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

@tryingmybest13 welcome! Thanks for the explanation - I have a role in academia but not involved in undergraduate applications etc -

Sad that this year's A level kids group are being treated differently from the previous 2 years ....so hard for them as they had a serious amount of disruption for their whole course and then they are competing for fewer places as those given inflated grades have applied in this year or been given deferred places.

Dreading Thursday ,......everything is crossed

@JustHereWithMyPopcorn Indeed. However, as unis are getting the data through, I expect some wriggle room re nearer misses, as per normal. This was very unknown because of the last two years, hence higher grades or poor kids getting fewer offers. If this pans out in England then unis will adjust. But fuming tbh at lack of clarity. There has been some backlash against Cambridge International A levels (regulated by Ofqual), but they are yet to publish their bell curve. However, all their boundaries were lower! It is utterly bonkers.

I guess all we can do is try and prepare as much as possible. Phone numbers at the ready - along with 10,000 other students!

@Fruitygal thank you!
@JustHereWithMyPopcorn totally - things will be well but they really needed better treatment.

@tryingmybest13 are you saying it is easier to get an A if you did Cambridge international A levels than the Scottish ones ?

@tryingmybest13 Do we know whether OFQUAL are using the same methodology re results as SQA? And if so, did the A level results of '20 and '21 differ from the Scottish qualifications used for the SQA calculations?

@Fruitygal attainment percentages not yet published and sorry, should have added their boundaries were lower internally for those A levels than 2019 but lots backlashing saying grade attainment lower (but we don't really know that yet): sorry for my confusing post!

@Seeline We know they are using the same approach, yes, for alignment, but until the 18th, we won't know the exact differences. SQA has published their Awarding Report (if you want to wade through it!)

www.sqa.org.uk/files_ccc/nq2022-awarding-methodology-report.pdf

In short, they used combination of mid-point across the bell curve (broadly) weighed up against standards/credibility/qualitative reviews, then called it (well, fixed it up tbh!).

It doesn't sound good at all. I was having a nosy around the Scottish grades and while I can't remember what subject I was looking at the difference between 2019 and 2021 was something like 8%, the 'mid point' for 2022 was 2% higher than 2019 - not 4%. I kinda shut down and gave up at that point.

I think our kids are being shafted, again, and I'm surprised there wasn't an outcry about Scottish marks. But maybe everyone is just too exhausted.

Loving@Fruitygal s 5 point plan, except I dipped into another thread about retakes and they don’t seem at all straightforward, ie schools and colleges limited in what they can offer; no Autumn resits and evidence that retakes rarely result in improved grades because of lack of access to teaching, lack of a cohort and de motivation/ loss of confidence. But ours insists on resits as plan b. How to persuade her that there may be better options?

Oh and@tryingmybest13 . Thanks for the sentence just for me. Think I get it now. More bad news for our corona cohort.

@tryingmybest13 thanks for the interesting posts, which I will look at properly when on my laptop (now out with dog). I thought the Scottish results were surprisingly close to 2019, but did not know what they had said they would do. Obviously grade boundaries will go down because our kids had such mixed teaching, did not quite make it through the maths syllabus at our school. I wondered on Maths A level whether they would be willing to have an A threshold below 50%, which is what I think will be necessary to match what we thought they had told us!

As DS is taking a gap year, I am glad we will have time to react to whatever happens in slow time, I would be more stressed if we had to sort problems quickly, I hope results are more like we expect them to be!

This is all really interesting @tryingmybest13. It sounds to me that there will be a backlash because I don’t see how the already large separation between attainment of private schools, who have generally kept teaching going better during covid, and state schools doesn’t increase significantly with this approach.
I cling on to your suggestion that unis will be more forgiving of dropped grades. They must, I guess, as offers have generally been higher on the assumption that grades would be significantly higher…

@Monkey2001 For SQA, maths attainment for Advanced Higher at grade A was slightly up from 1019, but the grade boundaries were also up so they must have done well, had an ok paper!

@Delphigirl Too right! Yes, am sure from what I know that there will be movement in the Uni system, though does depend on course/uni! For my subject, Eng Lit, given there has been a 17% drop in students taking A level, I expect lots of wriggle room!

