Thread 18 - Corona Cohort Enrolling to Year 13 2021, Invasive Infections & Uni Uncertainty

[Orangecinnamon21]

Placeholder for new thread

@Fferny1: sounds like a really tough situation for your dd - and an unusual position from the school! Sounds like she feels that boarding and retaking will work for her - will she still be easily able to socialise with her 'old' year group or will it be more about joining a new gang for her? Really hope it goes smoothly for her.

All: any advice on re-engaging ds with uni stuff?! He got quite excited and motivating going along to a few online uni tours last term, but over the summer he's been doing EPQ, and a quite intensive online course and getting him to get back into uni evaluation mode is proving tricky: I've done some more work on his spreadsheet for him, but I really want him to own it so we can get some more uni tours booked in. He's easily overwhelmed by big tasks so I suspect I need to do some 'break it down' work with him, but any other suggestions?

@Piggywaspushed : how are you guys doing - is dh still looking covid free?

Sorry, and welcome @HarrietDVane (A fellow D.L.Sayers fan, I presume?!)

DH is either covid free or virtually syptomless. He reckons he is out of breath but o2 levels are fine (he worries about this as this was his first sign of heart infection and then the worry makes it worse) and eh ahs coughed maybe 8 times in 3 days... we are just seeing out the iso period with him, slightly on tenterhooks tbh.

Oh, and rest of us OK. DS1 back to normal (ie utterly uncommunicative and taciturn), DS2 coughing all the time, Piggy coughing and exhausted...

@AndwhenyougetthereFoffsomemore is he applying to Oxbridge? If not, there is not such a great hurry and it sounds liked he is working quite hard already and it may be best to wait for school to encourage him to think about it and wait for school/peer pressure. I worked away preparing spreadsheets for DS1 which I can now use for DS2, if you are happy to do research yourself, you can peruse the options so that when he wants to know you have everything at your fingertips. I have always found it is about timing, if you catch them in the right mood you can draw them in. You can also order prospectuses and leave them lying around.

So much uncertainty at the moment. There is talk of 2022 being another generous year for grades, although not on the 2021 scale, which will affect where their grades will be accepted.

My mum has just messaged to say she's had 2 positive lateral flow tests. She is now waiting for a test in the post. She's very overweight but is vaccinated. She says she has a cold but otherwise fine. She is too far away for me to help or get shopping. Hopefully she will be ok. She has a cleaner who takes her food shopping, the cleaner is unvaccinated and has covid. So that is where she caught it. She has carers that help her shower daily, they now can't go in.

I hope the rest of you with covid are feeling better.

Oh that's a nightmare @icanbewhatiwant

Oh no nightmare :(

This is worrying for our year if many this year defer...

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-58176877.amp

I'm really worried reading stuff like that @NCTDN , Leeds weren't the only Uni apparently either!

@AndwhenyougetthereFoffsomemore I think they all usually start to engage a bit more next term when they are with their peers & everyone is talking about their plans.

We are on our third child - his siblings knew exactly what they wanted to do but he has not finalised his subject yet. I’m hoping there will be some proper open days to help him decide. He’s also going through that delightful stage of not communicating!

With all three we have actually struggled to come up with a good short list - we live near London & none of them wanted to go there. I don’t think ds2 will apply to Oxbridge so that effectively rules out most of the top 10 unis for his possible subject. (I’d prefer if he also ruled out Scottish unis, Durham & Exeter due to distance!)

@icanbewhatiwant Sorry to hear that. Can you organise an online grocery delivery if she runs low? I did that when my older two kids had Covid at uni. Deliveroo also do groceries if she just needs a few bits.

@icanbewhatiwant sorry to hear that. I think my parents would have given an unvaccinated cleaner a long holiday as they are still anxious about catching it. Hope your mum is feeling OK with it. Does she have neighbours who can shop and keep an eye on her? I don't want to be alarmist, but Piggy is not the only fully vaccinated person I know of who spent a short time in hospital. Hope she gets through it easily.

