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Further education

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

Original poster

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:
Original poster
ArthurtheCatsHumanSlave · 09/09/2019 09:35

Happy Birthday Arewedone DD. Gosh, 17 already. Glad to see other Caterpillar Cake fans Wink.

Good luck to all this week, on the first full week of the new term.
I was a bit Shock by the amount of extra work suggested, but then DD pointed out it included homework, and general reading, which she does anyway, so not so bad. I honestly can't remember DD1 doing so much. DD gets a couple of hours in the middle of the day free, so that should help too.

OP posts:
Arewedone · 09/09/2019 13:26

Thx @ArthurtheCatsHumanSlave seems they are never told old for themGrin
Just catching up on my reading and noticed there’s talk of needing to possibly introduce a grade 10 at gcse.... thank god we are all done!

Arewedone · 09/09/2019 13:27

*too old ( autocorrect Sad)

Hoooo · 09/09/2019 13:32

I have another ds in year 6!

Theovertoad · 09/09/2019 14:36

It was obvious that the gcse grades were that way around so that they could add extra grades but blimey, I didn’t expect to hear talk of it so soon.. ridiculous!
So ...was it that too many 9s were achieved?

Arewedone · 09/09/2019 15:18

Oh no @Hoooo let’s hope it’s all just talk at this rate we won’t even have a government that can make decisionsConfused

Yes talk is about too many grade 9s still coming from the independent sector around 60% gaining all 8/9s It also mentions grade 9 languages eg Chinese and Russian over 50% at 9 (which suggests native speakers) and French and Spanish only slightly less.

pointythings · 09/09/2019 16:57

Arewedone let's face it, we already have a government that can't make decisions.

They need to leave education the hell alone now though. For at least 10 years, so that we can get some genuine data on what does and does not work

Bimkom · 09/09/2019 18:35

Was it on here that I saw the fab tip about open days? Whoever it was, thank you so much, that was so useful. We had been trawling through individual websites over the summer, but so much more sensible to have it in one place. Can't see where I got it from though, but I am sure it was Mumsnet.

And discovered something really useful. DS, it turns out, has a day off on Friday 20th September - and I looked on this website, and lo and behold, it is the Oxford University open day. So, I thought, lets start at the top, DS has never seen Oxford, why don't we start our open day investigation there!
Does anybody know anything about booking rail tickets for open days? I don't think I have ever booked a rail ticket to anywhere out of London, and it seems desperately complicated. Are there any discounts. I am assuming it will be me and him!

Bimkom · 09/09/2019 18:37

open day website I mean - www.opendays.com/calendar/
if you didn't see it. It lists all of them, all in one place!

Rugbylife · 09/09/2019 19:58

Ds had his Maths remark back today, he needed 3 marks for a grade change but only found 1. So no change on either subjects we reviewed but at least we tried.

Theovertoad · 09/09/2019 21:35

Yes Bimkom.. that opendays link was the link I posted earlier 😊

I can recommend splitticketing .com for cheap train tickets. It sometimes means you have loads of tickets but I’ve saved loads of cash that way.

We plan to look at Edinburgh on the 21st Sept

gleegeek · 09/09/2019 23:27

Happy Birthday Arewedone's dc - Colin Caterpillars are always the cake of choice here too!
Dd was nearly late for college this morning😲 Terrible traffic and her bus was held up...there was nothing we could do but cross our fingers! Somehow she made it to biology just infront of the teacher - having to go in late and apologise simply terrifies her, so pleased it worked out. Might have to take the earlier bus which will get her there 50mins early!
She seems to be coping ok with not knowing anyone in her classes and has tentatively made some new friends. She likes 2 teachers so far, has a long term supply for one subject who she says is dreadful so that's a bit of a worry. But all in all ok...
Not impressed with the talk of a grade 10! Why do we need to section off the creme de la creme? Surely an 8 or 9 is adequate to demonstrate an academic ability? They're only 16....

DeRigueurMortis · 10/09/2019 01:14

Thank you for the new thread Arthur.

Sorry it's been a while since checking in, but it's been a bit of a whirlwind here (not in a bad way though).

Doing ok here.

After some discussion we applied to get DS's OCR Computer Science paper remarked.

Tbh it didn't make any difference to his 6th form choices but he was a bit disappointed by his grade 8 (sorry I know how that sounds Blush but he had high expectations of himself).

Anyway we got the results today and his remark "found" 3 extra marks (he only needed 1) to get him a 9 and it means he got 9's for his 4 A-Level choices plus some others. Tbh I think that's why it bugged him, not having that bloody elusive 9 for all his chosen forward subjects.

So he's really happy today, other than the grade uplift seemingly enjoying the joys of a Sixth Form common room, no uniform, having "free" periods and their own canteen.

For those whose children have joined a new school, if it's any help DS has said it's been "cool" to meet the "newbies" (the first day back the school did a team building/intro session) and his "gang" has already seemingly found a couple of new members.

Unlike others driving is far off (he's one of the youngest in his year) but good luck for those starting on that path.

He's also volunteered today for the schools mentoring scheme where they ask some Sixth Form students to mentor lower year children in subjects they are good at which I'm quite pleased about - pay it forward and all that.

