Rupert. From a legal point of view you must continue to operate with student priviledges until you have received (and signed) the licence.
How your club treats you during the period from licence application to issue is entirely up to them. At the club where I am CFI I treat such students as if they were PPLs, in terms of recency requirements (which are more stringent for students) and aircraft hire rates, but other clubs may have good reasons for continuing to treat them in the same manner as all their other students.