Thread 36 - Covid Cohort from GCSE 2020 - The Final Countdown to Results Day for Some?

[CinnamonOrangeCremeBrulee]

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. It's all relative!
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 continue down various pathways ( employment, apprenticeships, higher ed) We have decided for anyone interested they will find a thread within the Further Ed board.
Possibly a move to Parent of Adult Children Board in future? Post Results?

Previous Thread

@Spacerace friend works at a uni as lecturer and head of course - middling uni very good course in a fairly demanding subject - they said last week when I asked them generally how these things work as DD was ill with covid during her exams.

I look at the ones who get grades and they get their places first!

I have spaces to fill and I prefer someone who narrowly missed who wants to come here and has looked around to someone who picked us at the last minute on results day. Why? Less likely to drop out …

If I have a few I look at their gcse grades( harder this year), personal statement and also mitigating circumstances. If they are more than two grades out they are discounted except in exceptional circumstances.

Oh zebra you must be doing your nut, it's maddening when people don't get the support they need. She has done so well and deserves to be allowed to go to uni. Good luck to you both.

@cheninblanc what's the uni?

That sounds so frustrating @Zebracat and quite clearly a case of 'computer says no' because if an actual person who was allowed to make informed individual decisions looked at her circumstances it is clear she should be entitled to a full maintenance loan. It's good she's got you advocating for her.

I also had a very disturbed night's sleep with a lot of crazy dreams. Luckily dd seems blissfully ignorant to all of the worrying articles from the last few days, and she told me last week she can't remember any of her exams so although she's a bit nervous she doesn't really know what about.

Also keen to hear the outcome of the mattress topper trial, was it @Oblomov22? Dd must have already switched her brain to having to manage her own finances though because when I mentioned mattress toppers to her she said she'd be fine, or use a blanket she already owns under her sheet! Maybe it's the two days of work she did last week, or looking at train ticket prices!

I'm also nervously (although no where near the level of nerves I have for a level results/uni etc) awaiting to hear about my own university application. I've applied to start an MSc in October. The application was rather rushed in the end because I was planning to leave it till next week when I'd be feeling calmer and know dd's plans, until I received an email on the 9th telling me the deadline was the 12th (and we were away on the 12th)! So I've no idea of I'll get a place or not.

@Fruitygal thank you. DD changes her mind one day to the next. Her current stance is she wants to go to her firm and will be devastated if she doesn’t get it 😖

Fruitygal it's from Falmouth, but she's attending the London campus it's a degree in fashion she's doing

BlueMarigold, DD is saying the same!
Seeline, DD has liberal arts RHUL as her insurance. Of all the lib arts courses she looked at, she felt RHUL’s was the most appealing for her (her interests are English lit, film and theatre) and the most flexible.
She liked the campus and the accommodation; her only reservation is whether the social side is enough for her - she wonders whether she’d miss the buzz of a city uni.

We had a Special Guardianship Order. But this ends at 18, so we no longer have any responsibility for her. There are charities, and I have been in touch, but no one really seems to have a handle on this. One has advice on their website that Special Guardians’ income will be assessed. That is wrong, would have been ok if it was right as our income is low.
I am really cross for her but I’m also cross for all the other students, who are in kinship Care and may not have people to advocate for them.

@Zebracat How utterly awful that you can't provide estrangement proof because of SF wanting both parent - and all you have done is the right thing! Is it worth seeing your MP for a casework case? Sounds like this is an awful loophole that needs plugging!

As @Fruitygal says, unis have grants and funds for a range of circumstances (plus expertise) so defo worth getting all the info at the ready.

@Zebracat i’d go to The uni

That is truly appalling. I wish there was something I could suggest.

I was just coming back to suggest your MP too @Zebracat

@crazycrofter I think it’s 48hrs notice- will be on DVSA(?) website. I would defer if not confident. My DD passed second time and each test with associated 2 hrs car hire was around £100!

@tryingmybest13 I will write to my MP. Bit embarrassing as I have been quite critical of him, but he declares an interest in improving outcomes for children in care, so he may take this on. Her firm are treating heras a Care Leaver, and have offered no tuition fees, so it might be that we can convert the tuition fee loan, but am a bit worried they will retract if Student Finance don’t view her as an Independent student, or that she wont make the grades needed there. Most unis will only allow access to bursaries if student is already assessed as independent/ careleaver. I have been trying to sort this out for a year. Also, of course, she’s an adult so does all the direct stuff herself and half listens to me, and misreads etc etc. just as I would have at 19.
Just really hoping Student Finance will see sense quickly!

@zebracat I am so sorry. This is appalling.

So frustrating @Zebracat - hope you manage to get someone to see sense and think about her as an individual!

@Zebracat what an awful situation! Agree with others about taking an alternative approach through the uni for bursaries/scholarships or getting someone like an MP involved, or head teacher?

@mango0 good luck with your application!

@Wheresthebeach our DDs are both aiming for Biology degrees - mine wants to do Molecular with Genetics. She decided sometime early in Y12 that she was far more interested in Biology than Physics which was a complete switch around from GCSE. She only decided on Biology at A-level at the last minute as she had contemplated taking Ancient History.

zebra, I really don’t understand why England doesn’t follow Wales’ student finance arrangement, which doesn’t require any top up from parents/guardians: every student is given the same amount of money, with how much is a grant and how much a loan being means-tested.
It would sort out exactly the issue you’re having to try to deal with.

@Zebracat I suggest you try asking the SFE people on The Student Room. This is the page - www.thestudentroom.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?f=910. You need to set up an account and click on the "Start New Discussion" from the page I have linked. The people on forums like that are generally better informed than random people picking up the phone at SFE. I would also talk to the Widening Participation people you were talking to before at Exeter. It is outrageous if someone in her situation falls through the cracks. There are people who manage on the minimum loan and get a job, but she should not have to! If you don't get anywhere you could also set up a "Go Fund Me" - she is more deserving than a lot of people who do that, I would chip in.

@crazycrofter I think your DD should still have time to go all out to get her skills up to pass her test - lots of people are successful in the "learn to drive in a week" courses. If she does not do it before going to university she will unlearn a lot of stuff, so even if it is only 50:50 chance she would pass, it is worth trying. Can she do lots of driving with you and DH over the next month? Or maybe a family friend could take her out in your car?

I think I've said before they were very flexible/helpful with my DN through clearing (Politics). Accommodation has a small window to apply for those through clearing so watch out for that. Everything seems quite campus based DN going into Halls again this year.

Dd went for open day and is on her clearing list , she loved the campus but not Egham itself. Great to be near London too
The photo ops are good for the insta 😂

Because it would cost too much! It would be fairer if all the parts of the UK had the same (more generous than England) terms, particularly as both Scotland and Wales are subsidised by England. Scottish students pay no tuition fees and Welsh students are fully funded. SIgh.....

Hi Zebracat this sounds nightmarish. My suggestion is to wait and see where she has a place on Thurs and try and get their student welfare finance /support involved. How frustrating.

Sorry Zebracat everyone has already said what I did !

@Zebracat I wish you lots of luck.