ProggyMat DS was unsure about social life at St A until he visited, but he loved it and ended up choosing it over Sheffield although he is a club/festival sort of person. It comes top of the charts for student experience, which is generally acknowledged to be one of the more reliable measures in the league tables.

Singing in terms of what subject she’d like to read at Uni then yes it’s Classics.
She will have an aspirational punt at Oxbridge but has also looked at potential other Unis.
She quite likes the look of Warwick as that offers a year abroad at an Italian Uni and accelerated Italian.
Exeter and UCL are also in the mix, for now
She’s ruled out St Andrews as she doesn’t think it’s ‘nightlifey’ but Edinburgh is another on the list to look at

Proggy so does your DD know what she wants to do and her choices of university? DS hasn't got much of a clue about where to go, every now and then airily suggests Oxford or "abroad" but that's it. (In the nicest possible way he is very unlikely to get into Oxford but let's see what results day brings.)

Jokes aside, I was hoping to visit at least one of DDs current Uni choices this summer as most are a fair hike from where we are.
I guess a lot of current Yr12 parents are in the same boat if they didn’t do any visits last year.

DD wants to go to Uni to party 😂

DS still wants to go to Uni, to row (and study!)

DS state school has confirmed his A-level choices based on his performance / attitude in last 2 years, his new A-Level teachers have sent reading lists for his subjects & a ‘workbook’ every 2 weeks that he has to confirm completion by email & they send answers to self mark.
The school also hope to have a semi normal results day too.
Think we’ve been quite lucky!

How are everyone's DC feeling about the future? Do they have plans for post gcse / a levels / apprenticeships etc?
DS wants to go to university but isn't 100% sure yet what he wants to do. I'm just thinking that university open days must take place in Y12 so all that will soon be upon us..

I’ve got my eye on a Mary Beard book DD ordered and has been reading 😂

Mahoosive reading list has arrived - DD has ordered 2 from each of her subjects to be going on with and I’ve ordered 2 off the History list because they sounded interesting!

Yes - we have now had A-Level bridging work from two different schools and they were broadly aligned though of different difficulty and one favoured mixing up the media more than the other. We have also been offered a lot of stretch resources should we need -which DS has ignored-

Dunno about ‘normal’ schools but wasn’t it established either on this thread or the previous one that there seemed to be a disparity of A level prep provision within sectors let alone across?

No A Level prep lessons for dd - just work to complete. But it's given her a taster of the subjects and got her back into the swing of studying.

Bit jealous of the DCs who have already had A level prep lessons. Is it happening in normal schools or just private? DS has been given some websites with resources he can use. That's it.

DDs school are hoping to have Yr11 in to collect results, subject to current guidelines- so that’s me camped out in car in car park whilst she collects them.
Should we be in a ‘local lockdown’, they will be emailed.
Her online A level prep lessons from new school- which have been fabulous and bode well for the first term of Yr12 should no face to face teaching be possible- have ended and DD now feels like the ‘summer holidays’ have officially commenced

Also forgot to add - DD has definitely chosen her subjects of Biology, Psychology and PE with Core Maths. She was worried that they weren't academic enough but I've shown they fine for reading Biology at Uni - in fact just to make sure I emailed 3 unis, (Durham, Lancaster and York). I was worried that although they met the entrance criteria (assuming she got high enough grades) but if they had lots of applicants who were doing say Biology, Chemistry and Maths, that she would be way down the pecking order.
So far York has come back to say that they do not judge applications in terms of 3 science A Levels against 2. Each application is considered equally which puts my mine at rest as I would be mortified that I convinced her choices were fine and turns out they aren't!

I think it's great that some schools are letting the Yr11s collect results if they can do it safely. Sadly DDs school isn't one of them - they will receive an email at 8.00am, then a personal phone call from 8.30 - 11.30 to discuss their results and next step.
DD doesn't seem that interested in results day at the moment and said she doesn't care they can't go it as she feels there isn't anything to celebrate as she hasn't earnt the results :-( I've tried explaining that she will have, as based on her hard work over the years, but no getting through to her at the moment.
She is meeting up with her friends weekly now, 1 for small group hockey training together, 1 for cycling and school friends for general catch up. She is still doing some biology work.
She says she has made the decision to stay at her 6th form (also has a place at local boys grammar school) but we will leave it until results day to confirm so she can change her mind if she wants to. Staying will be a lot easier re transport as she can walk to school. Moving schools means a lift from friend, then bus or train and bus.