Thread 47- Covid GCSE Cohort - Summer's running away from us!

[OrangeCinnamonLatte]

...it will be Christmas before we know it.

This is a support thread for our young adults post GCSEs 2020, regardless of their educational setting, and their results ( or life updates for those who went into work or have had results earlier). It is respectfully requested that all are supportive and helpful to each other. If you want to start a debate, e.g state vs private, uni vs employment please don't within this thread.

Some of us have been here since first thread back in yr10, some will be new. Everyone has been friendly and helpful in the past. Everyone is welcome. It is hoped this will continue. We were previously on the secondary board and then further education, now we shall be here in 'Parents of Adult Children' gulp

Our DS/DD may continue down various pathways ( employment, apprenticeships, higher ed). Experience is that everyone is welcomed wherever, whatever their child is doing we have some in work, gap years , apprenticeships etc too. Lots of contributors with different experiences and always sympathy and advice to be had.
Previous thread https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/parents_of_adult_children/4792342-thread-46-gcse-covid-cohort-searching-for-summer-solstice

What did your ds decide about career with his sport vs a levels?

@Oblomov23 hope you feel better soon.

@NCTDN He has decided to keep his sporting commitments pretty much as they are now ("hobby" not career), and to gain his coaching certificates while he's in sixth form, rather than competing internationally. He is very open that although he's national champ in his age-group, there are kids one age category below him in the current Junior squad who are objectively much better than he was at their age, and that they would stand much more of a chance at Olympic selection. He doesn't mind that at all, and I think that's healthy.

Thank you all for the advice and anecdotes on that one, by the way!

@JustHereWithMyPopcorn @mummyinbeds in person exams and not 24 hour! These are the exams she missed in Jan. I’m not sure what would happen if she failed one as she wouldn’t have a chance to resit before year 2, but I’m trying not to think about that!

@JustHereWithMyPopcorn bad news about the festival! Dd is just happy she’ll be able to get to Leeds once she’s done her last exam as she was worried she’d have a Friday afternoon or Saturday one.

Good luck to your DD @crazycrofter that sounds very tough, m glad she has Leeds to look forward to. DS is really only going for the headliner on Sunday who we assume will be last on. He’s gutted as he knows he can’t stay for Sunday, I’m trying to encourage him to sell his ticket and then he could at least have the money to book to see him another time.

@JustHereWithMyPopcorn I feel his frustration at missing out because of that damn exam. There appears to be 42 of them resitting that paper 😱
DD went to see Harry Styles straight from an A level exam, with another exam the next day. There was no reasoning with her on that one. But that wasn't a 24 hour endurance test and the day after exam was maths so (in her words) she couldn't revise for that anyway.

Ah that's such a shame @JustHereWithMyPopcorn . Is it sold out? Dd was worried that as there were still tickets available for Leeds she wouldn't be able to get her full money back, but I suppose there will always be people who'll buy it off you for less.

Good luck to those facing resits.

@Oblomov23 I hope you can get a referral to a new, competent consultant. No wonder you are fed up.

@crazycrofter DS recently used the James May app and did very well. He got a voucher so it only cost a couple of quid.

Good luck to all those resitting, and sympathy to those awaiting A level or GCSE results, we have a year off this year after three consecutive Augusts with results, so we are going away for the second half of the month for a change. Next year will be DD’s A levels, so will be back to the stressy stuff.

Do we have any Birmingham students amongst our offspring? Asking for a friend, what the pastoral / student support is like, her DC has firmed it for Sept but is neurodivergent, with some physical and mental health conditions, my friend is understandably nervous. They have had a DSA assessment.

You need @Alsoplayspiccolo ED, I think her DD is at Birmingham and has ADHD, but I haven't seen Also on here for a while.

DS is at Birmingham. He got an ADD diagnosis in the first year I think, and is on medication for it. Birmingham was v good - he brought his diagnosis to the learning support sept or whatever it was and they immediately set up an appointment at which they did a whole disability reasonable adjustments plan, shared it with his permission with his tutors, signposted him to DLA and other university - related resources etc. He can ask for extended hand-in dates (and does, and is always given them without any issue) etc. I can get more detail from him if you like but he feels very supported.

My DS has no specific issues but I do get the impression that Birmingham, for such a large uni, is quite good at caring. Never heard a bad word about its support systems.

42!!??!

Birmingham has an excellent parents' support FB page, should your friend wish to join. It was massively helpful to me when DS changed course, and about various meal plan issues!

Is 42 a lot? I thought there was about 400 students doing law in some form (i.e. not just straight law but like @mummyinbeds DS doing it with French) so that's about 10%. I don't know where I got that figure from though. It could have been from my own DS so it's perfectly possible that's a nonsense figure!

Oh , maybe not then. It just seemed a lot of young people having anxious summers to me! Is 10% normal resit rate then?

It doesn't appear to be (sadly). I know his friends will all convince him that it's fine to go. I keep reminding him that there is no more resits!

I genuinely don't know Piggy, I was just wondering myself. I've been trying to look up course numbers but can't seem to find it anywhere. I'm clearly googling wrong because the info must be there somewhere. It doesn't change anything but I'd like too know.

@JustHereWithMyPopcorn you're right - there are 42 students taking law resists.
Examination timetables and key dates - The University of Nottingham

If you click on this link and then on Examinations with location and then download that file it shows you all the resits. There is 1 exam (MTHSF002/Foundation Mathematics 2/Exam 1) with 181 students taking it!!

Hello!
Thanks for the shout out, singingstones.
(I have been rubbish at keeping up with the thread, but pop onto MN sometimes so got a notification.)

DD has had a great first year at Birmingham, EversoDetermined. She has a reasonable adjustments plan in place, which includes things like deadline extensions, being able to do her presentations in front of the tutor rather than the other students, getting reading lists in advance etc.
Shes actually found that quite a few of her lecturers/tutors also have ADHD (she’s studying English and film), and are more than happy to arrange to see her for extra help outside of contact hours.
Shes also made use of the writing advisory service.

Weve been happily surprised by how well she’s managed this year, and that’s been without any support from DSA (long story but she had horrendous problems with three suppliers and only received her package of support after she’d finished the year!)

@Heifer it was @mummyinbeds that spotted it but I saw it then on the timetable. I also looked at the other courses and saw some of the computer sciences ones were high but didn’t spot that maths one 😮. We were just musing over whether 42 was a high percentage of the students but I don’t know.

@Alsoplayspiccolo thats fantastic that your DD has had such excellent support on her course, so refreshing to hear!

I forgot to say that Birmingham also funded DD to have an en suite room, as suggested by the DSA.

@JustHereWithMyPopcorn & @mummyinbeds those figures are just a particular exam in a particular room, just noticed that there is BIOS1064/Intro to Genetics and Biochem/Exam 2 Resit exam in 2 different places at the same time, with 84 in 1 room and 50 in another so the figures for each actual resist in 1 subject could be much higher than first glance. If you're interested in a particular one make sure you click on all the options in the filter for that exam regardless of where it's sat.

@JustHereWithMyPopcorn I think there's about 360 first year law students ( including the language students like DS) Not sure where I got that figure from though. According to DS there are 11 French Law students but he only knows one of them. Hopefully he finds the others when he actually does some french law next year.