Post GCSE’s 2022 - Year 12 2022/23 General support thread

[Rollergirl11]

This is a thread for supporting all young people post GCSEs 2022, regardless of their educational setting.
Our DC’s may continue down various pathways ( employment, apprenticeships, higher ed)
Everyone is welcome!

Oh no @NancyJoan what is their reason for this?

Ha, I don't think DD's predicted grades will suffice for applying to Durham. She's going to look at Oxford Brookes a week on Friday, timing it with a cheeky visit to see her cousin who's at 'the other place' in Oxford . She's also going to Southampton towards the end of the month.

Not great for universities to be cancelling open days with so little notice. I'd suggest you and your DC go anyway, @NancyJoan, and get a feel for the vibe of Brighton. It's not everyone's cup of tea.

There have been strikes re redundancies, and a protest planned for Saturday.

I'd suggest you and your DC go anyway, @NancyJoan, and get a feel for the vibe of Brighton. It's not everyone's cup of tea

Indeed, it’s not mine, but DD’s godmother lives there so we visit regularly.

DC has visited several places just to get the feel of it (places are touristy places 🙂). Wasn't going to be able to visit them all on open days before the summer.
If still relevant she can attend their offer daysp

Open Days are efficient, in the sense that a lot is laid on over a 6 hour period, but as others say, visits at other times instead or as well can be helpful.

I have a Y12 who cannot easily make some of the summer Open Days because their mocks are imminent. So they have booked onto a student-led campus tour for one uni they are interested in just before the summer hols and will do a summer visit to another just to wander around.

I've encouraged them to do these as solo trips so they get a better sense of journey logistics and suggested they take a detour into the main student housing areas to understand how close, what they are actually like etc. This is not to detract from the usefulness of Open Days and parental presence that those (where DC want that); really just extra info and experiences to help inform views.

We enjoyed the Sussex Open day, found it well organised and it sounds like some of their teaching methods/ethos might differ from other universities. However I don't think it will be for DD (it was already only a possible back up).

We came home shattered and have rescheduled the Friday/Saturday open day combos that DD had booked in - I don't think we would do justice to 2 open days + travelling so close together.

Side note - when did Year 12 exams become mocks? DD's school still calls them Year 12 exams, and have actual mocks in Year 13. I assume the schools with Year 12 mocks also have Year 13 mocks?

DS school has mock weeks coinciding with the open day weeks, (so not good for revision, I don't know why they don't hold the mocks a bit later!) we are doing Warwick, Oxford and Lancaster over the next month and Durham and Manchester in September. They have these for predicted grades for those applying early. They have a second set in November and third in February!

Ours are just end of year exams. All years do them the same week (apart from years 11 and 13 of course).

Our mocks are January and that's it.

Not sure what they’re called at DDs school but they have exams starting Tuesday 27th June and ending some time the next week (maybe 5th July?) They have year 13 mocks right at the beginning of January.

There’s no exams on June 28th as there are important open days that day according to the 6th form newsletter. This does include an Oxford open day which DD is going to. Not sure what other open days there are that day as I suspect it’s unlikely to just be Oxford.

Hello again everyone, dipping back in. Our school called them 'High Stake Exams' and it was explained at Parents' Evening that predicted grades would be a combination of class assessment, homework, contribution and teacher POV as well as the grade attained in this exam. His history teacher has said she is happy to predict an A even though his exam was a B because by the time he finishes the course, that is where she anticipates he will be and this is also evidenced by being predicted 7 at GCSE but getting a 9.

We are looking at Oxford (for a slightly out there BA in the Asian and Middle East faculty) and Manchester and Leeds this month and have Liverpool, Birmingham, St Andrews and possibly Exeter pencilled in for Autumn visits. StA has the closest course to what he really wants with Oxford having a slightly roundabout way of achieving the same thing. His interests are niche and he said no to shortlisting so many great unis.

