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Further education

You'll find discussions about A Levels and universities on our Further Education forum.

GCSE'S 2019 Done, Results Received, Moving on to 6th Form and College

473 replies

ArthurtheCatsHumanSlave · 04/09/2019 14:06

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/secondary/3671029-gcse-2019-support-thread-6

New Thread for all our DC's moving on to 6th Form and College to do ALevels and BTEC's, and anything else exciting and new.

OP posts:
Baaaahhhhh · 22/02/2020 16:44

Arewedone DD had to do that, but it is not set in stone. I think they just wanted to see that the girls were all thinking about it.

DD just had a wobble actually. Having definitely decided on History and Ancient, and looking again at those courses, and the list of unis she had, she is now thinking that straight History would suit her better. Most straight History courses have some Ancient in them anyway, and she now feels the joint courses have TOO MUCH Ancient in them Confused. Anyway, basically same unis as she had before, but with one extra. So our list is: Oxford (long shot), Exeter, Southampton, Sussex and Kent. She has just added Warwick too. We've only visited Oxford so far. Any other unis she has discounted due to course content, cost (London), weather (the North!) or distance from home.

Arewedone · 22/02/2020 18:01

@Baaaahhhhh yes Dd wobbled too, having to put it in writing made her feel upset at the idea she is really not far off being an adult and all the life choices ahead! She is still aiming at Oxford for her dream choice with LSE, Bristol, St Andrews and Bath. Can’t believe we are already thinking about this! We have visited Oxford, Cambridge, Warwick Bath and LSE, but will go back and revisit 2-3 colleges at Oxford. Still haven’t won my battle to drop an A level as school is insisting now she keeps 4!

Bimkom · 22/02/2020 20:16

DS has dropped the idea of either Oxford or Cambridge. Partly I think because he is now dead set on medicine, and a) thinks that is going to be hard enough without trying for Oxbridge as well and b), thinks he wants a course with more patient contact and integrated learning, while O and C are much more traditional - three years of lectures, three years of clinical. I am starting to wonder whether he is going to make the predicted grades he needs though. The maths has been going really well, but he is not doing as well in either Chemistry or Biology as maybe we would have hoped. When I say that, I mean Bs rather than As in a number of tests. Biology is up and down, he has varied between A stars and Bs, but Chemistry he has been consistently a B, although the most recent test he was only two marks off an A (ie very gradual improvement, but only within the B range). Chemistry was always his best GCSE, so it has been a bit of a shock. My sense is that he needs a minimum of three A predicted grades for medicine, and maybe better. I am not sure if I need to worry or not. He is working consistently, although there has been various upheavals at home (me going off to see my parents for a couple of months, as they aren't doing so well), him coming out in the holidays.

Johnathonripples · 23/02/2020 17:40

Dc is doing ok . Much better once the 4th a level was dropped and timetable was freed up a bit. Now doing Chemistry, Biology and Maths and epq. .Biology was started after the first half term. Parents evening was positive.
Dc wants to do chemistry or biochemistry at uni . The school (new school for dc) put the pupils who got good gcse grades into a potential oxbridge group but if I’m honest I’m not sure dc is completely sold on it. Durham, Edinburgh, York, Cambridge, Leeds have been mentioned. We went to a few open days in the autumn term and will be going to more soon
Work experience has been a bit of a pain .. do your dc’s have to do this in the summer term? Dc did this at old school but new school do not do it until 6th form so this will be dc’s second stint. They have to sort it themselves so it meant lots of emailing companies . Dc has managed to get 2 placements but it was all quite time consuming.

Baaaahhhhh · 24/02/2020 11:12

DD going to an UCAS fair at the University of Surrey today. That should be interesting. So many universities are there, I hope she gets to talk to some directly.

Seems to becoming quite common for DC's to drop to three ALevels quite early on. Maybe they are really that much trickier now? Interesting that Bimkom DS also finding Biology tough. DD was getting B's/C's which is why she dropped it.

Johnathonripples No formal work experience required here, but most do some work, either at the weekends, or in the summer, but not in an "organised" format. They do a volunteering afternoon once every two weeks, which is organised by the school, unless you have your own special interests, like medical or vet, which the girls organise themselves. DD goes to a dementia home, which is really quite challenging at times.

cologne4711 · 24/02/2020 18:38

DD going to an UCAS fair at the University of Surrey today.

My son is going tomorrow - I hope it helps him as the college is putting on quite a lot of pressure to do open days, taster days and the like (and I see loads of you on this thread are already going) and start doing enrichment activities and he doesn't really know what he wants to do. We've also talked about apprenticeships but sounds like the selection processes are very tough. He's said definitely not Oxbridge.