Thanks. She has left a shopping list for a neighbour so hopefully ok. I have offered to order a Tesco shop, but she thinks she's ok.

I'm not impressed at the cleaner. She cleans for quite a few older people. My mum had her right through first lockdown too. Even though she shouldn't be working. My mum said she couldn't manage without her, plus she took her shopping. My mum isn't that old...74 but due to her weight can't get out much. So far she's not ill anyway. So hopefully she will be fine. She's never even had flu, so she's usually fairly healthy, it's just her weight. I know weight usually plays a part with covid.

I don't understand why a cleaner wouldn't get vaccinated. In and out of so many houses, meeting lots of people who are older etc. Hoicking my judgy pants right up.

On no @icanbewhatiwant is there any welfare support where your Mum lives? Have you tried the local Facebook page? Lots of volunteers where I live who do this sort of thing. Or try the gp surgery.
@Zandathepanda I've done things like that. I hope you're feeling more rested today.I
@Piggywaspushed sorry to hear you are feeling exhausted, burglar that your sickness is out of the way.
@AndwhenyougetthereFoffsomemore yes she still will. There's a space she says in her friends flat of 12 so I have my instructions to request this at 9 today. But if that's not possible she's happy to be with some new 6.1's. She's always been very sociable and good at making friends.
Thanks @ealingwestmum & @PaddingtonPaddington yes doing what dd wants is the right thing I hope.
@Orangecinnamon21 the cost difference is great but dh has offered one year. In order for her to settle down. One other factor is she's young in her year. She only turned 17 a couple of weeks ago. She also entered puberty very late. So she was really mature and good at everything until then, but then all of a sudden wasn't.
@SandyBayley that sounds a fabulous day. Yes, dd's school definitely seems to be an outlier here. The exam guy at her school has been kind & reliable though. My brother also had to repeat a year at M.G.S. and it worked well for him. So we have set a family precedence.I
@Monkey2001 yes very true about the Bartlett. But she wouldn't have got any offers with her predictions other than a foundation year. Which she doesn't want to do now.

Can I just say how lovely you've all been over a very stressful couple of days . Thank you all.

You’d be surprised how low the % is for care workers who are fully vaccinated Piggy. It is shockingly low.

Oh no icanbewhatiwant , sorry to hear that. We used to have a supply of the Cook Food meals for Mum in the freezer which really helped, they deliver in our area. Milkandmore were also very handy.

Yes she's ordered freezer meals.

@Piggywaspushed DH's daughter and husband won't have vaccines either. They don't want stuff in their bodies that shouldn't be there. Their 5 year old hadn't had all the baby vaccines. I don't understand it. Mind you...I turned down a covid vaccine for my 12 year old yesterday. So I guess I can't talk. I'm just not sure yet. But I want my 17 year old done. The rest of us are vaccinated.

DS's ex GF is Polish and her very lovely parents worked in a care home and A&E but were refusing the vaccine last time I spoke to them. I think there's are cultural issues and many eastern Europeans take the cleaning and care home jobs Brits are not so keen on.

I saw the interview on GMTV with Nick Gibbs. It sounded like next year the marking will be much harsher. Please can someone reassure me and tell me I misunderstood.

Found you. Thanks for the new thread Orange.

Good luck to any who are finding out GCSE results today. DD has gone into school today for 8am to help out and encourage students to come to the 6th form. Was weird hearing her at 6.30am pottering about - normally after noon now it's holidays I took her in as it's raining here so was weird for me getting up so early too and doing that familiar journey.

Just marking my place. Gcse and Alex results were all high apparently, does this fare well for ours next year?

@FedNlanders

Just marking my place. Gcse and Alex results were all high apparently, does this fare well for ours next year?

I find it difficult to see anything good for our lot about the inflated grades this year.

I can’t see it being good for ours next year (like I am sure several of us I will be having the A Level/GCSE double whammy next year).