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

Thanks @DoggerelBank and @Piggywaspushed: ds is very unconcerned and he knows his course remits much better than I do - I just had a little wobble. I'm completely ignorant of all these Youtubers - I might have to do a little google tonight to see what I'm missing!

@Isthisjustnormal I think PS might be less important for Maths than for some subjects, but the ones which turn offers round quickly (Birmingham, York....) don't have time to read them before making the offers. Bristol don't read them. You could ask Admissions at the ones you are worried about how heavily the PS is weighted in the Admissions process, but I really think it is about the grades for Maths.

I think its fairly normal to be covering more than one subject in the PS and therefore not having an exact fit for all of them, there is a page on doing so in the UCAS PS guidance pages, there will be many students who for whatever reasons are applying for a bit of a mix - in my DS's case he is only prepared to be 100 miles from home and there aren't 5 unis offering one of his choices in that radius.

I am sitting in a car by the hockey pitch at your DD's college @OrangeCinnamonCocktail. It is very windy! Off to find somewhere for a coffee.

Thanks @Monkey2001 @ExcessiveIyDisorganised: you've confirmed what ds is saying ito maths being less PS weighted and that lots of them may be like this - York is a particular favourite, and I'd understood they were very grades focused, so that's especially useful feedback :-)

Thank you for the new thread and apologies for my absence but I’ve had a crazy two weeks.
DD is doing so well on her cabin crew course, they have exams daily which the pass mark is 90% each time. and has passed them all so far.
Apparently when she got the job she ( and the others in her group) were told that they are working for a new airline that’s part of the RyanAir group called Lauda Europe.
My brother flew back with them from Barcelona recently and he said that he thought they were better haha!
So yes, very busy but she’s doing well and her confidence has grown so much.
We were looking forward to seeing her this weekend but Miss Rona put paid to that as I tested positive on Monday and DH yesterday.
Thankfully we only have it mildly but so annoying
Congratulations to everyone with offers for uni places it’s been great catching up with you all

Thanks for the new thread @OrangeCinnamonCocktail - lovely title!

Up in London for West End birthday outing!!

Congratulations on offers! Sheffield ones give DD hope that she might hear soon

Wow @whoamitojudge: sounds like dd is really flying, so to speak - you must be so proud of her! Hope you and dh continue to have mild symptoms too.

Great news @whoamitojudge, sounds like she’s doing really well!

Quick question - have you/your offspring looked at student satisfaction stats? Is it a good idea to pay attention to them? Are they really representative of how good a course is?

There was never any doubt that she wasn't going to perform in her on-going assessments whoamitojudge, great update on her continuing to thrive!

Get well soon, you and your DH.

Lovely update Whoamitojudge sounds like she is really thriving.

@crazycrofter, we have been looking, but not sure how much faith we should have in them. Would be interested to hear others' opinions. I know friends who worked at Sussex Uni had a bad year with all student satisfactions scores down because they'd had a lot of renovation work on student accommodation, which of course should lead to better satisfaction in future years. But I don't think that can explain the more specific questions on whether teachers make a particular course interesting etc.

Finally got DDs second vaccine done. So glad I went with her! Honestly, the govt is so keen to get everyone done, but they don't make it easy! Our local centre has been doing jabs between 8am and 3pm - not great for those at school, so we had to go today. The second person on checking in (we went through about 7stages before final jab) said she wouldn't be allowed to have it as she was on antibiotics. Really forceful - said if the queue was longer we might as well go home!! Then said he wasn't anything medical so if we didn't mind a wasted trip, we could give it a go! DD would've been put off at that stage. After 2 more stages we get to the medical person who said she couldn't have it as she wasn't 17.9. I obviously told them the rules had changed, but she wasn't having it so called over a supervisor who agreed with her. But then started wittering on about 12 weeks. I said we were way over 12 weeks. And after checking it turned out the first lady was using the wrong date! Checked re ABs and that was absolutely fine. Eventually got the jab. DD had a text from a friend who was turned away from the same place this morning for the same reason, but wasn't confident enough to argue. I suggested DD gather all her mates up and we can go as a group and I'll argue on behalf of them all 😁

Thanks @OrangeCinnamonCocktail for the new thread. Could you or @singingstones copy in the updated list? I’m not clever enough but refer to it a lot..
So sorry you couldn’t see your girl @whoamitojudge, but far better that you got diagnosed in time to stop her coming and getting all disrupted.
I was able to talk thru the Uni choices with Dd. We agreed that it might have been better to include a course for her on a bad day results, but as the thing is now with the school and ready to send, or perhaps, even sent, we will just have to take our chances and be well organised if we need to do the clearing thing.
I am feeling very guilty because she has asthma, and it turns out, neither of us understood that her using the blue inhaler more meant the asthma was poorly controlled and she needed a review. She now has a new inhaler and after 3 days already has loads more energy. No wonder she’s been a bit lacklustre lately.
I had my 1st lot of tests on Thursday and they called me yesterday and told me I need more next week. I was quite blasé at first, and of course I’m very grateful for the speedy response, but it is making me a bit anxious now.can’t really talk about it to anyone.

@Seeline on an earlier post I said I had difficulty getting ds's second vaccine. If I hadn't have gone with him it wouldn't have been done. It was before they said 16 and 17 could have 2 vaccines. Ds had the first at 17 and 9 months. We went for the second 5 days before his 18th birthday (almost 12 weeks later) They tried saying he was younger than 17 and 9 months when he had the first vaccine so wasn't able to have 2. It was a certain amount of days that it had to be before 18th birthday. In the end they counted the days back. He was just in, by a few days. So they gave it to him. I was annoyed as 18 year olds could have 2 and he was almost 18. But a couple of days later they announced 16 and 17 year olds could have 2 anyway.

