GCSE Summer 2020 Thread 10: Carry on Corona Cohort ‘The Next Step''

[OrangeCinnamon1]

Welcome all to the 10th Thread for this year's GCSE cohort - the Corona Cohort!

This is a thread for supporting all young people ( and their parents) who were examined for GCSEs 2020 regardless of the institute they attended or the grades they needed. It is respectfully requested that we are all supportive and helpful to each other.
If you want to start a debate e.g state vs private - please do not within this thread.
Similarly it should be recognised that the grades our children needed/deserved/wanted will vary across the board- we wish to celebrate and comiserate with all. One same grade outcome can simultaneously cause joy and despair for different posters and their families. Please be sensitive when responding to threads about grade outcomes.

Some of us have been here since I started first thread back in yr10, some will be new. Everyone has been friendly and helpful in the past. It is hoped this will continue. Going forward we intend to stay on the Secondary Education Board (at least until Mumsnet HQ chuck us out grin ) as from now on our DS/DD may go down various paths such employment, apprenticeships, higher ed etc so we decided not to be exclusionary.

Any new threads should have 'GCSE Summer 2020 Thread # : Carry on Corona Cohort' in title just to make it easier to find. There is no preciousness about who starts new threads!

At this precise moment in time it us 'results day ' most have GCSE results and some awaiting BTEC results .

We are all ALWAYS trying to protect our young people's mental health, which the government claims is their priority...when they talk about wanting students back in schools/college in September popping this here.

previous thread

@LilyBolero

I took the bit about results of previous students to mean - if you have a student this year who is roughly as good as joe bloggs from last year, and joe bloggs got a B, then that's information that could help when determining the CAGs.

The bit about there being little variation I think is in there as a safety check for schools - one way they can make sure they are roughly on track. So at a sort of macro level is this cohort a bright one or not and do our results overall reflect that? If they are a bit brighter than 2019 but not as bright as 2018, do our CAGs sit between the results from those two years?

It does say that it will vary, and that for most centres (so not all), variation is normally (so not always) quite small (so not non-existent). There is a lot of room in there for variation from previous years if it's warranted - it certainly doesn't say standardise your results so that they fit the same curve as previous years, even if that means giving students lower grades than they would have got in an exam. (Which is what some schools seem to have done.) It does say several times that "The centre assessment grades submitted to exam boards must reflect a fair, reasonable and carefully considered judgement of the most likely grade a student would have achieved if they had sat their exams this summer"

I can see why schools might have felt that internal moderation was the best thing to do but I don't think Ofqual meant for them to do it.

Anyway, we are where we are! I guess there could never be a totally fair way of doing it.

Changing the subject slightly, has anyone else noticed a complete absence of reference to results from other parents on social media? I'm sure normally at this time of year my wall has always been full of proud, happy parents. This year - nothing. Not a squeak. I have still got virtually every parent from DS's primary school year as FB friends, plus lots of others I've met over the years at sports clubs etc. So masses of y11 parents. But the silence is deafening. It's as though no one dares post for fear of upsetting others etc. I never really post about my DCs, I'm quite a private person, but many of these others did for their older siblings in previous years.

Yes. Deafening silence.

It's made me feel a bit sad. As if our DCs results aren't something to be proud of.

I hadn't thought of it until now but yes, same here.

DS is now wobbling about his A level choices - already picked four with a view to dropping one, because he can't decide between maths, physics, chemistry and biology. Now he says he wants to do psychology which he has never shown any interest in before

There was an options evening early this year when teachers were giving talks about subjects and he wouldn't go to the psychology one because the teacher had come into a lesson to talk about it and it was "surprisingly boring".

His three best friends are doing psychology though
Seems like madness to me but not sure what I can do really.. he wants to ask school whether he can start FIVE subjects and drop two

@EasilyDelighted

Changing the subject slightly, has anyone else noticed a complete absence of reference to results from other parents on social media? I'm sure normally at this time of year my wall has always been full of proud, happy parents. This year - nothing. Not a squeak. I have still got virtually every parent from DS's primary school year as FB friends, plus lots of others I've met over the years at sports clubs etc. So masses of y11 parents. But the silence is deafening. It's as though no one dares post for fear of upsetting others etc. I never really post about my DCs, I'm quite a private person, but many of these others did for their older siblings in previous years.

There was a few parents commenting on Facebook but you're right, not as many as usual

@KingscoteStaff - wow that's quick off the mark on prospective medical applications. DD's new school also has a dedicated team for medical applicants (thank heavens as we have never had a Dr in the family). I guess it will be picked up when she gets there.

Her godfather is a Psychiatrist specialising in addiction and she's keen to spend some time with him but I'm not sure it's the environment for a 17 year old girl.

I haven't shared DS's results with anyone outside our family. Not even my book group. If someone asks I will share them. DD has shared with her friends (of course!) so I guess it's not a state secret and other parents will know.

@singingstones

I hadn't thought of it until now but yes, same here.

DS is now wobbling about his A level choices - already picked four with a view to dropping one, because he can't decide between maths, physics, chemistry and biology. Now he says he wants to do psychology which he has never shown any interest in before

There was an options evening early this year when teachers were giving talks about subjects and he wouldn't go to the psychology one because the teacher had come into a lesson to talk about it and it was "surprisingly boring".

His three best friends are doing psychology though
Seems like madness to me but not sure what I can do really.. he wants to ask school whether he can start FIVE subjects and drop two

DS is having a wobble over his choices too. Initially he planned to do Maths, Geography and Physics. Then he changed physics to economics ( the most interested I've seen in his future studies). After Thursday he's now wavering about biology and the fact if he doesn't do it he'll rule out anything medical. He enrols on Tuesday so needs to get a wiggle on!

