Oxbridge 2020 (6)

[Justneedatemporaryname]

New thread ready for when the old one gets filled up!

Literally hundreds of MN threads have been devoted to the supposed inequities of grammar schools, most of which ignore the ongoing work on outreach in at least all of the top grammars.

My DC grew up in the three bed cottage I've lived in myself since 1977, where the closest school - three miles away - happens to be the grammar. The catchment comp is five miles away. Not everyone downshifts for these schools!

Cheers Aurea. I hope your DS is thriving and also enjoying being back up North, presumably in the snow :)

I don't think Durham gives out contextual offers to most state school applicants.

My DS got an law offer at Durham of AAA at Advanced Highers last year (he's Scottish, comprehensive state schooled). This equates to 3 A stars at A level in UCAS points and was higher than his Oxford offer of AAB!!

Maybe they don't fully understand the Scottish exam system?

He was hoping for a lower offer from them!

DD4's Durham offer is the standard offer incidentally. Durham will be picking up on other contextual flags for grammar school applicants which is perfectly fair (and throws another bit of doubt on the idea that all grammar school kids live in affluent postcodes with high incomes).

Goodbye.. no snow but -6oC this morning.

Yes, he's had an absolute ball.

Poor sheep on the hills Aurea :(

DDs northern grammar has a huge catchment which includes the neighbouring deprived town.

Our area is comprehensive schools only. Grandson's school was in special measures during his GCSEs but is improving now after a lot of work. The school do their very best, and there are some excellent teachers, but the surrounding area has a lot of problems.

Aurea - can your DD ask Durham about the offer? They've obviously treated the advanced highers as A'levels.

This is the only thread I follow so apologies to goodbye for raking over old ground with regards to grammar schooling.

Congratulations to those with Durham offers, standard or otherwise. .

He did ask Durham. But admissions just said it was a standard offer for a Scottish student.

This was all last year and he did achieve. AAA and is now very happily studying at Oxford.

Here is Durham's response to his query regarding the grade requirements:

Our current offer criteria for students studying within the Scottish system is:

Scottish Advanced Highers - AAA. This is the equivalent to A*AA at A-Level.

We do not make offers based solely on Highers.

Please note that we review our offer criteria yearly.

UCL were even worse than Durham (see below). They required A star star (not even a grade at A level) A star A star. Needless to say, he didn't apply there.

Thank you for your email. While I appreciate our grades may be very high, the grade requirements are A*AA for A-levels and this has been determined as the following for students taking Scottish qualifications

Advanced Highers: Advanced Highers grades A1,A,A
Advanced Highers/Highers: Advanced Highers grades A1,A plus Highers at grades A,A,A
Advanced Highers/A-Levels: Advanced Highers and GCE A-Levels at grades A*AA/A1AA.

These grades are used across UCL and for all courses with the same required grades. The LLB Law is an incredibly competitive and oversubscribed, with over 3,500 applications for just 175 places, and as such the grade requirements are set high.

ofteninaspin thanks - DD4 was incredibly buoyed by her Durham offer.

A lot of those would be lawyers will end up with no training contract or in £20K a year jobs.

Merry Xmas and Happy New Year to all☃️☃️

Eight children in a 3 bed cottage goodbye?
I had three girls in one bedroom and two boys in another at one point... that was bad enough!

This might be a good moment to ask the long time posters if they can dredge up a brilliant link for the list essential non essentials for freshers ( thinking Sellotape, sewing kit etc) , thinking stocking fillers here. There was a fab list on last years posts, anyone?

Hobbema I don't have a link to the list, but I have picked up one of these in Morrisons for £3.50 today. It's a screwdriver with 6 interchangeable heads, for putting batteries in all those sets of fairy lights which seem to be essential these days.

paladone.com/ukb2c/scott-and-lawson-really-useful-tool

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/higher_education/3739424-What-to-get-student-for-Christmas

This might be useful.

My DS's Oxford College packing list. Some items may not be necessary for other colleges.

Excellent work team @MillicentMartha, @Aurea, @Hoghgyni ! Particularly like the sonic screwdriver, fairlylights feature large in DD's room, unlike DS whose brief foray into University life was spartanly furnished ( most stuff we took for him still untouched in the really useful boxes that came home a few months later) :(
DD likes looking at those room before and afters, is building a little collection of houseplants to take wherever she goes in 2020; sweet.

The bow ties/black ribbons are definitely niche!

Errol, plenty of black tie sports and social dinners at other/all Universities!! DS ( apprentice)off to his firm's Christmas dinner this weekend in black tie ( I'm repairing his shirt, inexplicable tear in the back and rehemming his trousers as I type!) so a bow tie would be a grand stocking filler for a DS imo. More please