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

Oh Piggy, that’s not good. Are you totally recovered from March? I am pretty much permanently wheezing still from whatever I had.

Week 4 for DS, can’t believe 3 done already.

Thanks for the link Minstrel, that will be handy for a lot of us pretty soon.

The Facebook group WIWiKAU (what I wish I knew about university) now has a website with forums on specific universities and pre- university questions /
www.wiwikau.co.uk

Uh oh. Positive staff case in my school.

My department...

All quite on the Western Front here since our email of doom. seems to have been an isolated case, although DS says a lot of his sociology class were off this week awaiting tests...

Must admit we swerved the indoor football match this week! Seemed a risk too far!! Not sure his team knew they were only allowed for the first time on Thursday!

Thanks everyone. Yep, just sweaty and waiting for the train. Police were already at the station when he got there - not sure if it was a random check, or whether they’d been called earlier for some reason. Definitely think teen boys are a general target @RedskyAtnight your story is another classic case in point! DS was quite agitated when he got home but it sounds as if they dealt with him quite kindly and luckily he had karate that night which really helped him calm down.

@OrangeCinnamon1 oh gosh I’m not sure what the long term effect of all this on dc will be. I am hoping the positives might be increased resilience, tolerance for change and consideration for others. I do worry about their normal human and emotional development in the light of having to maintain social distance - for this entire generation of kids, not just the teens. For example I’m watching tv programmes recorded before covid and find myself wincing when people hug or shake hands - instinctive reaction is already “eek no, don’t touch, keep 2m apart!” We’re becoming so conditioned that being close to people is “wrong” in some way because of the need to social distance - and if I’m reacting like that what’s it going to do to impressionable youngsters who will swiftly forget what was once normal and healthy? Especially if, like many of our DC on here, they are on the autistic spectrum and struggle with “normal” anyway? I do wonder how it’s going to impact young people’s ability to develop normal, healthy relationships (by which I mean any human relationship-not just romantic).

Strange times we are living in for sure.

That's really worrying for your DS Flying - hope he wasn't too shaken up by the encounter.

I agree totally that teenage boys are so often treated with suspicion, just for being really.

We had an incident in lockdown where DH was relocating the cable that goes through the wall to the outside broadband box. DS was stood outside our front window looking at his phone, in bare feet, in broad daylight in the middle of the afternoon whilst waiting for DH to thread the cable through. A passerby stopped and demanded to know what he was doing and then insisted on knocking on the door and getting DH to corroborate his story on the basis that you couldn't be too careful. As DS said at the time, it's highly unlikely that I (middle aged woman) or DD (petite 14 year old girl) would have been similarly cross examined if we'd been doing the same thing. (DS also pointed out that if he'd been a housebreaker he'd be a pretty useless one to have been standing aimlessly outside in the middle of the day without any shoes on)

FlyingPandas aw your poor DS. How terrifying for him. Had the station staff called the police or did they just happen to be there for another reason? Your height as a teenager can really affect how people perceive you. My DD's friend isn't quite 5ft and gets mistaken for much younger whereas your DS being so tall had a different experience and mistaken for an adult in this situation esp out of uniform now in 6th form.

My goodness @FlyingPandas that’s worrying about the police stop, so he was just waiting for a train looking a bit sweaty and stressed? I think we’ve all been there quite frankly and I wouldn’t like the police having a chat with me about it!

Sorry to hear about poorly DCs, my eldest (a level) one is fine so far and quite enjoying his courses, only one slightly not great teacher so far, which he can cope with. His younger brother has come down with a sore throat and a snotty nose over the past couple of days, temperature is up but not at worrying levels, hopefully a nice quiet weekend will set him right.

Hope everyone has a nice restful weekend - who knows what next week is going to throw at us!

@FlyingPandas: ds is the same in terms of heat regulation (also ASD) - I hadn't realised it was an ASD thing until I learn about it a few years ago, that 'loopback' to tell him he is hot/cold/hungry/needs the loo just doesn't work brilliantly. I hope your ds wasn't too shook up - that's the sort of thing that mine would be utterly thrown by :-(

Great news for everyone needing to get their fourth grades dropped: this year with all the challenges that the winter is likely to throw at us, it really seems like a pragmatic decision. And great news on the grade change too, @JustHereWithMyPopcorn

Ds is happy as he had a test to confirm whether they could stay in maths A level and he passed with flying colours - it's given him a real boost :-) I do love his 'gang' too: one of them has introduced him to an online revision flashcard tool which medical student used, and he's apparently added over 50 flashcards for psychology already :-) You can add in sentences with gaps or questions etc. DS says its lucky in terms of the look and interface but he likes the functionality and all the stats it throws out: Anki is anyone is interested :-)

Hi everyone. Haven’t been around much this week but great to read up on how the DC are getting on. Good news on the dropping of 4th subjects for those who wanted to, and on the revised grade for DS @JustHereWithMyPopcorn! Hope you manage to sort maths for DD, @pasanda - that sounds tough. @MirandaWest what a nightmare re the email of doom. I would love to get to half term at least with none of mine sent home but I fear that’s a forlorn hope....

