Corona Cohort Y12 into Y13, braving the storm of the third wave

I a m happy to move to FE. I do feel it attracts certain posters though whose experience is marginally relevant, outdated and not supportive. I am still stinging about a savage attack launched at me a few years back simply because I queried what a non RG uni was like...On the whole this thread is a haven of non judgementalness (not a word..)

I guess we need to keep our thread starts as clear as they currently are about the thread being supportive.

@Monkey2001 - my Oxford sources (DS1!) suggest that the plan is for all Oxford interviews to be online again this year. I'd assume that includes Medicine.

It's possible Oxford might be an outlier because it normally involves an overnight stay but I'm assuming everything will be online again at all medical schools this year. Anything else would be a pleasant surprise!

It was me who suggested moving to FE on the last thread. Just thinking that if anyone was looking for a thread like this, that would be where they would naturally go and look, especially if they don't have any younger DC still in secondary. I agree with not moving to HE though.

I went to uni in the early 90s and I visited four or five and only one was without my parents - and I hated it as everyone else seemed to be accompanied! It's funny as other people on here claim that no one went with parents in their day. Dd isn't at all concerned about the campus buildings but definitely wants to get a feel for the city.

I'm happy to move to further ed. It would be a shame to lose people because they're going on to apprenticeships or work.

How does everyone feel about moving to Further Ed section for next thread. It was mentioned in the last thread.

I'm ambivalent but just putting it out there that I do not want to go onto Higher Ed. Simply because, whilst you can get most excellent advice on there. There are some posters who I'm seem to like to derail threads by insisting upon their own world view
...also some may not be going to Uni !

I visited all my uni and poly choices back in the mid 80s, as did my friends. We certainly didn't have our parents with us and travelled all over the country by coach/train. It was a great experience - hadn't done much travelling on my own at that point.

Sounds as though you are in a similar position to us Oblomov. We are looking at Winchester, Chichester, Reading, Royal Holloway, Bournemouth, Roehampton. OK geographically but ruled out for other reasons are Surrey, Sussex, Portsmouth, Southampton, Solent, Brighton. Also worth looking at local technical colleges, a lot do have a few degree level options accredited by a full uni.

I did go and visit a couple of unis back in the 80s, ended up at Portsmouth without visiting but I did know the city.

I think visiting Uni's is a new thing. Back in the day hardly anyone did. I knew one person who went to visit Birmingham. Because they were set on it.

I got Portsmouth through clearing so just arranged a room the week before. Never even visited! Just turned up!

With Bristol for my MA I never even visited either. Just went!

I can't even get Ds1 interested in visiting Southampton! But I will take him. I'm determined No chance of visiting 4 others! and will tell Ds1 that that's what he's choosing!

He could do London, if he got top grades. Bath and Bristol ask too much/ too high calibre. Reading? Doesn't leave me with much ; Bournemouth, Portsmouth, Brighton.

Everywhere else is just too far away.

I do think in covid its best to be close.

@Heifer I'm going to see if DD is interested in the Bath programme. It may coincide with her Invest in thing in two weeks though.

Planning for the future with your wise words.

@Monkey2001 thanks, I will email them. Interesting about medicine, what do they do to select then?

Well our summer is based around UCAT on August 5th. Study + practice until then and if it's a good result full systems go for Medicine application, if not... Well we're not talking about that!

But she's given herself the afternoon off today to go to Wimbledon with her Granny!

We are going to Birmingham for an actual open day later this month. Have done lots on line, but DD has since changed her idea on what to study so they were useful

We have a week in Norfolk coming up (fingers crossed no-one has to isolate), so are hoping to at least visit the campus of UEA whilst there.

Also planning a trip to Nottingham over the holidays just to see the uni and get a feel for the city. Exeter is another on the list, but might wait until peek holiday season is over before going there....

I have heard that school bubbles/close contact isolations will likely be replaced with daily testing so hopefully it won't be quite so rampant. None of us have the app apart from Uni DS who had to have it to check in to uni buildings. School told 6th formers who had it to switch off whilst in school as the app could be incorrectly triggered if phones were left in lockers or pupils were sitting next to a wall during lessons! I don't trust it at all.

