Thread 14? Corona Cohort Yr 12 2021 - 'Vaccinations and Eliminations'

[orangecinnamon]

Just place marking for the New Thread!

[quote Piggywaspushed]Interesting article I just stumbled across:

thetab.com/uk/durham/2018/11/02/meet-the-93-club-the-student-group-aiming-to-level-the-playing-field-for-state-school-kids-at-durham-42767?fbclid=IwAR2-rXgebeaBkXmNH5mabcijrJpQloTCr08rme59aH_RgnN6chTyq9OvVig[/quote]
I saw this on another thread @Piggywaspushed. It really struck a chord with me. I went to (what is now) one of the best state schools in Surrey. There was v little advice.
My Dd boyfriend is of the opinion all Universities are the same and it doesn't matter where you go (true in parts I suppose ). My sister was worried about the extra 'cost' if one of her boys took the Oxbridge route and also was under the impression that Oxbridge and Durham were the only good universities in the UK. There is so much disinformation out there.

That’s interesting article on Durham. I must admit to having in my head it may not be great for those who are quiet and struggle a bit socially and combined with distance does make me wonder about it for DS but am aware that is probably far from the truth and not helped by no idea if it will be possible to look around.

DS does seem to be heading towards maths. Think he is waiting till next set of results which shouldn’t be too long then review. I’m being drafted in to talk to friend’s DS who is refusing to engage with the concept of life after school and says they don’t know anything as didn’t go to universIty, wish me luck !

For those with diabetic loved ones, our local acute NHS trust is booking appointments there for those who are under consultant care for whatever chronic condition. I guess they must have some capacity. It's not relevant to us as a household but I was advised to inform colleagues waiting to be contacted it's an option to phone there.

Two of mine go to a school that have been fully masked up since the beginning of the autumn term. School with mainly boarders. There's been no Covid spread at all as far as we know ( odd cases amongst staff & returnees). Everyone was tested two weeks before real lessons + ( other than online) started. Interactions within the school have been strictly limited though and boarders seem to have been prioritised over the day pupils however. Must importantly no schooling has been lost through quarantining & isolation so far.
Dd would say this has come as a total negative for normal social interaction however.

@Frequentflier diabetics are in group 6. Some in that group have been started on round here. Dh is older than me he's in group 7. But as he's had pneumonia 3 times I'd like to hope he will be in group 6 as it's the biggest group and will take a while. I'm not happy at them returning to school if dh isn't vaccinated. But I won't stop them. Also they went in December when cases were higher.

@Oblomov21 I booked ds's theory for mid April. Not sure if it'll go ahead. I moved it from feb half term. He's not doing any revision for it incase it doesn't go ahead. It's looking like it probably won't be. But I won't move it again until we know.

Thanks icanbe

Not being able to visit makes it harder for DC to know how a place feels. "Top" universities are more state/private balanced than they were when we went, I think that at some the accommodation choice is important if your DC might be intimidated by a high proportion of private school students. Most universities are so big now that there will be thousands of state school pupils even if they are only 50% of the intake. The exception is music college - the ratios there are a sad reflection on the de-prioritisation of music in state schools.

It is also true that there is a huge spectrum of private and state, some state schools have very similar students to some independent schools. Imposter syndrome can be felt by somebody from a very low achieving school when mixing with kids from very good state schools just as easily.

I think the 'snobbery' about unis is far worse now than it was when I went. There was Oxbridge/ Oxbridge rejects at some unis and then plain unis. League tables, advent of Russell Group, fees and other factors really seem to have made the whole thing more polarised in discussion. This may be because I grew up in Scotland and so many people just went to nearest Scottish uni for what they wanted to do and had the confidence in them to do a good job. It may also be Mumsnet, of course! It always seems a very anxious place about prestige!!

I have occupied myself today working out how long it takes to get to various unis from home by train. Pretty much rules out anywhere South and West of London as they are an enormous faff. Easier to get to Glasgow than Southampton despite one being a couple of hundred miles closer!

I too am struggling with that Durham article. The 93%? It's shocking that such a club even needs to exist in this day and age.

Many state schools are excellent. Ds's is one of the top in the country and sends a lot of children to Oxford and Cambridge and all the top unis. Help is given to all who want to achieve, with writing of statements, getting work experience ..... that article made it sound it like no state school offers that.

I had to study for a short time from Bristol, for a short period to use the library services of: Bath, Oxford and Cambridge.

I don't have an inferiority complex at all. But a lot of the "0hhh Tarquin, jolly hockey sticks old bean" that I encountered I don't want Ds1 to have to deal with.

He's currently looking at Southampton. And London, but I'd prefer if he didn't because it's too close.
I'm not sure I'd want him to go to Warwick or Durham. With their attitudes as per those articles.

Having not been to university I did wonder whether there would be any snobbery from the privately educated.

When I was about 14 and horse mad I used to help with riding lessons at a very small riding stables. There were a few families with lots of money (nothing wrong with lots of money) but they used to really talk down to me. I hated it. One family had 2 daughters and a son, they dc's were ever so sweet. But I could feel the parents almost not wanting them to speak to a stable hand. When they'd finished riding they were called away quickly. One little boy was 5 and about to be packed off to "Prince Charles's boarding school" he really didn't want to go. Poor child. That experience put me off very rich, privately educated people. I remember thinking at the time...if that's what money does to you, I'd rather be poor! But I've met many in my adult life that have been really nice, nothing like the few families I met back then.

I think maybe the doing away with polys has made it worse possibly as more universities to chose from, combined with greater numbers going and paying fees maybe?

My school was a grammar school and we spent a lot of time with groups of people from some of the private schools down the road - there were a fair few as the state secondary choices weren’t great overall .

