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

@icanbewhatiwant if your son feels this unwell he needs to seek medical attention. What is wrong with him? what symptoms? Can you go and review things - is there breathing difficulty?

My DS2 lost a very good friend to suicide earlier this year and is still struggling with the loss when alone and time to think. Going to try and get counselling after Christmas to allow to process better. People have to be so desperate to do this - so so sorry for him and his family left behind.

School attendance stats were out today. Workforce figures are a concern and I think many of us are seeing this. Over 2% of secondary teachers and leaders off with confirmed Covid on Tuesday of last week. Pupil attendance sinking too. Holiday needs to come...

Lots of teachers off with COVID now and DD has one subject where the kids are self teaching as no one left in the department of 3 - teachers sending work in while at home quite unwell which I think is admirable and dedicated but unnecessary- quite worried about one great teacher as kids said very poorly.

Also having parents sending kids in to DDs class when siblings are testing positive on LFT and awaiting PCR results. If your siblings are friends and spend the weekend hanging out together and one tests positive the other one will be infectious. The DC wasn't wearing a mask in class (until DD gave a very heavy prompt) and guess what today they have a positive LFT and symptoms. DD not impressed - the disease is highly infectious and airborne - we are nearly 2 years into this...is it really that hard?

@Horace123 that is sad news. Makes my problems seem trivial.

I don't know whether to go to my mums or not. Ds1 has told me he's too weak to eat or do anything. He says he can't even cough anything up as he's too weak. I said he must insist he sees a gp tomorrow. He said he is far too weak to drive there. So can't go. He makes me cross leaving it again all day, he should have insisted on an appointment today. He says they won't see him. I think I'll have to stay home and phone them myself.

It is great to hear all the offers. I hope Ds gets some before Christmas.

Congratulations on all the offers and hi @HibiscusIsland - welcome to the stressed out but friendly thread x

And just seen delphi. Also fab-u-luss.

Oh zebra great news! What uni?

Congratulations @Delphigirl!

@Horace123 I am so sorry to see this. My heart goes out to this poor man’s family x

Well done to all with Notts Biology offers!
Good luck to all who have had or yet to have Medicine and Vet Med interviews!
@singingstones- you’ll have to ‘wave ya magic’ over our list!

@Horace123. So sorry.
We have an offer! ABB for Liberal Arts at Warwick . So so pleased.

Oh blimey Horace that is devastating 😟

Well done to so many more, sorry can’t namecheck you all but great offers and health news.

That's lovely news @Delphigirl.

@Horace123 - these things can hit hard even if you aren't terribly close. Sad news.

DD's teachers just seem to be assuming TAG's now. Telling the kids very openly that there's no way there will be exams - which at this point is opinion only but I fear they are right. DD really wants exams so she gets 'proper A levels'.

@Horace123 so sorry to hear that. It is incomprehensible to me that a young man who was clearly making a success of his life should feel so desperate. Hope people are able to get some distance from the emotional turmoil they must be feeling by getting away at Christmas. Yes, hugs to all out DC if they will let us, even the grumpy, difficult ones - maybe especially those. 😢

@Horace123 what devastating news it really puts things into perspective when something terrible happens.

@Volterra good news health wise at least it is one less worry.

DS still being difficult no communication whatsoever. A difficult house to live in at the moment. Hope he comes out the other side soon as I can't take much more 😡

Thank you.
Well done to all who've had good news and sorry for the awful news Horace

Welcome @hibiscusIsland.Thanks for sharing that list. An interesting read! Nice for the people at artsy unis to have that to counter the considerable dissing they can get from their friends at RG unis. A lot of unis are tough to get into in different ways, and arts unis can be very competitive.
This website is also useful, although a lot of (all?) the data is from pre-Covid times and the number of deferred places from last year may or may not skew things considerably.
www.admissionreport.com/search?q=biology&school=any
It sounds as though you have no reason to worry, though! It's more than likely that the offers will come.
My DS is applying for Biotechnology, which is a niche bit of biology, often with a bit of business thrown in to change things up a bit. He's not got to the offer stage yet either - will be nice if/when he does. Fingers crossed for you.

Oh Horace, that’s incredibly sad 💐
Delphigirl good news !
IcanbewhatIwant I hope you do get to relax a bit with your Mum and hope DS1 feels better soon.
Hibiscus I think Bristol sometimes puts people on hold until after the official closing date which is apparently normal for them and nothing to worry about.

Aww, horace, how terribly , awfully sad.

Just to update that DS has received an offer from Plymouth - 112pts.

Oh @Horace123 I’m so so sorry to hear that. What a terrible shock. Awful to think that such a young man has thought he has no other option.

OrangeCinnamonCocktail Bristol, Southampton, Warwick and Surrey.

Life is so shit for so many right now Horace

@icanbewhatiwant - when offers come through the candidate gets notified by email as well as UCAS being updated.

I haven't read all the updates so not up to speed with everyone's news, sorry. At work we had the most devastating news yesterday that one of our juniors took his own life over the weekend. Although I didn't know him very well (well enough to chat and gossip but very superficial) I am absolutely crushed - it is so awful to think of a youngster in their early / mid 20s seeing no other option. Understandably all of his colleagues are tremendously upset - dealing with their feelings but on top of that everyone actually having to pick up his work (because as awful as it is, there are still court dates, contractual deadlines etc that need to be dealt with) when all they want to do is go home and cry.

I don't need any messages of support (I know how lovely you all are but I don't want to exaggerate my importance in this) but please give your DC an extra hug tonight.