I did post a suitably vague FB status, along the lines of, “ Phew...now we can celebrate”, but didn’t post any grade info.
I’ve stayed friends on FB with a number of parents of DD’s primary school friends, and only one posted actual results and a couple of others said how proud they were.
Maybe people are generally less keen to be seen as bragging, or maybe it’s specifically this year, because of the circumstances?

Amongst friends (mine) the sharing has been limited to "happy with them", "a bit disappointed but still ok for college", "all ok apart from one which we're querying". That sort of thing.

Same here, Most of my friends posted vague posts such as "So proud of Xs excellent results". I only know of one parent who actually posted her child's results, but that was at an academy school that has links to mine and on the grapevine, I've heard they were very generous with their predictions. I have of course remained silent.

The one post I've seen on social media is from the parent of the only child at DS's school to get all 9s (well deserved). And even then she posted "Huge well done to Sarah*, we're very proud of you xx" .

Definitely more low key than normal.

Interestingly DS has known "Sarah" since Reception, and she was a real bright spark then as well. Thought none of the other children who were "top" in Reception (that we still know of) have maintained their early promise!

@EasilyDelighted

Absolutely nobody on my FB has said what grades their DC got. There has been the odd ‘proud and relieved’ type post but no specifics. It’s quite strange. School have put some photos of the top performers on their website but the only one with any grade info is the girl who got straight 9s in all 11 subjects. None of the local schools have any press coverage either.

@frustrationcentral - if your DS is thinking of medicine he really needs Chemistry with Biology as well. For things like Biomedical Science it would also be Biology and Chemistry. I think by not doing Chemistry he's already ruling out anything medical - that's the science they are looking for.

I'm not sure about medicine particularly but as a scientist (chemist) I would totally agree that if you want any sort of career in science you need chemistry. It underlies all the others.

Has anyone heard about timetables yet?

Dd sixth form been in touch to say for the first few weeks at least they are going to split them into two groups for lessons and have half in one week and the other half participating via teams from home. The next week all change and the two groups switch round.

Dd a bit disappointed as new school for her and she wanted to make some friends which she thinks won’t be as easy if they are being split like this and presumably no clubs running during this time either.

Guess we will find out more when she does enrolment next week.

@Rhubardandcustard

Has anyone heard about timetables yet?

Dd sixth form been in touch to say for the first few weeks at least they are going to split them into two groups for lessons and have half in one week and the other half participating via teams from home. The next week all change and the two groups switch round.

Dd a bit disappointed as new school for her and she wanted to make some friends which she thinks won’t be as easy if they are being split like this and presumably no clubs running during this time either.

Guess we will find out more when she does enrolment next week.

Ds officially enrols next week. But his college is named on EHCP so had transition tour the other week in place of their summer school transition.

They are doing blended learning. 2 days in college in no more than 18. Then 1 day online learning.

Ds will also get his learning support and so he's going to book a weekly regular 3 hour slot for one of the days he isn't in.

No canteen - it's click and collect! No clubs and it looks like the social skills groups and clubs he would have been attending aren't running either.

if you want any sort of career in science you need chemistry

This is partly what worries me about DS's dalliance with psychology, because chemistry will be first to be dropped, even though he has always said he enjoys it and has always done well. Feels like many more doors would be closing than opening iyswim.

He is talking about switching from likely combo of maths / physics / chem to maths / bio / psych. Dropping two subjects he got A* in for biology which has always been his weakest science and psychology that he knows nothing about

Maths/chemistry/psychology? Or maths/chemistry/biology? I ended up working in life sciences having taken physics/chemistry/maths, I've never really used the physics much but have found it reasonably easy to pick up biology on the job and through further study.

My son has lost his sixth form place due to a low mark in English. His school moderated all the CAGs as they didn’t want to be downgraded by the government. He has got lower than his mock exam grade. He is really upset, I have never seen him so withdrawn. He worked really hard. He will have to resit English in November. He has started his revision but I’m worried about how he will perform after such a long break from his studies.

He was most likely going to do the same combo as you @EasilyDelighted, which as far as I can see could lead to all manner of sciency degrees and careers. But now talking about swapping chemistry and physics for biology and psychology, which would close quite a few doors without opening many others. I think mostly because his friends are doing biology and psychology. One of his friends is quite a dominant personality and rules the roost - I wonder if he is "encouraging" DS to swap. They have always had a bit of a niggly competitive relationship, ever since primary school

That's really tough @User120673
Will he get some support with English when he goes back to school? (Has he got a place somewhere that he's happy with?) Hopefully he will ace the resit but it's hard to see them down through no fault of their own.

Singingstones haven’t been able to find him a place yet. Will speak to a few sixth forms on Monday. We were only told yesterday at 4pm that he had lost his sixth form place. It’s extra hard as his friend who goes to a different school got better results than him, but hadn’t done as well as him in the mocks. I believe whichever sixth form he goes to have to support him to do the resit.

@User120673 So sorry to hear that - does DS have an alternative sixth form lined up? Fingers crossed that he will fly through the resits.

I'm sorry @User120673 that's hard. Is he going to be able to start level 3 studies?

@singingstones I studied biology at undergrad (yr1/2) level with the OU a few years ago and found it pretty straightforward. I had not studied biology since I was 13 but have a degree in chemistry. It would have been much harder without the chemistry (A level would have sufficed) and also much harder to do the other way round. It's very hard when their friends influence them though.