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

[quote crazycrofter]@Wheresthebeach my Dd has Southampton as her favourite now! We were surprised by how nice the campus is.[/quote]
Yes us too. It just seemed such a nice size and very pretty and green

I like Southampton, been to the Highfield campus lots for work.

I'm notsure about online interviews. I'm hoping Dd will have some Music interviews online. She is not going for conservatoire but there is an element of performance in all her courses..she needs to get grade 8 standard which she has just got. I think all that she is applying to interview

I suspect for some non-competitive courses interviews are a bit of a marketing ploy. Actually I know so, as I know a Uni dept that did that some years ago. When the applicants were shown round student ambassadors were asked to use language as if the applicants had gained their place "when you come here, this will be where you pick up your kit" etc etc.

OCR English Lit is quite formulaic in its mark scheme and it is technically possible to get 100%, which is how it should be really (just like maths etc) it’s just it always feels wrong somehow in humanities. Thank goodness the school didn’t do the Chaucer option. There was some nice Angela Carter and Rossetti in there too as well as Richard 111.

I learnt Middle English pronunciation as part of my degree (Leeds) but it was an option! My tutor would have us reading Chaucer (& the god -awful Dream of the Rood) out loud round the room. But it is NOT up there in terms of accessibility or (tbh) fun times!!

@Wheresthebeach my Dd has Southampton as her favourite now! We were surprised by how nice the campus is.

OCR is quite old fashioned. York Uni used to make all first years do Middle English. Think they may have abandoned this.

We haven’t done any campus visits at all. We were going to do Notts in half term but I wasn’t talking to DS so didn’t bother. 😀

@AndwhenyougetthereFoffsomemore apologies I’ve quoted the wrong message of yours, I meant the Chaucer comment below!

One of my ex pupils did say to another teacher 'I have learnt that teaching has changed since I was at school (he's 23!) . When I had Mrs Piggy she just taught us stuff'!

I think he is taken aback by how much faff and feedback there is nowadays.

@AndwhenyougetthereFoffsomemore we went to Royal Holloway yesterday too, also for us because its fairly close to home. Main building is wow, DS liked the feel of the campus overall and the people we spoke to were very friendly and helpful.

Thanks for the new thread.

We went to Southampton on Friday ... in the pouring rain. They did an accommodation and campus open day. Really lovely campus. DD now firmly getting her heart set on it.

Desperate to get to end of year without isolation...gah.

Thanks for new thread. Interesting that there may be more online interviews. Not sure that would be great for DS.

DS was another whose English GCSE results were out of kilter with all other subjects. I look squarely at the teacher (not all teachers Piggy!) for reasons I won't bore you with. I loved English Lit A level and persist in trying to get DS to read for pleasure. A recent success was Harlan Coben's YA series.

Christopher yes I was thinking that too!

Thanks for the new thread. I'm just wondering how many of these last few weeks we will get through without the whole year being sent home.

I do agree that the Eng lit content needs some updating. I really love the dc's poetry choices ( a mixed bag of contemporary and older stuff) and Shakespeare works for my two, but there are just too many dead white men on the reading list still. (And I'm amazed at anyone choosing Chaucer for anything below A level: just why?!?! Your poor son, @JustHereWithMyPopcorn! I learnt to read Chaucer at uni, even then didn't love it. And honestly, I'm not convinced it's that key to the canon/future lit development - unlike Shakespeare, or Thomas Hardy, or Mary Shelley for example)

DS went to the Royal Holloway open day today (more because it was local than because it is of real interest tbh): he was very impressed by the main building and the laid back relaxed atmosphere .... and the board games club! But less so by the course (comp sci) - which is good news I think, as he's starting to get more of a sense of what he does and doesn't want...

Thanks for the new thread @Monkey2001. I may be way offline, but I also wonder if the way 'English' is taught in primaries is impacting this cohort. English at primary is SO tediously focused on grammar and fronted adverbials: dd (my Y10) was pleasantly surprised when English at secondary was so much more about books and not about tenses and parts of speech... That said even she (who was a voracious reader) has massively slowed down with her reading - I think the lure of easy content in the form of youtube and tiktoks and all the rest is too much. She had an adorable conversation with her English teacher who is setting up a shakespeare club : but even she - who loves Shakespeare and mythology and is interested in reading classics at uni - doesn't expect to study Eng Lit at A level. Gutting!

I am amazed at the Chaucer! What board is that?

The main issue with the kids I teach seems to be that they expect and want to be told what to think and what to write and don't actually want the open endedness of English.

I think I am quite an old-school teacher though! or just old

Drama, history, English, PE, graphics - all once very popular, all dropped in numbers at my school at A Level and at GCSE for the first two.

It's my DD @Monkey that wants to apply for architecture . That sounds such a brilliant opportunity for a potential student. Unfortunately DD isn't in a state school so I'm guessing that renders her ineligible ☹️

Thanks for the new thread!

Re English - my DD has always loved English and was good at it. Still always had a book on the go. Both she and DS were out off by thoroughly uninspiring teachers, boring texts and not being allowed to have any original ideas. They were told what they had to think the author meant rather than actually being allowed to come up with their own suggestions etc

@Monkey2001 Thanks for the shiny new thread .