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

Not that unusual! I think i mentioned on the previous thread, DS (19) recently did a 12 hr shift at a music festival (bar work) and instead of the min wage of £10.40 he was expecting got paid £7.49! very dissapointed but pay reflecting age is still well and truly alive for those very tight and stingy min wage employers. Your DS is very lucky infact if i mention it to DS he'll be furious. (at the music festival people not your ds)

Thanks for the Liverpool info. Course is evolutionary anthropology for DD (Y12). She does love a campus though.

DS had some teaching from the anthropology department at Birmingham. They specialise in African Studies. He enjoyed it and did really well in the module.

I do slightly infer from that some protection of staff against falling recruitment in the area of study, though. York seems to have lost anthropology .

Hi did anyone see on the WIWIKAU FB page about the student from Royal Holloway who has to repeat year 1 due to the marking boycott. I know it doesn’t affect my DD but I feel very angry about this! Is it true? Can they do this?

Yes, we went to the open day talk at Birmingham, very inspiring but it's a tiny department, they usually admit 15 per year 🤯

Maybe more than that next year as they have just added the single hons. Anyway, they sold it as a positive, everyone knows everyone else, but as DD said "but what if it's like my maths class" 😂

She loved Birmingham though and may apply for Liberal Arts and Sciences there. Liverpool would be the back up to the back up, but the course looks good if she likes the city centre vibe.

I did see that and can't believe it's true. They would have a Y1 with double their normal numbers!

I was thinking from a student loan point of view it’s so unfair. I think if they aren’t going to mark then everyone should just be allowed to Year 2 and first year grades don’t count towards the final year anyway so it won’t matter.

@singingstones dd is doing liberal arts at Bristol, but not the sciences. You do have to be prepared to mix with lots of different groups but she likes that. She's really enjoyed year one and from now on there's more variety of units to choose from.

Ah thank you @NCTDN
I know that some joint / multi subject courses are not particularly well organised and without any cohesion so good to hear your DD is enjoying it. DD seems set on something in that vein, definitely wants a bit of science, but there seem to be some LA courses where that is possible, Warwick for example.

I haven’t seen the thread on WIWIKAU @BlueMarigold but my daughter has just finished her first year at RHUL and she and all her friends, from various courses had their results on 5 July.

That’s good to know @cariadambyth. Glad it’s not a whole uni issue.

It's good to see all the news, all those finishing yr 1's. Those with jobs, and those not (causing parental "cross" - agree, great word.

Sorry for those dropping off list: @blinkbonny and @DontCallMeBaby. Let's see what we can do about that, create an updated one?

No, I didn't see that @BlueMarigold, re 1st year at RH, but that's shocking isn't it?

Singing, only 15 on a course (Birmingham) would put me right off.

Last night took ds2 to his first ever concert - the Weeknd. (Did have a 3rd ticket for ds1 but sold it once he found out he'd got his Camp America place). It was spectacular. Ds2 is now spoilt re future events, I tried to explain that not all have that much showmanship.

My DD at York has been given some of her marks - 70 credits worth have been marked and they need 80 minimum marked to progress. So they got a letter saying that technically they couldn't progress to yr 2 bit that they were assuming all would be sorted over the summer and to assume they would progress if their average was high enough, but with a proviso that if they didn't end up with enough they may have to retake.
A very confusing letter which basically says 'the rules say you can't progress without more credits, but we will probably sort this out before you are supposed to start next year'.... I can imagine that some students may have panicked a bit!

No worries @Oblomov23 , thanks for finding and including the list you did!

@handmademitlove I agree it's written in a very back to front way and emphasising the negative too much.
They're basically saying because they haven't marked all her work yet, they cannot determine whether she will proceed to 2nd yr (as she needs 70 credits for that) but they're implying, that they are hopeful all outstanding work will be marked over summer in time for September. In your DD's case we can assume as she only needs 10 more credits she will get enough to proceed to 2nd yr in September.

@shimy that’s really annoying for your ds if he was expecting ‘adult’ minimum wage! I agree that ds is lucky - once he starts his Tesco job he’ll be earning more than I got in my first graduate job! I know there’s inflation and all that but still…

My DD is currently away on a trip. It’s the Biological Science Norway trip which was one of the things she was most looking forward to when choosing Birmingham. I am going to be on tender hooks until she’s safely back home. She’s got a summer job so she financed herself which was nice!

*tenterhooks

@BlueMarigold that was clearly a case of someone misunderstanding a letter, which was probably badly written. Of course they can't make people re-do the year just because their work was not marked!

@Fiddlersgreen I would advise your DS2 to apply now, either for deferred entry or for 2024 just in case he changes his mind - it is easier to defer later than it is to bring entry forward. The main reason is that it is much easier to apply from within the school support system, the tutors are supporting and reviewing PS, peers are going through the same thing. You are much more on your own applying in a gap year. The other reason is that you are much freer in your gap year if you have an offer in the bag, you can just get on with having a great year. Of course that assumes he knows what he wants to study.

@Shimy yes - fortunately we read it and just thought, well that's the university covering their backsides just in case! But unlikely they will get to the point that they will need the whole year to resit because that isn't very practical is it 🙂
But I was worried that other students who don't have laid back parents could be extremely stressed by it...

@handmademitlove I'd be interested to know if they can mark the 'resits' why can't they just mark the original work that's still sitting with them?

100% correct about how certain parents might interpret this. If from my culture, the dc would've got a sound beating before they've finished digesting the letter. All they will see is the 'resit'. Imagine being an international student (all the family savings poured into fees) and sharing this letter at home......

@handmademitlove there was a WIWIKAU thread about exactly that scenario, good half of the responses going OMG HOW TERRIBLE THEY CAN’T DO THAT. Not so much of the logic you’ve applied - they literally can’t do that, so it won’t be what they’re doing.

@singingstones Liverpool is a city campus and very different to Birmingham (from three years at Liverpool uni and one visit to Birmingham - can’t comment on Nottingham, went once and got very drunk at a series of student parties). It is self contained though and separate from the proper city centre. We visited in August a few years ago and it was striking how quiet it was around the uni compared to the proper centre. Just looked on the map and the biggest distance is 0.7 of a mile between the dental school and a medical lab that’s weirdly placed just south of the arts buildings.

There's also more accommodation on/near to campus than when I was there, so you can get something like a campus experience. But not an oasis, not unless you count Abercrombie Square on a sunny day 😊

@singingstones from memory when we looking at Lib Arts for DD the other course that truly integrated arts and sciences was UCL, but DD didn't want London (mainly because that's where we live 😁).

Found this thread again after "the list" called. Sorry to have been awol😋
DS on gap year. Since last on thread, he has volunteered in Kenya, travelled in Tanzania, Thailand and Vietnam. Back now working at EFL summer school as activity leader to reboost the coffers for university.
DS heading to Liverpool, feels like a separate area to city centre, but not a full-on campus aka Nottingham ( DD was there😊). Though I think he will treat it like that as in halls right there, sports centre, student union, lecture halls. Maybe it's all how one perceives it🤔