DD has been calling all exams apart from the actual GCSEs mocks since y10. Her latest lot start this week and end the week after next, she won't consider going to open days till they are over, it would have been easier if they had been sooner but I think logistically that's difficult with the GCSE and A level exam season in full swing.

Ds are predicted grade exams - kind of like AS exams. One down, three to go. Glad they'll be out of the way prior to the open days but would have been nice to know the results to know which universities are realistic. School also doing a UCAS day soon where the dc get their log in details.

@Lightsabre Two of DS's teachers told us what they expected to predict and the last one I emailed her and told her what the other two said and outlined how he jumped at GCSE and where he was hoping to apply and she clarified what she was happy to predict.

@zighead We've just cancelled our Bristol openday plan for this Friday as the strikes mean there's no subject specific stuff for ds's field. Hoping to go in Sept instead, luckily trains postponable. He's just finished 'mocks' so we have a few others booked in.

Thanks for the tip off @aramox1 I just got DS to check his emails and the subject talks he'd booked onto have been cancelled. What a shame! Will see if we can go in the autumn instead. Wonder if any other university open days are affected?

We had the same issue with Brighton. I could cancel accommodation until last Friday (I think) and then the uni cancelled other Monday. Some people would have booked train travel as well. Having said that it was great weather for a trip to Brighton

Oh no what a pain about Bristol. DD and I are off to Durham open day on Friday but haven’t seen anything to say there are strikes. We are travelling the day before by train and have booked a hotel so will be annoyed if it doesn’t go ahead.

SH and DS are due at Bath on Saturday. They're also going up the night before and have a hotel booked. I'll tell ds to keep an eye on his emails.

We are still going to Bristol (and the train tickets I don't think can be moved, so I hope it is still going to be OK). As far as I can see Veterinary nursing events are still on (they are not on the subject list, so I will get DD to check). I guess if they are cancelled, we will just wander around and get a feel for the place anyway.

Doubt we will be able to come back in the autumn.

Is this because on university strike action? Durham & Newcastle have been silent on this...

Ahhhhh…. No subject specific stuff cancelled at Leeds and Manchester for the weekend, but I would rather not cross the picket. However, I have also booked trains and hotels and not sure the status, certainly of the trains anyway.

DS is off to Newcastle next week. It's a school organised thing so I don't have to go. I hope it goes ahead as a couple of other visits have been cancelled already but he isn't actually that interested in going there. We have a family visit to his current first preference next week too so I'm more bothered about that one. Not heard anything from them so hopefully no news is good news.
Other news here that I am a bit conflicted about is that DS has been invited to join the regional performance squad for his sport. Its very unusual for places to come up at this stage but someone has left and I let him go to the trials without really asking too much about it as I had pretty much zero expectation that he'd get picked. I just viewed it as some good quality coaching sessions for him. Now he's had the offer and I've got the timetable I can see it is a huge commitment that I am not entirely sure is a good idea at this point. But it's a big opportunity that would definitely benefit his game, and he is doing A level PE and considering a sports related degree...so not black and white. Arrgh! I guess we will give it a go but if it starts to impact too much on school work we will have to pull him out.

Disappointing to hear about some of the cancelled open day subject talks. We've got Bath this weekend and Warwick the week after so hoping everything goes ahead.

@MrsAvocet that's a bit of a (nice) dilemma. I think I'd be inclined to let ds start it and see how/if it impacts on his studies. It might be useful to have the experience especially if he's going for a sports related degree. Something to add to the PS!

Thsnks @Lightsabre
I think there is an assessment in the Autumn anyway, so he may not get kept beyond that. I think I am going to say yes for the Summer and then make a judgement on whether it is feasible if he gets reoffered a place in the Autumn. It will be a bit of a baptism of fire for him as there are inter regional competitions coming up soon and the rest of the squad have been together all year so it will be very tough for him. But being able to say he has played at this level, even if it's only briefly will probably be good for him. Need more hours in the day though!