Mixed bag to report here. Academically I think DS is fine and keeping on top of stuff, and he likes all his classmates and teachers bar one teacher he’s not as keen on.

On a less positive note he’s been under the weather all week - a heavy cold (though no covid symptoms thankfully) and then woke up this morning doubled over with stomach cramps and quite distressed, suspect it was anxiety related as this has happened on starting new schools before. He also had a nerve wracking experience at the station this week - stopped by police because they thought he looked dodgy It was a super hot afternoon and DS was flustered and overheated and probably quite wild eyed as he was very stressed and had run to the station - and one of his slightly bizarre ASD traits is that he won’t take jackets or jumpers off unless actively told to, even if sweating buckets - so I can totally imagine that, at over 6ft with wild eyes and dripping sweaty hair, he would have looked quite unnerving pacing around the platform. Thankfully all was fine once they spoke to him and realised he was just a stressed out student - thank God too that he is the kind of teen who would be polite and respectful to those in authority rather than cocky or rude! But it was a sobering reminder that tall teenaged boys (especially stressed and sweaty ones with awkward social skills!) will be seen by those in authority as “up to no good” even when they’re just waiting for the train.

I’m glad it’s Friday...

Just dropping by, I haven't posted for a couple of weeks. Sorry about the email of doom Miranda - I think that's going to be happening to a lot of us. My year 10 DD has been doing a refresher on Teams at school this week to be prepared, just in case.

DS seems to have hit the ground running in 6th form (stayed at the same school). However transport is proving to be more of a challenge, he had transport in his EHCP till year 11 but you don't automatically get it for 6th form so we are doing a mixture of public transport and lifts but it's time consuming, tricky and sometimes stressful (all trains home were cancelled on the first day back so I had a long round trip to fetch him). Still, it's the weekend now.

It is frustrating as he’s really been enjoying 6th form so far. But it is what it is

Well DS managed 8 days of school before the email of doom aka year 12 and 13 can’t come back to school until Monday 28th. And he was about to go to his girlfriends house.

They’ll be having zoom lessons and he said he’s going to work out a lot

The confirmed case is in his maths class but I am going to try and remain optimistic that DS will be all right.

Justherewithpopcorn Brilliant and fair outcome. Congratulations!

Seems the dyslexic kids are being allowed to drop now, all others til half term.

Congrats for getting the grade changed andthe 4th Alevel dropped- that is very good news!

I’m very relieved I must say! The school were not exactly enthusiastic but I’m glad I pushed it for him.

Good news on your DD. 👍🏻👍🏻

@JustHereWithMyPopcorn that is good news. Well done on appealing.

DD just texted - sense prevailed and she can drop her fourth A level.

Happy Friday afternoon everyone. I have a tiny bit of positive news, it looks like DS had a successful appeal on one of his GCSE marks. It still only gives him his mock grade but better than being given below his mock grade for sure!

Glad she's got it sorted @seeline, that was quick work! And good that she's so independent and decisive.

Dd had moved on from Spanish by the time she got home yesterday thankfully! They have to do enrichment but the options are limited this year, so she's thinking she might do Mandarin! Again, the boy on the train is doing Mandarin.... there seems to be a pattern! But it's not a bad idea. I'm glad she's settled on three subjects instead of four, as I think she needs her frees.

DS said that several people in his school have already dropped their 4th. I think the school like them to start 4 in case they don't like one of the main 3, but the normal thing is to drop one by Christmas or do an AS if you want to keep going for the year (which is what DS1 did).

DD would love that at shirt folder too Heifer

Kingscote love the bringing in bread rota idea. Is it just for her form as one loaf wouldn't go far for a whole year group as I know teens are gannets

DD has won her case for swapping her 4th subject! The head of 6th form seemed very impressed that she had already discussed the matter with both the departments involved. Said it was a bit late in the day (they've only been back 2 weeks!), but her online timetable has changed this morning so it must have been agreed 😁