Applying for Uni 2019 Part 8: Results Day - congratulations, champagne, clearance, commiserations... Our DC will get through it whatever happens.

[NewModelArmyMayhem18]

Following on from our previous thread.

Good luck to all DC awaiting results and university places.

School question: Is it only the SLT and the Exams Officer(s) who get to see the results today?

@Fibbsdottir DS went out and got back about 4 so hasn't surfaced yet to see what today's mood is re the insurance choice.

I'm so sorry from him as he had set his heart on the course at his first choice and had even tailored his work experience towards them. But we are where we are and I'm trying to be positive.

However looking at the moving date for him now I may not be able to make it due to a commitment with one of my other children at the opposite end of the country.

Hi @GoldenRuby thanks for your reply. Is the Village accommodation the one beyond the campus boundaries? A 20 minute walk is fine and good exercise (DS did a 30 minute walk to primary school for his entire time there, from the age of five!).

DS hoping for single Ziggurat. He isn't getting much more than the minimum living on loan, so wanted to ensure that what we give him every month is for that purpose alone and not leaking into accommodation costs.

Sunflowers that’s horrendous I’m glad it is sorted out but can imagine the upset they caused.

Framey she’ll love York (I have a huge soft spot for it!) well done her!

Dd didn’t go out last night and we both slept until past 9 this morning. She’s gone to the gym, hopefully that will give her some oompf! Another school parent contacted me to rage about the school’s results (they are truly terrible - this is a leafy comp with an advantaged student body - no excuses) ... I need to let it go but I just feel so angry & upset. She has had such an awful time. In the end none of her teachers even turned up for results day ... they had the head of 6th there taking pictures with the handful of newspaper worthy kids & office staff (‘now we can’t give you any advice about this’) handing out the results. They’d have been better just posting them online - they didn’t have the paper marks to hand or even know the grade boundaries. Gah. Move on.

So no remark, she should’ve got an A but doesn’t want it enough to go back to school!

@NewModelArmyMayhem18 yes, the Village is just outside the campus entrance, but no more than 10-15 min walk away for the heart of campus. My DS like it as he wanted en-suite, but also to keep the costs down. The walk is nothing really, and he said he likes the feeling of 'leaving' at the end of the day to go home.

Interesting reading comments about school 6th forms. Ds attended a big 6th form college, 100% pass rate, 85% A*-B. Could having staff that only teach A level and concentrate completely on that be an advantage ? I'm a teacher myself though at an 11-16.

I wish Dd had gone to a 6th form college - she was commuting 20 miles to school anyway! We have two very good ones within reasonable distance.

At the time she really didn’t want to leave school - I didn’t anticipate quite how bad things would get but I should have been more insistent about considering other places. I won’t make the same mistake (different ones sure) with my younger children.

laniakea, to be fair to the teachers, it's not in our contracts to turn up to results day, and it doesn't mean we don't care : now so much is online we see results from home and are usually beavering away there looking at things. I have turned up most years but find students don't want the advice there and then and that SLT blank me as they haven't digested results. I also got LESS info by turning up than I could do at home oddly! I then need time to check stuff and work things out. I don't think most teachers realise how little info students get when they pick up results. I didn't realise until I saw what DS got yesterday that most results don't even show paper by paper marks, or an overall mark : that's down to the exam boards (God knows why they are so obtuse!). When students or their parents do ask questions on results day, teachers will often have as little info as anyone else without recourse to secure websites (which I read on Twitter yesterday some teachers are not given passwords for, not even HoDs). In addition, many students are in and out and only reflect later. I did get a very speedy response by emailing my DS's exams officer yesterday.

But I, too, am frustrated with DS's school so I share your pain there. I hold them at least 45% responsible for his shit result in Spanish!

scarecrow my DS's school is a sixth form annexe with lots of teachers (secretly, weirdly) appointed just to teach there. I don't find them better at all. Often not specialists , and not qualified teachers.

Lanikea - I share your pain. Similar experience re disinterested school (didn’t know/care much about missed uni place and only one subject teacher to hand) but I looked up boundaries online and persuaded DS to get breakdowns of papers so he could decide on remarks. It does seem so unbalanced with some schools being proactive about remarks and contacting Unis and others not taking any interest at all. DS strongly disliked his 11-16 school and similarly refused to go back after picking up GCSE results so I developed a good relationship with his exams officer (asking for breakdowns, remarks etc) - we were on really good terms by the end of 4 (successful) GCSE remarks! - and he turned out so much nicer than the teaching staff. Maybe worth your contacting them directly?

