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.

Kiwi how did she find Winchester? We dropped DD off but only later found out that there was a parent/carer question and answer session late morning that we could have gone to. We took advantage of the all day cooked breakfast in the downstairs cafe as weather was dire.
DD found the mask wearing difficult as she had to try and "obviously" look interested in the group interviews so she leant forward and nodded etc. One of the questions in her 1-1 interview she had to ask them to repeat and luckily they reworded it as it was confusing. Apparently lots of them said the same. Your DD should hear next week as it was around 5/6 days after the interview that we heard. Good luck.
Ox Br interview was quite informal and DD really enjoyed it. She had to read a picture book to the interviewer - does your DD have to too?

Chichester is her 1st choice at the moment although that could change next week at her interview 😂 and Ox Br her insurance but that could change to 1st as she really loved the sound of the course. What are your DD's first and insurance choices?

Fabulous news on the offers, they are coming thick and fast!!

Lovely to hear of all the offers. And the lemon drizzle. We’ve been doing lots of online offerholder days. I really don’t remember there being so much to do with the older ones, even the medic. Although I do appreciate the effort the unis put in, And I am sure it will help our girl feel more comfortable when she gets there. I could let her get on with it but she likes me to sit with her and discuss, and she will be gon3 soon, so I make the most of it.

@Anne

After feeling anxious about the Winchester interview, she actually quite enjoyed it. She felt it went well and really liked the other applicants she met. Wearing masks isn’t helpful in an interview situation but she managed to make the most of it with positive body language like your DD said.
Her Oxford Brookes interview is on Wednesday and yes, she has to read a children’s book.
At the moment she doesn’t have a clear 1st and 2nd choice but seems to be leaning towards Winchester and Gloucestershire as the top two. I think she is put off going to Oxford Brookes because that’s where I did my teacher training (though it was an independent college at the time before it was taken over by OB) and she would like a place that is hers!

I was thinking the same thing BlueMarigold. Are all of us UVAS done/in?

Still thinking good wishes for all those interviewing, and a driving test this week.

@kiwiandcherries my DS has applied to Winchester and Chichester too, we live in Hampshire so both are fairly local. Not for teaching though, for history.

Sort out dates for offer days is on my list of things to do today too. I need to get DS to set up a FB account, a couple of the unis have invited him to new starters groups.

@ExtremelyDetermined Which are his other universities? Does he have any idea of his first choice and insurance yet?

Bournemouth, Royal Holloway and an outlier, the Royal Agricultural University in Cirencester which is a different course, Environmental Conservation and Heritage Management, he sees himself possibly working for a heritage body, museum service, NT or similar. He has SENs so learning support, avoiding big cities and not being too far from home are main criteria as well as subject choice.

And no, he hasn't decided yet. He has had good offers from all apart from RHU which he only added to his form a week or two ago.

@ExtremelyDetermined that sounds great! Really hope it all works out well for him

Thank you . It's great being on this thread with so many other families going through the same process.

Yes, I'm really glad I found you all

I just asked Ds when he's going to go through offers and accept 2. He said he's already done it. He clearly doesn't want me involved. He told me they'd all offered the same. But Gloucestershire, which I've never heard anyone mention, have offered 112 ucas points. I think that's BBC. So that is his insurance. With Sussex at ABC as firm. Ds seems to think ABC is easily achievable, I guess it's great to be confident. So he says he doesn't need to think about insurance. I hope he's accepted them properly as he doesn't want me involved, it wouldn't be good if he did something wrong.

Your ds is such a character @icanbewhatiwant! Dd would definitely do the accepting bit herself, as she’s reasonably independent, but there’s no way she’d make a decision like that without several months of talking it over and over with us! Exhausting! Whereas I can imagine ds not being bothered with the discussion, he’d just make a snap decision, but he also wouldn’t have a clue how many he has to choose/how to accept, so I’d probably have to do that for him! He had to choose five subjects for his A Level application before Christmas. I’d done loads of research and kept trying to give him my opinions but I’m not sure how much went in. On the deadline day I forced him to give it some attention and he just listed five subjects and that was it, back to Xbox!

Anyway, at least it sounds like Sussex is very achievable for him so all should end up well.

