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

@Oblomov21 that all sounds so intense. My DS plays rugby, which is bad enough to watch, but it really sounds like your DS has gained valuable skills on his boxing journey. Rowing much more comfortable though!

Good news on more UCAS forms going in, let's hope for a bumper crop of offers next week on this thread.

I had an interesting conversation last night with a Bristol academic who said they are having difficulty getting the students in for F2F lectures - he did an in-person lecture for 17 students and only 1 turned up! They have introduced a "swipe in" system to record who is attending lectures and have minimum attendance requirements. I thought it was interesting given the announce of fucus we, as parents, have on securing F2F teaching.

How long does it usually take for school to send application to ucas once they have received it?

@BlueMarigold how exciting - the process has started! Hopefully offers before Christmas!

[quote Monkey2001]@Oblomov21 that all sounds so intense. My DS plays rugby, which is bad enough to watch, but it really sounds like your DS has gained valuable skills on his boxing journey. Rowing much more comfortable though!

Good news on more UCAS forms going in, let's hope for a bumper crop of offers next week on this thread.

I had an interesting conversation last night with a Bristol academic who said they are having difficulty getting the students in for F2F lectures - he did an in-person lecture for 17 students and only 1 turned up! They have introduced a "swipe in" system to record who is attending lectures and have minimum attendance requirements. I thought it was interesting given the announce of fucus we, as parents, have on securing F2F teaching.[/quote]
I had a similar conversation this week. Some students had actually complained! I can see where they are coming from with regard to super strict timetabling if you have to work etc. Seminars (as opposed to trad lectures) benefit from attendance though. I'm not sure what the answer is.

Good news @BlueMarigold here's hoping the other forms stuck in the system get sent off soon.

@Nard75 Down to the school. DS had to make his personal statement available to his form tutor and another teacher to review and then DS made tweaks. Not rewrite but this paragraph follows on better than that one so swop around type guidance. He then had a short session with the head who shared what had been written in the reference and the head sent it off while he was there. That whole process took about eight working days from DS drafting his PS.

Thanks @EwwSprouts and well done to everyone who has had offers or replies this week.

@Monkey2001 had the lecturer taught this class before? It sounds like a very very small undergraduate class? 17?

Lots of friends student children are telling us poor amounts of f2f being offered. At least one of these is 1st year at Bristol.

I have completed a few degrees at different places both as young person and as a mature student. Plus the two DSs have both done uni. Some degrees you can fail on attendance as they expect 95% attendance. Lots of medical courses and health professional courses are like this. Many courses have dropped f2f from 12-20hrs to 3-4hrs per week so kids are going home and missing the f2f. Other reasons people don’t attend - early lectures after big nights out or first thing Monday am or last thing on a Friday if kids are going home. Portsmouth uni has a big Halloween night the 9am lecture the following morning is poorly attended. If the lecturer is super dull they will also miss it after attending the first session and not getting anything beneficial.

@Fruitygal I think the person I was talking to is probably quite "marmite" - brilliant, but demanding. I think first years want the structure and social opportunities of lectures, but once they have friends and interests often prefer on line. Another friend at the dinner party said she had been in the university recently and was sad to walk past rooms of people on their phones, not talking, discussing etc as students used to.

I have only skimmed the last few days, but have just paid and sent in DS's UCAS application after a final check through. School said last week that they were just about ready with their part. Now over to DD's college applications, I need to contact all the learning support depts about her dyslexia.

Well done @ExquisitelyDecorated! Hope we'll be seeing a few more offers on here this week.

I'm also moving onto sixth form applications for ds - well, once he's finished his mocks! Also need to discuss his special needs. He's finally getting really good support from his current school and I'm beginning to feel a bit anxious about him moving on.

Good news more UCAS forms going in. It’s difficult making the right sixth form decisions sometimes, still fresh in my memory.

DS’s Exeter off is for the integrated masters. We were in a bit of a hurry and I remember a bit of a discussion about whether to put the 3 or 4 year one. With hindsight regret that as would be nice to have a lower offer than A*AA at this point.

Anyone got any suggestions for good gloves for the classroom that are easy to write with?

