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

We have a holiday booked for 2nd week (first whole week too), I’m tempted to pull kids out now but it’s looking like they are going to stop isolation so we shall go on holiday even if they are in contact. Dd1 was isolating last week and now Dd2 is isolating this week after a case at her school 😬, dd1 has isolated twice and dd2 twice. They have missed out on so much school and I’m totally fed up being stuck at home. Dd2 has ASD so can’t be left on her own.

We have a holiday booked second week of school hols. Only in the uk. We don't go abroad anyway. None of us have ever had to isolate, so I can just see that happening before we are meant to go. Ds3 is off to a theme park at the end of school year. I'm not keen on him going really. He doesn't have nhs app though as he doesn't have a phone, so I hope he's ok.

Ds2 has a driving test Aug. but with no school hopefully he won't be in any sort of isolation.

Sorry to hear some of your dc's are positive. I hope they stay well.

...oh and the student nickname for the city is Chibiza which always makes me giggle. Bognor campus is BogVegas for some reason.

Chichester is lovely, the issue is that WE think it is lovely and charming, convincing teenagers it's what they want is another matter .

To be fair the lack of clubbing is not an issue for a lot of students nowadays. The town centre gets quite lively of an evening and there is always Bognor and Portsmouth for proper clubbing.

EalingW Thanks. Daytime TV today was Mary Berry at Goodwood. Look fab and hats were the order of the day. Were you behatted?

Just returned from that neck of the woods, was at an event at Goodwood all weekend. Stunning part of the country.

What dreadful timing Eww, so sorry.

I love Chichester. My mum lives there. I was there on Friday.

We're only about 45 mins from Chichester and my parents live en route so we'll probably pop in and see them. I like Chichester.

EverythingDelegated ha-ha the difference between girls and lads eh. To be honest that was her fave thing in the bag, the prospectus hasn't been opened but the pen caused a convo being as it's apparently biodegradable but that's it
Think we did the SU too, was it the building with the Dance club on the ground floor?
Can't book Chichester until the Autumn but we have Sussex booked for the 2nd Oct I believe. Not sure we'll do the campus tour of Chichester as it's only an hour and it's quite a drive away from us for just for an hour plus DD on W/E when they have slots or still at school or when we're away. I'll do the virtual one with DD after mocks.

Yes, we did make it to Winchester, DS has taken zero interest in the goody bag! Didn't even look at what was in it. We have one of those straw bottle brushes already, they are ever so handy.

We missed the canteen, but did the SU, we didn't do the whole tour having done it very thoroughly at half term and it seemed so crowded by comparison yesterday. We did go in both accommodation blocks, talked to the subject leader for the course and had a bit of a wander round generally. It's definitely high on DS's list.

We have booked a campus tour of Chichester in a couple of weeks and a couple more open days in September/October.

EversoDelighted and EverythingDelegated did you lake it to Winchester's open day and if so what did you think?
DD loved the goodie bag, especially the reusable straw and cleaning brush. We got to speak to a subject leader and a student who'd just finished the first year as well as sample the canteen food and look around the library and uni bar. Was an exhausting full packed session but the weather held which was great.

Sorry to hear your DS has tested positive EwwSprouts hope he's doing okay and not too poorly.

Great idea re the SI before car driving tests and holidays.

DD has a full packed week of mocks but gets to have study leave and leave after exams so that's a bonus. She's spent most of the weekend revising and going over essay question plans (when she wasn't looking round Winchester Uni - will have to go back in the summer hols to explore the town as she didn't want to miss out on revising). We did the park and ride which proved to be very easy so will do that again.

Thanks Zanda. Useful to know. At the moment ice-cream is the preferred medication!

…and I forgot Dd1 had taken my lockdown 1 stock-up to Uni!

Ewwsprouts commiserations. Tip: for online you can only get so many paracetamol and ibuprofen so you may want to add a pack on each time. We only get a weekly shop though.

That’s really rough, Ewww, I’m so sorry - as if our teens haven’t missed out on enough already

Term finishes on Friday for us. Speech day will be online for parents, which makes me sad because I’m one of the (seemingly) minority of parents who genuinely love seeing other people’s kids get given prizes, and it’s always nice to see all the teachers in one place.

DD is off to Boardmasters in August and DS is off to a residential music course before then, so plenty of time between school ending and any positive tests BUT DD will almost certainly want to be out with large groups of friends, and DS and DH are off to the British Grand Prix at Silverstone…along with150,000 other people 😳

I’ve only just realised, to my shame, that none of us have the track and trace app

Thanks everyone for the commiserations. It's just a bit odd as DS is anther who's never off school. I've just done my first online grocery order as I kept going to the shops throughout on the basis others had far greater need of online shopping.

@Oblomov21 I totally understand, so few things have gone ahead and the driving test has become a huge nightmare to get. My DS's test is in the school holidays, so I am hopeful the risk for him is gone!
@Monkey2001 my DS is driving me mad too. Although, they have only just finished mocks-I think they are tired and need a break. The trouble is although DS is bright, those tests need some practice. I've left it up to him, it is his future-I can't keep nagging!!

Honestly I don't know Oblomov. It's not just our holiday that's at stake, the builders will be starting our new kitchen that week and we have jiggles so many suppliers and tradespeople. The DCs won't want to stay off school, they have literally had one sick day each in secondary school. They won't want to not go to swimming, football etc either. DH and I have to go to work too.

Sorry to test that Eww.

I don't know what others are planning to do / suggest?

As delegated says:
"when you have a long awaited holiday, celebration, event tickets" ....

Friends of mine are going on a "self imposed lockdown", from the last day of the school term (23rd July) so thry aren’t positive for a longed for cruise.

Both my ds's always go to school, never ill, and had 100% record for every year in primary and secondary.

I know not else what to do. Other than to suggest to Ds1 in order to protect himself, he doesn't go, as of the week before his driving test. I suspect this would be met with a face.

This may sound ridiculous to anyone else on the planet. But teaching him to drive, trying to get a test, using other posters here's help to use 2 x apps to get a test in July rather than originally booked September, that I would focus so much on a driving test, rather than a holiday, health of the nation, not getting covid generally, but seriously it's been so painful, I myself can't bear the thought of him not sitting his test!

What is everyone else going to do? For ... holidays/events/things that are important to them?

Oh no @EwwSprouts I’m so sorry to hear this! Such bad timing with the Wimbledon tickets too.

DS2 is now showing no symptoms at all and we are on day 8 of our isolation with him. The rest of us have had negative lateral flows today so hoping we can be free on Wednesday!
Am I right in thinking DS2 is now not meant to take lateral flows for 90 days after his positive result?
Am wondering how that will work with regards to testing before an event etc

Oh, hope he will be OK and recover quickly sprouts. Sorry about the tickets .

Sorry to hear that "Eww*. We are worried too as we are going away a week to the day after the DCs break up and I'm convinced they're going to end up having to SI. It wasn't so bad in lockdown but when you have a long awaited holiday, celebration, event tickets and you know its almost certainly only going to be mild now it's much harder to bear.

DS has tested positive, he's fine apart from snotty. We got centre court tickets in the ballot :(
I know it's a luxury & am very grateful to have been vaccinated.

Oblomov21 this is the problem isn’t it. Pupils and parents have got events lined up after all this time and it feels like it’s almost a dead cert that if they go to school they have to isolate for 10 days at some point. Or worse, what happened to an acquaintance, test positive the last few days of isolation then have to isolate for another 10! We haven’t got holidays planned but I would be seriously considering what to do from the 13th onwards.