GCSE Summer 2020 - Thread 11 Carry on Corona Cohort - Starting New Terms and Settings

[OrangeCinnamon1]

Welcome all to the 11th Thread for this year's GCSE cohort - The Corona Cohort!

This is a thread for supporting all young people post GCSEs regardless of the institute they attend 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 don't within this thread.

Similarly it should be recognised that the grades our children need/deserve/want will vary across the board. One same grade outcome can simultaneously cause Joy and Despair for different posters. Please be sensitive when responding to threads about grades.

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 any new threads should have 'GCSE Summer 2020 Thread # : Carry on Corona Cohort' in title just to make it easier to find. Not fussy about who starts those !

From now on our DS/DD may go down various paths such as employment, apprenticeships, higher ed, so we decided not to be exclusionary and stay right here in Secondary - at least until Mumsnet HQ chuck us out .

At this precise moment in time we have had GCSE results . It has been decided that the higher of Centre Assesd Grades and Calculated Grades will be awarded - the algorithim seems to have been applied a schol level to the detriment of some students. Lots of our young people have already started on the next stage of their journey with some still to start.

We are all STILL trying to protect our young people's mental health, which the government claimed was their priority...when they talk about wanting students back in schools/college in September...now we have their physical health to consider too as the mingling at various settings starts up again. Hopefully a positive experience this term!

First Thread

previous thread

Having been a bit meh about DS being 50% in school and 50% on Teams, I now think it could be very lucky. As various schools have to send bubbles into isolation, it means that for DS 2 weeks out of school would just mean an extra 5 days of teams and they will be used to working that way.

@Shimy thanks. Not sure if I said already. Ds is 5'3" and 6 stone. So he's tiny and skinny. He is almost 17. A few years ago his little brother (now 11) was almost the same height. People commented on the big age gap between ds1 and then ds2 and ds3. But only 2.5 years between the older 2. He doesn't have an eating disorder.. He's just always been small.

DD’s timetable still not sorted, no response from the school 😤

@icanbewhatiwant perfect physique for a jockey!

DD started yesterday - very nervous and a bit indignant on the phone last night as she didn't get all the extra curriculars she'd asked for. However after baking and sharing a trayful of chocolate brownies she seems to be getting on OK with her corridor mates (all year 12) and her house mistress so a good start. Also her form tutor is the coach for one of the extra curriculars that isn't running and has explained why so she is a bit happier tonight...

@Monkey2001 No, it’s just a regular state school.

What subject @BlueMarigold? Does not seem fair to expect you to spend hundreds of pounds on books.

We haven’t had t8 buy books. I asked asked at the start and they said everything they use is online. Is it worth seeing if there is is parent’s Facebook page? On the one for D’s old school people sell books, though mostly GCSE.

DS has got a laptop as didn’t have one and being away from home we felt he needed one. He also needed quite an expensive graphics calculator but that was through school so less than it could have been.

Had first computer science lesson as it was ok, there are a couple of others who hadn’t done it for GCSE is at least not the only one. Homework exists but isn’t heavy as yet.

Anyone know what sort of class sizes their dc are in? One of Ds subjects seems to be high for a 6th form class. Not sure if it’s because more pupils than usual wanted to do that subject or a temporary staffing issue...

Biology and Psychology. They are text books the school said the children must have. To be fair I could have looked harder and found some 2nd hand but she needed them ASAP so I ordered them from Amazon. I am hoping this is it for a while. At least there will be no school trips for a while.

Homework isn’t too bad as she can do it in her study periods. She had a small amount left to do last night but it wasn’t too bad.

As this is my first child, I have no idea what to expect regarding workload. I saw some of the DCs on here have jobs and was hoping my DD would get one too at some point. She wanted to settle back first to see how much free time she had.

@Decorhate

Anyone know what sort of class sizes their dc are in? One of Ds subjects seems to be high for a 6th form class. Not sure if it’s because more pupils than usual wanted to do that subject or a temporary staffing issue...

There are about 20 - 30 children in each subject class at DDs school.

@BlueMarigold Thanks. I’m used to it being under 20 with my older kids

@Decorhate what subjects is your DS doing? My Dd was told there would be lots of people dropping out as that’s what normally happens in sciences.

15 to 18 DS said yesterday.

Classes are also bigger this year because of CAGs. Students who might otherwise have bombed exams have been admitted to schools and sixth forms. Plus, years of cuts are beginning to bite in staffing...

DS1 told me 52 applied to do economics at his place . They only have staffing for one group so they had to select. There's still 28! He doesn't like it now though because I think he finds the class intimidating. Lots of uber confident boys.

@BlueMarigold @Piggywaspushed It’s the Economics class that is fuller than usual (when ds1 did his A Levels there were 18 in the class). But Ds2 did it for GCSE & got a good mark so hopefully it won’t impact on him too much. His other classes are below 20.

@Shimy My DS did politics - it was his 5th subject choice (had to start with 4, but dropped chemistry fairly early and swapped to politics instead) He later dropped physics and kept politics which ended up as his favourite subject. They did lots of debates)discussions, held a school wide mock election during last year's GE, and had visits from MPs, visited the HoP and Old Bailey, Supreme Court etc.

DS reckons his maths and physics groups are "about 20", his geography group is about 15 and there are 7 in his Computer Science AS group (not offered as an A Level due to not getting sufficient numbers).

There's 2 maths and geography groups but only 1 physics group.

All their text books are online.

His (school) sixth form has a record intake this year but I don't think it's CAG related as they always had low entry requirements. I suspect it's due to reduced other options.

The school I work at has a very small 6th form. Last year there were less pupils in the whole of Y13 than in Ds’ Economics class this year!

Dd said there were about 10 in her RS class and maybe 20 in Psychology. On the induction day , she said most people seemed to be doing Maths/Sciences so I'm guessing those groups are bigger? She hasn't had History yet.

DD has between 7-9 in her classes. Selective Indy, with about 180 in Y12. More than one class for geog, psychology and I think biology, only one for comp science.

So DS had his first proper day yesterday which he enjoyed. He was glad he did the bridging work even though it wasn't compulsory as his Biology teacher started asking them lots of questions about it. He says his class sizes are from about 12-15 people so quit a nice size. I was getting a little bit worried as they have 200 pupils in Yr 12 and I was concerned we'd have the usual 30 kids per class.

@Seekine That’s the kind of thing I was hoping they’d be doing, it makes it more interesting than just learning facts. Hopefully they will something like that although with the the pandemic it may continue to be dry.

@icanbewhatiwant DS is only a little taller at 5ft 5. I found it really difficult being short as a teenager (5ft 1 and half!), low level bullying although the teachers there nipped that in the bud quite quickly, coupled with a very young face doesn’t help at all but it must be even harder being male as the stereotype being 6ft tall, broad shoulders and square jaw and many teenagers these days are actually huge.
Out of curiosity, has your DS been on any long term medication? I’m just wondering because DS has and it affects appetite.

DS says that there are around 30 people in his maths and physics class a lot less in the other non science lessons. I was surprised but they have tests at half term and I think some people drop a subject then, a lot of them start out with 4.

@Seeline Previous post was to you but made a type ‘Seekine’.