Thread 27 Covid Cohort Snow or Like Spring? Let's Do This Thing!

[OrangeCinnamonCocktail]

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.

previous thread found here

Hope the interview and auditions go well tomorrow @Alsoplayspiccolo

Good luck! @Alsoplayspiccolo

Great to hear Bath have come through @Piggywaspushed. Very tricky decisions when all offers want the same grades.

On the notion of same grades, Exeter offered DD the same as Oxford but would drop one grade if she got an A in EPQ ( the only Uni to stipulate that in her offers, even though I’d argue all day long it’s worth doing) and IF she firmed them!
Choosing an insurance is proving to be more problematic as it’s less about the grades but more the financial implications…

Good luck to Singingstones and Piccolo for tomorrow.

DS is turning into a student. He has worked out when the supermarkets close to his accommodation put out their yellow stickers and been taking advantage of having them close by.

We've got open days on

Nottingham - 9th Feb (just DH taking DD)
Sheffield - 12th Feb
York - 23rd Feb

Am I likely to bump into anyone :-)

Good luck with interviews & auditions over the weekend.

Anyone got any other interviews lined up soon?

@Volterra the precise time to grab those ‘yellow stickers’ from a scientific perspective can be calculated- but it’s an ‘art’ to actually bag them- well done to your DS! 😊

@Heifer See you at Sheffield & York.

@EwwSprouts I will know it's you if I see you by the Biology block & hockey pitch :-)

Dd recording her audition piece to upload next week ...her interview For Southampton will happen last week of Feb or Mar, she has Cardiff beforehand last Fri in Feb . DH doing all the work as I'm too interfering apparently (purely because because I think I know everything about universities apparently, yeah I only work in them).

So a bit of a wait here...

Like Singing my ds seems to think he's going to sail through, and I can't see that much work having been done since Christmas. Even Dh commented to him last night the same and that he thought he was too casual.

Hi all. Thanks for your kind messages. Still feeling s**t. Not COVID tho. We have a rare night to ourselves here, as D not quite D has gone to her first party! We fully expected her to last 10 minutes, but she’s asked us to pick her up at Midnight. Very exciting. She. Seems really chilled out, even though the whole Cambridge foundation thing will probably go on until April, unless she falls earlier. . I’m not nearly so relaxed. Really worried that she is completely untested. She could get Es or Fs, dont know what we’d do then. I think that this years results could be massively out of line with predictions. Could I ask the teachers here for their views? I worry that we’ve misjudged where she can get to because she’s come so far in 4 years, but there are such big gaps at times in her knowledge. Of course, I may just feel doomy because I am Ill. When she shows me her work, I can see that the Knowledge is there, and her arguments can be quite sophisticated, but there is an informality and an immaturity in her writing style at times. Maybe I’m old fashioned., but if I could get her to stop using I and you, and cut out the adjectives and adverbs, I would be happier. I think she is starting to see it though.

Laughing at your the perception in your household Orange, I get similar, and I don’t work in a uni! I’d love to take a step back if DH didn’t work on assumptions, he’s been so hands off and now it’s dawning on him that DD is off (hopefully) to uni in 6 months 🙄. Where is another question!

Oh, just found out Bath offer holder day (virtual) same day as Sheffield in person Gah.

Zebra, hope you feel better soon. A lot of students have slightly immature writing styles - it's a joy when they don't tbh. It's not really taught by most teachers these days : structure is in incessant scaffolds and PEE etc chains but not voice. You really really grates on me too! (I, not so much) I don't think an immaturity of voice is a huge barrier but maybe get her to try to read some academic writing (eg one of the A Level Review magazines, a history mag bought from a supermarket, or a book like Invisible Women) just to immerse her in the academic style?

@Piggywaspushed there should be more offer holder days - they will still be giving offers out as the deadline has only just passed, certainly do more than one when it is F2F. You could check with the Admissions people, but I would go to the in person one and hope that Bath does an in-person one next time.

Zebra - my DD has an immature writing style too, he tends to use colloquial waffly language "so basically", "X ended up going off to...". Also still muddles up their/there, weather/whether etc. It's coming along, though. One of his teachers has told him to pause and think "how would Mr T (headmaster, speaks very formally) say this".

@ProggyMat interesting your DD’s Exeter and Oxford offer the same - for DS Exeter is lower. So far Oxford the highest (still waiting to hear from Durham). But all offers standard (ie what it says on the websites).

Sorry you're still feeling rough, Zebra. How did dd get on at the party? Hope she had a fab evening.

My dd writes like an American Instagram influencer, it drives me batty, but because the content is there and she is able to argue her points effectively she doesn't seem to lose a lot of marks for it.

(Yet!)

@Horace123 I’m sure last year Exeter was AAB for Classics but they upped it to AAA for this admission cycle.
DD is torn between UCL: AAB and Edinburgh: ABB for her insurance
Fingers crossed that Durham gets it’s busses on the road soon! No news of offers from them among DDs friends- I’ll keep you updated.

[quote Monkey2001]@Piggywaspushed there should be more offer holder days - they will still be giving offers out as the deadline has only just passed, certainly do more than one when it is F2F. You could check with the Admissions people, but I would go to the in person one and hope that Bath does an in-person one next time.[/quote]
Hi monkey, they aren't doing any F2F - it says so in their comms. There are later dates but I really don't want to hang around til late March for decisions. I am traumatised by memories of accommodation bunfights last time round!

Thanks proggy - even though Edinburgh is lowest offer think DS will choose Exeter as insurance (assuming Durham has same or higher offer than Oxford). Apparently (according to DS’s teacher) Durham hasn’t made classics offers yet.

Is anyone thinking of getting their DC jabbed with HPV jab before uni? It looks like universities recommend it but our year (definitely the boys, not 100% sure about girls) didn’t get it as routine. It’s really expensive for the boys, girls free until 25 I think. Had a rather unfortunate HPV episode at work (obv have to get used to being back in office) - used lunch time to do some research about what boys risk if they are unjabbed as thought it was mainly for girls. Google search brought up “anal cancer; anal warts”. A partner came over to ask me something and in trying to minimise the screen I hit images. So had - displayed on all 3 screens- full colour photos of anal warts. To his credit said partner didn’t say a word (although had not been over to my desk since).

Offer from Cardiff 🥳

Oh my goodness Horace! Fair play to the partner. Nothing to see here guys….

Sofakjngcool 👍