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 all of the dc who got results today . It's been a really weird six months and to just get through it is amazing

Dd got far better results than the 5/6 we expected . Came out with 5 x 8, 3 x 7 and one 5 and 6 of each . Her school is historically poor performing and just out of 4 years of requires improvement so we were very worried that GAV scores would have been poor

We celebrated with champagne and chocolate brownies for breakfast

After yesterday's meltdown re sixth form she has re-assessed her choices and is going for A level accounting and computer science with a btec in business . Could take the Business in A level format but the coursework element of a btec may take some pressure off in summer 2022 given that it will be her first proper experience of formal exams .
As she has no clue career wise we hope this is a well rounded set of post 16 qualifications
Shopping with DS tomorrow for uni stuff . The two assigned textbooks and a stethoscope came to £200 this morning on amazon - this is for paramedic science (medicine is worse I'm told )

Hello new thread

DS is out in fairly nearby local field with friends. Most of them staying on to the 6th form at their school so not much change there. Except wearing whatever they want which may mean he takes a long time to decide what to wear in the morning...

The kids have all got the higher of the algorithm or the CAGS....

Hi there. Was here a few threads back, stressing about my inherited child. She was thrilled to get 5 sixes and four sevens, and it seems a fair reflection of her hard work. We are very pleased for her.

Just hoping that there isn’t too much Covid disruption of her time in sixth form...

@OrangeCinnamon1

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

Ds wanted to do T level. But it needed a 5 in English which we thought wasn't going to happen. So switched to BTEC level 3 of passed English (should have got 4's) and maybe level 2 if needed to retake English Lang but then college said any English was fine so we had hope again.

Then he got 5 in language!

Now decided not to revert back to T level. I said he could still look at other colleges and enrol and should widen ideas due to high science and maths (not unexpected but don't think ds really thought he was a good student iyswim?)

But he's sticking with BTEC level 3.

We have college down road, another in town a few miles away and school in that town has a 6th form which students from his school often apply to. But we are out of catchment for ds school so slightly further away! We aren't really a 6th form school county.

I think a really useful thing for students would be to make even more awareness of BTEC/T level/ a level equivalents.

I often find some older generations still view technical qualifications as the easier option for those who can't do a levels!

Ds wants an apprenticeship after college and has no interest in uni and so although he could do a levels in science and maths they aren't really relevant for him personally.

I absolutely agree that it's fantastic how much of a wide range of different courses there are available and even for those around here who don't manage to get the GCSEs needed for whatever reason there's an amazing number of foundation courses available and it isn't the end of the road - maybe just a different junction.

@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).

Nope. £50 each exam we were quoted recently bu local school.

I started a thread on secondary education on it.

1 person replied

Oh and this was before the cock up that is the algorithm

@Zebracat

Hi there. Was here a few threads back, stressing about my inherited child. She was thrilled to get 5 sixes and four sevens, and it seems a fair reflection of her hard work. We are very pleased for her. Just hoping that there isn’t too much Covid disruption of her time in sixth form...

So pleased to hear @Zebracat did she decide what A levels she wanted to do. Amazing achievement...her hard work catching up really paid off

On the maths A level - ds is not doing this (he got 8 in his gcse) - he's a good mathematician but not a natural. The advice I am getting on another thread is that Core Maths AS level is a great addition to 3 other A levels and a bit more accessible with more of a statistics and data crunching angle than straight Maths A level. So ds will be doing Biology, Chemistry, Psychology A levels plus Core Maths AS level (one year)

Well my parents have mellowed in their old age.

I gave them my nice general generic speech about how DS had done, stressing that the main thing was that his grades were good enough for what he wanted to do in sixth form. The response - "he's done very well; the whole situation has been extremely hard on his year group". And they then asked to speak to DS, said "congratulations" and actually sounded like they meant it. So feel a bit silly for my whole post the other day. Hopefully others who were anticipating difficult conversations have navigated them successfully as well!

That's heartening RedSky

Just catching up as I’ve been working this afternoon.

Yes Orange, Ds will be doing a Level 3 music Btec.

@RedskyAtnight

Well my parents have mellowed in their old age.

I gave them my nice general generic speech about how DS had done, stressing that the main thing was that his grades were good enough for what he wanted to do in sixth form. The response - "he's done very well; the whole situation has been extremely hard on his year group". And they then asked to speak to DS, said "congratulations" and actually sounded like they meant it. So feel a bit silly for my whole post the other day. Hopefully others who were anticipating difficult conversations have navigated them successfully as well!

Funnily enough, yes!

DS did better than we expected and I was waiting for the usual response but no, they were great! I felt bad for thinking badly of them

I think they've accepted that everything was out of DS's hands

My DSM opined you need many qualifications to understand qualifications these days!

ClarasZoo, except in the case of small cohorts, ie 1-15 candidates in a subject, who were given the CAG automatically, because the algorithm couldn’t be applied to so few people.

@RedskyAtnight
That’s odd as our letter definitely says the November exams would be free.
I’m glad the conversation with your parents went well! It’s very stressful trying protect our DC from others attitudes sometimes but must be even more stressful when it’s your parents!

@EasilyDelighted I’m glad you came back and really glad you’re happy with today’s results, I hope we don’t have to wait too long for the BTECs.

DS actually did receive his BTEC result in the envelope today but we know it’s not valid and may change

Thanks Orange for the new thread. I go out for a couple of hours and a new thread started- is that a record??? Have spent the last 40 minutes catching up on everyone's news from the last thread too and would like to give a to all the students, whatever their grades.

When I was a teacher I always knew the students who would get the top grade- you could put a cardboard cutout in front of them and they could still get an A! But the ones I feel really proud of are the students you feel you made a real difference too- no matter what grade it was- if it was good for them and exceeded their expectations. Equally I have been floored when students get an A who I never thought would or could and yet the following year my A* student dropped one or even two grades. It's always a surprise even when they sit the exams and this year is no different.

Lets keep on this journey together as I think its a really supportive place for all kinds of parents, with all kinds of issues- long may it continue! We may need that as who knows what COVID sixth form/ college will be like.

Off to drink a keg of wine- I deserve it after this week!

The algorithm was only completely unused for classes smaller than 5. I know this from bitter A Level experience!

@Alsoplayspiccolo @ClarasZoo

Also in the case of the school having no historical data (first set of GCSEs or first time teaching a particular subject) they were also awarded all CAGs without being put through the algorithm

I am posting my DS results 4 x 7 1 x6 5 x5 The marks reflect his ability and effort and the lack of support re his dyspraxia

I think these are good but a “friend” has offered me her commiserations 🥺

@Queenofthesilverdollar that is no friend - your ds has done brilliantly

How insensitive.

@Queenofthesilverdollar how silly, your ds has done brilliantly and should be very very proud! What is it with people...

@Queenofthesilverdollar

I am posting my DS results 4 x 7 1 x6 5 x5 The marks reflect his ability and effort and the lack of support re his dyspraxia

I think these are good but a “friend” has offered me her commiserations 🥺

She is not your friend. Does she realise those are As? I'm quite shocked tbh and would actually rip her one actually I would passively aggressively get my pals to do it but still

@Alsoplayspiccolo

ClarasZoo, except in the case of small cohorts, ie 1-15 candidates in a subject, who were given the CAG automatically, because the algorithm couldn’t be applied to so few people.

Ah yes that’s right...