Thread 25 - Covid Cohort - Christmas Trees, No Omicron Please!

👍👍 DoggerelBank!

Oooo, UCAS application has been submitted!!!

@DoggerelBank you are very right, I think I should take up meditation to get me through the next six months!

I took DS for a CRY check a couple of years ago. Very reassuring as his heart development was closely monitored in pregnancy.

@ExtremelyDetermined - Re CRY, when DS was in prep school one of the boys at the school (younger than DS) died suddenly one night of cardiac problems which no now knew about. As you can imagine it was very shocking and his family became big supporters of CRY - lots of fundraising, talks at school to parents etc. Lots of parents started taking their kids for check ups (I was never organised enough - as you say, the appointments get snapped up). Very sadly the mum of the boy who died herself died a few years later of the same heart condition - her DH and DD continue with their support for the charity so I still get emails etc.

@Fiddlersgreen my dd also has mocks next week but like your son only has one paper for each subject.

@JustHereWithMyPopcorn I don't trust my DS to crack on either. All prior evidence is to the contrary. But he responds very badly to gentle nudges, let alone full-scale nagging, so my previous worrying achieved nothing except making me stressed. That was the 2021 me. The 2022 me is calm and hands-off, and trusts (rightly or wrongly) that his school has seen it all before and will deal with him. If all else fails, there are gap years, and retakes, and careers that don't involve degrees, and he's a bright, polite boy who will find his way one way or another.

@Fiddlersgreen DS appears to be doing quite a few hours a day but I suspect half of that time is actually on his phone. 🤔

@DoggerelBank I wish I wasn’t such a —control freak— worrier and could just trust DS to crack on but I don’t know how to be that person sadly.

Happy New Year, everyone!
Gosh, lots of revision going on in lots of homes. You should be very proud of DCs' commitment.
We've just got back from a big, complicated holiday with extended family. DS decided he had to miss swimming with dolphins (highlight of the holiday for most of us) because it was on the day of his EPQ deadline, and he'd decided to do no work during the 6 days between the end of term and the start of the holiday so still had all the 2nd draft tweaks to do. At least it's now finished one way or another. Hooray!
Revision hasn't had a look-in yet, and mocks start either this week or next. He needs to submit his UCAS form too at some point. But I'm getting to be quite good at not worrying about it. My New Year's mantra: his life, his problem.

We were lucky school sent letter a week before end of term outlining procedures for this week and next. Online live learning this week with return on Monday. Pleased they’ve been clear.

How much revision do others DC do in the run up to mocks/exams?
DS has mocks next week, they are only doing 1 paper per subject as far as I can gather so he only has 3 exams. He is doing around 2 hrs revision per day (had some days off during the holidays) but I’ve no idea if that’s enough or not? It doesn’t seem like much

My DD is back in on Weds straight into GCSE mocks, she's been having long lie-ins but working pretty well all her waking hours (so till about midnight) apart from the odd outing to visit relatives, go to the panto, go shopping. She looks tired. Her birthday falls in the middle of the exams too, poor thing.

DS has done a fair amount of work too, mainly BTEC coursework, some for his A level history. He has put in Royal Holloway as his final uni choice now.

@Delphigirl maybe weighting the pros and cons, so status of institution/course counts for more (x3) than eg availabilty of nightlife (x1) or sporting facilities (x2).

@cariadambyth sorry to hear about your worries re DS's health, but better to know if there is anything that needs treatment.

On the subject of heart health, have any of you used the charity Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY) to have your teen+ DC's hearts checked out? They offer a free ECG and opinion of a cardiologist plus referral if needed for youngsters at sessions around the country, there is no cost but donations are welcome. The sessions book up fast, you need to sign up for booking emails and respond fast (within 1/2 hour) to get booked in but worth doing. A lot of the sessions in the SE at the moment are at the HQ in Leatherhead, I took DS there recently.

My gcse Ds is in tomorrow for his mocks, been a long hard slog for him. I don’t think it is a great time to have to revise, he had loads of tests before Christmas as well so he’s shattered.
A level DS has done a fair amount of work, he was told he needed to work on quite a few things. First time he’s put any real effort in and he tidied his room, which is a rare occurrence.
LFTs for mine the day before returning, nothing about face masks in lessons though. I keep hoping for exams but think it is getting less likely, TAGs were not kind to DS 1(hence why he’s working a bit harder).

Good luck for all the mocks - it’s so horrible to have them after Christmas, I hope they’ve managed to have some time off too?

Good luck to all with impending mocks, and to @whoamitojudge DD, is it tomorrow she starts work?

Ds and dd are both back tomorrow: dd testing in the morning and then in school once negative result back, and ds in the afternoon. They are staggering the school over this week so everyone is back for the end of the week, with online learning for those years not yet back in. DS starts mocks on Monday so guessing this week will essentially just be revision... He's been working solidly over the holidays so hopefully will be enough: I'm horribly conscious at the mo that his uni offers are all going to be very high (his first choice is likely to have A*s...) so if we are back in TAGs (looking ever more likely) he needs some good results...

Happy new year all and best wishes for those celebrating recent birthdays too.

No news from DDs sixth form so can only assume they are doing testing at school on the first day back which is Wednesday. No mocks till March so DD had a break for once over the holidays and only started on homework today. Parents eve online this week too.

DS back in Wednesday and they want them to test 2 consecutive days before they return, so today and tomorrow or tomorrow and Wednesday morning. As mornings are a struggle here it will be today and tomorrow! They gave us lots of tests before Christmas.

@zebracat thanks for your post. Yes you make really good points. Lots more thinking required. We know a kid (ex classmate of DS’s older brother) currently doing that course at Southampton (3rd year) and one (brother of my DD’s friend) who graduated from the Cardiff course a year ago, so I think he needs to talk to them both too.

DD Is back in next Mon with LFT first.

Her 2nd set of mocks are after half term, but she's prepping hard for her interviews, with fingers crossed for the one she still hasn't heard from.

Ds2 goes back weds. With LFT first. Ds3 doesn't go back until the following weds. Not sure if any other schools are staggering the starts that much. The parents on the school Facebook page are furious at the late starters, saying they will send their dc's on the 5th when they should have originally returned. I bet they don't. Ds3 is pleased with the extra week, but thinks there will be work online.

We have had an email from school today about spotting the signs of type 1 diabetes but nothing about what's required for next term in the way of testing, masks etc. They go back on Thursday.

@Delphigirl. That’s interesting, maybe you need to encourage a more objective approach.Marks out of 5 for course Content, ranking , vibe, opportunities, location maybe. I don’t know what his criteria are, but you make a very strong case for Southampton. It didn’t achieve that ranking for nothing, , and the fact that they interviewed shows they have chosen him rather than just anyone.
My Ds2 went to a post 1992 university which was great for his course , and he was able to get his dream job afterwards. But he found it very frustrating to do group work tasks with people who just weren’t at his level, and he really wasn’t stretched at all. He didn’t mind that at the time so much, of course.