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!

@MrsAvocet - that a tough (if nice!) position to be in for your ds. My ds got his first county call up for his sport for his gcse year. It was tough at times but we just made sure we had a clear idea of training commitments and match timings and I was on his case about slotting those days' work into other days. Fortunately his sport is seasonal so he was done by just after the Easter holidays which was a relief!

I think as he's intending to keep on with something sport related there's a stronger argument to let him do it but definitely keep it under review.

That's great!
Going to Leeds on Saturday- our first one so hoping ds enjoys. It's daunting!

Ds gets exam results on Friday handed out in an envelope apparently. Please let them be decent!!

UCAS grades are given out on the 30th. I understand from school that there's a bit of movement that can happen. If exam grades are disappointing do you think it's worth emailing teachers in advance of the ucas grades coming out or waiting until they do and then seeing if we need to try to negotiate a change?

I'm not clear on whether the UCAS grades can be changed in the Autumn term, if a DC has underperformed in these mocks. @QueenMabby I'd be inclined to hang on & see what the grades are, as schools may base them on more than just the mock results.

My DS has had two results back and got an A star in one but unfortunately a B in maths (can’t believe I have to write unfortunately about a B!). He will get his third result today. He is confident that his maths teacher will give him an A prediction if need be. I’m just disappointed that he didn’t work harder as he knows he needs to put more effort into his maths.

@aramox1 enjoy Leeds. My DS loved the open day last year and is definitely going to apply.

Exam papers and marks back to students next week and results / predicted grades the week after - not sure how that works!

Just sitting through the college webinar where they make suggestions on how to 'spread the bets' on getting a place. Depressing statistics on those getting 4 A* and not getting a place anywhere but I hadn't appreciated that the school will support an application in the gap year. Feeling a bit relieved that I think DS is going to go for something uncompetitive off the beaten track.

What sort of course are rejecting 4 A stars @TwinkleToesStrikesAgain? I know subjects like computer science are very competitive at the top uni's.

The son of a friend of mine didn't get any offers for law a few years ago despite being predicted (and subsequently achieving) 4 A stars. He was also one of those "good at everything" people - sporty, musical, did lots of voluntary work etc so it was a big shock. A gap year later he had his pick of Universities though, so who knows, maybe he just needed to mature a bit? I don't think it's very common for extremely able pupils to be rejected by everywhere they apply to though.

I think the college was suggesting medicine, vet school, law, computer science, psychology, and a couple of other courses can be Uber selective. But yes I was surprised when they said deferring and applying can be successful in some of these cases (surely that results in more people going for the same number of places). The college also had a breakdown of which colleges are the most competitive and recommended hedging bets with these (ie don't have more than 2 of these in the mix). They also said that the last two years had been exceptionally difficult in terms of grades on offers - they still got 70+ in Oxbridge but I get the feeling that's down in what they would have expected 4 years ago. We will get predicted grades based on the exams just set - the plan being that gives a summer to match grades with potential courses, and that they predict a little above the mark achieved to allow for a bit more of a push. If you resit an Alevel they will predict a grade higher than acheived the time before which I thought was interesting.... Food for thought. And alas probably not applicable for DS who won't discuss what he might want to do....

WIWIKAU is very depressing reading as it seems to be full of all A* students not getting places despite having absolutely stellar personal statements as well. I think that they are mostly going for competitive courses at very competitive universities though.
DD is not in this league but I'd expected her to get decent results and to get plenty of offers as she's planning to apply to a spread of places in a less competitive subject, but I'm now I am fretting ...

We are also at Leeds, but on Friday as we’ve tagged on Manchester for Saturday.

We were going to to to Leeds on Friday and Warwick on Saturday, but came to the conclusion that 2 in 2 days was too much* and decided to attend the Leeds Open Day in the autumn instead. Be interested to hear how you find doing the 2 back to back.

*DD has also planned 2 back to back the following weekend and she has her exams starting that week. I'd quite like her to do some revision and not just be exhausted!

