Current Year 10 2020/2021 support thread

Interesting that your school don't have detentions at the moment RedskyAtnight. I just got an email saying that the period of settling in after school absence is coming to an end and with it the "lenient and supportive approach to all students as they have embraced school and dealt with any anxieties and difficulties they may have faced since returning" - "However, we now must ensure our behaviour policy is used and that students know that poor behaviour will result in sanctions" and therefore detentions are starting up again - although different days of the week are allocated to different years (and there is a split between behaviour detentions and punctuality detentions - this is presumably because the punctuality detentions are linked to the amount of time the student is late, so they are let go in dribs and drabs). They go on to say: "In times of Covid restrictions, we will not be able to move detentions for any student, so we would appreciate this request not being made. " It used to be that if a particular day they had an after school activity, you could request the detention be held on another day. Admittedly, there are far fewer after school activities available, so it is presumably going to be less of an issue, although at the moment DD's violin teacher is still coming in person here, and is within the rules (although we did do zoom lessons over lockdown, but it was by no means so satisfactory).

Oh gosh @KoalasandRabbit. I hope you get better soon. And poor DD she sounds lovely.

Apparently a few children off is 49 year 11s who are now just being pointed to Oak Academy. DD says most of year 10 are coughing and year 11 and 10 were mixing before in corridors with no SD. School just said move vulnerable people at home out. Not sure where the kids are supposed to move their parents too Quite a few teachers off just with coughs and negative tests but school rules are not in school for 14 days.

I've got a kidney infection atm so really hoping neither of mine bring it home now. Poor DD is so worried even though we reassure her, asking us both about our preferred funerals and if I'm creamated what type of ring I would like to be made into that she could wear. And how will money work. Tried to reassure her but she still worries.

We had all 3 DC home on Monday/Tuesday with colds developed over the weekend but because they then acquired a cough school insisted on them being tested. We were able to just rock up, queue and had results by 06.30 Tuesday morning.

Y10 still seems to be going ok here. DS taking it all very seriously and working quite hard.

Still not been any confirmed cases at DC’s school but I know there are pupils and teachers self isolating. I think the lack of tests about could be a contributing factor to there being no confirmed cases though.

Just thankful for each day they go in. 🤞

The remote learning for my one year 10 has improved lots in the week he's been SI so credit to the school as it now has multiple years out.

Years 7,8, 11 and 13 all affected now at one son's school.
In his twin's school years 7, 8, 10 and 13 all impacted.

Most schools I know have cases now. Grim.

Our school has years 11 and 13 off (typical!) but touch wood the other years are still in in their entirety. Some staff are off but mainly due to waiting for tests so as long as they are well they are teaching remotely from home!

As I posted that got school e-mail about 1st case. Says only a few children now off so presumably a year 7 or y8 child as they are class bubbles.

Don't know of any cases at our school but DD says about 20 of her year are off (over 10%) and several teachers and says loads of kids are coughing. She thinks its all negative tests so far but still causing quite a bit of disruption. As we are rural its not as bad though.

English have agreed to move her up at half term which is great then she'll be top set everything, probably just as school shuts down again.

@middleager nowhere near, East Lancashire area, we've only been out of extra restrictions for a month or so . Typically it's been a beautiful weekend, and we'd have been out and about, dd should have started back to league football but not this week!!!

As mentioned previously, one of my Y10s is a home due to a case in options group. Three years out at that school now.

Still missing some work, but more has cone through. He couldn't do Eng Lang as the teacher is off and the supply set work from the text books, which are at school. He didn't get the Chemistry, so that lesson has been accessed by the 2/3 of the year that are in but not the third sent home.
I've ordered some Eng Lit study guides, but I'm not a teacher and I also work.

Three cases at my other Y10s' school so waiting still for him to be off. As one quarantine starts another begins.

DDs school has one confirmed case, in year 12 (which is DSs year). So he’s in isolation next week and the rest of the school currently in. Will see how it goes...

Dds birthday tomorrow (how is she nearly 15?) and she’s currently having a socially distanced picnic with 5 friends 😊

As of the end of yesterday are 11 cases in DD's school, and 4 full year groups out plus a yr7 form. We had a really upsetting email at close of the day saying how tough a week it’s been.
We're also about to go back into local lockdown so when they go back in there's no mixing of households .
Good news is that home learning seems to have gone well this week, and the school trip to the US which is paid in full is still planned to go ahead next summer.............

What idiots. I hope there are some consequences.

We’ve had a lovely end to the week. DS’s Spanish teacher emailed to say she had tried calling to let us know how great DS is, how well he is doing and that he is an asset to the class. I’ll admit I had a little tear and a lump in my throat. Such a nice thing to do. She could have just given him some points but she composed an email and took time out of her day.

The only thing is she says that a lot of the boys are being total dickheads, getting handfuls of hand sanitizer and flinging it at people.

DC's school has adopted a strict no tolerance policy re Covid safety changes. They have spray bottles on their desks to wipe them down after use. A few children who have been silly with them have been given automatic 1 day exclusions. I actually think this is fair enough (particularly as they don't now have detentions due to getting everyone off site as soon after school closes as possible).

All seems relatively calm at school at the moment. DD is settling in to her timetable. The only thing is she says that a lot of the boys are being total dickheads, getting handfuls of hand sanitizer and flinging it at people. DD has come home with it in her hair a few times!

I paid the final instalment today for the Year 10 skiing trip held in the Feb half term. I have no idea if that will be going ahead or not!

@RedskyAtnight I love your data geekery there.

DS spent a few hours last night working on a maths problem that he doesn’t understand. This morning he is ready early and is back at it. Turns out he has a test today and I think he is a bit worried about moving down a set. He is quite able but is the bottom end of the top set who work at speed and humanities are his strength.

He hasn’t asked for any help and seems quite intent on working this out.

This is no longer appearing on the 'I'm on' bit weirdly

I'm hoping they do something similar at ds school rather than send them all home, although I know it must be a massive headache to do

We have had a letter today saying that they have electronic seating plans for all lessons and they will only be sending children home who have sat within 2 metres of a positive case - sounds like a logistical nightmare trying to work that out who,has been in contact. No idea what they do about contact at lunchtimes because I know they spend time with their friends that they don't have that many classes with. No positive cases that we know about yet.

School are also talking about decreasing bubbles down from a whole year group. Don’t envy them that logistical nightmare!

That's what DD's school have done. She does maths, English and science with her tutor group (they have rejigged tutor groups to allow for those taking combined vs triple science and also for maths ability). Then when she has options she sits nearest to those in her tutor group doing the same option. For one subject, no one in DD's tutor group is taking that option, so she has to sit on her own as far away from possible from anyone else. The idea is very much that if they get a case they will look at close contacts (which I would expect to be tutor group + a few others) rather than whole year.
Bit of a timetabling nightmare for someone though!

As an aside (because I'm a data geek) I found it very interesting that in previous maths sets 1-3 (of 9 sets; 30 children in each set) there were only 20 children taking combined science. I mean, I expected a high correlation between "good at maths" and triple science, but not as high as this. And 10 of those 20 children are also taking drama (only 24 in the year group in total), so it seems that "good at maths but not liking science" also correlates highly with drama!