Corona Cohort Y12 into Y13, braving the storm of the third wave

Dd is volunteering at a Christian festival at the end of July and they were confident it was going ahead even before Monday’s announcement. I guess they’d already reduced numbers and allowed for distancing? But my kids are pleased about the rule changes as their camps can go ahead.

I think how you feel depends on whether you’ve already had covid and of course, whether you/your children are vulnerable. I’m sorry to hear some of your kids are anxious about it.

Yep, both DD and I are pretty shocked and nervous that anyone with COVID after Aug 16th only has to isolate but not their contacts so those contacts are merrily infecting whoever they meet. Would hope that our DC would inform their friends if they were a close contact of a friend who'd got it so they could make their own informed decision whether to meet up or not.
Is this new rule so that schools don't have whole bubbles isolating and therefore missing school when just one person has tested positive? Seems they want our youngsters to be the herd immunity guinea pigs

@Heifer until lockdown last year we did 10 days in Swansea every summer/5 days at Easter - not for pleasure! - DS was swimming Welsh nationals. DH is from Cardiff, so possibly biased, but Swansea is not the most exciting city or that attractive although it has improved a lot since we first went in 2014. DS swum at the University pool and the sport there is fantastic and the University itself looked amazing re facilities etc and right on the beach. The beach is beautiful and the Mumbles etc, but the city was bombed to bits I believe in the war and is a mishmash of buildings etc. Cafes are improving though and by the marina near the museum etc is very nice now. We know someone at Uni there now and they love it.

We aren’t going anywhere over the summer either - DS only off for 5 weeks and one week of that is a lifeguard course. Probably just days out at Unis and wait for next year for something really good hopefully.

Dd is horrified that restrictions are being lifted before they have been vaccinated. Cases round here seem worse than ever.
She has a ticket for Nottingham but now we can't go. That's the only place we've seen that is a real life visit.

Thanks for the reminder re Vitamin D - I bought loads and stopped taking it a while back - need to get back on it.

Thanks for the replies to my questions, really helpful, especially those about Swansea uni itself. Has anyone been to Swansea itself recently? what's it like?

@EwwSprouts - Nottingham is apparently on DDs radar - which I didn't know. Had a look myself and does look good, although she did say she would prefer a uni with colleges but wants to take a good look at the course. Hockey seems ok at the uni itself but yes Beeston HC would be great too.

Nottingham Uni has an actual opening day on Saturday but it's too short notice for us. It's over 2 hrs drive and can't leave the dogs at the moment. Hopefully there will be more.

Can you remind me which uni opening days you all have planned? either in person or virtual?

DD is pleased about the restrictions being lifted as it will mean that Leeds and Parklife festivals will be on but thinks it mad that person don't have to wear masks on public transport.

Are we the only family not got a holiday booked over summer? Is everyone else happy to go abroad if allowed? I am really start to regret our decisiont to leave it as we didn't want to go abroad of pay mad prices to holiday in the UK - We have 2 dogs (1 very tricky) so cant camp as we have often done, and I couldn't find a holiday cottage I liked within 2 hours of us (has to be walkable to the sea or not a holiday in my eye ;-). We decided we would save the money and use it to go to New York or something in December when DD is 18 and DH 60 (I am obviously lot younger) ;-) but then a doctor friend of ours pointed out recently that they doubted it would be ok to go on a city holiday to new york by December.

DD isn't going away with friends after all as they thought they would as the houses they could use were in the middle of nowhere.

I have a feeling this is going to be a long disappointing summer for DD who has been looking forward to it so much. PLEASE let the festivals be on at least.

Fools, DS (15) got really unwell back in February with a mystery illness.
Eventually, blood tests showed severe vitamin D3 deficiency and he was given 3 months mega dose, followed by a permanent maintenance dose.
It’s only in the last month or so that he’s been fully well again - makes me wonder how many other students have suffered from being locked in for so long.

@Fiddlersgreen - yes you can take the theory test anywhere you like. I can't see why re-booking would be any different.

I do think looking around is good for most kids (but if you are able enough to get places at York and Exeter maybe it isn't necessary if you know it's great anyway?) Sussex is a good uni.

I dragged took DS1 to lots of unis and Open Days totally backfired on me. He hated everywhere and became more and more apathetic!

@icanbewhatiwant I’m feeling really anxious about DS being far away. Maybe it was his tone when I mentioned visiting for a weekend

Does anyone know if you can take the theory test at any centre? Trying to book for DS but the site goes up to November and nothing anywhere near here in that time but have found a couple of slots in Devon when we’ll be there and wondering whether to book.