Same here @crazycrofter, DD could stay at school where she is really well supported but its a tiny 6th form and part of her wants to spread her wings. She says everyone is watching to see what everyone else decides. DS stayed at his school, we had to visit colleges to justify to the local authority him staying at his school 6th form and I was HUGELY relieved that he wanted to stay put, but his SENs are much worse.

@ExquisitelyDecorated unfortunately ds can’t stay at his school as we’re moving house in the summer. However, he’s unlikely to have stayed anyway as it’s a grammar school with a narrow range of academic A levels and uniform (his bugbear!) in the sixth form. It looks like the school in the town we’re moving to is perfect as there are 36 subjects to choose from and small classes. But I’m not sure what support he’ll get. And there’s really nowhere else significantly different to look at, unlike here where there are sixth form colleges, grammars, comprehensives, FE colleges etc

Ah, never going to catch up today and have been kicked off the 'I'm on' list! Just checking in and hoping everyone is well and offers are still coming in.

Well done for offers, and forms submitted.

@ExquisitelyDecorated

Same here *@crazycrofter*, DD could stay at school where she is really well supported but its a tiny 6th form and part of her wants to spread her wings. She says everyone is watching to see what everyone else decides. DS stayed at his school, we had to visit colleges to justify to the local authority him staying at his school 6th form and I was HUGELY relieved that he wanted to stay put, but his SENs are much worse.

We are no sixth form area... did note, rather like secondary school applications, when the time came for enrolments lots were going to completely different places they said they were going to initially!

I remember it felt like dd's whole year group were dissatisfied in year 11/desperate to leave, but when the time came, only around 10 out of 90 girls went elsewhere!

It's good to remember that there are areas like yours @OrangeCinnamonCocktail where kids have to move at 16 regardless. I do think ds needs a change of environment; it's just doubly hard as he'll be moving 45 mins to an hour away from friends too.

I'm in the same area as @OrangeCinnamonCocktail but my two are at independent schools so they do have 6th forms. There are only a handful of state 6th forms in the county and none near us, so college is very much the default.

Good luck with 6th form choices, all who have that to worry about. We ended up with our 3 going to 3 different places. DS (the last) had whittled it down to two options by the 1st of September, then changed his mind at induction, and ended up 2 days after the start of term at a third place! (All to do with being allowed to start with 4 subjects and drop one).

Big shout out for the IB if anyone's considering it! Is absolutely fantastic for well organised and well motivated all-rounders.

Here's hoping for a more decisive approach from DS when A level results come out.

If only ds was well organised and well motivated @DoggerelBank

Dd took six months of discussions before she whittled down her 5 sixth form options to 3, then eventually to 1! So I knew the uni decision would be hard work!

She just messaged to say the SENCO has told her she can’t have extra time (not sure why) but she can have a separate room and rest breaks. She seems quite happy with that, so I’m relieved!

Well for a complete change of pace I looked up exam dates...God knows if they'll happen but figured it was worth a look as DD will have sporting comps.

Yikes. June would be a complete right off. I was hoping she'd have at least a day between exams but no such luck...with the last two being 23rd and 24th.

Fortunately DS's 6th form choices were limited somewhat by timetable blocks and his GCSE choices, so it was fairly straightforward and he definitely made the right choices (in respect of both GCSE and A level I am glad I backed off and left him to it as I might have nudged him to different subjects which wouldn't have been as good with hindsight).

DD wants to do history, biology and one from chemistry, psychology or geography, I have advised that chemistry or psychology would keep science at university a viable option but its up to her. These choices also have the advantage of being available wherever she decides to go unlike some more vocational choices.

Managed to have a chat with Ds after lunch, he never usually tells me much. He says he has a ucas form meeting later this week, when he will go through his form and hopefully send it.
Ds has 3 choices now. Sussex, Southampton and Leeds. He still only really wants to go to Sussex. He just needs 2 more with lower grade requirements as insurance. Ds won't know his predictions that go on the form until it is sent or about to be sent. Business he's hoping for distinction. Religious studies/ethics/philosophy he says should be an A and if it's a B he's going to complain. History he's hoping for B. So maybe by the end of the week it'll be sent off. 🤞 I asked about his EPQ grade, but he doesn't seem to know that either.