So far so good. Fingers crossed!!!!

Hoooo · 10/09/2019 07:33

Ds1 is a bit cheesed off with hos timetable.

3rd change since last Thursday!

He now has a 3 hour free period 2 days a week in the middle of the day.

He has no homework yet so is pretty bored.

Original poster
ArthurtheCatsHumanSlave · 10/09/2019 08:55

Bimkom Thanks for posting that - I missed it the first time.

DD is going to Oxford on Friday 20th. Her big sister is taking her and they are going by train from here. We are on the Reading line, so easy. DD1 went to Oxford, so DD2 knows it quite well, but sister was a scientist and DD2 is an Historian so quite different. Still a couple of her friends there, so they can meet up with them too. Should be a nice day. They are going to visit what DD1 considers to be the "best" colleges, although I suspect she has a few prejudices from her time there.

DD1 gets the train from London to Oxford (and vice versa when she was there) quite a lot. Easy journey. I think if you pre-book it is a bit cheaper, but if DS has his 16-17 train card his travel will be half price. Worth getting even if he doesn't use the train much, you will probably get your monies worth from uni visiting alone.

OP posts:
Bimkom · 10/09/2019 12:33

@theovertoad thanks, that was a brilliant tip.

@ArthurtheCatsHumanSlave - how does one get a 16-17 railcard? (and any chance it might arrive in time, if I order it now - the Zipcard notoriously takes 10 days, so probably not very useful for this trip).

Interested to know, from a scientist which are the "best" colleges. We were looking at the list last night, and we didn't have a clue which we should look at (except in our case, ones that do medicine and/or biochem)

eatthatfrog · 10/09/2019 12:38

hi all,

taken sometime to catch up with you all. DD started back at school last week and is very happy. extremely busy as loads of homework and note consolidation, also a long time since doing maths as no summer work set. She is doing 4 A levels and an EPQ but that doesn't start till next week so is enjoying the extra free. She only has 2 free periods a week; wed afternoon is either community action/Games. She is already doing voluntary work outside school and has taken up the chance to volunteer with a local primary school after school so will get the Wed afternoon as free periods. After October, half term they are allowed to leave early one day a week.

Really pleased, she has settled so well and not too upset about not been allowed to take biology. Still planning on medicine.

Good to see everyone else settling in well.

Bimkom · 10/09/2019 12:40

And not any that only take females!

Bimkom · 10/09/2019 12:58

In terms of update DS is enjoying the dreaded sixth form, but is determined now to drop physics, and instead do an EPQ. He is liking the physics teachers less than the others (one of them he really thinks isn't great, and he is struggling to understand). He likes his other teachers though, and Maths, Chemistry & Biology were always his preferred subjects. He also is really keen to take advantage of all the clubs and societies on offer (none of which his local comp had), and go to all the talks, and with four subjects he has very few frees. I have mixed feelings, but if the teacher is not great, and the others are good and in his preferred subjects, I don't see much point him keeping on a fourth subject he is enjoying so much less than the others.

berlinbabylon · 10/09/2019 14:47

When we ordered the 16-17 card it arrived the next day. Amazingly efficient.

berlinbabylon · 10/09/2019 14:51

Oh and on remarks, it doesn't look our exams officer is even around until next week. Deadline is 19th September so I've got a feeling they will all be sent together and we'll have to wait ages to find out about ds' English lang result. By the time it comes he'll be weeks into his college courses! Oh well.

He started at his college today.

myrtleWilson · 10/09/2019 15:02

Hi everyone
Apologies for dropping off the thread - hectic times. DSIS has been in hospital for a while as her bloods were playing up and this has had an impact on treatment and has meant I've been travelling between home and hers...

anyway, thanks for the new thread and looking forward to reading back..

DD has started 6th form (stayed at school) and is doing RS, Politics and Governance and English Lit A-Levels. The way the syllabuses work out there is a lot of feminism so may well point her in the direction of the FWR boards here! Plus she's thinking of her EPQ on female bodies and state power...

Re English lit - apologies if I'm late to the party on this one but I discovered digital theatre today which has films of various plays - you can subscribe or download. I happened across it as was looking for A Dolls House reviews (currently on at the Lyric if anyone else in this boat) ... Seems to be good breadth of plays on there, from The Globe, RSC etc so not myrtleWilsons AMDRAM society.... There is a version which is accessible to schools/colleges etc so not sure if that allows individual pupils access if their school subscribes or just teachers etc.

I'll shut up now..

Oh - DD enjoying 6th form so far!

MollyButton · 10/09/2019 18:29

You can get a digital 16-17 which arrives instantaneously.

We have a problem that DDs new rail pass doesn't work in the barriers. Panic today when I was about 50 miles away. The guy on the barrier hadn't read his emails about the problem.
Otherwise ok.

Theovertoad · 10/09/2019 23:34

Dd also thinking of dropping the 4th A level subject to free up time.

berlinbabylon · 11/09/2019 08:04

DS came home from college quite happy but has a lot of dead time in his timetable. I told him it will soon fill up with homework and enrichment activities...

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