GCSE Support - nervously waiting

[Hellocatshome]

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

We got dds apprenticeship contract today. 42.5 hours a week. Unpaid breaks. No sick pay.
Welcome to the real world!

Ds has his work experience next week. He's quite excited by it, which is a good thing as he has to wear smart clothes which he doesn't do.
He's lucky to have got on it, so I hope he enjoys it.

Ds1 has his the week after next!

Is she doing day release or block release at college? I know the apprentices we have at work basically see their day at college each week as a little bit of a day off which helps them get through the rest of the week.

I've no idea what hours etc DS is supposed to be doing when he starts. The company he is with is so big they actually have their own college.

Another one here surprised by the lack of jobs available. The reports about a tight labour market don’t seem to apply here. Hopefully something will come up in the autumn.

@Hellocatshome she will have to do college via zoom for a couple of hours on Fridays but come May she will be taken to Coventry college for 3 days every six weeks to check in with the other apprentices and college. Coventry is about three hours away from here. Work will drive or taxi her there and she'll stay over in a hotel and be bussed to college.
Little worried about this but I have time to get my head round it, I thought it started immediately!

The apprenticeships sound excellent!

Dropped DS off at a residential music camp (run by a music-teacher family friend) yesterday afternoon. That runs until Thursday and then he is straight off to the junior world championship for his sport in France; my DW is accompanying him for that. Busy busy busy..!

Remind me what she's doing?

@Rowgtfc72 It really is, isn’t it? On the other hand, think how much experience she’ll have by the time she’s 21 - and how little student debt. Well on her way to her ambitions!

I think it's a mix of knowing these kids are only there for 5-6 weeks and if some are still under 16 the red tape is a nightmare, even over 16 it's difficult.

My colleague's DD tried to get a job after coming home from the first year in uni and would have been available for 3 months, nothing at all.

We even tried our local library for the reading challenge and they said they want them available for the whole summer, we could only offer 3 weeks but doing it 3-4x a week.

@NCTDN 3 yr Auto Technician
( mechanic)

@Changes17 this is a brilliant opportunity. So much better learning options with college where its 1 tutor to 8 students. She's 1 to 1.
And yes she's excited about the money.

I think some of those with jobs started doing weekend or evening work earlier in the year and so have first call on the holidays

Ds enjoyed the work experience today, but I think he's on overload. He's come out very happy but most questions get the answer "don't know" in a monotone, which means he's on sensory overload. I'll ask him again later when he's recharged.
There's only about a dozen of them, which is good numbers as that's enough for them to not feel too exposed, but not so many they get lost in the crowd. I wasn't sure, as it's a big company, whether it was going to be 50+ sitting being talked at, which he wouldn't have enjoyed.

However I do know they have a tea machine and aren't expected to make the tea. 😂

The job market is tough I think. DD only just 16. Fortunately the babysitting/nannying is providing a stream of cash. Perhaps others could consider cat feeding/dog walking. Lots round here desperate for that kind of help - I'm paying some teens to look after the animals when we go away.

Not sure whether to post here but see there is activity on the A-level 'count down' thread. Discussions there on grade boundaries. Impossible to predict but does anyone else think that the boundaries are likely to fall somewhere between 2022 and 2019?

The Government/OFSTED have said that the %age of each grade will be back to 2019 levels (ouch). Where the grade boundaries are set will depend on how hard the cohort found the papers!

Not OFSTED, Ofqual. Sorry, involved in too many education threads!

I have nothing of note to add but I am interested.

I have read that this year's Y11 had the highest rate of absenteeism (ever?).
Would that affect anything? I don't know if they sit exams with some of them doing badly, and if that lowers the grade boundaries?

A significant number of people getting worse marks than a normal year would indeed make the boundaries lower, boosting the grades of others. (However, the process is really complex and can be tweaked a little by Ofqual or the DfE.)

@PhotoDad
@SomersetBrie
Yes, thanks, I'd read that too and have learnt a lot about how grade boundaries are set on MN over the last few months. :)
More a 'putting my finger in the air' about a sense as to this our cohort may have performed. As mentioned, this cohort does seem to have a huge amount of absenteeism, and would certainly have missed out on teaching at times, but that might be more prevalent in certain types of school (across comp, grammar, private) - not looked into it myself.
Think IB (which of course is a different qualification) boundaries were somewhat lower than 2019?
It's not long to wait now anyway but very curious to know. DC seems oblivious, thank goodness, and is having the summer of their life! ;)

I suspect that schools which adapted well to remote learning and bounced back quickly from Covid (probably those is wealthy areas, whether state or private) will do better than normal (because the others will do worse), widening the performance gap even more.

Yes, I suspect that will be the case. We're in a fortunate position in that regard, but really feel for those kids who didn't get a good provision, it's tough.

Well after applying for about 25 jobs my DD has her first interview - she has two where she nearly got one.

Fingers crossed she gets it. On indeed many of the jobs are 300 or so applicants so a not yet 16 yo with no experience doesn't stand much of a chance.

My DS school is a bog standard comp with patchy covid learning and probably a lot of kids who need intervention but can't get it. My DC missed out on so much english, maths and science groundwork in Y8/Y9.
However, they have been amazing with after school and holiday revision classes and any parent or child who actively looked for support got it.
My DC is "lucky" (he may not agree!) that I was hassling him to revise, attend extra classes, etc. Many at his school did not.
I hope he sees the fruits of this on results day (we only want 5s, that would be good enough).

As the percentages should be the same as 2019, but I suspect the cohort as a whole will be less prepared, I would expect the grade boundaries to be lower.

I suspect we will see a mixture of children who are over the moon because the school predicted judging on 2019 grade boundaries, and children who are devastated because they were predicted on 2022 grade boundaries.

I have absolutely no idea how ds will do at all.

What I do hope is that they don't release the grades and then backtrack and lower them again because of vocal objection.