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Further education

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

Original poster

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

999 replies

OrangeCinnamonCocktail · 26/11/2021 16:12

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.

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Alsoplayspiccolo · 01/12/2021 20:12

singing, that is just awful. Your poor DS. How on earth does the school benefit from not giving him the prediction he deserves, even if they feel it's slightly optimistic? I'm so angry on his behalf. Angry

Shimy · 01/12/2021 20:19

@JustHereWithMyPopcorn Seriously, you can do it. Remember they are his teachers not yours! there are no wimps on here Grin.

@ChristopherTracy Great offer! I think all unis should have puppies available and on open days. I've never visited RH but never heard anything bad about it.

@singingstones That's not very nice if the teacher did laugh. Could you both have a meeting with the teacher to ask what excelt he is doing wrong and what does he need to do to up his grade in the time left. Is it a particular topic or process that's letting him down?

crazycrofter · 01/12/2021 20:30

That’s awful @singingstones. Dd said some of her friends are currently predicted low grades (but justifiably) and yet the school are pushing them to get their forms in by the end of the week even though there are mocks next week. They’d be much better off revising to up their grades as they’re struggling to find courses to apply to.

But your ds’ situation is even worse; why on earth can’t they predict him the grade he just achieved? You need to send a really stern email and demand a meeting. Good luck 🤞

ExquisitelyDecorated · 01/12/2021 20:37

@Zebracat my DS is choosing between RHU and Reading for history for his fifth choice. It would definitely have to be foundation at RHU as he doesn't meet the contextual criteria. It is stunningly beautiful.

crazycrofter · 01/12/2021 20:45

RHU is lovely isn’t it. The strange thing is, I remember going to an open day as a sixth former (on my own , which was intimidating) and hating it! The buildings felt oppressive and scary! So I went to Leicester…

ChristopherTracy · 01/12/2021 21:14

thanks all - especially as it was ABB and not AAB!

Zebracat · 01/12/2021 21:54

I looked at Reading and lots of it is great. But they had no accessible information about careleavers at all. Not even included in the contextual offer information. Put me off. Bu5 don’t think it can compete for her anyway

singingstones · 01/12/2021 22:13

@Alsoplayspiccolo

singing, that is just awful. Your poor DS. How on earth does the school benefit from not giving him the prediction he deserves, even if they feel it's slightly optimistic? I'm so angry on his behalf. Angry
Thank you for sharing in my outrage and fury. I have written a looong email (longer than a PS Blush) to the two year tutors, Ms Useless and Mr Nice, and asked exactly this question along with many others such as "do the physics staff really think he will get worse at physics over the next six months" and "why are his teachers not praising him for how far he's come and cheering him on to even better things". And also - "if you can't help, please tell me who to contact next given that the head of sixth form is absent, would that be the headmaster".

Fingers crossed yet again.

He starts his extra tuition tomorrow, later than hoped because the teacher had Covid. But she enters some of her students for ucas so I have asked her if she can help. Bit of a long shot but you never know.

crazycrofter · 01/12/2021 22:23

Well done @singingstones, hope they see sense!

Monkey2001 · 01/12/2021 22:31

Well done @singingstones - mum going into battle for her chicks!

We had a grade sheet today, great actual (not UCAS) predictions for Maths and Physics but A- for PE. He needs AAA, so we need to get that PE grade up. One problem is that in all their published results for PE over the last few years they have never had an A* and only one A. We could help with Maths and Physics, but not with PE.

Oblomov21 · 01/12/2021 22:51

Piccolo for Surrey. We'll meet for coffee soon when this is all over!

Congrats ChristopherTracy. My ds wants QM to offer him for the PwC course. No news on all 3 PwC courses.

On the school leaver apprenticeship he's been rejected by EY, Deloitte and now and I think 1 other. Sad

crazycrofter · 01/12/2021 22:53

@Monkey2001 I looked into PE for ds and I thought it looked quite hard as it covers so many areas- science, psychology, sociology, history plus the practical side and all the self-evaluation. Ds decided he preferred the look of the single BTEC Sport! Hope your ds can get his grade up to an A.

crazycrofter · 01/12/2021 22:54

Sorry about the rejections @Oblomov21. They really are very competitive 😬

Oblomov21 · 01/12/2021 22:57

Well done singing, email sounds completely appropriate.

