GCSE Support - nervously waiting

[Hellocatshome]

Hopefully everyone from GCSE Support The Final Frontier can find this new thread!

My Mum said she can't even remember any of it!

I have the child benefit letter on my desk ready to do, just need to know where ds is going first before i can fill it in.

I have the letter and will do it online but I want to wait until DD is properly enrolled.
She made her decision where to go but life can suck. So Friday evening is update time.

Has everyone done their child benefit update to confirm their child is staying in education? I was chased up for mine weeks ago as it links to child maintenance.

Did it for DS as he'll be doing something at college.

I had letter pined on board waiting for DD1 - doing A-levels - just in case as worse case for her was re-doing another year at college but she got in course she wanted so is off to university.

You do have till end of August to tell them what they are doing but then you only have a month to pick up any mistakes - ie if the stop it when they shouldn't for post 16 year olds.

Dd here still panicking over chemistry. No sixth forms in school here so she needs to travel. Horrified my SIL by telling her we need to pay £400 year for a bus pass for one or £75 a months for the other. It's apparently free in Scotland. Any yes one is our nearest 6thbform provider. The more costly is a back up if things go very wrong. Apparently she will stay wothn1st choice and swap to psychology if chem.is a no go.

Yes I'm also gulping at bus fees. Cost of rural living and only myself to blame for that one!

And even harder to swallow if it's not something he's keen to do.

My son said that his head of year 11 told pupils that they have to open the envelope in the school hall and will not be allowed to collect the envelope and leave the premises with it unopened. My son is not sure what he wants to do on Thursday, open it onsite or wait until he is in the car. I’m assuming this is a daft school policy, surely pupils can do as they please? Has anyone else heard of this rule for their school?

Blimey. Am checking school emails now!

The school has no power to enforce this rule. If he doesnt want to open it there tell him to just leave without opening it and if they challenge him tell him to tell them to call you. They will be doing it so they can support pupils dependent on the results but if your DS would prefer not to then he doesnt have to.

Glad to hear that. Nothing so officious in our school emails...

@DolphinSE gosh that seems a bit harsh! Maybe he can pretend to open it and then leave if he doesn’t want to look at the results in the school hall.
Many centuries ago when the dinosaurs roamed the earth and I picked up my results we picked up our results in the brown envelope and made a dash for the exit. Me and my best friend waited until we got back to my house and opened them together.

@Iheartbobross dd wants to be a mechanic. She dropped her cv in at all the local dealerships and two of them got back to her. She had no idea if anyone was advertising or not.

Thank you @Hellocatshome and @Middersweekly . I did say to my son that perhaps the school prefer pupils to open onsite so that they can offer advice there and then to pupils that did not get their expected grades. Deep down, I know that surely it can’t be official policy but it’s going to be such a funny week, I thought I had best check on MN.

I’ll advise my son to do what is comfortable for him on the day and the school can deal with me if he wishes to leave.
Good luck everyone for Thursday!

No sixth forms in school here so she needs to travel. Horrified my SIL by telling her we need to pay £400 year for a bus pass for one or £75 a months for the other. It's apparently free in Scotland.

We're in a city but A-level college site is a town over - and it's close to £60 a month with student discounts.

He couldn't stay at secondary school given the bad blood with leadership team - his teachers thought him great at least that what the said and wrote - hoping it doesn't spill onto youngest we still have there.

Also all his subject he'd have been traveling to other sites for lessons for all of them - if he'd change to another school the bus fare would have been nearly as much - DD1 GF found that out when she did that as only one subject would have been at the school site she had to buy a £300 bus pass to cross the city and with DS it would have been two buses.

We'd rather pay and him deal with one location, one institution and have chance of having same group of students round him. It's more a worry they are cutting so many bus routes - 1/3 across wales under risk apparently and reducing timetables and our city is particularly badly hit.

