Thread 26 - Covid Cohort Hoping for a Stable, Successful 2022

[OrangeCinnamonCocktail]

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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 threads 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 will continue.

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.

@singingstones, that's fab news on your DDs GCSE Maths, well done to her!

Singingstones well done to your DD! Wow that is the 1st actual public exam I’m aware has been taken since summer 2019. Brilliant.
Thanks also for the updated list which is so comprehensive and fab to see develop.

DS has accepted Dalhousie and will go to an offer holders day at Plymouth in Feb before choosing his firm and insurance in the uk. Then he has 3 options to cover all bases on results day. He knows he is lucky but his processing difficulties are so bad that it is almost impossible to know how he will perform/what his TAGs will be. Which is making him (and me) realise that he needs to go somewhere where his degree is graded as much on project/field work, practicals, papers and dissertations and as little on timed exams as possible.

Whoop! Well done to your DD @singingstones !
And thank you for yet another belting update on our list!

@singingstones Congratulations on the first result of the year both at home and on this thread. It's a premonition hopefully of what's to follow here by God's grace.

@Delphigirl
Congratulations to your DS on that excellent offer from Dalhousie, it's one of the best in Canada.

Whoop - well done @singingstones dd and maths prodigy: great news. We need a maths/science tutor sorting for my dd for GCSE - she's the total opposite of logical, maths brain ds! Anyone have any good GCSE online tutors for maths-resistant kids?? To be fair to her, her recent maths grade is actually decent but I'd like to push it up just a little bit!

And welcome to the thread @Fonty

Thanks @Shimy! 😘

Thank you @Isthisjustnormal! Thank you @singingstones for the brilliant list & congratulations to your DD for her result. DS received an offer tonight from Birmingham (AAB). I think joining this group today led to some kind of divine intervention!

Ahh, @Fonty: congratulations. You are discovering the power this thread has!! Where is Brum in his priorities?

How are all those doing mocks doing btw - ds has his last one today and has been reasonably happy but certainly not super-confident with all of his. He'll been happy when tomorrow is over though...

Congrats Fonty - lovely to have the offer in. Yes..it's magic around here!

🙂 So glad I found you all. Looking forward to everyone’s updates over the next few days/weeks/months!

@Isthisjustnormal

This might be worth a look - friend of a friend, experienced teacher, fed up with school (I think) so now tutoring online. Don't know about availability or prices though!

https://m.facebook.com/pg/juliesmathstuitiononline/posts/?ref=pageinternal&mtt_nav=0

Well done to him @fonty - I have a DS at brum who is v happy so if you need any info let me know!

DS got an offer from Sheffield- ABB.
so just one more to hear from.
We haven’t seen about any offer holder days from any of them though!

Thanks for the list @singingstones and well done to your DD for the Maths gcse!

Oh, well done!

We haven't heard about Sheffield offer holder days either.

Update notifications annoyingly stopped again, but I'm clapping all your brilliant dc with their offers.

News here: I'm going to be an invigilator! Self-employment income has been dwindling since lockdown, so I thought I'd top up by pacing the aisles. (Not at dd's school - at her sister's.) Now we just have to hope public exams go ahead this year...

@Fiddlersgreen oh congratulations!

zitti oh I’m in the same position re self employment…interesting idea!

Really good to see offers coming in. Really do need to get DS to put in his final couple of choices in, I’m thinking Cardiff probably as his TMUA should get him a reduced offer. Then decide which other between Southampton and Birmingham. He has a virtual open day at Bath this weekend I think.

I drove close to Bath university on the way home yesterday and. hope I’ll be seeing more of it in September. Everyone has been so incredibly kind i’m blown away, even complete strangers - a lovely lady asked me if she could help as I was struggling to carry my bedding down the road. Very humbling to see the outpouring of love for Dad from family, friends, neighbours and colleagues. His partner has always said that everyone loved him and she wasn’t wrong. I hope he knew.

Been really cathartic being back and I did smile despite my deep shock when the nurse was talking to us just after he died and said ‘he was really lush’. Been catching up with school friends which has been lovely and my belated NY’s resolution is not to leave things so long with actually seeing people. Great though messaging is there’s nothing like sitting down with someone face to face.

Volterra, as tough as these times are for you, how the community you grew up in and have responded to your dad’s passing is total testament to his character. Definitely to take comfort from.

