Thread 23 Covid Cohort Stepping Into Christmas, Tests, Mocks & Interviews

[OrangeCinnamonCocktail]

This is a thread for supporting all young people post GCSEs 2020, regardless of their educational setting. It is respectfully requested that all are supportive and helpful to each other. If you want to start a debate, e.g state vs private, please don't within this thread. Please also be sensitive when responding to threads about grades.

Some of us have been here since first thread back in yr10, some will be new. Everyone has been friendly and helpful in the past. Everyone is welcome. It is hoped this will continue.

Our DS/DD may go down various paths (such as employment, apprenticeships, higher ed) We have decided for anyone interested they will most likely find us within the Further Ed board.

Previous thread

@20newnames/ DS / Engineering
@Alsoplayspiccolo/ DD / English + Film
@AnneofCleavage/ DD / gap year? Primary Education
@BlueMarigold/ DD / Biology
@cariadambyth/ DD / History / Southampton, Bath Spa, Warwick, RHUL
@collywobble/ DS / PPE, Economics / Lancaster (AAB)
@crazycrofter/ DD / Child (?) + Mental Health Nursing
@Decorhate/ DS / Economics + Politics
@Delphigirl/ DS / Oceanography
@DoggerelBank/ DS / tbc sciencey
@ealingwestmum/ DD / Middle Eastern and European Studies
@EerilyDisembodied/ DS / History or Environmental Management
@estherfrewen/ DS / History / Birmingham (ABB), Cardiff (ABB-BBB), Warwick (AAB)
@EwwSprouts/ DS / Biology
@Fiddlersgreen/ DS / Journalism / Bournemouth (104 pts), Brighton (BCC), Cardiff (ABB)
@Fruitygal/ DD / Biology
@Hattifatteners/ DD / Vet Med
@Heifer/ DD / Biology
@Hopeful201/ DS / Medicine
@Horace123/ DS / Classics / Edinburgh 34/665
@icanbewhatiwant/ DS / History + Philosophy
@Isthisjustnormal/ DS / Comp Sci
@JustHereWithMyPopcorn/ DS / Law
@KingscoteStaff/ DD / Medicine
@Knickerthief1/ DD / Child nursing / York
@Monkey2001/ DS / Medicine
@mummabear74/ DD / Environmental Science
@mummyinbeds/ DS / Law + French Law / Birmingham (AAA), Kent (AAB)
@Nard75/ DS / Maths
@NCTDN/ DD / Liberal Arts
@Oblomov21/ DS / Accountancy / Southampton ABB
@OrangeCinnamonCocktail/ DD / Music (uni)
@PaddingtonPaddington/ DD / Music (cons)
@Piggywaspushed/ DS / Social sciences / Birmingham (AAB-ABB), York (AAB-ABB)
@ProggyMat/ DD / Classics / Bristol (BBB), Edinburgh
@SandyBayley/ DD / Medicine
@Seeline/ DD / Liberal Arts / UEA (AAB), Kent (BBB), Nottingham (AAA)
@Shimy/ DS / Business + Management / Birmingham (AAB-ABB), Loughborough
@singingstones/ DS / Neuroscience
@Volterra/ DS / Maths
@whatsnext2/ DD / English joint hons
@Wheresthebeach/ DD / gap year? Marine Biology / Southampton, Portsmouth
@whoamitojudge/ DD / RyanAir cabin crew training
@Zebracat/ DD / Liberal Arts or Anthropology
@ZittiEBuoni/ DD / tbc applying next year

@Volterra Yay! Well done to your DS!

I did some work for Guinness world records a long while back and got to go to a party where they had a few world record holders - I think the most tattooed lady, and certainly the tallest man. Great fun!

@ExcessiveIyDisorganised I don't know why ds2 is so short, most of his friends are 6' or taller, ds1 is about 5'8" so he's not tall, but not short either. Ds3 is 12 and almost my height, I'm only 5'2" it won't be long before ds3 is taller than ds2. DH is 5'9" so fairly average. Ds2 was so small at school, when he started primary school I struggled to get uniform as he needed age 2-3 then the secondary uniform was huge too. He actually wore the same 2 jumpers from year 7 through to end of year 11. I did buy him new ones, but he wouldn't wear them. I'm not sure he will grown any more now. He is actually 5' 3.5" according to our height chart.

@Piggywaspushed that's impressive! Now I need to look in our books. Though you said he's only in one.

Yes, a looooooooong time ago!

@Heifer. DD used Unifrog for drafting her PS, but then cut and pasted into UCAS (might have been via Word, not sure). I think it makes it easier to share with staff for checking/amending. The character/line count still doesn't match up with UCAS though!

DD got her 4th offer yesterday -standard offer of AAA from Exeter. I think it confirmed that she won't be doing the admissions essay for Birmingham. She has 4 offers, and Birmingham is her least favourite - she is certain that even if she got a reduced offer as a result of a decent essay, she still wouldn't want to go there. It's not as if she hasn't got other work to do!!

@ExcessiveIyDisorganised @icanbewhatiwant My DS is the same build. Is there a correlation between being small for your age (and presumably later puberty than average?) and being a disorganised procrastinator?

