Exam Results

[sonyc 5,517]

10 minutes ago, How I Wrote Elastic Man said:

Is there an option for students who are not happy with their grades to take another year in school or 6th form? Or is there not room to accommodate them?

There is always the FOFO open learning option...I didn't do as well as I should have done at school, 3 O levels and 3 CSE's (I think), with not stellar grades. I  left the school system at 16, but in my early 20's I basically taught myself maths (one hour a month with a tutor to go through things I didn't understand...she often didn't either, it was usually the toughest questions which she said were unlikely to come up in the exam). I got a "B", I was only a point off an "A" grade

I realise this will put students  a year behind....is this  a bar to getting into  university?

A lot of people take gap years don't they? And I see that having more time is helpful (life experience). Always recall my returning to further education as an older 'mature' student and I think my learning was deeper than first time around.

It's such a difficult time for younger people isn't it. I think there will be options available for delays. University also is arguably a communal experience (becoming more rounded as a person) and if virtual classes continue because of C19 it is not helpful to a broad education.

[How I Wrote Elastic Man 1,187]

3 minutes ago, sonyc said:

A lot of people take gap years don't they? And I see that having more time is helpful (life experience). Always recall my returning to further education as an older 'mature' student and I think my learning was deeper than first time around.

It's such a difficult time for younger people isn't it. I think there will be options available for delays. University also is arguably a communal experience (becoming more rounded as a person) and if virtual classes continue because of C19 it is not helpful to a broad education.

Gap years, you're right they do

It didn't occur to me as I didn't take a traditional route to education. I ended up with a BTEC HND done on day release from work when I was 33. I suppose that's a gap decade 😀

 

[sonyc 5,517]

Just now, How I Wrote Elastic Man said:

Gap years, you're right they do

It didn't occur to me as I didn't take a traditional route to education. I ended up with a BTEC HND done on day release from work when I was 33. I suppose that's a gap decade 😀

 

A gap decade is about the optimal time I would say😉

[Van wink 2,994]

26 minutes ago, sonyc said:

I've possibly strengthened in my beliefs as I've aged (not the norm). I have worked happily and constructivey with left and right and am open minded with everyone. My other career demanded neutrality too

I guess that is 'liberalist'? I will never be a Tory voter though....i believe too that ultimately, capitalism is obscene. Yet, it's unpopular to say that. Perhaps I could grudgingly accept an ethical form of it, more responsible capitalism.

.... to get through life you always have to make decisions that involve hypocrisy. Then you have to try and forgive your own hypocrisy. Not easy!

 

Voted green in the last one, think that’s more of a positive statement of belief than a cop out. But when you know it’s a wasted vote it could be considered as such.

[BigFish 1,986]

11 hours ago, sonyc said:

A lot of people take gap years don't they? And I see that having more time is helpful (life experience). Always recall my returning to further education as an older 'mature' student and I think my learning was deeper than first time around.

It's such a difficult time for younger people isn't it. I think there will be options available for delays. University also is arguably a communal experience (becoming more rounded as a person) and if virtual classes continue because of C19 it is not helpful to a broad education.

True, life is not a race and in this crazy Covid world taking a year longer is not goining to hurt anyone.

The problem is that the kids have been pushed through a pressurised education system and sold ideas that it is very competitive, that they must achieve and they must achieve quickly. Anything else is seen as failure.

[sonyc 5,517]

22 minutes ago, BigFish said:

True, life is not a race and in this crazy Covid world taking a year longer is not goining to hurt anyone.

The problem is that the kids have been pushed through a pressurised education system and sold ideas that it is very competitive, that they must achieve and they must achieve quickly. Anything else is seen as failure.

Very true BF. It's such a focus on the result not the journey and somehow there is a massive life lesson lost, one really that you'd think the best educational establishments would deal with. The media (as ever) doesn't help.

Education / learning is lifelong. 

[BigFish 1,986]

2 hours ago, sonyc said:

Very true BF. It's such a focus on the result not the journey and somehow there is a massive life lesson lost, one really that you'd think the best educational establishments would deal with. The media (as ever) doesn't help.

Education / learning is lifelong. 

😀

The big issue with this is that Conservative government policies over the last decade have resulted in a 60% fall in mature students. Part-time learning has collapsed. They have literally shutdown much of lifelong learning.

Can dramatic decline in part-time students be reversed?

[Creative Midfielder 1,996]

15 hours ago, sonyc said:

A lot of people take gap years don't they? And I see that having more time is helpful (life experience). Always recall my returning to further education as an older 'mature' student and I think my learning was deeper than first time around.

It's such a difficult time for younger people isn't it. I think there will be options available for delays. University also is arguably a communal experience (becoming more rounded as a person) and if virtual classes continue because of C19 it is not helpful to a broad education.

There is a lot of truth in that, and despite the fact that I'm sure unis up and down the country are trying very hard I don't think that students starting their courses this year are going to get the full university experience which as we all know is lot more than just the academic course.

But having said that Corvid is also making it not a particularly good time to have a gap year, given the difficulties in travelling and finding temporary employment in what is going to be a time of mass employment - as BF has pointed out it is one thing to plan to take a gap year as many students do, and quite another to have an unwelcome and unplanned one thrust upon you by a scandalously, shambolic and uncaring government.

I've got a lot of sympathy for the students that find themselves in this invidious position but perhaps, and very ironically, they have received a very valuable life experience at the start of their adult life because this seems to be just a foretaste of the way life and society in 21st century Britain is going - a really grim prospect and a complete contrast to the way the world looked when I left home to start university 😞

Edited August 21, 2020 by Creative Midfielder

[sonyc 5,517]

52 minutes ago, BigFish said:

😀

The big issue with this is that Conservative government policies over the last decade have resulted in a 60% fall in mature students. Part-time learning has collapsed. They have literally shutdown much of lifelong learning.

Can dramatic decline in part-time students be reversed?

Very good point. In a former role, we set up training programmes for those disadvantaged adult learners who were far from the marketplace and paid employment. These were experienced very positively and so often participants gained improved self-esteem as well as new transferable skills.

Not everyone can suddenly start to re-train however and more emphasis is needed in settling people with 'softer' first-rung learning activity. If only government would address this (through more local community colleges for example ) many of the skills gaps we experience could be addressed.

That said, jobs available are then often minimum wage. Even graduates have to take on lowly paid work to start (unless they have a highly prized vocational degree), but the difference is their outlook is broader because of their educational experience and this influences their longer term prospects.

It's okay for Brexiters to go on about giving work to the UK's own workers but there doesn't seem a plan or strategy to address the skills gaps we have ... save for some very general blurb on intentions. Perhaps there will be a more fine-tuned industrial and service sector employment and skills strategy to emerge? If so, it must be closely linked to a social mobility policy. If not, forget "levelling up".

[Rock The Boat 1,332]

Education is wasted on the young. 

[Herman 9,764]

15 minutes ago, Rock The Boat said:

Education is wasted on the young. 

...and unused by the old.😉

Edited August 22, 2020 by Herman
Except for the obvious few.