I think children in a large bubble not having to isolate is a good idea. But I am sure I heard them say on the news that if someone in a household tests positive the rest in the house can go to school still. That doesn't sound good. I'm assuming the rest of the household will have to test daily. Also how can the test and trace take over? Ds2 doesn't have the app neither do his friends. 6th formers can have phones, but rest of the school aren't allowed them. They have to hand them in...so ds3 doesn't take a phone to school. So if they are in close contact to someone who has covid, how is anyone apart from teachers to know?

@Heifer DS went to the Nottingham open day last Saturday. He loved it and so did DH. DS is also quite sold on the fact that a majority of students are female!

To those of you who have been through this before / are in the know, what's the likelihood of getting an offer from a uni when your predicted grades are one below their standard offer? DS has been predicted AAB but the course he wants says AAA. He did get an A* in his EPQ which I am hoping might help but, as it's law, I'm wondering if they have too many apply and so they don't need to make allowances.

School has just sent this link which may be of interest.
www.brightnetwork.co.uk/internship-experience-uk/internship-experience-uk-on-demand-schools

How it works
The experiences kick off on 27th July (after all of the live experiences), at which point you'll be emailed your pack with links to all the sessions and the project work - these are all recordings. You have until 13th August to complete everything in your own time and submit your project work, which we expect will be around 12-15 hours in total across the three-week period. By completing the sessions and submitting the work sample, you'll receive the same certificate, which you can add to your CV.

Internship Experience UK On Demand Schools is available across all eight sector streams being offered this year:

Professional Services & Consulting
Technology
Investment Banking & Asset Management
Public Sector, Policy & Charity (NEW for 2021)
Business, Operations & Marketing
Commercial Law

@Piggywaspushed I didn't realise some where on youtube, will take a look.

Has anyone signed up Step into Bath? Looks good but I'm not sure if DD will be keen as she was feeling overwhelmed and said she is struggling with having any committments at the moment. It's only 1 hr a day but I'm not sure if they will be expected to have cameras on and actively take part - which DD definitely won't be up for right now.

I haven't spoken to mine about it yet, DS is away for a couple of days and DD was out at swimming last night, then watching the end of the football when she got back and we didn't get round to discussing it.

I feel conflicted, I hate the fact that you now can't plan anything without booking in advance but any bookings and plans you do make are always at risk of suddenly having to SI, especially bigger ones such as theatre trips or holidays. We are going away soon and I am so nervous that one of us is going to get told to SI in the preceding 10 days, when we have lots of stuff planned in that period so its a real risk. We have no plans to travel abroad at any time this year but have got two UK holidays booked over the summer (both booked in the Jan lockdown).

OTOH, DD hasn't been jabbed and at 15 doesn't look likely to be anytime soon. I worry about her getting long covid and I worry about it for the rest of us too even though we are jabbed. We have got a couple of theatre trips planned, and although they are after the 19th, in my head I had been thinking there would still be masks and gaps between groups in the theatres but of course there won't.

heifer we have in person Bath overnight stay and have done all the virtuals (Cambridge is this week).

Haven't looked at September yet..

In the end , I lost the will to live a bit with booking all this virtual stuff. DS just does the subject talks really : Glasgow was a shambles so didn't really work. Done Bath, Edinburgh, Sheffield,York, Leeds, Birmingham . Missed out on Bristol and Warwick as missed the boat. Generally you spend ages booking stuff and the it's all on YouTube anyway!!

In terms of engaging subjects talks, Sheffield, Birmingham and Edinburgh win. Leeds was awful, Bath was dry. It does affect perceptions. Cambridge are busily recycling all their films from last year; some are even older!

There is no plan of uni visits here. We only did York online because Piggy mentioned it and I then sprang it on DS at no notice. I have said we will try to go and have a walk round St Andrews in the holidays as (at the moment) that's his top choice. I can't spot they have future online dates published.

I booked our summer holiday before Christmas because we have to be there, that week, for a family celebration. We wouldn't be going abroad.