I don’t blame her Seeline, great news on Exeter offer

That’s great about Exeter Seeline. I’m hoping DS gets one from there soon then would have 2 that I think he would be happy with and take pressure off a bit on that front.

@NARD75, TMUA results day seems to be coming quite quickly at this point !

Great news @seeline, 4 offers, wow! Does she have a lower insurance offer as one of her 4?

@Volterra I think DS is feeling nervous about the results. Not that he would say but he is more moody than usual. On another point regarding his anxiety I spoke to the school about it and he has his 2nd appointment today with the school counsellor. He hasn't said anything about it but I didn't expect him to as I told him that whatever he spoke about was between him and the counsellor unless he wanted to discuss it himself. We went out on Saturday with family and he seemed much better he seems to have good and bad days but at least this is a step forward.

@BlueMarigold

Well done on the offers!

@JustHereWithMyPopcorn Is that the offer you were expecting from Birmingham? Do you know if they stack they grade reductions or can you only a maximum of a one grade reduction?

I wasn't sure what to expect from Birmingham, website says AAA as typical offer but was AAA last year so we were hoping that they might have some discretion on applicants from last year vs this year and the difference in potential results. The message that came through though said a reduced offer was based on EPQ of A or A.

What do you mean by stack the grade reductions? As in contextual offer plus EPQ offer?

@DoggerelBank yes he's definitely a disorganised procrastinator. He wasn't much behind his peers with puberty, but he is one of the oldest in the year. It was funny because he was still shorter than me, so looked about 12, but he had a deep voice, people we don't know were always taken aback when he spoke.

Lots of offers coming in. Well done to all dc's. Ds has exams this week, but won't tell me which days or what exams. He was on home study yesterday. Last night he went to watch a football match and returned home at 11pm so he will be tired today. I asked if he had any exams today, his reply was he doesn't know 😡 of course he knows, just won't tell me.

[quote DoggerelBank]**@ExcessiveIyDisorganised* @icanbewhatiwant* My DS is the same build. Is there a correlation between being small for your age (and presumably later puberty than average?) and being a disorganised procrastinator?[/quote]
I can confirm that DS who was 10lb 10oz at birth and has stayed on the 98th percentile on the growth chart is a top disorganised procrastinator, so I am afraid that theory doesn't hold up!

[quote Heifer]This is one of my best buys for DD - she loves it - and actually lets me sit in it too on the monthly occassion I am allowed in her room to chat ;-)

www.johnlewis.com/john-lewis-partners-specialist-synthetic-reading-support-pillow/p4323516#product[/quote]
DS needs one of these! He sits in bed doing his work (his desk is for piling rubbish on apparently) in the most awful, neck debilitating positions and I fear for his long term posture and pain.

@Monkey2001 To be fair, it's probably his mother's disorganised procrastinator genes at fault! Spent the first two hours of this morning failing to get down to any work and worrying about whether he'll get any offers.

@monkey2001 DS2 was 10lb 1oz and was two foot long at birth, now on the 98th centile at 14 and possible one of the most disorganised people I've ever met.

And another big baby DS was 10lbs 2oz! He is usually fairly organised though!

Well done @Volterra on the Bath offer. DS has had an email saying he will hear 'later in 2022' as the course is so competitive (MEng).

@DoggerelBank snap! I often feel a bit guilty when I’m lecturing the kids about starting revision early/getting organised! I was worse than them as a teenager and not much better now!

@Nard75 that’s good that ds has access to a counsellor.

@JustHereWithMyPopcorn yes I noticed some unis (like Lancaster) say if you have an EPQ plus meet their widening participation criteria, they lower the entry requirements a lot, but others say they only drop one grade. I don’t know what Birmingham does.

@DoggerelBank I am like that too

@BlueMarigold sorry, I don't know what they do in that instance. Can you contact the admissions team and check?

10lb babies 😮

@Nard75 I think DS is probably a bit nervous too, hence the Bath offer being very well timed. He’d had an email to say they wouldn’t be deciding until next year so very unexpected . It was a bit demoralising having has 3 choices in on UCAS 6 weeks ago and no offers, even though he knew only 1 was likely to offer at this point (and haven’t!).

Really glad your DS seeing a counsellor. DS was not great end of last week and Friday I was really worried about him. I’ve finally sorted a counsellor but not until January. He won’t do your one through college.

@Monkey2001 @JustHereWithMyPopcorn wow big babies. Ds2 was only 6lbs 13oz but he was born at 37 weeks. He would have been a good size had he cooked a bit longer.

Ds3 was a week early and 9lbs 1oz. I thought he was big...obviously not compared to some of you. I'm only small though, so a good size. Ds3 is the most organised of my 3.

@crazycrofter

Great news *@seeline*, 4 offers, wow! Does she have a lower insurance offer as one of her 4?

She does -Kent at BBB, but it's not her second favourite. Her favourite (UEA) has the second lowest offer at AAB with her other two wanting AAA. She wants to put one of those as her insurance..... She will have to argue that one at school (although I assume ultimately it is her decision?).