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.

@AnneOfCleavage I hope your dd's next set of mocks go better. Maybe getting lower grades will make her work out how she can improve. I think it's a lot of pressure on them all not knowing how they will be in official exams as so far it's mostly been all mocks.

@AnneOfCleavage a couple of sessions with a good tutor can really help them focus on exam technique and how to get the marks. Universities all get the grades a week before results day and device whether to accept slipped grades, and in normal years there is a lot of flexibility. This year there may or may not be, depending on how many offers were accepted and how many slipped. If exams and results day go ahead she will probably get a welcome email from Chichester or OB before she gets her results! It is so unfair that missing the grades would probably be down to teacher absence.

@ealingwestmum I don't know whether withdrawing now would free up an offer. They obviously expect a certain percentage of rejections. I assume you don't want to share the reasons for Durham falling from favour, but what are the choices looking like now?

DS has just had an offer days email. The dates offered are a mix of weekdays and Saturdays. Trying to decide whether it's better to do a Saturday so no missed school or a weekday when the full complement of students will be on campus.

@ExtremelyDetermined - I would want to see what the uni is like at the weekends, just in case it's dead (assuming your DS isn't likely to come home at weekend). We have done a mixture of Wednesday & Saturday and I think 1 Sunday.

@AnneOfCleavage sorry for your DD (and you) it's so hard when they feel so deflated. At least there is still plenty of time to turn things around and you do have some options.

Re missing out on 1st choice grades, my understanding is , the uni in question will get to decide whether to accept or not (as they see the grades a few days before you) Some uni say things like personal statements are read again. If not, then it will go to the insurance pick. If the grades weren't met for there either they also get to decide.

Hopefully it won't come to any of that and his grades will pick up and all this worry will be over - oh I can't wait for that.

Do parents then worry about DS/DD passing their end of year uni exams next? !!!!

Thank you Monkey, I didn’t think it would make that much difference now, and who knows whether an offer would even be forthcoming anyway. She asked, given they always have pressure on places available.

Nothing ominous on why, other than it’s always been her least favoured option, she really prefers city/large town and perhaps its popularity with the London crowd is a little off putting for her.

Anne, hang in there. I know all your daughter’s symptoms are displaying the stress she is clearly enduring right now, especially for things out of her control (lack of teaching) but she also appears to have huge determination when needed.

The additional mocks is good. Time to regroup, a tutor to plug the gaps and rebuild her confidence. Good luck.

AoC, let me know if you want me to point you towards any sociology resources. I am happy to help out where I can !

That's a good point @Heifer, it's the Royal Agricultural which is too far to come home every weekend (almost completely impossible on public transport and 90mims drive) so he won't be back every weekend. It has however got a hockey club just across the road. We went to a Saturday open day in Nov and it did seem pretty quiet. Unfortunately hard to find much info about it online as its so small, nothing much on WIWIKAU or TSR.

@AnneOfCleavage I’m sorry to hear you DD is down about her results, hopefully she can turn it around by the next set of mocks. I know what you mean about spending time making notes look tidy, DS has a tendency to do that rather than actually learn the notes! School are offering a revision course for Biology at Easter that focuses on exam techniques etc but he”s refusing to go. I think I will wait and see his mock results before pushing but I can’t understand the immediate refusal.

@DoggerelBank sorry that you’ve caught COVID, hopefully you’re not too poorly.

DD received an offer from McGill (Montreal) overnight. She’s really upbeat this morning, and will definitely help appease any weekend stress ahead of Tues for the thing that’s not talked about in our house!

Brilliant news @ealingwestmum! Where does McGill sit in her options? Is it a favourite?

@ealingwestmum Fabulous news!

DDs stress levels are rising too. They had a session on revision at school yesterday - was supposed to be helpful techniques etc. Teacher started it by telling them they had 4 weeks until mocks, and 17 weeks until A levels start, and that they should be doing 5-6 hours of revision a day over Easter. All true, but probably not the best way of calming stressed 17yos!!

Chances of any revision at the moment are limited as they are teaching full on with masses of homework. They won't give them any details of what mocks will cover either until the 7th February announcements.... I wish they had had some mocks after Christmas. At least that would have meant a proportion of solid revision done. At this rate mocks will be basically the same amount as the real things.

Thank you Crazy. From an experiential perspective, she’s ranked it first, as it also fits in with the language development but yes, it is costly vs the UK system. If Ireland didn’t have such a late offers system (post A level results) she would also be good with going there, but it’s a very small intake for her course (12), which is a slight concern, claustrophobic wise. Her one US application is very much dependent on a financial support package but took the most effort to complete. She withdrew all her other US prospects due to pandemic impact, culture and who knows what may happen in 2024! It’s got a less than 4% acceptance chance so she’s left it in knowing it’s unlikely.

