A levels 2021

[ToadMum]

DS2 has eventually been told by his Consultant that he shouldn't go back to school for anything more than the occasional short session just yet, even if the school were to.get year 12 (which they show no sign of doing anytime soon, anyway). I had already told the head of 6th form that DS2 wouldn't be going in until after his next appointment, whenever and in whatever form that would take, as all we had been told for certain was that it wouldn't be a face to face visit at the hospital. In the event, he got a phone call the day before the original date last week.

In the meantime, nearly everything school has been communicated according to timetable, but not in realtime, so most work gets done at a time compatible with a decent lie-in . They have started A level work in Maths and Art and probably English (but I haven't heard about that). He is now going to drop Physics, rather than Art, so is not really applying himself too much there.

He has spent a few hours today 'at' the University of Leicester virtual open day, which I think he has found quite enjoyable. Lots more virtual days coming up. I did have quite a clear idea of what was happening when, when they were things we were going to travel to, but trying to keep track of the virtual ones, which are not necessarily on the same day(s) is, as they say, doing my head in . I just hope that DS2 is managing to keep track.

[BlueBerry22]

Just wandering what other Y12's have been offered in terms of schooling for the rest of this term?

DC has been offered 3 full days Face to Face - so nine lessons - although might not be with their actual teacher but with another person familiar with the subject.

They will not be having any virtual lessons & haven't had any to date.

Anybody else heard anything from their schools?

[kenyancowgirl]

Ours (Y12) have one day next week where they have 4 sessions in the day - DS2 will have one session (total 3) with each of his teachers and one private study. Two weeks later they are due back in for mock exams.

They do have a full online timetable though, and have done so since lockdown.

[PettswoodFiona]

He has spent a few hours today 'at' the University of Leicester virtual open day, which I think he has found quite enjoyable.

Leicester is my Alma Mater, I am so pleased to hear this happened and I know so much is a challenge at the moment but well done to your son for attending and I am feeling very proud of the Uni I attended many moons ago. DD is due to attend her first online sixth form open day next weekend. I am finding that the 'can do' attitude is a real help in the minefield of trying to work out next steps. Good luck to your DS Toadmum.

[ToadMum]

He has spent a few hours today 'at' the University of Leicester virtual open day, which I think he has found quite enjoyable.

Leicester is my Alma Mater, I am so pleased to hear this happened and I know so much is a challenge at the moment but well done to your son for attending and I am feeling very proud of the Uni I attended many moons ago. DD is due to attend her first online sixth form open day next weekend. I am finding that the 'can do' attitude is a real help in the minefield of trying to work out next steps. Good luck to your DS Toadmum.

Much as I liked Leicester when I visited irl, sadly DS2 decided that the course was rather too heavy on the Italian Renaissance for his tastes. He really has found the perfect combination of course (which includes an anthropological and 'world' view of art history) and location in UEA, but he is 'visiting' others. Birmingham, Bristol and York on consecutive days in a couple of weeks' time. Warwick is keeping stumm so far, although their open day would have been tomorrow. DS2 and I were going to stay over an extra night in Coventry or Brum, to take DS1 out for his birthday afterwards .

[Hebden]

My year 12 DS will be in school 3 days next week, each day will be dedicated to one A Level subject. The following 2 weeks it is year 10 only in the building, but then the suggestion is year 12 will have another 3 day week before the end of term. Remote learning is going well, but it will be lovely to have face to face contact and give my DS a chance to see some of his friends.

[kenyancowgirl]

Our school is probably the smallest grammar school in the country - even limiting to 25% of the year is challenging with social distancing. They have chosen to open each day to a y12 house group (there are 4). Thankfully DS2 goes in on Monday, when school has been deep cleaned over weekend. They have another group on Tuesday and are deep cleaning again on the Weds (closed to students), before the next two houses come in Thurs/Fri. Then another weekend deep clean and the same system for Y10s. It means that every two days the school gets deep cleaned to supplement the additional daily cleaning routines that they have introduced. They can’t do any more, I don’t think, but it is still a nervous time for us with health concerns.

We will see how it goes on Monday...!

[loobylou]

Is everyone else attending virtual open days?
We have done 3 this week (I am watching them with dd when I can to try and make it a bit more interesting for us both).
She had already managed to get down to 6 options so only has to cross one off her list to get down to the 5 for the UCAS form.
It was pretty interesting.
We both felt that Bristol hadn't put much effort into their presentations. It went from being dd's favourite (of these 3) to last place. Sheffield went to top place of these 3 (from bottom) partly because of the enthusiasm of the presentations and the detail about the course that they went into.
I know it's not the same as a real open day but dd is making the best of it and we have agreed we will go to any offer days (hopefully they will be possible) so she gets a proper idea of where she wants to go before she has to make her final choice.
What do your dc think about any open days they've been on?

