GCSEs 2018 (15) The Reckoning

[mmzz]

thread 14
The next step of the all new GCSE journey.

Brainmelt your boy will look great in 6th Form.

JufusMum I am impressed with your DD's attitude to prep work! Hope the v.v.posh restaurant work is a success.

HesMyLobster I will be passing this on to DD - Apparently one of the teachers hinted that if a subject required grade was slightly missed, and it came down to head of department deciding whether to still accept for that subject or not, they would look more favourably at dc if homework was completed as it shows the desired attitude for 6th form.

It seems that some sixth forms are moving to smart business dress ie suits just at the time most workplaces are becoming more casual :)

Though I do wonder if it makes some difference. DD2 had smart business dress and always looked very smart and professional and I wonder if that did make then feel more like they were in a place of work and got down to stuff. I remember moving in to sixth form in home clothes which felt very casual and hence lazed around and didn't do much !!

Yes Oratory - ours used to allow jacket/chinos combos but students took the piss and started wearing coloured jeans rather than chinos and canvas shoes/trainers so now it is strictly suits, shirts and tie and polishable shoes!

DD has no dress restrictions at her sixth form college (they get very good A level results so it doesn't seem to have a negative impact on worth ethic). She is currently investing disproportionate time on her wardrobe for next term - she has been sewing an large octopus transfer on a black denim skirt , hand embroidering a constellations of planets and stars on her jeans and wants me to book her in for balayage purple highlights. She's completely different to me (is it clean? - okay I'll put it on)

Meh - I suppose its harmless

Hmc 😂 really impressed by her inventiveness...

DD had a balayage a couple of months ago - blonde and its looking really lovely now...at first I couldnt see the difference and was slightly [hmmm] given it cost over £100 but it looks great now the toner has washed out and the sun has also helped.

DD is opting for minimal communication whilst she is away - Monday - All OK....Wednesday - Its Good - I guess its better than its awful and I cant wait to come home!

I totally agree about change to workplace clothes (I wear jeans most of the time). I am really glad that DD has a uniform though even if it looks like a suit, she looks incredibly smart in it...When I have picked DD up from school and watch the sixth formers coming out they create such a positive professional image (plus the fact its going to save me ££££'s over the next two years).

I'm hesitating to write this because it would be easy to say it badly.
It has been two days since the Scottish results came out, and my DNs's results have gone from being a revelation/ news (to me) to just being a fact. Basically, they have sunk in.

And now what strikes me is that the real challenge is about to begin, with phase 1 being to get enough Highers (A levels) to get onto the university courses they want.

The NAT 5s (GCSEs, here) were just the warm up, not an end in any sense at all. Thinking about what lies ahead for my Scottish nieces and nephews, the age 15/16 exams suddenly look easy, but a few months ago they seemed hard.

I am wondering if that's how the GCSE results will also appear by 1st September?

Neither of the colleges DS has an offer from have dress codes - he plans to live in trackies and hoodies.

mmzz I suspect you are right - by 1st September it will be old news and the build up to the next stage will begin in earnest.

I think it’s a mix. Yes A levels will be harder and also perhaps more crucial for most in terms of getting to the next stage in that most uni courses will be grade dependant and most will be applying for courses at the top end of grade predictions (whereas I think only a few of us have real doubts about making the grade for progression at gcse). But on the other hand they will never have to do this range if subjects and this quantity of exams again. They will be doing subjects they have chosen and are supposedly good at, they will be another year or two older and more practised in revision, note taking and what is required to pass. With mine they probably learnt ‘how to learn’ during the gcse process. So for them gcse was definitely more stressful than what came next. I guess it’s different for different dc though

I'm going to combine 2 topics here. My students come to college whilst holding down highly paid professional roles. However, if you saw them coming through the doors, you would hesitate to link them to their chosen career, because of their interpretation of smart casual! It has absolutely no impact on their exam results or work ethic, if anything it has the opposite impact, because they feel they can be themselves for a few days.

hmc Your DD won't be able to identify my DD in the swarm of Jack Wills, Hollister etc!

Back to results. I have a taught a ridiculous number of global prize winners (top in the world out of 4000 entrants etc). They are bright, but they haven't always had straight A*s or a first from Oxbridge. In fact, all 3 of my most recent prize winners didn't have a degree, they had done it through persistence and personality to get their jobs against fierce competition.

The GCSE exam results open doors to the next stage. The DC themselves will barely discuss their results amongst themselves. They may cautiously compare grades with someone they thing will get similar grades to themselves, they will kick themselves about missing a grade they hoped for, possibly switch to a subject they hadn't considered, then continue discussing Kpop, rugby, gaming etc. Within a few days of starting 6th form their GCSE results will be largely forgotten, because they are just there to ensure they know the basics and are ready to move on. Their teachers will frown over a few unexpected results, discover a dark horse who exceeded all expectations and then forget about our lot as they throw themselves into teaching the next batch using the lessons learnt. In 15 days time a grade boundary for 99% of parents and their DC will be utterly irrelevant, because they only matter if you've missed out on that crucial college place. In fact, the majority of people won't gave cared in the first place, because they only want to see the magic 5 subjects at grade 4 or 5 and above. Anything else is the cherry on top of the cake!