@Zebracat I agree regarding resits - I would have thought it would have been sensible to keep the Nov resit to allow those like my DD who had covid a chance to resit rather than wait a year - but no that would have been sensible! it is difficult to get support from August to May to maintain momentum. DD would have got higher if could resit in november but going a whole year rather than 12 weeks is a big ask. What is the first and second choices you daughter has? and why does she want 1st one but not second

Top tips for 1st timers:

1. Never assume 1st choice is guaranteed have a plan B (even if your DC doesn't have one)
2. Make sure you have read the emails regarding accommodation for 1st and 2nd choice NOW - otherwise you can come a cropper - being unprepared will cost you money if you mess this up - they may ask your DC to rank accommodation choices so you need to check if this is the case in advance.
3. Set aside most of the day for sorting things out - DCs are adults so you will need them to do the talking and send emails not u -they can't be unobtainable at the beach without a signal - if its 1st choice and all straight forward they will be free within the hour to go and have fun but if 2nd choice or clearing then it could take 1-3 days to get things organised.
4. If you are not free due to work or hols then ensure a mature reasonable adult is in charge of ensuring all gets sorted 5)Make sure they have given you access to UCAS as if they get delayed on hols or break a leg and need to be in hospital this seriously get complicated if you can't access anything
5. Final book the IKEA visit and the John Lewis one plus get them to open the student bank account

Hope it helps - why am I telling you - because this is what I wish people had told me ,....

1st time - DC didn't get 1st choice but they offered him foundation year into the degree instead - so he had to choose foundation year at preferred uni or degree at 2nd choice - he ummmed and ahhhed for 24hrs as we didn't scenario plan in advance with Plan A,B,C - chose 2nd choice (great decision) a day later but by now no halls accommodation left and so after much searching paid for private halls cost £3500 more that year!

2nd time - DC didn't share emails re unis - got second choice and was on to accommodation portal at 9am but DS had opportunity to book 2nd choice accord in advance of results day (not possible at most unis but was possible at his) and hadn't done so because he hadn't read the email !!!!!?!?!?- so put to back of pile and got given crappy uni accommodation but same price as the nice stuff

Both happy and had great uni experiences .....

Thanks @Fruitygal DS doesn’t seem to be open to doing any plan B,C,D etc so I think I’m going to have to do the bulk of it for him.

i may well use the Scottish results being low as an opener to discusss other options just in case.

DS has got some emails from his firm but nothing from his insurance at all for months. Is that normal?

Ds's Plan B is an unconditional offer from somewhere he would be very happy to go to but they have no accommodation as it sells out to firm choice candidates very quickly!

7. and don't forget Birmingham university think results day is a good day to sort out accommodation...

I don't know about a John Lewis visit, it's Home Bargains for us!

@Fruitygal Her firm is Exeter, insurance is History with foundation at Royal Holloway. Exeter has offered very generous bursaries and support. The Exeter Course has more prestige and is her home county. We know nothing at all about Royal Holloway , except the History Department seemed very dynamic. At the time of choosing, they seemed quite equal, but Exeter is now streaks ahead. There is very little between the offers. I think my hope is that if she doesn’t make the grade, Exeter will offer an alternative, perhaps at their Cornwall campus, but she is not very flexible in her thinking, and may turn that down. She is predicted AAB, I think, and needs BBC, but had a kind of breakdown during the exam period, and didn’t revise, so we had no idea what to expect even without the grade boundary issues. She worked hard through the 2 years so it’s a test-of what works worst. Slow and steady with no revision, or slack for 2 years and then hit the books hard.
it’s such a shame because the breakdown brought all sorts of stuff out and since then she has been very clear about what she wants. She is in therapy, which is quite intense and there was an unfortunate juxtaposition of those issues and life stage.
Very sad for yours and others who were sick. Hope that is properly taken into account. We haven’t asked for ours, it just seemed too complicated to explain.

@Zebracat goodness what a lot to deal with. We liked Exeter Penryn it was in her top five - hope she does what she needs to

@Comefromaway she’s got most things from sainsburys but has allergies so double duvet from John Lewis !!

Every day is a school day! Neither DD or I had any idea that there were no resits in November! Crap, that was Plan C or possibly even Plan B. DD is away at Boardmasters so I won't tell her until she comes back Monday night, she will need to have a rethink about whether she would go to Insurance or not (York) and what in clearing interests her. She really likes Sheffield but as the course isn't accredited it's put her off - I wonder if she will just say it doesn't matter and go for it in clearing (fingers still crossed for Plan A obviously). I was feeling pretty confident about it all until I read @tryingmybest13 comments as I did believe the hype that it would be somewhere in the middle of 2019 and 2021!

No JL visit for us either! Did IKEA and various supermarkets ( all do hypoallergenic bedding) for DD1 plus don’t forget sending deliveries to them via Amazon or any website.

It seems to be they are prioritising the 'everything's back to normal' line over what is fair for the kids. Midway between 2019 and 2021 would have felt fair(ish)