Corona Cohort Y12 into Y13, braving the storm of the third wave

[Monkey2001]

Supportive thread for parents of Y12 students going into Y13.

Previous thread - www.mumsnet.com/Talk/secondary/4240252-Thread-16-Corona-Cohort-Year-12-2021-Zooming-through-Summer-Term

@Oblomov21

Ds2 (13) barely reads at all. Drives me wild.

Ds1 is a prolific reader and still is. He is currently reading a book on Napoleon written by my closest friends dad. He is also reading a book on maximus, so I recommended the film gladiator too.

He takes down notes of all good words and tries to get them into his sociology and psychology essays.

Nooo- 300, surely?

Proggy, I'll recommend 300 then!

@KingscoteStaff well done on the test pass. Before covid I assumed Ds who is November born would be driving by Easter. They are all so far behind.

@PaddingtonPaddington and @crazycrofter a friend told me her daughter hadn't received her licence so she phoned up and was told they were on strike so not to expect the licence yet. But looking online it seems it was just 4 days. That doesn't seem that it would cause much delay.

Well done to @KingscoteStaff’s DD!

Well done to piggy’s DS on his results too.

DS1(20) was in contact with someone who tested positive at the weekend so is LF testing daily. All negative so far but we’re giving him a wide berth (he doesn’t live here).

I am also wary of the oxbridge thread. DS is considering Cambridge but is no longer sure. That thread was frankly scary, some of the posters seemed to treat it as a long term business project seemed a bit obsessive in places.

@AnneOfCleavage Ds has 2 weeks of exams and only has to go in for exams too.

@Piggywaspushed well done to your Ds. I thought I put on above post...but it's not there.

@Piggywaspushed the HSPS course looks great. I applied for it and got rejected. DH applied for geography at Oxford and got rejected. Who knows where DS1 got his brains from 😂

@Oblomov21

Proggy, I'll recommend 300 then!

I’m being naughty as DD does Latin and Greek but is firmly in the Greek camp 😂 Both worth watching!

Glad others are considering Southampton @Oblomov21 and @Wheresthebeach. For some reason, it's not a popular destination for students from Birmingham, I've no idea why, as it's fairly easy to get to. Dd was initially dubious as she'd 'never heard of it' but it's the best ranked uni offering Occupational Therapy and she did actually find a boy at school who's also considering going there! And she liked the uni and the place. Apparently, as we were looking round the city centre (well, I traipsed with dh to Warhammer, whilst the girls went to Primark), dd and her friend noticed that the people of Southampton look very 'stylish'!! This is apparently an important criteria for choosing a university!

Well done to @Piggywaspushed ds on the History result! That's amazing; dd finds History the hardest of her subjects.

Thanks for the heads up about the strike @icanbewhatiwant. I keep meaning to ring up and chase, but as dd isn't nagging me I forget!

crazy,we'll see how he does when he gets to the Tudors stuff. He really likes the modern social history stuff.

The Southampton history BA looks really good.

@Orangecinnamon21 DD has done the online RWCMD open day and they also had a talk at her county youth orchestra from one of the tutors and she really liked what they had to say. We hope to go to Cardiff in the summer for a look round. She’s started on the audition pieces and hope they don’t change the audition requirements from last years (website is saying they will be published shortly).

@icanbewhatiwant thanks for the info on the driving licence. I think they have an online chat function so will give that a go tomorrow as the tracking is saying they haven’t received the form back yet.

@Piggywaspushed great results for your DS.

That's as good a criteria as any @Crazycrofter!
Congratulations to @Piggys ds. and well done on passing the driving test Kingscoats dd.
Everyone else seems to be doing brilliantly in their exams too.
Ds. had his exams right after Easter, so they're long gone and dd. Won't get her results until August. She hasn't been given any marks, let alone grades for any of her numerous assessments. Nearly all other schools seem to have told the students their marks already.

That's great @PaddingtonPaddington. It seems to be a city with so many accessible opportunities. We really liked Bute Park etc and Dd absolutely fell in love with the Bay area.

This thread is moving fast! Congratulations to those with good results. DS came top of his class in Economics with 80% . Predictions out on Friday.

@PaddingtonPaddington ours was status "waiting for form" for about 6 weeks, then changed to despatched and arrived next day. I don't think chasing will make a difference as I think there is a massive pile of post waiting to be scanned and once it gets on their system it very quickly gets issued.

There are a few people who pop up on the Oxbridge thread every year who are quite frustrating! Cambridge website is brilliant for information, the stats page is great, although it will show you that for some courses there were 20% more applicants and 20% fewer offers this year, probably due to grade inflation last year. Some Oxford stats are published by depts, so vary in level of detail. There is also lots of data on whatdotheyknow.com, a great resource!

Shimy Fabulous result there!

Thanks Eww, I feeling a bit like an imposter because DS1 had quite the opposite results when he did his. Didn’t study, games the whole way through, and so on the thread for his Yr when lots were posting fab results it was a complete head in hands throughout. I remember discussing alternatives, BTecs etc and we dared not even look at the Unis ds2 is considering. But not just that, DS2 has SEN and has always struggled but he is a fighter! so I can hardly believe the results he’s getting.

Got a DC in 6th form then you belong here whatever the results.

That fighting spirit is clearly going to serve him well!

DS was doing some Geography in the living room when he suddenly said that once he’s done these exams he’s going to put some time in on recording some music (music is really his big thing but doesn’t do A Level as they don’t do it at his school).

Then he said if he had a gap year after A Levels he could give recording and performing a proper go and then go to university after that. And he had more enthusiasm for that than thinking about Geography degrees.

Was a sudden thing but I think it could well make sense. I did say he’d need to get a part time job as well (although maybe he could make it big….)

@MirandaWest I know someone that did an extra college course in music production in their gap year. I think it was free!

Congrats to @Piggywaspushed and @KingscoteStaff @Shimy juniors! Great results! Both ds and I have been put off oxbridge and the mn thread is certainly terrifying - I lurked for a bit and it cemented the idea that maybe it’s not the place for ds ( he likes to feel safe; unlike ds who really enjoys being challenged and thrives on competition). Off to have a look at Southampton based on all the love here ;-) Not sure when we’ll get results and predictions - chomping at the bit although exams only finished on thurs for ds!

I am assuming Oxford and Cambridge are wonderful places to study for many when they get there. The college system has a lot going for it.

It's the intensity beforehand and the savage competition. Plus the idea that there is a complacency there : by far the most dull sounding online prospectuses, course descriptions and modules come from those unis.

Great result @Shimy! DS still thinking of applying for Cambridge but I’m not sure on so many levels. Up to him though. He did Warwick Open Day various elements last weekend and really likes the look of their ancient history/archaeology and also still fancies Lancaster. He wants somewhere with lots of sport

Exeter?

Durham?

DS1 fell in love with Cambridge when he was about 11 and we went punting. He really wanted to go, but did not get in despite great academic and admissions test results. However, he loves St Andrews, and it really feels like Cambridge light with bonus beaches - beautiful old buildings, a lot of very clever people around you and he has a choral scholarship. He was concerned that it would feel too posh, but he has made a great variety of friends, English, Scottish, International, rich, poor, it has worked very well for him, to the extent that it can in Covid times.

I think somebody mentioned that the first year uni mumsnet thread is dominated by very happy Lancaster parents. They seem to have Manfred a very good social life despite convos restrictions.

Loughborough is excellent for sports and Exeter was a very good choice for the very sporty DS of a friend.