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

I shall bide my time on arguing the point with the teacher. Unfortunately for him, I have the research data that show bright pupils from state schools lack aspiration snd are also disadvantaged in applications by cautious UCAS predictions. This was such a hot topic in the whole CAG debacle last year. Everyone always assumes UCAS grades are the same as actual predictions. In reality, some are far too generous and top unis bang on about this, overlooking that many more are found to be correct, or overly cautious.

That’s exactly my point, Piggy - she’s being blinded by RG because she has no idea how to rank non RGs.
She was really interested in Bath, until she discovered they don’t offer English 😩

How ridiculous of your DS’s teacher! We have heard a lot of that sort of talk, with regards to DS (year 10) not getting 9s in reports from teachers who “never give them”.
So frustrating, but more so for your DS for predictions!

Great drama result!

Slight annoyance with economics teacher here who says he will UCAS predict DS an A because he 'never predicts A*'.

Don't forget that Bath, Loughborough and Lancaster aren't RG and are all better than quite a lot of RG unis!

Great idea about printing out course details, thanks!
Should we be looking at a range of grade requirements? DD has only considered RG so far (not that she knows anything about RG, but is listening to her peers and following suit). No point in having 5 choices that are all a stretch, I’m guessing, but it’s easier for her to decide between the smaller pool of RG unis, than have to navigate the vast array of non-RGs

Good to know that it’s still early in the process, thanks.
School have set a deadline for first draft outline PSs to be submitted in a fortnight, which has sent DD into a flap.

Some good news today, though - she got 85% in her drama (written) exam, joint highest in the class with the head girl 🤩

Yup, that’s column 7b of her spreadshit…

DS has got a decent draft PS. A swimming friend who started at Cambridge this year gave him some tips as nothing much from school except do a draft! This boy was at same school so they were probably more organised pre COVID. The PS is nothing like I imagined they would be! So short and so focused - I have friends at work with older kids and have picked their brains. I thought originally you would do one for each Uni, or each subject, but clearly not!! He spoke to the sixth form admin yesterday as his senior tutor wouldn’t turn up for their PS tutorial - she is on the case so that’s good. It worries me that their tutor has been like this and that 20 plus kids are missing the input.

Online open days has been good in that you can do far more of them and it doesn’t matter if they clash, but conversely there is far more choice. We narrowed it down to campus based except Cardiff which he knows well, sporty but not performance sport as has had enough of that, most interesting history courses as he doesn’t know what he wants to do but that is his favourite subject. At the moment toying with law eventually or RAF.

Great news re jobs and interviews. DS doing lifeguard course over summer.

DS has been practicing writing his p.s. for the last couple of weeks in tutor time. His tutor commentated in his latest school report that he needs to sell himself to the universities not detail his failings in exhaustive detail 😄 .
I think he's used to critiquing himself as they do this in school ( as how can they do better) but has never needed to do the opposite.

Mine has only really started showing an interest since half term and even then its a bit half hearted, however he is sure he wants to stay within an fairly small radius of home (90 mins drive or thereabouts) and we have got a couple of subject areas of interest. I was talking to another mum yesterday with the same age DC but at college not DS's 6th form and she was quite surprised that we'd been to a couple of open days already and I am getting the same impression from a lot of my other friends too (most here go to the same college).

With my far less together DS, I printed off 5 or 6 course descriptions (he at least knew roughly which subjects he fancied), redacted the university name and left them on the kitchen table. That started a conversation.

I don’t think they get motivated to work on PSs or prepare for aptitude tests until they have something specific to aim for.

@Alsoplayspiccolo I’m in the same boat with DS, he has no clue what he wants to study or where he might want to study.
No mention of personal statements at all.
I’m hoping the college will start them on all that in September.
I wanted to try a few open days or even just visit some uni cities in the summer but we don’t have any idea where to go yet!

My only words of wisdom are it's still really early, despite what many schools say!

I did learn from a school presentation last night that our lot will have a Jan 29th deadline , like the year before, for UCAS.

I’m trying not to panic here, but DD has only shown real interest in one uni (Exeter...because her friends want to go there and it looks nice ), still has no firm idea what she’d like to study, hasn’t thought about writing a personal statement, has no real idea what her predicted grades might be (exam results not out yet), and DH and I have no idea where to start with help.
She’s currently more concerned about the various social engagements she’s been invited to between now and the end of term.

You all seem so switched on about the whole process - any words of wisdom?

Good luck with DD’s interviews @Orangecinnamon21. Dd has some 11 plus tutoring starting next week, £30 a week for 2 hours. I hope she can remember her Maths!

Ds is desperate for a job but options for under 16s are so limited. Even paper rounds seem to be dying out.

Dd has Psychology and RS exams today, History tomorrow and then she’s done - just one paper per subject.

Good luck to Orange’s DD with the interviews. Nard What a pain having to delay everything until September. We’ve had exams like that in the past and literally the whole hols is taken up being on edge and studying. It’s very odd they should choose to do it that way as most schools are doing resits around that time.

Well done to everyone on driving successes and great exam results. DS exams aren't until September and these will be used for ucas predictions. He will have the whole summer of revising and at least if he had done them now like most schools he could've had a more relaxing summer.

She does break up after next week though (college). I hadn't quite realised how much seasonal work there is in the area ..we are quite lucky.

The most exciting place to work around where I grew up was Chessington Zoo !

Good luck to her Orange 🤞

Good luck to your DD with the interviews @Orangecinnamon21 it’s all good experience too.
DS has been looking for a job but no luck so far. There doesn’t seem to be much about here, all the restaurants are asking for 18+ and the retail vacancies mostly wanted complete availability. He has applied for a few things though so fingers crossed

@KingscoteStaff you have reminded me of ds1 he really enjoyed the buster keaton films. I think we have a dvd set of them. He also made a film with his mates in Keaton style. That was really good. Ds2 isn't into film studies as much.

Thanks Piggy - I thought they'd be on Amazon Prime!