On holiday on results day

[OuiOuiMonAmi]

Would this be awful? There will be good mobile phone service and we will have all the information printed out and plans in hand. Is this a terrible idea?!

When are you due back? If you end up with a clearing offer somewhere you haven’t seen, you may want to visit before accepting. Also, be aware there may be post clearing deadlines eg accommodation portal opening a couple of days after results day so you may need to leave more than just the morning free.

Yes. Your DC will either want to go off and celebrate with friends or they'll be trying to deal disappointment and clearing abroad, no friends or school support on hand.

Will your DC be with you? What do they want to do?

Would your child be able to relax and enjoy?

GCSE or A Level??

TBH I wouldn't. Not worth the stress to me but I am sure plenty of chill people will tell you it's fine.

More importantly-how does your DC feel?

It's the first thing school talks about results day always say: make sure you are in the country for A level results - in case you need to go into Clearing.

Not a nice thought but it happens. My daughter unexpectedly had to go into Clearing and it was hours of sitting on the phone to get through to Clearing staff. Then on the Saturday after results, we had to attend an open day at the new uni. It was all such a rush and chaotic.

@MrsMitford3 assume A level as this is in Higher Education.

We were in a similar dilemma but decided to be at home for results day. Probably fine if everything goes well, but if not your child may well want/need the advice of school or college staff in navigating clearing. I’m also not sure I’d fancy trying to navigate websites on a mobile phone with potentially a dodgy signal (are you confident it will be fine)?

And your child might want to go and celebrate with their friends if all is well (I know I did!)

Sorry-missed that as saw in Trending.

Even more reason to be around imho

We are going to be away for a level results. My DC is happy to be - I checked with them first. They are taking a gap year so less pressure on.

we have been away with another family when their DC got their results too. Based on that personally I think if your DC is happy to then it’s fine, logistically, if you have phone & internet.

It might be the last time they ever see some people again. I would be led by your child but A level results can throw a curveball and I would want them to have access to staff who are used to dealing with children who missed their firm offer and even maybe their insurance and go into clearing.

Ds was in and out to tell us how he did, then he went back in to talk to the teachers and say thank you and goodbye. He and his mates all went off for breakfast to celebrate. Someone they know absolutely bombed and really needed supporting through clearing, did brilliantly at uni but having staff who know how to navigate this helps.

I would book your holiday around results day.

It's completely different scenario if your child is taking a gap year.

If they hope to be starting uni in September, they need to be around for results day in case results are unexpected and their 2 choices reject them.

I wouldn't have done it, mine did get the place she wanted but she still wanted to go into college and see her friends and lecturers and would definitely have wanted to go in if she'd had to go into clearing, even though she had done a fair bit of preparation beforehand.

Thanks for your thoughts, everyone. DC wants to go but not sure they thought about seeing their friends. Tbh, I hadn't even thought they'd go into college as results are online, college won't hand them out in person.

V bad idea

generally it’s a good idea to be in the country in case results go haywire so you can access support from school and for clearing visits if needed. If results are online presumably school has provision for online support in case of issues? Not just clearing but remarks etc? I would check that carefully.

when are you going to be back? Clearing visits are usually Friday through Monday and students should not commit to anywhere they haven’t seen.

Several of you saying that we'd need to visit places before committing to anything in clearing - but I thought the whole thing with clearing is that you had to jump on the phone asap and get in as quick as you can... which you obviously can't do if you wait to visit first. Or is it a case of you get a clearing offer as quick as you can but you then have time to think about it?

Depends how secure they are in getting results needed for their firm and insurance.

If you have access to phones and Internet you can access clearing from anywhere in the world.

Exactly - you get an offer and usually a few days to decide whether to accept.

When are you back? DC had just over 2 weeks after results day before moving into uni accommodation (first week of September)

You have to get on the phone asap and get in quick. But you do have a bit of time to think about it and lots of unis run open days for Clearing applicants 2 days after results (on the Saturday).

I think my daughter verbally accepted a place at Lancaster uni but she wanted to visit before feeling 100% sure that she would take that place and not withdraw. The uni was not one she had visited before or even considered, though luckily she did really like it when she saw it on the Clearing open day.

I definitely wouldn’t do it. It was stressful enough trying to organise clearing when my DS was in a different county to me! You want to be in close proximity to school/college & have the day booked off work if applicable.

We've get three lots of results days this summer and we made sure to avoid them when booking our holiday as they will want to go and find out with their friends

I've just looked at the college website and they can't physically go in anyway - it says all results are given online and they can only phone careers dept/tutors etc.

We were in Greece last year when DS2 got his results.

On the morning of the results we were cycling up a mountain - he rode on ahead and stopped to check his phone.

He was confident he'd get his grades. He didn't! Thankfully his uni took him anyway.

The first we knew was when he hurtled down the mountain with a smile on his face saying he'd got into Durham. He found out at a coffee stop later that morning what his actual grades were.

That felt like a close shave!