Thread 15 - Corona Cohort Year 12, 2021 Lateral Flow & Driving Tests

[orangecinnamon]

Placeholder for new thread

I hadn’t thought about the year 13s having to double up with last years candidates, how stressful for everyone. I suppose we could get a knock on for our lot next year too.

@Piggywaspushed

Oh, the BF thing. I mentioned this on another thread...

I went to uni with people who were with their BFs (and in one case husband and wife aged 20!). I thought it was oppressive - only the husband and wife lasted the course , relationship wise. I also had two friends drop out to go back home because they missed BFs/GFs.. Also four sets of identical twins...

I split up with my BF / love of my life about two weeks after going to uni. Don't maybe tell your DD that!

Bristol claim they are very transparent about contextual offers,and it is easier to find out if your schol makes their lists but their system varies from course to course and is vvvv convoluted!

I have always assumed you are meant to apply assuming you can get their AAB and await their contextual generosity but that doesn't make huge sense if it is about widening participation by encouraging those who have a history of lower performance because of schooling or circumstances.

Yes ...this is exactly what I thought about Bristol it doesn't make sense from a WP view.

The oppressiveness of relationships is what am worried about!

I think you only need the contextual predictions of you qualify as contextual. The Bristol list of "aspiring schools" is enormous, but not quite as big as the Birmingham list which seems to have every non selective state school in the country on it. If you want to confirm that you can apply to Bristol with contextual grades ask them, they are trying hard to dilute their very high percentage of independent school intake.

I think that list is only for Medicine @Monkey2001. I'll have a word with Dd about Bristol!

How do I know if Dds school is aspiring/ non aspiring enough? The last ‘true’ data shows C+ as the average A Level result grades and we are in a nice leafy area.

www.bristol.ac.uk/media-library/sites/study/documents/aspiring-schools-2021.pdf

Imperial and Bath been very slow this year too for Maths and Computer Science. I think there as Monkey said they are treating the offers as unconditional to some extent and being really cautious and plus knock on from last year.

Looking at that link, Fools, I see a school on their that my nephew goes to that is on par with the school near me except that my nephew's school would definitely be considered higher on the socioeconomic scale. Both are normal state schools with similar results yet one is on the list and one not. I wonder what the criteria is?

No idea but with the exception of the Grammars across the county border all of our local schools are on it , including the school DS was at for GCSE. I thought it was the bottom 40%.

Hmm very odd indeed then, we have three very similar schools which, on rotation seem to go up and down with their results, the one near me is doing well at the moment but I guarantee in a year or two it will drop and one of the others will peak again. None of our grammars are on their but I saw a few schools as I scrolled through which were grammars - maybe in name only?

*there

I've just checked again and that third school I mentioned is on the list too. I guess the one here is doing better than I thought.

Fools thanks for the list. Interesting but some surprise localish omissions.

So DS has just done his first full theory test on the app, a week before the real thing He got 38, which shows that the pass mark is attainable if he puts some effort in over the next week!! Fingers crossed!

I think the only motivator is the thought of failing when his less academic older brother passed his theory first time. DS1 wouldn't let him forget it if he does fail... Sibling rivalry has a small plus point at least

DS's school has two sites : the main school with a different name and the sixth from site (same school ) 3 miles away. Different name. Sixth form bit is contextual and GCSE bit isn't !!

The very most poshest school (state anyway) in our LA, however, is there.

The list is bonkers tbh!

Interesting re contextual offers, I must look into that. DS attends a state school but in an affluent non-grammar area, his school has previously made it into Tatler's top ten state schools list but it appears on Bristol's list! A drop of two grades for one subject would be an amazing safety net!

Sadly we don't meet the criteria for Durham, a state school yes but our postcode is not eligible. Must investigate further...

I was typing and hadn't seen your replies Piggy but it's rather odd isn't it??

Yes, the schol that is definitely posh does not make it on to any other uni's contextual list (and quite rightly). I mean there are a few council houses in tis catchment. Like maybe 5.

My schol is pretty affluent but has the 5th most deprived postcode in the county in it (no one from there goes to sixth form/uni) and they get no leg up at all anywhere. It can be a blunt instrument, for sure.

@orangecinnamon did you mean the Birmingham list was only for medicine? I had not realised that before, but they are pretty generous with the lower grade offers anyway.

[quote Monkey2001]@orangecinnamon did you mean the Birmingham list was only for medicine? I had not realised that before, but they are pretty generous with the lower grade offers anyway.[/quote]
Yes ...you just reminded me about their generous lower offers and that my nephew may be going there September fingers crossed. It seems so vibrant and well supported for music activities for Dd.

The Bristol contextual list of schools raises a lot of questions-thanks for the link Fools
I can’t see any schools that I thought would be flagged from my region on the list which raises the question is it because they haven’t subscribed to the list or is it that not many students from those schools apply to Bristol?

The school I referred to upthread is actually on there twice!

All bar one of the colleges within a 15 mile or so radius of me is on that Bristol list (very few state 6th forms in my county) and this is an affluent area.

@20newnames ds has his theory tomorrow. I don't know how he will get on. He's done the 4 in 1 app. It says all the questions that will be in the test are on the app. But he's not done anything on stopping distances.
I'm sure they will be in the test. I hope the app is good enough. He has a Highway Code but not looked at it.

Hi gang: sorry I've been a bit quiet: new job and my brain has been exploding! All good here: ds has been doing a spring pod over Easter and has made good progress on writing up with EPQ: he's got really excited about it too which is lovely to see :-) He's got his first driving lesson in a couple of weeks: we've done a very little bit with him (well, dh has, I don't think I'd be the best tbh, dh is much calmer!) but not much: he's definitely not going to be someone who nails it all in a few weeks I suspect, unfortunately ;-)

We've really not engaged properly with unis yet: ds did a bit of initial digging, then he started wobbling about which course to do so things have drifted a bit...need to get him back in gear...