GCSE Summer 2020 - Thread 11 Carry on Corona Cohort - Starting New Terms and Settings

Thanks for old thread Orange.
I've marked place on Fools new thread.

I’ve jumped onboard for the next voyage !
Thanks for setting up the new thread, @FoolsAssassin

Thread

This is our first student case (allegedly!). Huge school with year groups of 400.

Prior to this we had one teacher who was completely asymptomatic. She took her baby for a test and they did her too as babies throw up lots of false results. Probably literally!

We have Y11 off, DS's old school have Y9 and Y12 off.

Re medium tier - Evan Davies from PM described it as being like coffee shops, there is no small/low, the 3 tiers are medium, high and very high!

Our numbers have been low, but racing up now that the university students are back!

Is anybody making the new thread? We only have 11 posts left after this one so I will do it soon if nobody else wants to. I am afraid I have brain fail on witty titles, so hope one of you can do better.

Not sure if our big secondary school is average or not: 3 teachers have it, some off probably awaiting tests. Half of Yr13 and 11 off with Year 9 and 7 affected too.

I feel for the Year 11s and 13s especially.

First case in the school I teach in. One year 11 = 60 kids sent home.

These kids have a lot of social contacts...

I think "low risk" is to do with the R number rather than number of cases? Vague idea it has to be below 1?

DS has had no tests. His response to every question he's asked is "fine". I was hoping for a bit more guidance on how he was doing. Unfortunately past history tells me that DS won't tell me until the situation is dire, and I'd rather avoid that if at all possible.

DD has told me she thinks they will get two predictions. One calculated one from a model and one the teachers do. But we won’t get anything until end of November.

I am sad as I found out that only 10 children in the whole year group are allowed to do an EPQ. She really wants to do one. She’s going to try to get selected but then there’s a lot of competition.

That is very interesting re the two grade lower than GCSE BlueMarigold and seems in line with what our school have done so we will see. The school are super happy with DD and her work ethic and ability so far so I feel content to not question it at present and see how things go.
Sounds similar to TheySeeHer and Decorhate schools too although great news on DS's high predictions Andwhenyougetthere

Fingers crossed you get your New Forest break Orange - it's so beautiful round there and a favourite place for us to go for a day trip every summer.

Hope you get the test result soon for your DD ealing then you can know for sure.

It's a weird one about the tiers isn't it icanbe as I assumed medium was fairly risky but it seems it's the lowest tier from what I saw on the beeb last night. We are in the lowest tier (is that 1?) so medium and no changes to rules so far. London are also medium but likely to move up a tier so if that happens no trip as can't meet inside and late Oct the weather is bound to be inclement plus relatives are mostly in the older category (daren't call them elderly as 75 is practically middle aged now dontcha know - their words not mine).

Still no predictions but they have been having tests. The psychology assessment was a 16 mark question. They are not expected to get high marks at this stage.

I don’t know much about the methods of predicting a-levels but from what friends with older children at DD’s school have told me, they get predictions around 2 grades lower than their GCSE grades.

Hello all :-) Can't believe we're already last week before the first half term: it's gone so fast! Ds pointed out that means he's 1/12 of the way through A levels which is doing my head in! Glad your dd has had a bit of a breakthrough too @TheySeeHerRowling, and good luck @ealingwestmum for your dd's results. I have various friends and colleagues in travel and airline related roles and I am feeling for them at the mo: just so tough :-(

We agree on lots of the TV shows recommended up thread: Ghosts, Friday Night Dinner and Bake off/extra slice are esp favourites, but we're also watching and giggling along to lots of reruns of old shows: X files; Buffy... What We do in the shadows was a bit hit too (not quite as dated!)

DS has had his ALIs predictions back, and his entire form had incredibly high predictions (nearly all As/A*s) so we're a little bemused by that - I don't actually know how seriously school take them - they ignored the MIDYAS and just made up their own, so I assume they'll do the same. Ds first test have all gone really well, although he said they all still seemed pretty easy and basic (eg the psych ones were no more than 4 point questions) so I can only assume our school is breaking them in gently for some reason unlike others on here. Bit odd tbh...!

@AnneOfCleavage The whole thing with 6th form targets is a mystery to me. I think schools use some sort of software to generate these but clearly many are not checked to ensure they are sensible. S2 has just had his targets - one of which is a C in a subject which he achieved an 8 at GCSE.

I know he will work hard & do better than that. But some kids surely underachieve if their targets are too low.

Thank you Esther

@ealingwestmum - hope your DD gets that negative test soon and starts to feel better.

AnneofCleavage I'm sure you're right about the low predictions being a 'safety feature' (and probably a motivational tool too)

Dc school were open about doing this for GCSE when we queried at parents' evening - 'we know she'll get at least a 5'

She got 8s

Dd1 has gone into school despite only having the hated CEIL ('General Studies' type thing) lesson all day! First time she has achieved this, for her when she gets home

It’s becoming increasingly difficult to navigate risk areas given the variance of cases per 100k even from anecdotal posts here. Compounded by the knowledge that some regions are marketing heavily to come visit in half term (Cornwall, Lake District etc) vs Wales’ attack on a travel journalist. I worked in the travel sector for many years (pre 9/11 and post) and it’s really saddening to see my old colleagues who remained loyal and absolutely love their jobs all out of work or retraining at a mature age.

I’m sorry you’ve not managed to see family since xmas Anne.

We’re awaiting DD test results post high temperature over the weekend. She’s home with no fever today, but remains of a headache and bad back. My gut says flu, but who knows as they all present so differently!

Do you think there are any low risk areas at all? When I first put nhs app on my phone it said 4 cases per 100,000 and a medium risk in our area. So how low would it need to be for low risk?

DD came home on Friday and has been told she is predicted Bs for all 3 subjects. This is based on no assessments so far She is a bit confused as she got two 9s and a 7 at GCSE for the A level subjects she has chosen so no new subjects. I just said it's a prediction that's all. Smash it and show them what you're capable of.
I think lots of schools give low predictions so they can be smug when a DC gets a higher grade as it's good value added to their school. DD was told she would get all 6s at GCSE in year 9 (3 year GCSE course at her school) but in year 7 she was told all As as her CATs were high.

Looks like we're heading for a local mini lockdown based on news this morning as we're in a medium risk area. I wonder which areas are low risk or if medium is the lower category. I'm not surprised as her school have been doing practice tests for online learning "just in case" so DD had to log in to a new link to check it was working last week at home so school could see which students could / couldn't access it.
Guess our visit to London won't be happening in half term now. Was hoping to visit family we've not seen since last Christmas.

We watch Question of Sport, Top Gear, Only Connect as a family.

Both DCs like watching 80s pop programmes with me (not DHs thing).

DD likes watching Agatha Christie mysteries with me. Sewing Bee when that's on.

We all do our own thing on Netflix.

DD loves Ghosts too. Both my two rank history as one of their favourite subjects but DS has never got into Horrible Histories, he doesn't get all the double meanings and hates the singing. DD on the other hand knows every word.

We are enjoying All Creatures and GBBO. DS has also loved The Wire which we watched first time around and we just binged the box set with him. Liked The Haunting of Hill House and now watching the new one on Netflix. Loves Ghosts as he was a massive Horrible Histories fan - explains the history A level....