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

Fab news, Christopher Tracy! Is Nottingham a top contender?

@Monkey2001 Will be interesting to see if schools can keep going till the end of term!

Congratulations on all the offers rolling in.

Oooh, Cardiff, Delphi! Great choice, aǹd what fab grade requirements - congratulations to your DS!

More offers 🎉🎉 it's beginning to feel like Christmas!

DfE releasing info Karen but Boris already said 'do nativities. All is fine'

Guess more parents can go now they are all WFH....

The ever-changing Covid situation is starting to worry me. DD is miffed because she was meant to be seeing The Stereophonics and Tom Jones in Cardiff next week, but it's just been postponed because of Omicron...and rearranged for right in the middle of A levels.
On the other hand, DH is flying out to Dubai tomorrow for 12 days and someone in the work party who flew out a few days ago has already tested positive out there; I'm praying DH gets there and home again without any issues.

I am wondering how I can find out whether our school will be as generous on grade boundaries as other schools if we have TAGs, but I think I just need to be glad that he won't need As for any of the medicine courses he wants, so as long as he can get the A for PE, TAGs would be fine and less stress. My issue is that our school has never got an A and only once got an A for PE, and there was a MASSIVE jump in PE grades nationally last year.

Oh well, what will be will be, and I know some of you have DC with anxiety issues which will be helped by TAGs.

Yes, the virtual tour of Nottingham looks great and they have just invested in the engineering dept.

@Monkey2001 work from home guidance does not relate to schools. Still no masks in class which to give us a fighting chance for exams we needed. He's only made these announcements today instead of next week because he has cheese and wine gate.

Congratulations on all the offers @BlueMarigold @ChristopherTracy and the others sorry been a crazy day and only just catching up

@Piggywaspushed

DfE releasing info Karen but Boris already said 'do nativities. All is fine'

Guess more parents can go now they are all WFH....

No idea where Karen came from there! Meant later! Just had parents' evening so rather addled.

Quite depressed about WFH as at my work it’s the graduates and juniors who suffer the most (inadequate on the job training, seeing them make mistakes while isolated at home which magnifies the mistakes out of all proportion etc).

Hilariously our work Christmas party is supposed to be next week - still fine for us all to go but not to work in office beforehand.

Well done on the offers @delphigirl and @ChristopherTracy! That's a really low offer from Cardiff @delphigirl, what subject is it for?

@Monkey2001, I noticed earlier that dd's school had published results breakdowns for 2020 and 2021. Serious grade inflation! The percentage of A/A* went from 69 to 84 for history (2019-2021), 67-94 for RS and 47 to 80 for Psychology! So maybe I should be wishing for TAGS!

Hi @crazycrofter - Marine Geography. Niche!

So many new offers today! Well done to Delphigirl and CT’s DC

Well done to all DCs that have offers!!
Apologies for not being able to tag everyone and particularly folk that have been here since Yr10-Lord, where has the time gone? - but I’m ‘rushed off my feet at work’ !

I’ve lost track of Oxbridge DCs on here.
I know miniPiggy has had his interviews, but anyone else has theirs?

Congrats on the offers @Delphigirl and @ChristopherTracy
Lovely to read good news!

Congratulations to everyone on the new offers. Apologies for not mentioning everyone by name.

Parents’s evening tonight but apparently physics teacher seems to think no appointments were needed for the class. Somewhat annoying as one of the papers was DS’s worst mark in recent exams.

DD had her C interviews yesterday Piccolo. Pre assessment test last week; 3 interviews and a pre reading yesterday. Horrid tech issues, gastric flu (omg the evening before was horrendous 🤮) but all done and we move on now.

Congrats on the new offers coming in. It really is nail biting times now.

After DD was feeling happy about her first 2 Sociology mock papers she is now deflated as her teacher has told the class they all got disappointing marks. Parents evening not til mid January now so I hope we get the results before then.

To add to the already fraught time DD has accepted a F2F interview day at her favourite Uni next month without checking with us first and DH is away with work that day so can't take her in the car so we (me and her) will have to catch 3 trains instead. Contemplating going up night before and B&Bing it in case of train delays. Will have to put my anxiety on the back burner and get her through this.

@Monkey2001my DDs school had less than 3% change in grades across the board and in some there was no change at all. Hence her wanting exams for all.

Oh no @AnneOfCleavage that’s such a shame about the exams. There’s nothing worse than thinking you’ve done quite well and then finding out you haven’t as it really affects your confidence. Sorry to hear about the interview date too, hope you find a relatively cost effective way of getting there. I’m surprised they’re not online?

@AnneOfCleavage that does sound stressful. I wonder if more interviews will be online now after yesterday’s announcement

@ealingwestmum that sounds a stressful Cambridge experience, but at least it is over, fingers crossed now!

@AnneOfCleavage first, just because the class did badly, it doesn't mean everybody in the class did badly. Second, in your position I would ask DD if it is possible to change the date. Third, yes, get a hotel/B&B, travel stress before an interview really doesn't set you up for success. DS1 did really badly in his Newcastle interview and I think it was because he was exhausted from the long journey. He went by himself to interviews and I often booked Travelodge as it is cheap and easy. It sounds to me like she will interview very well, good luck to her.

Thank you Monkey, she's fine, albeit just tired now. I think she did ok, it's impossible not to over-hear when they're at home unless you leave (thank god i didn't re tech challenges), but what do I know.

I think also they all focus on the things that did not go so well, even if it's just one or two questions, and lose sight of the bigger picture. Natural, but that's also inexperience, and now having to develop nuanced skills associated with online interviews.

Pros and cons to both I guess. Anne, definitely agree with Monkey, most teachers do not single our the good performers publicly when overall test results are not strong, and mitigate stress as much as possible with an important interview. And most importantly, good luck to her!