Johnathonripples · 25/02/2020 08:00

Ooh interesting that most schools seem to be doing post 18 stuff. Dc is going to a ucas fair, oxbridge fair and we have a post 18 parents information evening coming up

Baah I guess it’s good that they are doing lots of extra things to add to their cv/ personal statement but I personally seem to remember yr 12 as being the year you could relax a bit? It seems really full on for my dc ..and a lot of it is school based (mentoring/ in class support etc) . Dc said the other day that perhaps 6th form collage may have been better choice as they have friends who do a 3.5 day week and have lots of self study hours without those self study hours being directed too much.

Baaaahhhhh · 25/02/2020 09:52

UCAS fair was good, useful. She has dropped one uni, and added another. Obviously very busy, and not much time, but picked up lots of prospectuses and was able to have a short chat with the people she wanted to. University of Sussex guy recommended Kent for History, he went there, and loved it. Lovely to hear of personal honesty Grin.

One thing I have noted, soooooo many open days on July 4/5 - so annoying that they do them all together. Will definitely have to do some in September/October which is cutting it fine.

Bimkom · 25/02/2020 13:10

Yes, we are really frustrated that Bristol, Leeds, Liverpool and Manchester are all doing 19th of June, and then Nottingham and Birmingham are doing 26th June (this is the medical schools, don't know about other areas). Why couldn't they space them a bit!

cologne4711 · 27/02/2020 09:07

DS came back from fair thinking about PPE (not at Oxford) but rather shocked at the grades required by the likes of York or Warwick. Also liked the idea of Glasgow (clearly wants to get away from us as we are in Hampshire ha ha) for politics.

I've got a parents evening next week so can discuss further with his tutors. He's going to have to work harder if he wants all As - he winged his GCSEs and although I told him you can't do that for A levels and he's made all the right noises, he is winging it, so is on target for Bs currently.

yoikes · 27/02/2020 09:31

Nn change :)
Ds1 doing well. Got his megs last week...3 x Bs. His politics tutor has told him he expects him to get a B "at minimum" (!)
He's been to 3 uni open days so far and liked 2 of them.
2 more booked in June.
He's now thinking of history and politics at uni.
Last year seems a longtine ago doesn't it!? :)

Johnathonripples · 03/03/2020 08:50

We’ve made a list of uni open days that dc wants to visit.
V frustrating how many clash . I was hoping to get the visits done this side of summer holidays but will have to visit in September too because of the clashes in June. Dc is going to 1 with friends.
It’s the expense of it all too! Dc does not want to go to any nearby universities Hmm so it’s going to be a spenny by train.

fayebebaby · 03/03/2020 13:35

Yeah we’ve also made a list of open days - June is looking very busy - 1 weekend we have Loughborough on Friday Sheffield Saturday and York Sunday !!!

Seeitsortit · 06/03/2020 11:45

Oh goodness - I’d forgotten this thread (name changed since August!) think I need to do some reading up - was looking for info on open days .......currently panicking about trying to fit them in and physically getting there, we’re in Lincolnshire and dd wants to look at Durham, York (least that one is ok!), Oxford, Warwick and Bath!

cologne4711 · 07/03/2020 15:29

I think DS will probably do offer holder days. We've been to the cities where he's likely to apply so he knows what they would be like to live in. At the moment looking at Leeds, York, Warwick, Cardiff and Exeter.

cologne4711 · 07/03/2020 15:29

(that assumes he gets any offers of course!)

Seeitsortit · 09/03/2020 08:17

Had a blitz session yesterday re open days, she’s registered for interest (or registered to register interest!) at the ones she wants to look round, annual leave applied for and travelodge’s booked for those at a distance! I have to donut like this - if I’m not organised when I’m travelling alone (DP can’t make the distance ones and doubt her dad will be interested enough for paying for a room for the night Hmm)

Arewedone · 11/03/2020 19:59

Just done mock TSAs here anyone else!?

Baaaahhhhh · 12/03/2020 10:38

Just done mock TSAs here anyone else!?

Don't think so - what are they !!?

Baaaahhhhh · 12/03/2020 10:49

Hi all - New thread been started for University 2021 - Shall we all move over?

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/higher_education/3828249-applying-for-uni-in-2021

Otherwise we are going to have duplicates......

Arewedone · 12/03/2020 11:32

@Baaaa TSA is the Oxford Uni Thinking Skills Assesment.
There is already a Uni 2021 thread will it become complicated to have another ???

Baaaahhhhh · 12/03/2020 14:06

Arewedone - Oooooh, I will ask DD, haven't heard of that, but they are doing on-line video session things with Oxford Uni.

It wasn't me! I will have a look to see how many are running. I know there is a separate Oxford one.

raspberryrippleicecream · 29/03/2020 10:14

How is everyone getting on? DS2 seems to have settled in with home working. His school are using Teams for sixth form and he had a positive first week. He was doing AS Further Maths, so will get an assessed Grade, happily he has done well on his Mock exams so hopefully all will be good.

I hope everyone and their families are safe.

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