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

Congratulations to your dd @OrionAdternog and have a lovely weekend in Edinburgh: gorgeous city!

@bigchris: ds is planning maths and got a 9 (his mock was one mark off a 9, so probably fair) - his school requires a 7 (& recommends an 8) and expects a 9 for further maths (& interestingly, his teachers definitely felt to me like they were trying to put ds off further maths when he was considering it). He is a very able mathematician (I think: it's all Greek to me...) but not 'stellar' in his maths/sciences-focused peer group.

@bigchris

Hi

Can I ask those parents with children going onto do maths a level what grade they Got?

Ds was lucky enough to go into school to collect his, happy with the results but like many exhausted by the stress of it all and worrying to think he's first formal exams will now be A levels !

8 in Maths and 6 in Further Maths - although that was a weird one as he didn't really do anything towards the FM one. He'd just done a test paper to how he'd get on in the real thing then we went into lockdown so he didn't even get the result. We just assumed that would be it.

Oh thanks this is all very helpful

Wish we still did letters here tbh

Where I am, you only need a 6 to do A level maths, but they really struggle with it. My daughter got a 7, and she did briefly consider doing A level, but I talked her out of it, as I've seen so many students go from B at GCSE to E at A level. I think you have to really love it and prepared to work at it. One of DDs friends got an 8 in maths and she's really struggled with the step up at A level.

Hi everyone, just catching up and found that you’d filled the previous thread with the news, good and not so good. Hoping that everyone is able to move onto the next stage, whatever that might be.

DD is delighted with a slew of 7’s and 8’s, plus an unexpected 9 and a
fabulous 6 in maths (after working really hard after a 4 in the mocks).

She was on the phone to her grandparents, translating the numbers into letters for them:”Yes grandma that is a B for Maths and everything else is an A, A or A*.” It suddenly dawned on her that she was (almost) a straight A student and the look on her face was priceless

My DC got an 8. Was told by school not to do maths because it didn't come naturally. DC could learn the gcse maths syllabus and answer the questions accurately but had no flair. The step up is big.

My nephew's reaction on the phone today after the disappointment with 6s across the board x5s and one 7 would you say it's worth doing Alevels with these results . The 6 marks include maths , science as subjects. He'd like to go into economics

How has everyone got on with sharing the news with their tricky parents or in laws?

Just reading through the end of the last thread, I’m exhausted too, had family round for afternoon tea today to celebrate and what with no sleep last night, I’ve just had enough now. Dd has gone to a friends bbq and I’ve taken to my bed

I'm laying on sofa in PJs under a blanket

Ds is gaming online with a new game he got with his birthday money. It's clearly hilarious if the sounds coming from his direction are anything to go by

Thanks Orange, great job of keeping the threads going despite how fast moving they are.

I have lost track at this point for today. Really sorry to hear about those who has some issues, hope they are now sorted or on the way to being so.

So tired and we have to travel to enrol tomorrow so hoping to sleep tonight. So lovely to see DS come alive again with enthusiasm for the next stage having hated the past few years at current school.

Well done Orion!

Gosh yes @foolsassassin hope you got all the bits you needed!

There are a couple going on to board on these threads looking forward to hearing about the experiences.

EasilyDelighted I'm so glad to see you back. My heart went out to you and I was sad when You said you want to bail out. We are all so nice on this thread, we are here to support you. Always.

So glad it was good.

Seems like lots of parents at Ds’ school thing it was only the CAGs used today and not the higher of either the CAGs or the grade calculated by the algorithm. Not helping that apparently some teachers have told them this. Of course it was a very last minute change so perhaps not everyone was aware.

I turn my back for a few hours and we end up on a new thread! Thank you @OrangeCinnamon1 for setting it up and for the great intro.

I’m glad to see so much happy news today but feeling sad for those with disappointed DC. It does sound as if some schools are very much less than supportive, which is really unhelpful - especially after this year.

DD has signed on the dotted line for sixth form and collapsed in a heap - I’m exhausted too (or maybe just sleepy from lunchtime Prosecco?) - either way, I won’t be staying up late tonight!

All Dd friends going different places on different courses..fascinating really. Some have opted for new T-Levels, specialist music colleges, BTecs, subsidiaries they all seem to be quite sure and independent of thought regarding where they want to go and how. DD thinks she sounds boring by doing A-levels ...my friends in next county aghast she is not staying on to sixth form there isn't one attached to the school

décor I had to correct four teachers on this today!

@Piggywaspushed In fairness I probably only knew because of posts on here & stuff on Twitter! I don’t know if schools got around to telling staff what had been issued - it was late on Tuesday I think that it was confirmed it would be the higher of the two grades.

Just to clear up one thing - in his exam pack, DC's school included a sheet about taking the autumn exams. They strongly discourage from people doing this due to so much time away from their subject and stress school will be unable to offer them any/much support but I guess they have to offer it as an option. On the form is a list of exam costs. I thought the autumn exams were free?

(DS is not interested in autumn exams, so this is just for my own personal curiousity).

I'm going to pour myself a glass of wine now.
I think I deserve it!

cheers @Oblomov20

I think we all deserve a (large!) glass or two!

@OrionAdternog that’s amazing! What a relief after such a struggle. She can draw a line under GCSEs now and move on to the next stage.

@Sarahbeans DS1 got an 8 in GCSE Maths and felt he was in a strong position to do it for A’levels. By November of he was struggling and this continued throughout. He managed to scrape a C in the end.

We were chatting in the car earlier about DD’s 6.
It’s in Latin and it struck me that it’s the only subject that had a small cohort, so CAGs would have been used and not the algorithm at all; historically, Latin at DDs school always gets a clean sweep of As/A*, so had the algorithm been applied, I think DD would have got a 7 by default! 😅
It made me laugh and feel better at the same time.

@RedskyAtnight

Just to clear up one thing - in his exam pack, DC's school included a sheet about taking the autumn exams. They strongly discourage from people doing this due to so much time away from their subject and stress school will be unable to offer them any/much support but I guess they have to offer it as an option. On the form is a list of exam costs. I thought the autumn exams were free?

(DS is not interested in autumn exams, so this is just for my own personal curiousity).

They said it was free before the whole algorithm, was overturned. Now what the conditions for retaking are is unclear.