Isn't life just one series of challenges and hurdles to overcome to get to the next stage, each one is important in its own right because you have to successfully overcome each hurdle to progress to the next?

Plus as very few schools do AS levels now I'm sure some uni's will take GCSE's into consideration.

Also exams results can have a real impact on someone's self-esteem, if you've done unexpectedly well, it can give you the confidence to aim higher likewise those who are disappointed can then doubt their ability. I think they mean the least to those that get what they are predicted as it merely confirms your ability.

Bluebelle I think (not sure of this, at all) that the US universities take the GCSEs into account because their offer cycles don't fit with our exam cycles, so they use the only thing available.
I have never heard of UK universities caring about GCSE results though, but I could be wrong about that.

Don't roast me for this next comment but when I worked in the City, I was often involved in hiring new people. It's not as important as it sounds, as recruitment is usually over 3-6 rounds. Sometimes, I'd draw the short straw and get the task of going through the CVs that had apparently been pre-vetted by HR and the recruitment agency. It was an unpopular task because the pre-vetting was notoriously bad. I suspect, they just didn't bother.
So, I'd have this pile of CVs in front of me, and I needed a way to weed through them. Mainly I'd be looking for reasons to put them on the "no" pile. Unexplained gaps, frequent job changes etc were all good reasons, but when I had done that and was still stuck, I'd add anyone who thought their a O'levels or GCSE results were worth listing.

Bluebelle your last comment about raising self-esteem when you've done unexpectedly well strikes me as very true.

I know the point your making but you still have to get your GCSE's to progress to the next level without them you wouldn't of even made your pile .......

Also I think Birmingham take GCSE's into account, its done on a points basis and you have to get so many in order for them to make you an offer

You’re right currently only a handful of uni s will look at gcse results. And those that do (Oxford/some med schools) look at so many other things alongside so they may not even be crucial then. Whether this will change I don’t know. Blue belle your post reminded me how we probably fretted over things like how much our babies slept or what they ate - if only we knew what was coming next !!

This year group though will have the excuse with universities that they were guinea pigs and nobody knew what they were doing.

One large accountancy firm no longer looks at qualifications beyond checking that you have maths & English. A student with 3 A levels at grade E has and equal chance of a job offer as a student with a first in PPE from Cambridge if their personality ticks the right boxes.

Yes agree with impact on confidence etc

Stickerrocks don't accountancy firms set their own tests which weed out applicants and I wonder if this came about because of grade inflation as employers had so many applicants with A's and A* that they were unable to pick on that basis alone?

Oratory or in my case would my DC ever walk, neither even attempted to take a step until they were 18 months!!!!!!!

mmzz - same here, I did a lot of hiring (saw a lot of misguided CVs) and it was frowned on to see GCSEs/O levels listed. We weren't too bothered about hobbies, either. However, the exceptions would be for jobs where we hired non-graduates - there weren't many, but in those cases GCSEs were relevant. Ironically, for any teaching job they want to know about every exam you've ever taken! So despite PG English qualifications I still have to prove I have English O level!
DS is really looking forward to A levels and I agree I think he'll forget about GCSEs very quickly. I can't believe the cycle is about to start again - DS2 will be picking options this year!

Stickerrocks that's it exactly! When recruiting, you want someone who is up to the job, is self-motivated, proactive, will get on reasonably well with the team and who is unlikely to cause you to be going through another pile of CVs within two years. Their qualifications just need to be enough.

That's why I binned the GCSE detailers - they could only be listing them out because they thought they were relevant (making me think they didn't get what the job was), or because they were trying to fill space having done nothing more relevant or worst of all, they thought that their qualifications entitled them to the job and IME that raised the possibility that they'd be on the lazy side.

LOL ... hobbies had only two points of interest: -

1. Was there commonality with someone else in the team, meaning they might get on?

1. Hobbies that may mean requests for long holidays at inconvenient times (eg sailing) needed some clarification.

A great set of GCSE's is a credit to any DC and totally agree it will give the DC's confidence going forward to A level, but with the mass of Uni applications you need to get your DC to stand out if say all the predicted A levels are like for like.

I was keen to get DD in part time employment as soon as I could and when she went for her interview at the back up school this is what the HOS said caught her eye (DD has been working since she was 15) Its not only employment its voluntary work and sportsmanship too anything else that will make your DC stand out from the crowd enough to say I'd like to know more about this DC because comparing like for like ...candidate A has ABC and candidate B has A & B. This is assuming that the higher qualifications are predicted like for like...

There were more unconditional Uni offers last year than before and there has been some concern about this - which is an interesting factor because I wonder whether this will now tighten up.