Thread 17 - Corona Cohort Summer Vacation to Yr 13, Finding Freedom?

[Orangecinnamon21]

PLACEHOLDER FOR NEW THREAD ...PREVIOUSLY TO BE FOUND IN SECONDARY EDUCATION

Yes, history. Nice drive there and back cross country too.

EverythingDelegated wow that's good. Was it a self guided tour of the campus? Think they have one booked Oct 10th but we can't book onto it as yet. Seems we're looking at the same Unis

Got Sussex booked for Oct 2nd / 3rd weekend. Can't remembers which day we chose now. Are you doing that one too?

Paddington, I’ve actually had the same conversation with DD, re year 10 exam results compared to actual GCSE results. I really hope A levels might be the same slow burn for DD, but the whole uni applications issue makes it all feel much more time-pressured.

Andwhenyougetthere, we have the same differences between DD and DS - it’s hard to see, isn’t it?
Unfortunately, DD doesn’t currently have any resilience, positivity or calmness about her, and I lost mine sometime during lockdown

@PaddingtonPaddington Dd on 'working at BBB' at moment but her Music teacher seems sure the coursework changes will benefit her. Composition has been really challenging this year apparently,
but this can be given less weighting or something. The college won't give predicted grades until October/November for non Oxbridge and it is more holistic than end of year exams. As it should be.

It has been such a tricky year for them.

The thing I like about the Chichester campus is how close some of the halls are to lecture theatres...less than 4 mins. Some of the lecturers offices look into the kitchens. Very small and friendly.

@AnneOfCleavage not self-guided, no, we were shown round by a student. There were very few people around. I booked it a few weeks ago. We have got a lot of other stuff going on at home at the moment (building work) so I have taken my eye of the uni ball a little bit for now, we haven't got Sussex on our list at the moment (we seem to have narrowed down to Royal Holloway, Winchester, Chichester, Bournemouth and Reading, also an outside chance of the Royal Agricultural in Cirencester).

We went to Salford last week. I was very impressed. The halls were lovely, much nicer than dd has been. Ds could literally take 2 mins to walk from there to the music department.

We were the only potential music student on that time slot so Ds got a personal tour. He loved it. My only problem is getting him to choose 4 other places.

@Comefromaway

We went to Salford last week. I was very impressed. The halls were lovely, much nicer than dd has been. Ds could literally take 2 mins to walk from there to the music department.

We were the only potential music student on that time slot so Ds got a personal tour. He loved it. My only problem is getting him to choose 4 other places.

Sounds fab ! You could possibly start him off by getting a proper look into /making a decision about two more.

Dd the same has her top two and that's it. I'm hoping one more might be in the offing after a visit. Can't really blame them for knowing their own minds though. Just because the narrative goes that it should be hard decision to make, doesn't mean it should be so.

He’s well on track for the grades. They ask for quite low grades really, DMM but it all hinges on the audition. And he’s an ensemble player, he plays very little solo music.

DS's history teacher (who he really likes) went to Chichester.

Alwyn Turner is based there who is a very good, accessible and renowned social historian - writes about the 70s and onwards.

That's useful to know Piggy, thanks. Most people I've met who've been their have done sports based courses.

His books are really good and I think he may have done a telly programme.

A few of my ex students went to 'Chi' as they call it. All for drama and performing arts. They seem to really like it.

So it's not just us struggling with them being this age then :-) I thought the drinking issue was hard but then came the getting into cars with friends driving! Personally haven't had to deal with staying over at boyfriends yet as DD hasn't had one.

It seems here that they pay people they know to come and collect them from parties etc to avoid using taxis or parents. I guess it's better than people driving who have been out with them but still feels weird letting DD get into someones car who hasn't been driving long. So far we have said no, and DH collected but think soon we will say ok as long as it's with someone already in Yr13 who has been driving for longer.

Just when we think we have things sussed someone new crops up to worry about :-)

I've just looked at Chicester Uni as sounds lovely (I'm sure I've visitied the city at some point) but they don't do the course DD wants so that's out.

@Piggywaspushed

A few of my ex students went to 'Chi' as they call it. All for drama and performing arts. They seem to really like it.

Yes. it's very well known for musical theatre in particular. One of the few universities that is Spotlight accredited.

DD thinking of Chichester for music performance as a back up if no luck with conservatoire applications. Hopefully we can visit in the autumn as couldn’t do any of the current tour dates. They have 1000 students in the music/theatre department and lots of course options.

Thank goodness it’s the end of term today.

A time else have a feeling of impending doom re. The dreaded C word and schools.
I found out our local secondary closed until September last Friday presumably due to Covid. But we are a well below average county with only 6 positive cases. The reason has not been reported and it's all very secretive. Our town is full of the elderly - all vaxed with Az .

We’re out. Just phoned up school and said Dd is only going in to hand in stuff. Surprising no resistance from reception. There’s less than a handful of children in each class so they are just doing project type work in computer suites. Can’t imagine many in by next Friday at all.

Ds's college finished two weeks ago and they went online for the last week due to rising cases in the area.

I still have a week to go. Wail.

DS finishes this afternoon.

DS finishes Wednesday although his GF is off for the rest of the year because the person next to her in one subject tested positive. He was 1 seat away from isolation!

At least 1 local school is finishing today and doing last 3 days of term on line.

Oh no Piggy! Hope you avoid everything. At least Ds is hopefully safe from isolation. I except you’ll have very few pupils in next week due to a lot trying to avoid isolation.

Hi all,
I don't know if this has been discussed already as I haven't been on in a while. Is anybody else concerned/worried about the government plans change the A'Level grading system for next yr to numbers? what impact will this have on predictions and final grades and how will universities gear up for this in terms of entry requirement as they are currently advertised under the current A*-U system?

Shimy I thought it would start the year after ours when (please) the covid disruption is less so proper exams can start again.
However I think anything could happen to this year group. Certainly disabled students will be affected more if the plans stay the same. I would like to see less emphasis on grades and more of school reports and university interviews.