We may get nearer to acceptance time and the reality of studying far from home actually hits home. There’s obviously lots to said of studying UK but she’s got to work that out herself. She is aware that any support she gets from us now means less/none for anything later, but we’ve been as transparent as we can with finances.

She’s not said a thing about Cambridge, for obvious reasons. But I am excited for her future, as she’s ready to leave, wherever that may be to.

You are all so so kind. Thank you for your words of encouragement (shed a little tear myself) it is so appreciated @crazycrofter @icanbewhatiwant @kiwiandcherries @Piggywaspushed @ealingwestmum @Heifer @JustHereWithMyPopcorn

@Piggywaspushed she has lots of resources it's just the teaching it to her part she needs and most importantly exam techniques and what he examiners are looking for in terms of answers. We asked her form teacher if she knows of anyone we could employ to tutor but if you know of a tutor who is solid in knowledge of the exam board Eduqas for Sociology then do let me know. With online being an option now they can be anywhere in the Country so choices are better.

Great news for your DD @ealingwestmum. A lovely surprise heading into the weekend. I'm now piqued as to what is happening on Tuesday.

I'm sorry to read about your DD's mocks @AnneOfCleavage. Its so hard.

DD's Chemistry mocks haven't gone terribly well (don't have grades yet but we know it will be well off predicted). They've all done badly apparently. They went to the teachers and said 'that was a nightmare' and the answer was 'it was meant to be hard, we will get you up to the level you need to be by the summer so don't worry'. The don't worry isn't working for DD at all though. I really wish they'd done something that builds confidence rather than a really hard set of papers. Do you know what grade boundaries they used? If it was 2019/2020 then those wouldn't apply and the marking may be overly harsh.

The only thing I've said to DD that seems to have worked is 'improve one mark at a time', ignore the big picture and focus on what's in front of you now. We're all feeling really flat about it though as she's so wants to get the grades that would mean she'd get into Southampton.

McGill sounds very exciting. Congratulations, @ealingwestmum junior!
@Heifer, yep, as soon as they're at uni you start worrying if they'll pass their exams or get chucked out/have to repeat the year. If you're lucky, you'll feel more confident as the terms pass. In our case, we've felt less and less confident, but excellent news with uni exam results this week so we can breathe again!
@AnneOfCleavage, it's hard when their confidence is knocked by mocks, and even harder when there's a teacher problem, but with a tutor and focused studying things can turn round quickly. There've been several examples of Ds in mocks turning into As and A*s in our family, mostly at GCSE but also at A level. Definitely not too late!

Ignore me @ealingwestmum think I've just worked it out.

Great news @ealingwestmum. McGill is a fab university.

@Wheresthebeach I know they don't want them to get complacent at this stage but super hard mocks crushing their spirits after a hell of a year or two is not needed. Some students will just give up rather than use it to spur them on. It really depends how supportive parents are too. Sorry your DS is in same boat. I love your "move up one grade at a time" though so will pinch that - thank you.

Thank you @DoggerelBank too for your anecdote on turning grades around. So helpful to read other peoples experiences.

Disappointing mock results are going to floor DD too, Anne, which is a worry because she’s got very little resilience at the best of times.
It sounds like your DD has been hugely disadvantaged by the circumstances with the teacher, rather than her own ability, so that’s a sort of positive to cling on to; a tutor would hopefully bring her up to where she needs to be pretty swiftly.
Now that it seems likely exams will go ahead, there’s plenty of time to really get to grips with exam technique, and she sounds like she’s on course with her other 2 subjects, so I hope she can feel a bit less despondent today.

Brilliant news, ealing - what an exciting prospect! Your DD sounds very focused and self-assured, which means she’ll succeed wherever she chooses to go.

Apologies Anne. The offers/rejections day for C has been a long wait, imprinted in my head but I forgot to communicate outside my head! Can you tell I talk to no one in RL?

Great news @ealingwestmum! You just need to find yourself a nice big pay rise to facilitate! I do think that going to another continent at this age is a big deal though.

We don't have mocks until 28th Feb but DS had a physics test yesterday which was a bit of a disaster, he said his calculation for the age of the universe came out with an answer of 7,000 years and the diameter of a star was 7.5m 🤔. He said the teacher could see everyone was upset so he set up a fun experiment blowing up a capacitor to cheer them up! I always say that a good thing about a mistake in a test/mock which matters is that you won't make that mistake again in the real thing.

Those of you heading to Birmingham for offer holder days, has anyone had issues registering for subject events?
DD got an invite email last night, but when she tried to register a few minutes later, all she got was a message telling her that there were no available sessions (English and film).
She hasn’t visited the uni at all yet, so pretty vital that she goes to the offer holder day but when she emailed to tell them her issue, she got an automated reply, telling her that the email address she’d mailed to is only for applicants!

@ealingwestmum fantastic news, well done to her!