Thread 32 - Corona Cohort 'May' the Mumsnet force be with them for their venture to exams

[OrangeCinnamonCroissant]

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 31

CONGRATULATIONS ZEBRACAT !

Wow Oblomov, that is horrific news.

Oh dear Kimi. Hopefully school can sort something out so he can still go, right?

@Eliakimi there was a similar thing at @Piggywaspushed school. Mental health can be so precarious. Hope he gets the help he needs and the rest of the year is not thrown by it.

Agree with @singingstones that we all need to hug our teens and try to give them the tools to keep life in perspective.

Such absolutely awful news Oblomov, his poor parents. Eliakimi the poor boy, the pressure must have felt intense. Really hope something can be worked out.

Spent some time talking to DS about various people we know who didn’t go where they initially wanted and how how everything comes good in the end. I really want as much pressure off as possible.

Oh @Oblomov22 that's such awful news, just heart breaking.

Sorry haven’t read any further so someone else might have replied but DS2 said that those doing the combined sciences said there was content not included in the advanced information. He is doing separate sciences and he said they all felt that exam was fine.
Both AQA so they obviously weren’t consistent

Sorry to hear it was not more positive news today @Monkey2001 As others have said, well done to you all for staying calm & hopeful.
And dreadful news from @Oblomov22 & @Eliakimi

There was a near miss at the school I work at a few years ago (happened at school). It is still affecting our everyday routines & processes (if a student is missing from class an alert goes out & they have to be accounted for).

Sorry to hear of bad news going around.

DS has his first exam on Monday - Economics. Then joining the others on here with Psychology on Tuesday and then English on Wednesday.

DS2 has done 3 GCSEs and has 2 tomorrow. Apparently they have all been “fine”

Some really sad news from some of you 😢

We had a bit of light relief today with the arrival of DDs new passport (so we can now book some sort of holiday), and the arrival of her prom dress. We ordered it online from China so I have been holding my breath, but it is beautiful and she is delighted!

Devastating news, Oblomov. His poor family, and friends. I have no idea how you’d ever come to terms with that sort of tragedy.

Fiddlers, “fine” is all we get from DS too, and it can mean “no worries” or equally, “ I don’t want to talk about it as it didn’t go to plan”.
Nuance isn’t his thing, apparently. 🤦‍♀️

DD was pulled aside by her drama teacher this morning, to be told that she got full marks for her NEA practicals. Not sure if that includes her creative log, but if it does, that’s a total of 60% of the final grade, with one written paper to go.
Shes on a high tonight, with A A A in her NEAs by the looks of things.

Forgot to say, good luck to all our GCSE dcs for maths paper 1 tomorrow. 🤞🏻

Hello all - today's speaking exam seems to have gone well for DD, so fingers crossed. She's got a week now until the next one so can regroup and recharge a bit. Good luck to all DC with exams tomorrow.

Just caught up with the thread - so sorry to hear the awful news @Oblomov22 - and I'm sorry if my badly timed update caused offence. How terrible for his poor family

Don't talk daft Harriet. No offence taken, by anyone.

Brilliant news about the drama NEAs Also, what a great boost ahead of the written exams.

@Seeline glad the prom dress was a hit.

@Monkey2001 sorry to hear that it wasn’t a yes for your DS but it does seem like there’s still hope.

@Alsoplayspiccolo great NEA marks for your DD.

DD trying to sort DSA equipment, the whole thing seems overly complicated as looking to upgrade the laptop, multiple emails and 2 phone calls later I’m starting to get annoyed with it all.

DS has now done 4 GCSE exams and has Maths and Business tomorrow. All ‘fine’ here too.

Oh @Oblomov22 that is so sad. His poor parents, it's painful to even think about how they must be feeling. Maybe it's just because it's close to home, because of course it would be horrendous to lose a child at any point, but it just seems extra cruel for it to happen at such a milestone point. I hope your DS and the other students are okay and being well supported by the school.

Sorry for your loss @singingstones .

I'm pleased to hear all exams so far seem to be going 'fine'!

@Alsoplayspiccolo well your dd on her fantastic NEA marks. What a good position to be in at this stage. My dd got her English NEA mark today, 80/100 which she said is a solid B (the grade she predicted for herself for English) and she's really pleased.

