University 2020 :4: The wait for grades and better days ahead

[MillicentMartha]

New thread for us. Interesting times.

Old thread here

Thankyou @goodbyestranger she is finally starting to feel better, but still very up and down.
She is on day 10 since symptoms started and today is the first time she's been able to eat properly, come downstairs etc.

I had a much milder dose the week before and was only properly "in bed" for about 3 days.

We don't know for sure that we've had "the" virus or just another similar seasonal thing, but the symptoms do match up.

@goodbyestranger state comp here, no work being set but we're far from abandoned. Lots of info on mental health and are for well being.

No work here. Finished last Thursday after Gov announcement.

State school, fairly high aiming

DS’s school, state comp. Only work set are suggestions to keep their hand in on maths in particular and maybe do some MOOCS and some past papers. CS project still to be completed. I’m not going to tell him it may not be moderated! They handed their text books back last week. He did AS levels in all subjects so that should be pretty good evidence, better than GCSEs at least.

My school, state grammar, similar but they still have their text books. The teachers are just waiting to see what evidence is required. They already have mocks, topic test results etc. But grade boundaries aren’t at all accurate. The mocks were assembled from secure past papers, but usually picking the harder questions as it’s a high achieving set of students so making the grade boundaries fairly tough to get them working hard.

DD state comp, no work set. DD doing 100% exam subjects do no coursework. Teachers have said they have what they need. She has been furloughed from part time job in a restaurant so will be getting her 80% pay. She’s quite down. No motivation to do anything. She just floating from the sofa to the fridge to her bed. Currently making bread. (Luckily we had bread flour and yeast in the cupboard). Taking one online dance class a day followed by a social chat with her dance school. It’s the only time I see her smile.

DD is at a normal sixth form college and they have been set work to do. Including finishing History coursework for those who haven’t done so. She has finished hers a long time ago and worked her socks off so hopefully that will count. Although the college IT crashed yesterday so not sure what’s going on.

DD is now in cooking duties which is a blessing as I’m a rubbish cook!

DD signed the pro forma coursework slip for History back in Sept (deadline was first day of Autumn Term, but they gave an extra week - even so, over six months ago). English was only a couple of weeks later. I'm amazed at the huge variation in hand in dates.

What will the effect of over offering be if the amount of foreign students is down this autumn? Might it cancel out?

IN terms of sheer numbers, perhaps, but the problem there is that internationals pay much higher fees, which help to subsidise domestic fees. If European students are deterred, that might be a help from that pov.

Back in the good old days, when everyone knew what the hell was going on, what was the procedure for requesting a deferral if you hadn’t originally applied for one? Did you do it on August 12th when you accepted your offer?

The offer is only for the year for which you applied. You would ring the uni as soon as you had decided to defer and it was at their discretion as to whether to agree.

State college here for dd that is continuing with their timetabled lessons each day online.
She's really glad of the structure and is not ready to give it up just yet. She will need the A level knowledge for her degree so she wants to keep going so she's not worried about lacking in knowledge in some areas when she starts university.

LIZS so if DS is considering deferring, is there any point in him calling now or should he wait until the grades are released in July (or whenever)?

Probably depends where/what subject it is . Given the situation it seems likely many will still opt to take later exams to improve grades and need to defer so probably sooner than later. Most unis will only allow a limited number and for some courses it is , normally at least, discouraged.

DC's school is setting them an enormous amount of work. DS wouldn't go for his allowed walk today until dusk because he'd written 6,000 words - 3 A level essays!
They have to register online as normal and I've heard their teachers voices booming through the house.
@oneteen - good point about refund on exam fees, though I presume teachers and exam boards will be working twice as hard as usual to award fair grades. Might not chase that one.

ellanwood is your DS's school an independent, out of interest?

I'm assuming so, because of your exam fee comment. If so, there really does seem to be quite a striking disparity between sectors, if this tiny MN sample is anything to go by.

www.goodsamapp.org/NHS
Over 18 can volunteer , if they drive they can deliver meds ,shopping. If they dont they can check in and chat to someone isolated.

Have tolerated several days of understandable self indulgent moping. Its time to act now, if you’re not part of the solution etc.

It went down brilliantly....

A local private school has sent Y13s mocks to do this week at home! How fair/unfair are these grade allocations going to be with schools making their own rules up?

www.theguardian.com/education/2017/nov/28/eton-teachers-exams-pupils-headmaster-simon-henderson

Nothing new Olympicfan! Plus ca change etc :)

I think that’s a bit unfair goodbye , it seems to me that there are quite a few state schools on here also setting work . If your dd school has finished teaching what would happen if they wanted to go down the exam route ?

Yes DD goes or went to a fe college for yrs 12 and 13, and has been sent more mocks to do at home.

Just to add to the mix dd is at a state SFC and hasn't even got consistency between subjects.

One subject has waved them off and wished them well, one has just asked for final submission of coursework by next week and one (maths) is sending daily work including mock papers.

Dd is ignoring the third but will complete her coursework this week.

She's had almost a week of taking to her bed and doing nothing but I am working at home now for the rest of the week so she will be getting up and being productive today.

Dd2 volunteers and was working until last week. Some of her volunteering is gone now but has done some CAB this week and some online tutoring. She’s also shopping for us plus about 5 other households and helping with home schooling.
Been looking at online courses to fill time too

DS 1 is home from Uni. Online teaching and set seminar work, problems etc continue apace. Online exams scheduled in May and beginning of June and still contribute to final degree classification.
DS 2 at local college doing Btec. It is older spec so no exams. Now they have additional daily work set plus the Btec set assessments. They are completing group presentations by Skype.
DS 1 has applied for supermarket jobs but 2 have rejected him immediately and 1 after 2 days wait.