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

I have to admit that the only time I’ve been pinged, I decided to ignore it. I’d not long had covid myself and I knew that the only place I’d been in the last 48 hours was the garage to pick up my car. I was in the reception area for about 5 minutes. As far as I’m aware you have to be in close contact for 15 minutes to have to isolate. And I wasn’t even within 2m of anyone! So I’m not sure how accurate they are.

Just checking in! Ds's school are finally checking in with UCAS stuff: intro session online tonight and they have a day of post school talks and immersion tomorrow: heavily uni focused, and first draft of PS needs to be handed in by 12th July: put DS in a bit of a panic as he'd not heard that before (although I bet it's been mentioned!!) and has his EPQ presentation to deliver before then too (full draft of EPQ in today thank goodness). He's definitely starting to engage more with unis, but it's slow and somewhat uphill. We've booked in for the Bath stay and tour (thanks again for that link @Piggywaspushed) and booked an overnight in a cambridge college too over the hols (thanks to whoever put that link up!) He's not anticipating Oxbridge, but his grades to date would suggest it's at least a faint possibility, and dd is keen to see it so we thought we'd just enjoy a weekend somewhere beautiful anyway!

Wonder of wonders the mock results so far have been good (B, B) - no resits needed as yet. The maths tutor, counselling and kick up the arse generally seems to have had a result. I am well aware that we had the cultural, emotional and financial capital to do that though - lots of people dont and that seems unfair.

I still haven't heard about any being sent home or testing positive at our school. They probably aren't telling us. Though my friend works at the other local secondary and they haven't had any positive cases.

Must admit....I'm not keep on ds3 going on an end of year trip to a theme park in a few weeks. We are due to go on holiday 10 days later (only uk holiday)

Just tried to book DD vaccine but couldn't go any further than the date of birth. She'll be 18 in October so guess we will have to wait until then

OThank you, crazycrofter. It helps to know I’m broadly in line. I think I was a bit lax with my others, or times have changed. The school aren’t as clued up with care experienced students as I would have liked, so I’ve been grateful for the knowledge in this thread. They have been good generally.

I was going to post that my DS's school hasn't had any issues, then today a bubble got sent home. Luckily mine isn't in the bubble, but he was so worried, he doesn't want to miss out on all the end of year/birthday parties this weekend. Hopefully the governement will change the ruling as it is so disruptive.

@Zebracat, your Dd deserves it far more than mine - we just happen to live in a very deprived area and Dd went to a failing primary. Even with my Dd, I do tend to do things for her if she’s stressed/got a lot on. E.g. I wrote some letters on her behalf to see if she could get some work experience and I arranged for her to do some tutoring work. I think it’s fine, she still had to do the hard bit! So in your case I think I’d write the application for her, with her at hand to check what you’re writing!

@crazycrofter we are hoping to get onto the access to Southampton stuff too. Closing date is Friday, but it’s inherited teens birthday today and then we are going away on Friday so unless I tie her to a chair tomorrow and make her write the application, it won’t happen. Reference has been done
I’m feeling really confused by how much to help with this stuff..I have a fear that if I’m too involved, at some point I’ll get told I pushed her. On the other hand , she doesn’t know what’s out there, she’s really busy and she does lack stamina from earlier deprivation.
There’s an Open day I mentioned to her but I know she didn’t take it in.

Sympathies @MrKlaw, I have been there myself and now DS is recreating my sixth form experience. Our wake up call was in January (CCU in interim report) and then he managed BCD in recent exams, so still a way to go. We are offering as much support as possible but it's tough to know when he needs a kick up the arse and when he needs a hug and to be reassured that he can do it. (We often get this wrong.) It's going to be a long year I think. Your DDs situation sounds tough and fixing the timetable a good place to start. As is tutoring, which naturally my DS is refusing 🙄
A level maths is hard of course, but with some good one to one teaching I'm sure she can find her way back if she wants to and if she believes she can.

@MrKlaw that was me in sixth form too! I pulled it out of the bag for history but only because the teacher made alarming comments about my coursework so I assumed it must be bad and revised hard for the exam. I got an A in history but Cs in the other two. I often think it’s made no difference at all in the long run! I’m in exactly the same sort of job as my Oxford educated / 4x A brother! But you’re right that it’s a more competitive world now….

@Seeline if you can’t make an open day, it’s still worth visiting the campus and city. We did for Southampton and I’m not sure what difference it would have made if we’d gone to an open day. I guess you see inside some accommodation? But it would have been busy and stressful!

@Monkey2001 I did get the Testi app although I probably could have done it through the gov.uk site as some of the earlier dates are still available there.

MrKlaw You’ve nailed it, ‘She’ has to want to do better. We went through this with ds1 who was gung-ho about everything till the end. Just keep encouraging her like you are, sometimes you also need to take a step back but it’s a very difficult dance. Most of them do pull their finger out towards the end though, although in these times of exam cancellations it’s not proved a good strategy.

MrKlaw I had a similar experience with gcse to A Level Maths too. Just wanted to sympathise. As you say, she’s got to want to do better. Sounds like you are being very supportive which is worth so much.

Thanks @SandyBayley and @estherfrewen - no we hadn't booked for the cancelled ones. DD's sudden change of heart on degree course meant that Birmingham hadn't cropped up before.....

I will try that link, but if not, I'll keep an eye open.

@ealingwestmum yes, that makes perfect sense. I have also been hearing from my west London based friends about this and we are just outside with a very big peak in cases in the large town DSs school is in so was hopeful we might be allowed to book online but this is clearly the wrong approach!

I wasn’t sure if site would allow for 1st jabs Justhere. It’s a sensitive line of ‘promoting’ vaccines available for

thanks for the responses. We really want to get her back with her peer group (she's in a totally different school 20 minutes away but part of the 'partnership' and the only one from her school in their class). We want the school to look at the timetabling to help for next year, and if we need to do private lessons we will. But she needs to want to do better.

We can’t do the new Birmingham days but have decided to put it as a choice and if he gets an offer we will go then. DS has done a lot of their online stuff

@MrKlaw - not really got any advice but much sympathy! Sounds very like my A levels after coasting O levels.

@Seeline - did you have a booking for the cancelled Birmingham Open Day? We got an email with a link to rebook - not sure if this will work for you. app.geckoform.com/public/#/modern/FOEU0260p3FbcLUr

@MrKlaw A lot of students in DSs school got low marks in maths end of years but they always seem to pull it out of the bag by Year 13 somehow. Fingers crossed that all is not lost!