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!

Well done to your DS @NameInUseAlreadyAgain that is a brilliant result!

Fantastic news @NameInUseAlreadyAgain - congratulations to your ds. You can all breathe a sigh of relief now and hopefully he can cook for you for fun!

Wonderful!

Fantastic news.

Congrats to your DS NameInUseAlreadyAgain

@NameInUseAlreadyAgain congrats to your son.

Thanks all.

next stop driving test …. 5 weeks today. Waited since January to do it. Fingers crossed !

How fantastic @NameInUseAlreadyAgain ...and relax...

@NameInUseAlreadyAgain gosh how amazing is that?! Your DS must be absolutely buzzing. What a way to go in to the summer holidays!

DD is at work experience this week. She is doing it at the Times Literary Supplement (TLS) and is really enjoying it. They tasked her with coming up with ideas on how to increase their engagement with young adults and DD said that their social media content was pretty dry and uninspiring. She suggested that they really need a TikTok account in order to reach younger readers. So they asked her to set it up. She’s thinking this will be really good for including on her personal statement.

That's fantastic experience @Rollergirl11 and she can gain a lot of insight to put on the PS. They may even offer her an internship for next summer.

Wow that sounds fantastic @Rollergirl11.

Does anyone have any ideas as to how to go about finding some physics-ish work experience? Ds applied to four universities for their physics work experience but got turned down for each with the line that they're prioritising state school pupils. This is fine and I don't have a problem with that but it doesn't really help us much! Dh and I both have jobs about as far away from physics as possible so don't know any people and school are useless.

We are in the same boat @QueenMabby but ds is at a state school - no contextual. Ds has found there is a bit out there for physics courses - even if they're not aiming for Oxbridge, the colleges there run subject masterclasses. There was one on special relativity yesterday. There are also MOOCs and Future Learn courses but these are virtual.
Ds has managed to get on a 3 day programme for a course that is vaguely related to what he wants to do - not ideal but hoping he can make something out of it. It is run by the educational development trust and we paid for it so I dont think it excludes independent school pupils. Also Insight have courses but they are £££.

@QueenMabby could she offer to help at a college or school? Not stretching I know but could demonstrate passion for the subject perhaps...

@QueenMabby he not she - apologies, I really do need that edit function 😂

DD's work experience sounds great @Rollergirl11

No idea from me re physics work experience, I'm guessing it's probably the most difficult type of work experience to get unless you have friends or family working in that area.

My DS has work experience for an investment company next week and is feeling rather nervous I think. Hope he gets on okay.

He is also trying to revise for his theory test and struggling with the hazard perception part. How does everybody else's DC find that part of the test?

Have you looked at Medical Physics? Most bigger hospitals have a department.

If not that then radiology uses a lot of physics, MRI, X-Ray, CT, Nuclear Medicine etc.

My local hospital (link below has open days for younger children as well as work experience).

https://www.royalwolverhampton.nhs.uk/join-team-rwt/work-experience/explorenhs/

Has everyone had their predicted grades now? DS got his last one today. Bit frustrating as he didn't do much work for the mocks and has come out with predicted ABB. I know that's good but I also know that with a bit of work he can do better. It wouldn't matter except the course he wants at the two universities he is interested in seem to ask for AAA.

He swears he will work harder in year 13 but that's too late for his predicted grades isn't it?

@MyOtherProfile my DS got his yesterday and got two A stars and then a B in maths.
His maths teacher has told him that they will do another test in September for those that want to improve their predicted grade and that if he works hard enough over the summer, he can hopefully predict DS an A.
Fingers crossed, although I'll believe DS working extra hard in August when I see it.

@QueenMabby do you have a local science lab local to you. My DD went to lectures at ours which she put on on PS. They also did outreach to local schools.
They are part of this group. Maybe there is one near to you?
www.ukri.org/what-we-offer/public-engagement/public-engagement-stfc/visit-our-research-facilities-stfc/

@MyOtherProfile it depends what grades the college uses. The predicted grades DD received after Easter will be used for students doing early applications in October but apparently they still haven’t done the UCAS predicted and I think they get another set in the first term of Year 13.

Thanks @Rollergirl11 and @spaceychimp80
I just checked and these are his predicted grades for UCAS 🥺
He knows he should have worked harder but he was having too good a time with his friends!

But have they actually entered them in to UCAS yet @MyOtherProfile? If not could your DS potentially speak to his teachers and see if they would be prepared to up his predicted grades provided they think he can achieve them?

Oh I don't think so. Good idea thank you.

DS's are out on 30th June. We have an email out to the head of physics about that grade.
Ours are apparently negotiable (presumably in a limited capacity) once communicated to us. I'm reasonably comfortable we can get physics as an A despite the recent exam oops but he may have to commit to extra work!

We get a working at grade (based on the exams) and an UCAS grade. The former is the true view of where our kids are and the latter is what the college thinks is achievable but if they continue to put a bit more effort in. It helps work out what the safety net grades would be for a backup place versus the 'i really want to go there' grade is for which a student is prepared to work harder.

I think this also prevents students (and apparently parents!?) petitioning for predicted grades to be raised for the UCAS application; the seminar and emails have made it clear that they don't entertain this anyway! But that was also made clear before the exams so noone can say they didn't know...