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 !

Fab news on extra time @Heifer !

I am sooo looking forward to the extra time in bed in the mornings @crazycrofter . As I have worked from home for 12 years, on a very-much fit-it-in when I want basis, I have always resented having to get up for the school run. I know they should be able to get to school on their own at this age, but even though we are in London (albeit the south which is like a different area completely...) the public transport is crap. The train DD is supposed to get only ran for the first term of 6th form and was cancelled after that due to covid, so has to rely on two buses which can arrive anywhere within a 20 minute window, or not at all. The train is being reinstated next week, just as she starts study leave. BUT the buses are on strike then so she can't do the second half of her journey. So I always have to be up, just in case transport lets her down.

Good news for extra time Heifer.
£60 for prom here. Dh is on the case for finding him a James Bond white tuxedo jacket.

@ChristopherTracy both DD’s proms (old school and current one) were around £40ish.

@Monkey2001 hope today brings some good news!

I was just about to wake dd to start revision when I remembered she was out late last night and I’ve no idea what time she came back (but it was after I went to bed at 12)! She can have a lie in.. Ds on the other hand really needs to shift his body clock before next week!

@Seeline its hard work isn’t it, getting up early and chivvying kids. Dd needs a lift to the station - well, it’s walkable in 20 mins but I’m a softy! The train goes at 7.33 (covid cancelled the 7.43 one 😬) and she struggles enough with that so I don’t make her get up earlier and walk.

Ds would quite happily have a lie in and be late every day - he said he wouldn’t mind doing the daily detention as it would be worth it and form period is a waste of time 😬He can get two buses and does on the way home, but in the morning I drive him to the second bus so he gets there on time. But for the exams I’m driving him to school every day as buses can be unreliable - so that’s a round trip of 50 mins!

Great news @Heifer and well done for fighting for it

DS's prom is definitely costing something but he has paid for it himself so not sure how much. It's in a hotel I think.

Thank you @Monkey2001 I had no idea it was so variable, DS has never had medicine or Oxbridge on his radar. I will wait to see how things develop.. (and how she does in the exams).

Congrats to those firming, I just updated my spreadsheet and we are almost there. Fingers still firmly crossed for those waiting for offers.

Is everyone else seeing all the posts in bold now? What's going on?

I did O levels too, we had no choice and had to do all three sciences at O level. I won't tell my DCs what grades I got at A level (wouldn't have got me into Architecture these days!) as our circumstances were very different - not in a grammar school, no parental support at all, 8 of us living in a tiny terraced house so nowhere private to study, no access to anything other than your text book, working five days a week as in a very low income household, grade inflation etc. He wouldn't appreciate, at all, the difference in our upbringings!

Sorry to hear about proms being cancelled, that's very sad. @heifer DS's 'muck up day' has also been cancelled this year. I think Covid came as a relief to the school for that one reason and now they have an excuse not to let it happen anymore.

Heifer, we took are O levels in same year. I passed only 4, had checked out long before summer sitting, and yet my mother did not receive one single notification of absenteeism. Little did we all know that the school had agreed a sale to in independent and was on year run off by 1987. No wonder we had no teaching staff, because they knew. I can't imagine what the final year 5 (no 6th form) students only rattling around in a school in the school must have felt like. The moral of story for a parent - don't get taken in just because a school used to be an 'ex' grammar in the 70's!

What does strike me with all the educational stories are how varied the expectations were across years/parts of the country to go onto HE. Like Heifer, I only knew one in my firendship group that did go onto Uni.

That's so sad about no end of school celebrations. All done here bar the prom party in July, DD is at a BBQ day for Y13s and their U6th teachers before they part their ways.

oh and I had a 16+ exam in Maths, not an O level, not a CSE (still got a U though), doesn't sound like there were many of those sat on here :)

Fantastic news, Heifer, and completely deserved. Well done for fighting for it.

Jeez, OUR not are. I passed both english too. Your DD will remember all the fighting, as well as moving early to better her life heifer, nice work.