There was a real mix of where everyone went after leaving. Only 1 person I knew of from my school went to Oxford, though I guess others may have. It was vaguely a thing that those who didn’t do Oxbridge went to Bristol, Durham or Exeter but that was as far as it went really, no one talked about rankings though there was an awareness of it underlying.

Dd1 at Bristol found the public school crowd intimidating initially in spite of coming from a Gdst school. Due to the certain way of behaving, not so much the snobbery. There's a very high % of privately educated students in Bristol. Its also very London & southern centric by & large. We live in a pretty rural midlands county that no other student had ever heard of according to her.
Some of her Northern friends found it very difficult to fit in the first year and it took them a while to find their tribe.

Friend's DD also struggled with Bristol, again the behaviour of those she was with. Still not settled in year 4 and is home as much as possible .

@Seeline DS1 is at uni although he was nocturnal BEFORE he went to uni so I can't really blame that. Hope your ds is getting more of a daytime routine now he is back at uni. even if it's just talking to friends in the daytime.

I haven't read the Durham article but in my day there was no RG group, people just went to uni. I'm sure everyone knew which ones were the top ones then, but they were glaringly obvously better i.e the golden five. You couldn't really tell the difference between UEA and Swansea or Essex and Keele in terms of prestige or reputation with employers? i could be wrong as I arrived in the U.K just in time to go to uni so wasn't familiar with most of them. Feel free to correct.
Now you can spend ages nitpicking between overall ranking, subject ranking, modules, facilities etc etc.
You can't really blame students & parents though when you see in black and white the employment rate for Oxbridge or the name RG being touted about on MN and some sectors seem really biased. I had a look on LinkedIN months ago to see where his desired sector recruits from (as advised on MN), apart from Oxbridge, a smattering came from UCL, Manchester & Birmingham no other university was mentioned. It was the same Uni bunch that appeared under each employer I searched for. That's quite disheartening to see especially if your dc is not headed in that direction.
At my Uni, only the army came to do a 'milk round' and you had to be min 5ft 8?? something like that. I'm a grand total of 5ft 1 so no chance . I spent time admiring the young very fit & muscular army officer, he brightened what was a dull day.

The thing that amuses me with a certain core of terrifying MN HE lurkers is their sneering at unis that by anyone's standards are top drawer (York is a particular target of this for some unfathomable reason). They really do have a very small little core of acceptable places.

MN has actually put me off Bristol, and I am sure it is a great place to study and live - mainly because if their DCs are like them, it doesn't sound anything other than snooty, entitled and elitist. Sorry , not very considered post!

As a Bristol graduate with several friends who teach in the University, we really aren't like that! We have our share of entitled idiots, particularly in some subjects, but lots of lovely ones too!

I am sure this is true monkey. Bristol should take out a gagging clause on some MNers!

Don't be put off @piggy, dd absolutely loves Bristol now. Its a fantastic place to be a student. She loves it so much she doesn't come home much now 😢

York is a great university and I’ll be chuffed to bits if DS2 went there, The problem with MN is the goal post is constantly moving. This is something you need to be aware of to retain your sanity.

First it is Oxbridge.
If not, RG. Only RG gets any respect.
Now, you’re with the RG crew! tralalala!
But which one? Top 10?
If it’s not the top 10 ( and York isn’t in the top 10) looking at you Piggy
Then you’re in the wrong part of the RG, the bottom set of RG to be clear.
If the bottom completely falls out, you’re now with the great unwashed.

It’s easy to get into long lengthy debates/squabbles about the minute differences between BRistol &York or dare I say BRistol & Cardiff etc but remember any university that is even in the haloed group is still one of the best the country has to offer not to mention several non RGs (and I’m not talking Loughborough, Bath etc, I’m thinking about Nottingham Trent, Oxford Brooke’s, Hull and many more). They all serve their purposes well.

Whilst I recognise that some universities are better than others. Life doesn’t begin and end in an RG university. There are many ways to skin a cat and many different routes to success.

I love Bristol University personally, it's my hometown , I worked at the University and have many many friends who have worked and studied there. I just think it isn't a good fit for some, just as mine wouldn't be for others.

I think we can all agree that it is tricky if our DC can't attend open days to get a feel for a place. DS1 was very surprised to like the look of medicine at Leiester MUCH better than Edinburgh, but without visits it is so difficult to choose. On the other hand, it is possible to attend on line without trekking round the country, which makes it easier for people who can't spend lots of money on trains and hotels.

I am still feeling as almost relieved that DS only had 3 options for medicine without the right A levels!

Monkey Certainly, nothing beats actually visiting. The virtual experience is the next best thing. Perhaps going forward, i’d Like a scenario where we can do both, so visit some and do some virtually. That will at least half the cost of traipsing around.

I don't think we will look at Bristol anyway as the West Country is extremely hard to get to from north of London. Of the unis that way, Bristol, Bath and Exeter do excellent looking degrees in social sciences but have slightly higher entrance requirements.

Oddly, Durham is relatively low in the league table for sociology : but, obviously, you'd still have a Durham degree!

Never sure how much attention to pay to subject league tables. They would place eg York and Birmingham considerably higher than Bristol or Edinburgh (also beloved) for big subjects such as English and history.

Will have to see how DS feels in a year, I guess! Distance, reputation, course, entry requirements : it's a heady mix!

Different DC like to look in different ways. For medicine DS1 had to narrow down quite early as different med schools want you to do different things to strengthen your application. DS2 was up for looking at prospectuses and on line open days when he was trying to work out what he wanted to study. For all courses, if they can find something aspirational which excites them, having a goal in sight may help them to focus and work a bit harder, particularly in these uncertain times. I am glad we have spent a bit of time looking over the last few months.