DD has officially accepted her Birmingham offer as firm and Lancaster as insurance today. All feeling very real! Is this thread going to continue for support when they've left home? I think I'll need it. I'm planning extra work projects, some volunteering and an MSc to keep myself busy! Of course, I'm very excited for her at the same time.

I'm feeling a bit nervous reading the comments about the advanced information. I know very little about it but DD mentioned tonight she was pleased a specific element wouldn't be on the psychology paper as it's one of her least favourites, I'm now worrying about her interpretation of that. I'm going to have a look myself.

Have you any others who will still be at home, Mango? Sorry if you have said this already, I find it hard to keep up!

I feel like I have been so busy trying to get DS to uni (not always a smooth path) that I haven't really thought about the next logical step - one day soon (hopefully) he will be gone! It doesn't feel like the month between results and starting term is going to be long enough to get my head around that somehow.

Such sad news @Oblomov22, I don’t know how parents cope with it.
@PaddingtonPaddington glad DS exams are going ok, my DS also says they’re ok.
I’m worried about the advance info now as DS1 had literally been following it for PE and Biology. It will be slightly gutting if they don’t follow it!

@singingstones nope, just the two of us for the past 18 years! It's going to be such a change. I'm not dreading it or anything, I'm usually good with change and I have plans I'm excited about, I'm just a bit nervous as well I suppose.

I do know what you mean though, it's so consuming supporting them during this time it can be difficult to imagine it being done and them off to uni! I also think this is another area where covid has had an impact, our DC are almost a step behind in the gradual distancing and growing independence that would usually be happening in their college/sixth form years because they were forced to stay at home for a good chunk of it.

So sorry to hear all the tragic news @Oblomov22 and others 😢 It puts everything in perspective doesn’t it?

Fantastic NEA scores @Alsoplayspiccolo ! You must all be feeling more confident that she’ll meet her Birmingham offer?

Ds had a mare in GCSE history today - he wrote about the wrong source on one of the questions 😬 then realised and hurriedly scribbled something about the right one. He didn’t even get to the last 8 marker. It’s a bit of a shame as it’s his best subject and he was hoping for an 8 or 9.

@Oblomov22 What a tragedy. Definitely time for many hugs.

Utter sadness hit DS's school very recently. A year 9 took his own life . It is so hard to know such a young child felt so much anguish and could mask the planning.

Ive been off for a few days as 3 of us in the family have been completing job applications. All 3 internal ones, but only just catching up with the thread. So sad to hear the dreadful news @Oblomov22 Completely devastating.

Welcome @mango0 & congrats on firming. Sorry @Monkey2001 re Newcastle. Our friend had a ucas update tonight waiting for their last possible offer from KCL, to say Kings hadn’t made the deadline so they’d been automatically rejected!! That was for medicine. Friend was certain it was going to be a no, but just rubbish they couldn’t reply themselves in time. They have no offers. Gap year instead.

@singingstones DS was rejected from Edi last week. On page 2 or 3, but the thread is moving super fast this time! He’s firmed Exeter. Hopefully see you there @Zebracat !

Good luck to all sitting exams & have started already. DS starts Wed.

Crazy, hopefully your boy can leave the history paper behind, he sounds like he recovered as well as he could and for a chilled but bright sounding young man, it may help him to slow down/focus for the rest of the exam session.

Came for a catch up and so sad to read of sudden deaths and suicide attempts. I watched a news sequence last night about the suicide of a young student, and fear literally clutched me in the chest. I told mine, very fiercely this morning that if she ever feels sad or lonely or that she can’t go on, she must just come home, and never imagine for one minute that we would do anything but love her, and help all we could.
she looked a bit bewildered but agreed. I don’t care if she thinks I’m a bit bonkers, just as long as it sticks in her mind.
@Fonty, she is firming Exeter, so we might have to dust off the Mumsnet scarf, not that I know what that is. Perhaps I should dress head to toe in zebra and leopard print! And you can find clothes with words in different fonts.. of course it is quite possible our children would never speak to us again. She is weirdly excited about the Hideand seek society.
Casper has been seen and I can confirm that he is definitely Oxford material!