If you fail, can you rebook at a different centre or would it need to be the same one?!

Thanks @Piggywaspushed and @20newnames Yes I should think business is popular. He won't be wanting to go to a higher end university. He is set on Sussex at the moment. He is looking at history with philosophy, possibly a year abroad too. I wish he'd look round a university. Even just UEA our nearest one...just to get the feel of it. But he won't. My friends dc's didn't look round any either, they didn't see the point. Her ds1 is 2nd year at exeter and her dd2 is hoping to go to York in sept. If it were me I'd want to look round. I enjoyed looking round with ds1 but as I've said before it's our nearest university so we didn't get to go far. So I was hoping ds2 would like to go further away visiting a new city. There's always Ds 3...

@Monkey2001 - my DS was delighted by the PM’s announcement - I suppose it is to be expected that teenagers will have different views about it in the same way we do. I’m sure part of his attitude is because he had the Kent variant in November (tested positive) and had zero symptoms - didn’t so much as clear his throat or sneeze. It was amazing - his school had been doing brilliantly with no disruption at all. And overnight the entire school had to close and they had huge numbers of positive cases. DS promptly gave it to DH and I (DD didn’t get it) - we were quite ill for 2 weeks but then 100% better. DD’s school was also badly affected last year. So as a family we definitely feel less anxious, especially as DH and I have had both jabs.

In terms of which variant is worse I have no idea. But what I do know is with doctors having learnt so much in the last year and the repurposing and mixing of medicines as well as new treatments we’re in a much, much better place. One of my colleagues sadly died from covid in April last year and a very close friend was ventilated for over 3 months beginning the first weekend of lockdown in March. And the NHS was brilliant but didn’t know what to expect and weren’t anticipating all the possible complications. A not-so-close friend went into hospital with it earlier this year - only there for a few days and apparently was told by hospital staff that they are so much better equipped to deal with patients now. I guess the lesson is you definitely don’t want to be one of the first to get a new illness.

Sorry to hear of anxious DCs. But I do think (hope) that they are being kind and understanding to each other. Not as judgmental and intolerant as the grown ups.

Business varies massively in quality of course and employability. It all depends on the course and the university.

Something like international management and modern languages at Bath or similar at Warwick and you are playing a completely different ballgame to ‘business’ at a lower end university. The top ones have very high employability and are sought after, the less prestigious ones very much less so.

DD has recently been diagnosed as being deficient in vitamin D, as has a friend’s DD. DD is going to have s maintenance dose permanently apparently.

I think business degrees generally have quite low employability but that depends on the uni and course. I guess that is largely because so many unis offer business so there are a lot of business graduates. Often they do end up in lower paid, unrelated jobs.

That said, the degrees with high employability are obvious and very specific - eg healthcare.

Ds has had talks today at school about university. They started filling out ucas stuff online. He's now thinking he wants to apply for university incase he can't get a degree apprenticeship. If he applied and then does find an apprenticeship, is it easy to drop out the university application? I'm assuming he will know whether he's found an apprenticeship before he accepts offers, but if not and accepts offers, is it still easy to drop out?

He's still not sure whether to go for history at university (with ethics at Sussex uni) or business studies. He's thinking a business degree will be better job prospect wise. He doesn't really enjoy business. I didn't go to university, but I feel it's silly going for a subject you don't enjoy, maybe I'm wrong. But I have given my opinion that I think he should study something he enjoys.

Some of your dc's are getting great results. Ds's will be 15th.

@MidLifeCrisis007 yes I agree however I need to work on that healthy BMI

Sorry meant vitamin D not A (but A is good too!)

@Fiddlersgreen. It annoys me that more hasn't been made of the benefit of taking vitamin A tablets. Apparently HRT is good for us women of a certain age too in terms of boosting immunity. But above all I was always incensed about the way we were "permitted" to leave our house to exercise once a day like it was some sort of privilege. We should have been forced to go outside and exercise! So many lives could be saved by getting the overweight to focus on reducing their BMI. A healthy BMI is akin to being treble vaccinated!

My first thought when I heard that was ' so just uni students then?' OKaaayyyy....

@monkey2001 he’s just been very lucky!
We have all been taking a multivitamin and separate vitamin D since I’d read they could help, way back in the beginning of covid. We will continue because it’s obviously better for us than not taking them

DS2 had Delta apparently, he just had a sniffle and a minor cough. Debating whether he was actually asymptomatic and just had hay fever or something it whether it was actual covid.
He’s completely fine now and we are finally free tomorrow.