WIWIKAU is very depressing reading as it seems to be full of all A students not getting places despite having absolutely stellar personal statements as well*.
I think it's best to take things with a pinch of salt sometimes. Yes, these things do happen - as I said upthread my friend's son was in exactly this position a few years ago - but forums, especially specialist ones, have a self selecting membership and you often get a bit of a skewed perspective from them. People have a habit of posting about either great success or rejections/failures that have shocked them I think. Regular things that happen to regular people in the expected manner aren't really newsworthy so the middle of the bell curve is under represented. I'm on a specific forum for one of my DC's hobbies. It is useful and I've learned stuff and made a few friends there over the years, but if the forum was your only exposure to the activity you would get a very distorted idea of it and the people who do it!

It’s really for ease and to minimise how much travel we will have to do. We are planning Liverpool, Birmingham and StA in Autumn so just these two plus Oxford in a couple of weeks. That said, I am currently in a cast and on crutches with a knee scooter so I will most definitely be wiped out. I think Manchester course is more of a contender than the Leeds one but he might prefer Leeds as a city - we are London and he isn’t particularly looking for a big city experience, but he rightly is prioritising the course over everything else

Slightly tense atmosphere in the Avocet nest tonight. Turns out that young Avocet should have clicked on a link in an email sent in April to confirm attendance at next week's first choice University open day but he didn't actually read it. That would explain why no timetable etc has been received. He's now on a waiting list but I'm not hopeful and Mr Avocet is hopping mad having booked a day's leave which he is now unsure whether to cancel or not. The generally well behaved fledgling is now sulking upstairs and not doing a very good job of taking responsibility for his error, thus increasing parental ire. Oh happy days. Lesson learned hopefully though, and at least I hadn't booked the train.

Oooops @MrsAvocet that is just the sort of thing DS would do. He wouldn’t take responsibility either! Hope you get a place. Which uni is it?

A break through.

A conversation regarding degree apprenticeships (hooray!) and taking a gap year to try the job DS thinks he needs to do the degree to get. Oh why can they be so mature some days and so short sighted others?

😀

Oh dear @MrsAvocet I can see how easily that could be done though (and my DD was also absolutely sure she had signed up to an Open Day but ended up signing up again when she didn't get any information after hearing from everywhere else but fortunately realised in time so we were very nearly in the same boat).

I assume you can go on an alternative date in the autumn? Are there any other Open Days at places of interest you could go to instead so as not to waste the leave?

I'd turn up anyway @MrsAvocet. They're very unlikely to turn you away and to be honest, hardly anyone has checked anything at the open days we've done so far. We got information at Imperial forces that subject talks were full but we got into them.

Thanks all. I am livid to be honest. I have been asking him for ages if he had heard anything about timing so I could decide whether to drive or book trains and he kept saying no. So tonight I made him go through all his emails and there was this one not even opened from April. And to make matters worse rather than just owning the mistake and apologising he is being quite belligerent and making stupid excuses. It's like TwinkleToes says- rational responsible adultish type person most of the time, badly behaved toddler on occasion. 🙄
To further add to my annoyance I volunteer at a kids club and as my absence would leave the numbers over ratio I have cancelled next week's club. I now can't decide whether to reinstate it. If he doesn't hear anything by the end of the week I think I will message the parents and put it back on, and if DS gets a place after that he can either go without me or turn it down. Inactions have consequences. There is an online session a few days later so he might have to make do with that. There is another face to face one in September but it's very close to when I'm expecting to be having a major op so I may be in plaster and on crutches by then. That's why we'd picked this date. He could go on his own of course, but I would actually like to have a look around. Bloody kids!!

Oh what a pain Avocet. I’d be annoyed too. Solidarity re: crutches, though i am totally inept and can’t actually use them properly, hence the scooter which DS1 is mortified by, but it’s this or he has to wheel me around in a chair according to the consultant.

apple.news/ANrqxhF50Rti5God6pvk7BQ

Just read this article re; personal statements.

Oh no @MrsAvocet what a shame! In all honesty I booked all of DD’s open days as I didn’t want to chance leaving it to DD. She definitely would have done the same!

But I echo what @Lightsabre says I reckon you’d be fine just going anyway. At Exeter we did check in but not really sure why as they weren’t checking anything for any of the subject talks, presentations or tours so I’m pretty sure anyone could have snuck in.