Oblomov21 · 01/12/2021 22:57

I know Crazy. Sad

Oblomov21 · 01/12/2021 22:58

Bless you for your always supportive thoughts though. ❤️

singingstones · 01/12/2021 23:04

The other thing that is doing my head in slightly at the moment is that I was looking up something to do with ASD for work and went down a bit of a rabbit hole as I know very little about it, ended up idly doing an online autism assessment myself and it apparently showed a strong likelihood Shock
I chuckled and tried a couple more but they all said the same. And now that I have read a bit more it would kind of make sense of a lot of things, many of which I had forgotten. So that is weird. I looked into getting a proper assessment but there is a 12 month wait at the moment. Not sure what to think about that really.

20newnames · 01/12/2021 23:52

Excellent news on the offer @ChristopherTracy!

Well done in your email @singingstones. You are definitely doing the right thing, it sounds ridiculous. Hopefully it will change but if not at least you won’t have the ‘what if’ question. Good luck!

Fruitygal · 02/12/2021 06:00

@singingstones hope you get a response today and they come to their senses

@ChristopherTracy congratulations on the offers

DS1 with recent MSc - got an interview for a job he applied to 4 weeks ago and found out he’s passed the 1st stage assessment for another job - he was starting to get disheartened as no news on any application for 3 weeks so now he’s much happier - trust me this stressing out thing with your kids doesn’t get easier.

Fruitygal · 02/12/2021 06:03

Mocks next week for DD - parents evening super soon and most recent current working at grades about to come out very soon too. Told her to do her best but not freak out if things aren’t perfect as another set in mid January.

Volterra · 02/12/2021 06:51

Singiing I feel so cross on your DS’s behalf. He has done so well to get there from where he was before. DS had mocks recently and got an A in one paper and ‘Not am A’ in another and college have predicted him an A. Really hope your email quickly results in a sensible prediction. I do see why schools sometimes won’t predoct a grade in some cases but not in your DS’s at all.

Parents evening next week which is very welcome as I am a bit confused at this point about the TMUA results and want to know if his score would get a reduced Southampton grade. It won’t for Warwick but he wasn’t planning on applying as predicted grades not high enough but I don’t know about other places. He is a fair bit higher than what Lancaster, Cardiff and Sheffield say but no idea about Bath who say they might give a reduced offer if so MAT or TMUA but he hasn’t declared that he has on UCAS thinking as they said they weren’t offering till end of January he had time but now already has his offer. It’s all got a bit confusing.

crazycrofter · 02/12/2021 06:58

@singingstones re the ASD, I guess you need to weigh up the benefits for you of seeking a diagnosis- do you need external help/support? Or is just knowing and being able to do your own research /self-help enough?

@Volterra that sounds a bit complicated! Can you add it on to the UCAS form now?

Volterra · 02/12/2021 07:19

I think he can Crazycrofter but I guess he should wait until next month until he knows what MAT score is as he seemed to prefer that to TMUA . I don’t know if Bath having offered would look at it then. Hopefully college know, if not I might ring admissions without giving names and see what they say. I do feel a bit confused currently.

Monkey2001 · 02/12/2021 07:37

@Volterra it is fine to ring Admissions without giving names, they are usually super helpful and it is their job. It is probably helpful for them to know which things are not clear on their website.

Just ordered a box of pasties to be delivered to DS1 so he doesn't have to cook this weekend before his exam on Monday. This is my first go at pasties by post, but the reviews are great and prices impressive - 8 giant pasties delivered for £27.99. I was all set to send a care package from home but Parcel 2 Go say no perishable items so easier to get something delivered direct. He loves Cornish pasties.

Isthisjustnormal · 02/12/2021 07:39

@singstones: just another voice saying that sounds like an excellent letter: fingers crossed they see sense! Sorry to hear your news @Oblomov21: so horribly competitive. But fingers crossed for good news for ds soon.