Zebracat, as much as having more tests could be worrying, obtaining the full picture is crucial to understanding options, if needed.

Good to get her asthma meds back under control. You are not to know these things intuitively if you don't have it first hand!

G@Zebracat do you know she can log in to UCAS and change choices for upto 14 days after the application is acknowledged by UCAS?

Good luck for the next set of tests, @crazycrofter we need to channel your powers again!

Updated list coming up shortly, Zebra

So do we think there will be exams now that the Omicron variant is lurking ready to hit us? I think I am now about 40% yes and 60% no, so on a knife edge, but I think they won’t happen. Where are others in their thinking?

@20newnames/ DS / Engineering / Bath, Warwick, Durham, Lincoln (BBB)
@Alsoplayspiccolo/ DD / English + Film
@AnneofCleavage/ DD / gap year? Primary Education
@BlueMarigold/ DD / Biology
@cariadambyth/ DD / History / Southampton, Bath Spa, Warwick, RHUL
@christophertracy / DS / Mech Eng
@collywobble/ DS / PPE, Economics / Lancaster (ABB), Loughborough (AAB)
@crazycrofter/ DD / Psychology
@Decorhate/ DS / Economics + Politics / Manchester, Leeds, Bristol, Sheffield, Southampton
@Delphigirl/ DS / Oceanography / Southampton, Cardiff, Plymouth, Dalhousie
@DoggerelBank/ DS / Biotechnology / Edinburgh, Manchester, Glasgow, Leeds, Bristol
@ealingwestmum/ DD / Middle Eastern and European Studies / Cambridge, Durham, Manchester (ABBM2), Bristol (ABBM2), Leeds (ABM2)
@estherfrewen/ DS / History / Cambridge, Birmingham (ABB), Cardiff (ABB-BBB), Warwick (AAB), Lancaster (AAB-ABB)
@EwwSprouts/ DS / Biology
@ExcessivelyDisorganised/ DS / History or Environmental Management
@Fiddlersgreen/ DS / Journalism / Bournemouth (104 pts), Brighton (BCC), Cardiff (ABB)
@Fruitygal/ DD / Biology / Durham, York, Sheffield, Lancaster, Exeter (AAB-ABB)
@Hattifatteners/ DD / Vet Med / Bristol, Liverpool, Nottingham, Edinburgh
@Heifer/ DD / Biology
@Hopeful201/ DS / Medicine
@Horace123/ DS / Classics / Edinburgh 34/665, Exeter (36), Durham
@icanbewhatiwant/ DS / History + Philosophy
@Isthisjustnormal/ DS / Comp Sci / Cambridge
@JustHereWithMyPopcorn/ DS / Law / Nottingham (AAA), Birmingham (AAA), UCL, Warwick, York
@KingscoteStaff/ DD / Medicine / Nottingham (biochem/med sci)
@Knickerthief1/ DD / Child nursing / York
@Monkey2001/ DS / Medicine / Manchester, Newcastle
@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), Durham, QMUL, Reading, Nottingham
@OrangeCinnamonCocktail/ DD / Music (uni)
@PaddingtonPaddington/ DD / Music / Leeds Conservatoire, RWCMD
@Piggywaspushed/ DS / Social sciences / Birmingham (AAB-ABB), York (AAB-ABB), Cambridge, Sheffield (ABB-BBB), Bath
@ProggyMat/ DD / Classics / Bristol (BBB), Edinburgh, Exeter (AAA), Oxford
@SandyBayley/ DD / Medicine / Oxford, Newcastle
@Seeline/ DD / Liberal Arts / UEA (AAB), Kent (BBB), Nottingham (AAA), Exeter (AAA), Birmingham
@Shimy/ DS / Business + Management / Birmingham (AAB-ABB), Loughborough, Warwick
@singingstones/ DS / Neuroscience
@Volterra/ DS / Maths / Bath (AstarAA), Exeter
@whatsnext2/ DD / English joint hons
@Wheresthebeach/ DD / gap year? Marine Biology / Southampton, Portsmouth, Swansea, Plymouth, Liverpool
@whoamitojudge/ DD / RyanAir cabin crew training under way!
@Zebracat/ DD / Liberal Arts or Anthropology
@ZittiEBuoni/ DD / tbc applying next year

My year 13s just didn't heed all my pleas to work really hard for their mock, so I hope we don't need to use them...

DS , on the other hand, might do well out of no terminal exams.

As a teacher, I can't bear the thought of the workload which was off the scale last year. That said, I think the government have their full on ostrich heads on re the situation in schools. We had 26 staff off last week...

singing you are amazing!

Thank you @singingstones .

@Monkey2001 I have tried to block it out of my mind the last few months but I'd say 50/50 now. The county DS's school is in have told all schools to go back into masks in corridors from Monday. I'm hopeful we can all hang on till Christmas but I think we'll be lucky to get through winter without more restrictions / huge disruption in schools.

All secondary schools that is. And yes to the strain on teachers, one of my friends who is a CEV secondary teacher and single parent sounded to be close to breaking point at the thought of this winter last time I spoke to her.

Thanks @singingstones.
@Monkey2001, I didn’t know that. Could be useful. But Dd pointed out that her teacher , and the headteacher, who spoke to her this week, didn’t question her choices. I just don’t know if I’m worrying unnecessarily . It’s just predictions are an imperfect art and our corona cohort have not been tested in proper public examinations, and may not be again.And she doesn’t deal well with uncertainty. But we talked about it. And she would certainly get a humanities foundation course somewhere.so if she understands the risk and can cope, I can too.

Pleased DS just got his second jab and I got my booster. Hope everyone else eligible is getting all jabbed up...'Winter is coming!'.