Yes I saw that they were looking to cut rural bus routes on the news a few weeks back. It’s ludicrous! DD3 will be attending sixth-form in the UK and it’s a rural-ish location so the bus pass will cost circa £400-500 a year, possibly more. I will definitely be asking the Head of Sixth Form about student discounts on that.

https://mytravelpass.gov.wales/en/

Welsh government has this scheme - we couldn't apply till now for DD1 so got caught up in a huge backlog which was worse due to covid got DS as soon as he was 16.

College has another discount on top plus there are some schemes for lower income students. It was still cheaper for DD1 to get a monthly bus card (with the my travel pass to prove they are a student).

I think DN is walkable distance from her college so don't know what the English schemes are.

DD finally came up with a plan B today which is somewhat of a relief.

Thankyou @TripleDaisySummer I will have a look to see if they have something similar in England in the locality of DD’s sixth form. I could only find what was available on the local bus website and it said nothing about student’s specifically but I am sure there must be something offered for FT students.

@TripleDaisySummer and @Middersweekly that is the discounted for collage price though collage here. The first covers all bus travel.witj stagecoach over a local area for the year the other is £75 a month for one bus to collage and back leaving 740 getting back 1650. We are not very rural small market town but nearest 6th forms are 7 and 8 miles away in opposite directions,!

Hello just wanted to pop on and say I wish it would hurry up and be done now! I feel like the whole summer has been waiting for Thursday. My DD should do fine but she is anxious and I know it's hanging over her she has lost weight and is chewing her fingers.
She said today she just wanted the future settled, it's hard for them to get results and then be definitely going to college or whatever a week later!
We know the likelihood is she will be going but it's not the same as knowing!

@jamimmi I think I have finally managed to find the info I was looking for re-student bus concessions. I had to download the app in the end as the information wasn’t available on the website. It’s saying £205 for the Autumn term. Apparently they need their student email address verified first before they can purchase the bus pass! Surely they can’t do that until their first day of term? 🙃

agree @ilovebagpuss its been a long wait this year it seems. Very late results day.

@Middersweekly dd has been told they can apply now vis the collage system but we are waiting till Thursday. Yes we can pay in parts 2, which helps a bit. I know at least one of her friends is going to really struggle with it. Family income not quite low enough to get support but 4 kids on a single wage!

I'm in the same position for Child Benefit. It seems unfair that parents on the wealthier side of the borough whose kids are expecting to just stay at the same school (even if they don't) can probably just fill in the form in advance but if our kids have no choice about going somewhere else we have to wait.

Once I know where he's going we also need to apply for a new Oyster Zip card - 11-15 is free buses (valid to end September although I hope bus drivers don't look at his card as the photo has totally worn off, and it's not even his 1st one (had to get replacements I think twice), he went to secondary 5 minutes walk from home and had significant spells of lockdown and big discounts on tubes and trains. 16-17 gives free buses and still good discounts but it's a discount on adult fares not child fares. Fortunately none of his choices are significantly easier to get to by tube/train - he could go a few tube stops mid journey but I don't think it would save huge amounts of time as it would still mean waiting for and using buses at both ends - getting the bus is is fairly straightforward though at busy times every day could be a shock! Just hope the government doesn't carry out its threats to force the end of the scheme.

DD has an offer for sixth form college to do a mix of btec and A-levels (probably Sport, Business and Sociology, although she’s also considering Psychology). She needs six passes at a 4 or above including any two at a 6 or above. Her predicted grades were mainly 4-6s with a 7 for PE, so I’m hopeful that she will get what she needs as she worked really hard. At her college interview they said that if she doesn’t quite get the grades she still has a place as long as they agree the courses she chooses and some extra support in the first few weeks to make sure she’s keeping up.

I hope she feels proud of herself on results day. Her close friends are all really high achievers, aiming for 8s and 9s, and she can’t help comparing herself. At the moment she’s not sure whether she’s going to meet them to pick up results together or have me wait in the car so she can make a quick exit.