Piggy - did they have a full 6th form staff each dedicated to individual subjects ? At a big college student numbers mean you'll have several classes for each subject so staff will have full timetables dedicated to just one subject. My friend teaches Philosophy A level and has several year 12 and 13 classes.

Ah Piggy I know I’m probably being unfair - she’d expected to see them (they were all there for GCSE). They won’t do anything over the phone you have to go in again today if you want anything - most ppl can’t take two days off work to run the kids around & no public transport at all out of term time.

They handled it very badly - only one person available for any knowledge or access to stuff and a massive queue of crying students outside his office in full view of the head faffing around with a camera ignoring the misery. Dd had AS results a couple of years ago on A level day & they were much better, loads of staff & better organised - kinder!

Some of them do scarecrow, yes. It's caused some ill feeling in the wider school, I know. We also have a sixth form college nearby and again I'd be concerned about the fact that the teachers there aren't qualified, often. But in areas with 11-16 schooling , some sixth form colleges are absolute top notch (eg Cambridge)

I do think an issue with sixth form colleges is continuity of care,mind. Students are applying to uni the minute they get through the door... how does that work in terms of references, for example?

It does sound a bit shit laniakea! I suspect the staff there may be disgruntled about something. Fewer people turn up at my place every year because we feel unwelcome. I know what you mean about the camera faffing, absolutely!!

is there any consequence for the school/department when a lot of students miss their targeted grades (the ones set by GCSE grades - ALPS or something?). They were always banging on about them. Dd’s were A A A*

I hate the idea of a head taking photos of happy students and ignoring the others. I would be angry too.

staff there may be disgruntled

Oh yes! Big time. It was such a nice school seven years ago too :(

It's sad that results day can be handled in such a varied (not necessarily positive) way, as I'm sure for many it will be the abiding memory they retain of their school.

What did she get Laniakea?

@NewModelArmyMayhem18 yes Norwich is good for cyclists and work to improve it further is ongoing. There is a lovely cycle route through the park and then off major roads to get into the city or there is a direct and frequent bus.
On campus there are plenty of places to lock bikes too. my DD plans to go without and see how she gets on and then buying a cheap one on gumtree if she needs one.
There is an Aldi and Tesco within walking distance.
Norwich is a great city!

@NewModelArmyMayhem18 @GoldenRuby yes the village is a pleasant 15 walk (or 20 at teenager pace) from the main campus.

BBC

And that was better than most if her similarly able friends. One got BBB then there was an ABB no one else doing sciences got any better. Lots of C D & U. Particularly chemistry where her half of the year had no lessons (bar two a month shared with the other group so 40 in the class) from Christmas of year 13 onwards.

I expected ABC from how y13 had gone so not miles below my expectation tbh. She got 156 for biology the A boundary is 158. And the C was physics not chem which was a bit of a shock.

Yes, there can be . The school might have performance related pay tied to results (which the unions protest about) ALPS is notoriously unfair on some subjects mine!. I think this is why teachers can appear unfeeling to individual plights : they won't understand why a student is upset if they have performed OK 'according to data' , or if the whole class has done 'fine'. Equally I have seen and heard some teachers get disproportionately aggrieved at some students for 'ruining their data'. the data driven culture is not a nice world. I must admit I could not tell you the planned future destinations of 8/9 of my A Level group. Whilst I checked quite a lot of PSs , they don't tend to discuss that kind of thing. Partly, that's a parents' evening timing issue. Data in schools does tend to be very very focused on GCSE, too.

That said, I hope someone's head is at least wobbling, if not rolling for DS's result in Spanish.

Targets are a funny thing: the way my school does it , DS's indicator grades would have been BBC. At his school they were CCC ( would take hours to explain why!). One system crucifies teachers, the other undermotivates them.

I think my school may be similar to yours : the chem and physics results were low at our place, too.

Some of this has to do with a rise in uptake to STEM subjects, or so they tell me. As a teacher who ahs always taught the middle to lowish ability end at A level, this does make me roll my eyes a little.