And to rekindling old friendships. We do go full circle.

That's great zitti - there will be plenty of mock exam invigilating needed I'm sure even if the real ones don't go ahead. I'm on the list awaiting training to be an invigilator at our local-ish Uni as I'm in the same boat with s/e work diminishing since Covid struck. Thought once DD finishes school I may sign up for her school too. She says that it's really boring and you don't get to sit down really so on your feet a lot. I've also been told not to have an annoying cough like the lady who invigilates at DD's school as it's v v annoying when trying to concentrate and it echos around the hall. I suggested to DD to quietly mention that to someone as yes that would be annoying but she's not brave enough

Congrats to your DD singingstones - amazing result and congrats to Delphi and Fonty's DS on their offers and also welcome Fonty

I’m glad that you’ve been able to share people’s experiences of your dad @volterra. It must be lovely to hear how much he was appreciated by everyone in his life.

I’m feeling very frustrated with year 11 ds but not sure if I’m getting too invested. He will always do things his own way and if he sees no logical reason or benefit to something, he won’t do it, regardless of peer pressure/societal expectations! He is adamant he won’t do any revision for Physics and Chemistry GCSEs as he doesn’t need them and he’s managed to get 4s in the mocks. He absolutely doesn’t want to waste time on revising subjects he hates when all he needs is a pass. I can’t convince him otherwise… And maybe he’s right?! But there’s a risk he won’t even get the 4s. He says it won’t matter as he only needs 5 GCSEs to get into sixth form.

Sounds like a comforting trip Volterra.

Gosh that's tough Crazy. I think I'd talk to teachers and raise concerns. 5 GCSE's might be the minimum requirement but what if they can fill the places with kids who have 8? Worth exploring the risks of this strategy. I've found that with DD if I start the conversation with 'Are you nuts??? You do realise that xyz' then I get nowhere. Whereas if I start with 'something for you to think about, I have no views, just ensuring you've thought about this from all angles' that the message sometimes gets through.

In reality, you can't force him to revise, but it must be very frustrating.

@crazycrofter do bribes work?! We agreed a stepped approach with high stakes for aspirational grades, different for each subject. So favourite subjects might be £5 for a 6, £10 for a 7, £15 for an 8, but the ones which need motivation £10 for a 5, £20 for a 6, £50 for a 7. It is a lot of money, but you can adjust to an amount sufficient to motivate and £50 is less than the cost of 2 hours of tutoring and it may give focus!

Volterra, my biggest comfort after my mum's death was seeing how sad and devastated all her friends, neighbours, former colleagues etc. were by it. Four years later, I still sometimes stop and think about how I'm far from the only person missing her. It makes me feel that she still has a place in the world.

AnneofCleavage it's quite amazing how many things you have to think about - we've been warned off strong perfumes, wearing clothes with pet hairs on, jingly jewellery - all sorts of stuff you might not think twice about before leaving the house. Also not to perch your bum on the table at the front so that it tips up and all the papers fall off - as has apparently happened in the past .

@Monkey2001 a sophisticated bribery system is already in place! But he’d rather work on the subjects he’s good at and have a chance of an 8 than ‘waste time’ on the sciences (and English Lit, which is also at the 3/4 danger zone). He says there’s no point trying to kid him that GCSEs really matter once you get past the next stage as they don’t, they’re just a stepping stone!

My friend is an invigilator, she tried to persuade me to do it. I remember thinking the pay wasn't good if I factored in fuel etc. Friend is ok as she walks there. Sometimes I think maybe I should have done it, especially as it has led to other work for my friend.
She was invigilating at the last "proper" GCSEs so back in 2019. She leant against the wooden stage during the exam, put her hand back, felt a sharp pain, looked and she'd got a huge splinter in her finger, for some reason she promptly fainted 🙈

Ds1 was working with a lad on his summer job last year, the lad said he'd received a higher mark in his maths gcse due to extenuating circumstances. Ds asked what the circumstances were...he said the invigilator had fainted. Ds asked if it was Mrs X the lad said yes. I told my friend, she said she was glad she was of assistance with his better grade. If it were me, I think I'd be embarrassed to return to invigilate. She has no idea why it made her faint. Her daughter was taking another gcse at the same time in a different room. She's glad she wasn't in that room.