DD’s offer day at York falls on the Saturday halfway through mocks, which is really annoying as I thought we’d make a weekend of it.

I asked Ds if he'd had a confirmation email after accepting. He said no. Should he have?

Ds called me upstairs just now. He said I need help with something on my pc urgently. I thought he'd obviously found out he'd done something wrong with his application. What was on his screen...Wordle 🙈

I have a question for you wise UCAS experts who’ve trodden the path ahead before - DD says there is absolutely zero chance of her going to Durham, many reasons and confident she won’t change her mind. There has been no offer/rejection yet. Is it better to wait for an offer and then decline, or go into UCAS ahead to cancel the application?

Whilst I know her course (languages) won’t be one that’s oversubscribed, we’d hate for a student not get an offer to a uni that is clearly in popular demand, and have no idea how tight margins are across subjects.

icanbe, a friend’s DD told her that she’d firmed her firm and insurance choices, without discussing it with her.
My friend asked her some weeks later whether she’d had an email, confirming her choices but she hadn’t - turned out, she hadn’t done it properly and her choices hadn’t gone through, so maybe worth checking/getting your DS to go back and check, just in case.

@Alsoplayspiccolo thanks. Yes I can imagine that happening.

That's great news Icanbe

Kiwi yes DD was nervous for Winchester too but it went well in the end and the other applicants were lovely too. Hope your DD hears soon and that the OB interview goes well for her.

Poor DD is feeling pretty low (we've had tears) as she got her mock grades back and we had online parents eve today. Her mocks were straight after having a bad bout of Covid but she thought they'd gone okay but she got B, C+, D so she is so deflated. Her predicted grades are actually BBC now. Her sociology teacher has been off for weeks now (that was the D grade) and we are worried so are looking into getting her a tutor on a day she has an afternoon of frees - her form teacher is well up for that as she was not at Liberty to say when the teacher is back to school so it's obv not Covid. She's missed so much school work due to her having Covid, having Uni interviews and teachers being off that she and we are getting a bit worried now. Interestingly all the class got Ds apart from one lad who got a B so I would say it's a teacher issue not a student one of the majority got below par. She's a known harsh marker so who knows in the real exams. She got married in Oct half term so maybe stress of that has made her ill. Do feel for her but I also feel for DD too.

Poor dd @AnneOfCleavage. The C+ should turn into a B by May/June though so it’s really just Sociology that’s the issue? So she’s not far off her highest offer and should be ok for Oxford Brookes? It’s hard though isn’t it, there’s been so much disruption. Hopefully now the interviews are done she can focus on study. She’s done so well to get through them successfully but obviously her school work has had to take a back seat.

Yes, it's so hard when they get results that they are disappointed with, especially with knowing what they need etc. And really hard when the teacher's absence has such an impact Becca that's not the student's fault - it's out of their control. Hope your DD can use it as motivation to focus and do what she can!

Because, not Becca!!

crazycrofter thank you. Still have one more which has a bit of prep to do too so nearly there. Yes OB is BCC but they asked for 104 so could she get BBD and still qualify?

Another query I have is if they just miss out on their first choice by say one grade do they get the chance to ask if they would accept them at the lower grade or are they automatically given their insurance if the grades match that?

Kiwi that's known as a kick up the bum I believe and exactly what mocks are there for. She has another set end of Feb / beginning March so let's see what that brings. She does spend a lot of time making her notes pretty with high lighters and fancy swirly headings but she'd be in no mood to hear my suggestion of dropping that in favour of more study tonight but I will try and drop a hint in the next few days / weeks. Hate seeing her upset as she's awesome and dedicated and so conscientious but studying comes hard for her so she really has to work at it. She's so exhausted that the thought of giving more of herself really frightened her tonight and her MT is feeling fragile. She is complaining of tummy ache (her normal anxiety symptom) and her nails are chewed down after growing them out in Xmas hols. I keep hugging her and telling her how amazing she is and how proud we are.

More great offers is a tonic in dark January. Sorry to hear you have Covid @DoggerelBank.

I don't envy anyone who's been supporting DC through mocks and interviews. I'm sure I'm not the only old one who can remember plenty of people improving from mocks. Before TAGs a key purpose was to highlight areas for to revisit. It's hard though if teacher/covid absence means they are having to teach themselves.