Thread 24 Covid Cohort - Oh Come, Oh Come offers from Emmanuel - and all other universities aswell!

[OrangeCinnamonCocktail]

I tried to sing the title... It kind of works...

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 posts 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 goodwill continues.

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

Get well soon @Heifer and @Wheresthebeach DD xx

Thanks @BlueMarigold. Turns out her Chemistry practical has been moved to next week, so she can sleep all tomorrow without having a complete nervous breakdown over missing school.
Another LFT, and still negative so I think she's just shattered.

@Wheresthebeach hope she feels better soon. DS is very tired too, this is a long term - there is always a lot of stress in Y13 and it is worse than usual with the uncertainty hanging over them. Good to hear she can stop worrying about the practical.

Thanks @Monkey2001. I think that's what drives me nuts about people saying how lucky the kids are to not do exams. They don't understand that now every single test counts, so the pressure is constant. It's not like they can mess up mocks and then recover for the real thing. Messing up a mock, might well impact your final grade.

@Monkey2001 Congratulations to your DS 🚘

Mine got a result on one of her mocks. It was a C .she is mortified, but she really wasn’t doing enough, I just hope it doesn’t end up being her actual mark.. she got quite arsed with me for saying that I had been worried, but I had. I hope she steps up now.

Just catching up and feeling the pain of those whose forms haven't gone in yet

But good to hear they are getting there, Blue, crazy, Also, however slowly and frustratingly.

DS is supposed to be seeing UCAS coordinator to argue for higher predicted grades - summoned last week but hasn't managed it yet. He's come up with various reasons but I think it's probably just too difficult for him. One more go today as he finished his mocks yesterday, and then if he can't do it I may have to speak to Nice Tutor again.

Sorry to those who are feeling poorly I hope everyone feels better soon .

DS had his second jab yesterday, I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that he doesn't catch Covid again before it becomes effective.

@Wheresthebeach

Thanks *@Monkey2001*. I think that's what drives me nuts about people saying how lucky the kids are to not do exams. They don't understand that now every single test counts, so the pressure is constant. It's not like they can mess up mocks and then recover for the real thing. Messing up a mock, might well impact your final grade.

100% agree with this.

I am getting concerned about DS's Biology teacher, he's had one useless one since start of Yr12 which is bad enough but his good one was swapped for another for Yr 13. He's fine as a teacher BUT he never shows up. He has missed at least 5 weeks of the autumn term so far and this is on top of what DS has missed from having Covid and being off school with his concussion. The teacher was meant to meet DS on Monday to go through what he missed while off and then didn't come in. They have mocks in a month. I can't even complain because he's the subject leader.

Oh dear @JustHereWithMyPopcorn that doesn’t sound good at all. Can you contact the head of sixth form?

@singingstones fingers crossed for you ds and getting his predicted grades increased.

Dd has finally submitted her ucas form to school - what an exhausting process! Now ds is having a wobble about his A Level choices - deadline for that is end of term. And they both have mocks next week!

@crazycrofter to further complicate matters, he's leaving so I'm not sure speaking to anyone higher will do any good. I'm just concerned that his mock is going to be lacking and, as we all know now, it could end up being his A level grade.
Good news on your DD submitting her UCAS, hopefully school will do their part quickly now.

Good luck to your DS @singingstones.

Ooh that's great crazy, which unis did she go for in the end?

Well done to your DD whoamitojudge - amazing not to fail any tests when the pass mark is so high.

Final 5 were Nottingham, Southampton, York, Manchester and Bath (that was a late entry - and the aspirational one).

Oh that’s no good then @JustHereWithMyPopcorn. I assume that if exams are cancelled and they end up having three lots of mocks they won’t necessarily all be equally weighted? I mean,it’s normal to go up a grade from mocks to the June exams. So I hope they wouldn’t be told to take an average of all three?

Sorry to hear about the C @Zebracat. Did she put an insurance Uni on her ucas form in the end?

@crazycrofter yes, I'm hoping the same and that the new teacher is present!

@crazycrofter. No insurance as yet. I think we need one. Not sure if the forms gone to UCAS yet. She thinks it will be fine in the end, she didn’t study hard, and her NEA should! bring her marks up, but she’s also aware this could be her final grade. School has just announced more mocks after Christmas, but I think it’s a bit like fire alarms, they’re all ignoring them now because they happen too often.. we are doing something together this afternoon, so I hope that we can talk it through
Meanwhile if anyone has thoughts on a good history course,
possibly with a beginner modern language, or data analysis or anthropology or maybe Liberal Arts,preferably south of the wash and west of the Trent, but not in a big city and not anywhere that I have ever mentioned, I would be really grateful. Oh and max CCC for it’s contextual offer.

Popcorn I would still send an email to Head of Dept and cc in HoY, re your 'concerns'. What have you got to lose?

Zebra, Royal Holloway offers liberal arts with a foundation year, with grades CCC.

Yay, crazy! Which is her top choice? Are they all much of a much in grade requirements?
justhere, that sounds really bad. DD’s drama teacher has missed quite a lot of lessons recently and that worries me, but at least a lot of what she’s currently doing is devising, so not actual learning as such.
I’d definitely be contacting someone to express my concerns, in your position.

I’m not quite sure @Alsoplayspiccolo! She has been a bit set on Nottingham for spurious reasons like lots of friends going there/seen cool TikToks etc! She also likes the campus and city. But it gets the lowest student satisfaction rates for Psychology … She loves Bath and York as cities, but hasn’t visited the universities. We didn’t get to Manchester either because of Storm Arwen. She liked Southampton back in the summer but it’s a distant memory. So I’m hoping she gets to go to offer holder days. The placement at Bath looks good, and York has a fast track clinical psych route but it’s obviously very competitive.

Royal Holloway is lovely @Zebracat - from what you’ve said about her I can imagine it being a good fit.

Dd is eligible for contextual offers from some places so she’s expecting AAB or ABB from some of them - hence no obvious insurance choice.

@Zebracat I can't remember where you have looked. If it has not left school yet, it might be best to take one of the choices out now, knowing you can add it back later so you are not limited to 2 weeks to choose the other course. Has she looked at Kent? www.kent.ac.uk/courses/undergraduate/2020/301/history-and-social-anthropology. They do the language thing and are so close to France www.kent.ac.uk/cultures-languages/about/year-in-a-language

@crazycrofter re A level choices, our school allowed you to change your choices until shortly after you have started. If a school is flexible there is no point getting stressed about subjects now, just call it Plan A.

Just here what a nightmare, hope you manage to find someone who knows what has happened and cares.

Zebra if you are serious, Aberystwyth have some interesting history joint hons courses including German which you can do as a beginner. Standard offer looks like BBB-BCC so contextual could easily be CCC.

Same goes for Lampeter - history and anthropology, 96 points which I think is CCC. Lampeter does take the "no big cities" requirement to the extreme but it's just right for some people, a friend's DS is there doing Anthropology and loves it.

@Monkey2001 I know, there's bound to be scope for change. The only thing is the option blocks are built around their choices and there's only really 2 or maybe 3 subjects he'd be willing to take. So if he doesn't like what he chooses he may not be able to switch to another favoured choice! But it will all be fine in the end I'm sure.

@Zebracat Aberystwyth is also a good choice as it's a nice safe small town - a long way from most places though, unfortunately!

JustThere that sounds difficult. I would probably email in expressing concerns and asking for discussions.

When I spoke to DD's Chemistry teacher she said that she assumed that if exams cancelled they would probably be the same as last year in terms of TAGS. So a set of 'in house' exams at exam time which would count for more than the mocks. Maybe I ought to fully read that email they sent out!