@ealingwestmum I think then maybe my group were an oddity, out of the 10 of us still in close contact, 8 of us went to university in 88/89. Three studied law (one now a judge), I did architecture, the others studied languages / humanities. We had a few girls in our year that went on to do medicine and dentistry also. This was a standard London comp albeit only girls. I do wonder if the absence of boys boosted confidence in being able to achieve?

That's interesting JustHere. Anecdotally, many of my peers ended up self employed, labouring roles, in turn running very successful manufacturing, construction, plumbing, haulage, swim pool type businesses, UK and overseas. Australia seemed a popular ex pat destination of the 1980's.

I got lucky, After a couple of starter sales type jobs, got into a Graduate Management Programme, same terms as the grads. My lack of qualifications would never get that break in today's environment.

Of my A level group of friends (8)

3 of us went to uni
1 worked for HMRC, now a teaching assistant
1 worked in IT but is now an HGV driver
1 went into the family business and did a part time degree later
2 went to work for banks but no longer do so, one works in education, the other is a musician / event planner.

@JustHereWithMyPopcorn I really do think the absence of boys allows girls to believe that they can do anything - especially if the ethos of the school reinforces that. There are no 'boys' subjects or 'girls' subjects. They can choose what they like. I am a firm believer in single sex education for girls in Y7-11.

I also like single sex for years 7-11 - both my kids have had that experience. I was very intimidated by some of the boys in my comp. By sixth form it was fine as only 40 out of about 180 stayed on and none of the scary boys! All my friends went to uni though, even though the school was pretty rubbish. This was 1994.

DS2 would not like a single sex school! I think I have read that girls do better in single sex schools and boys do better in mixed. I think it may be better for girls in Maths and Science as they can get intimidated and at DS2's school there were 22 boys and 8 girls in top set maths in Y10 and I think it got worse in Y11.

Both mine have been at single sex schools for secondary too. DD's is going co-ed now, which I think is a shame.

If I had girls I would definitely be looking at single sex for secondary. Our grammars here are all single sex bar one, my two DSs are both at a single sex grammar, I think the absence of distraction is a bonus at school through your teenage years. It hasn't stopped them mixing with girls outside of school which I think is always people's worry.

Research by the likes of GDST do show girls perform better in single sex from Y7 to 11. I guess one needs to look at their own DCs’ personalities to decide. For us, DD really didn’t enjoy being in single sex up to Y6 and chose to switch from Y7. Mixed with girls from both, and would (clearly with bias) not have preferred SS from her own experience.

It’s tricky isn’t it, dd didn’t actively choose all girls and really likes boys (has lots of male friends now in sixth form). However she had really bad acne in years 7-9 and I’m glad she wasn’t in a mixed school then, as boys were brutal to me at the same age with the same issue. However the girls at DD’s school were particularly lovely, no bitchiness at all - I imagine that’s rare.

Ds has just come home from school saying the prom is definitely on. So the hunt is on for suit. Where on earth do I find a suit for a 5'3" skinny lad? We looked on next and all the small ones are sold out. Ds1 got his from Debenhams, that has closed down. Ds is looking at ASOS but not sure what the quality will be like.

In a slight pickle working out what to do about DS insurance choice . His firm is Leeds offering ABB but must have an A in history. He may get an A in history but might not perform on the day and get a B or less who knows. So the question is what to do about insurance ? Loughborough have offered AAB with no stipulation and Lancaster ABB. He favours Loughborough as he's visited there but Lancaster would give him some leeway possibly without needing the A in history.
Any advice and experience very much welcome!

@icanbewhatiwant look on ebay? Lots get sold straight after prom when the shops had sold out.

Mine got his prom suit from Slaters, if you have a branch near you?

collywobble What does he think he'll get in his other subjects? If he's confident of two other As then Loughborough seems doable? But if not then Lancaster looks a safer bet. I think either of those is more likely to be flexible on results day than Leeds, which seems to be very competitive.