[Snowdaddy]

Is everyone else attending virtual open days?
We have done 3 this week (I am watching them with dd when I can to try and make it a bit more interesting for us both).
She had already managed to get down to 6 options so only has to cross one off her list to get down to the 5 for the UCAS form.
It was pretty interesting.
We both felt that Bristol hadn't put much effort into their presentations. It went from being dd's favourite (of these 3) to last place. Sheffield went to top place of these 3 (from bottom) partly because of the enthusiasm of the presentations and the detail about the course that they went into.
I know it's not the same as a real open day but dd is making the best of it and we have agreed we will go to any offer days (hopefully they will be possible) so she gets a proper idea of where she wants to go before she has to make her final choice.
What do your dc think about any open days they've been on?

Our daughter is going to Uni this September and had a shortlist of 7. One other Uni started to offer the course she wants and we put it on UCAS form at last minute dropping another that she was in 2 minds about and was just filling a 5th place.

She has opted for Sheffield too, we had done real open days, but they were well organised, after her course talk/lecture all invited back to Dept for lunch (platters of sandwiches etc) which weren’t expecting for whole family. Other touches were on a library tour the student mentioned she had a laptop problem and their tech team fixed it for her, and said they do lot for you. The Union is amazing (and the coffee bar one floor up had really friendly staff, it was also quiet compared to one near entrance)

The Accommodation is decent (majority was new 2006-2009, some is newer, but a few older blocks with shared bathrooms exist). If you go on their website, there is a Covid section, look at info for prospective students, it is much more detailed and advisory than some other universities. It is all these touches that make a difference.
Everything is a lot cheaper than London.

She was offered same grades by 3 universities and did offer holder open days as well (went by train on own, unlike the initial open days where we went by car as a family). It was different time of year Dec-Feb instead of June-Oct so saw it in different weather. It was also term time unlike the open days when students were sparse.

We have watched various videos / YouTube and they are helpful, but don’t really give you a scale, in sense of is it a 5 minute walk, or 25 minute walk etc. But to some extent you can sit at a PC and google the university, use maps, satellite view, click on 3D (bottom right) and try and zoom in and look at campus that way, use the compass to look at other side of buildings. You can then relate it to the campus maps.

The hardest part of doing online viewings is what you don’t see, all the stuff a sixth former won’t think to ask about, like launderettes, how far do you have to carry the shopping from local supermarkets, are some halls near bars or taxi ranks so noisy at night, where is the health centre etc. It is likely many will never have been in a student Union, or ever have visited a laundrette, or seen a library as big as their school.

Hopefully will be able to do some real visits in Autumn, or even do a campus visit to walk around in the summer (drive up early on a weekend, before traffic picks up, and car parks haven’t filled up). Family day out departing 6:30-7am if you are driving 3-4 hours each way. There is a big element of the city or location has to feel right, some may be too big, too built up, too spread out and this can only really be judged by going, and walking around, even if you can’t get in some buildings. Find somewhere for coffee or lunch, might even be something in a student union or social building, get a feel for the place (not you, your child, they are the one going for 3 or more years), if it doesn’t gel with them, drop it from short list however good the course. They have to be happy wherever they go.

[silverysea]

Sooo glad “school” finally ended, dd2 was too discouraged to think about or discuss Uni, plus actually has been busy coping with 4 A-levels entirely at home plus a new and newly online part-time job, hence had done nothing much about future decisions. Got much improved predicted grades hours before school ended, to the point where we had a scramble to meet the deadline to go on school’s Oxbridge list with a plausible course and college choice! At least it gave some impetus to continue do the legwork (or rather scrolling!) to populate the rest of that UCAS form come autumn term.

Sorry chaps but I don’t rate the chances of being able to visit campuses in the Autumn. We are in for a continued rough ride with COVID19.

So I would love to hear more people’s impressions of online resources for choosing unis. I have been doing my share of scrolling and feeding selected info to dd, but as a health worker with very stressful life in other respects (no WFH for moi) I am at sea. Some uni websites are so inspiring, other just lead you round in circles with repetitive limited info and outdated links to cancelled open days.

The offer days I attended with dd1 were extremely valuable to her in terms of a “mature” view of accommodation, costs, etc. That is not going to happen for dd2 and as yet she doesn’t even know exactly what she wants to do or where she wants to apply at all, unlike dd1. She is very good at History, MFL (might like to try a new European one), gov and Pol (these are coming easy to her) and is ******-mindedly continuing with maths despite appalling teaching throughout (not just in pandemic) and an unimpressive predicted grade. We are trying to get her to identify some enjoyment in her studies, instead of the endless slog and exam-factory feeling that has characterised her experience of education from year 9 onward.