Thread 19 - Corona Cohort, Enrolling on Year 13, hopefully NOT unlucky for some

[OrangeCinnamonCocktail]

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[quote Monkey2001]@JustHereWithMyPopcorn are you sure that none of your existing WIFI boosters have an ethernet socket? If they do you could just plug one of those in in his room and have a short ethernet cable. We also have WiFi blocking walls and kitchen is through what used to be an external wall, the thing I linked is the only one which has worked reliably for us.[/quote]
He has one in his room (for his switch and iPad) and we tried that first but it didn't work sadly.

Not that exact version Monkey but similar - we've been through a few types some are complete rubbish but the ones we have currently are generally pretty good.

@crazycrofter agree, school definitely will have more sway!

We did Lancaster open day and DS loved it. This was May half term. Campus was very quiet then. It is about 30 minutes walk end to end. Great sports centre. We couldn’t go into accommodation unfortunately.

@Piggywaspushed: feel free to carry on telling me to foff ;-)

3 hours to write EPQ is inpressive!! I can see it could be feasible if you’d genuinely done the plan well

Taking tech notes on your wifi approaches ;-)

I'm pretty sure dd has got nowhere with her personal statement. She didn't go to the off-timetable workshop day for a start. Her ASC has meant that all her hobbies are solitary, so no positions of responsibility/music grades/sports etc. I'm also pretty sure she won't let on that she is autistic on the form either, and she doesn't want to mention her mental health struggles. I really hope the school will say something!

DS has not started his personal statement yet. Well he said he had but... actually turns out he has drafted a couple of sentences which will need re-doing. Once he decided not to apply to Cambridge the urgency went. I do need to get him back on the ball again soon.

He was in a really foul mood yesterday as he realised the homework he was meant to hand in today (first day back) took far longer than expected. It was meant to be 10 hours work and whenever I have mentioned it over the past few weeks he has said not to nag him and that he'll get it done in time. He was in such a foul mood as it was taking far far longer (to quote him "it might take ten hours if you're Albert F'ing Einsten").

He hasn't finished it and will have to go in and say so today. Entirely his own fault and I struggled not to do the "I told you so" routine. He cannot stand being criticised or being wrong at all so it will kill him to admit he hasn't done it to the teacher.

EPQ wasn’t done in 3 hours. She’d done loads of research, made lots of notes and so knew what needed to be written. She had no choice as it was either brought forward massively or she had misunderstood the deadline. It was probably no bad thing as she might have tinkered forever. It worked for me too, I wrote my dissertation for my MA overnight, again no choice as DS1 had whooping cough and the summer disappeared.

DD finally starting to look at open days now the summer hols are over...

Birmingham this weekend - friends dad taking them... ok.

Falmouth on the 29th.. Er how you getting there on a Wednesday? Oh midnight train from slough to Truro with your friends? Wife not happy but not sure other options...

it'll be a lovely place to visit if she goes there but you realise how lucky you are when your kids are closer to home. DS is in Bath which is only 90 minutes down the M4

It's a tricky on @mrklaw at least she will be with friends

Yeah. And I pointed out if she goes to uni next year she'll be on her own. She needs to spread her wings a bit already. We're always more nervous with her than DS

I discovered yesterday that Albert F'ing Einstein got his wife to do nearly all his work for him...!

@Piggywaspushed

I discovered yesterday that Albert F'ing Einstein got his wife to do nearly all his work for him...!

🤣Like the song "behind every great man, there has to be a great woman!"

@mrklaw have they looked at the sleeper train from London to Plymouth? Nice way to travel and not arrive exhausted!

[quote Monkey2001]@mrklaw have they looked at the sleeper train from London to Plymouth? Nice way to travel and not arrive exhausted![/quote]
No - just did a Trainline search. Who runs it?

Ah they were looking to get the reading train at 00:49 so that’s the same train. So either head to london or I can drop them at reading and they can book a cabin. Sounds good, thanks!

Ahhh sleeper train with my then boyfriend (now husband)…..takes me back.

It is nice to start from London as you can get on the train early and sort yourself out without any travel stress.

@MrKlaw always worth reading the man in seat61 for train travel www.seat61.com/sleeper-to-cornwall.htm

Ah yes, a few years ago I had plans to take the DCs interrailing and discovered the man in Seat61 then, its a very useful website.

DS has done a very rough first draft of his PS. But a lot of his hobbies (sports) aren't relevant. I was wondering whether to mention overcoming disabilities too, he has an EHCP and gets PIP so they are significant. Not done much EPQ work though. But he has done a significant amount of schoolwork.

Slight diversion (sorry, but had to share with someone). Last September we welcomed our new law trainees by delivering a laptop to their homes and then trying to get to know them and train them online. I honestly think it was the most depressing part of my professional career. Today we've welcomed the new intake IN PERSON. Even though we weren't able to do our "normal" welcome (no drinks evenings, no travel between offices etc) it was so nice to actually meet them. I feel very strongly that for all of its advantages, working from home has been quite awful for juniors and those starting in their careers. And I can tell if people are actually listening to me when we're all in a room in a way I can't online. So a very exciting day for me. End of diversion!

Zanda Thanks for the link. Gah, we didn't see that as the one way system was interesting... Some of the roads were blocked closed on campus and everyone turn I took security seemed to be behind us. We did wonder if they have ongoing security issues because when we did walk around there were security vans all over the place.

Heifer Nottingham to me seemed like a small version of a big city. Quite compact centre, usual shops, not too many empty shops, more visible homelessness than we have round here (northern city). I think DS would be happy with campus, sport & the Coop at the end of the drive.

Lancaster has proper open days in Sept & Oct. Hoping to take DS.

BlueM DS likes York but it doesn't have an optional Zoology module in any year and that's put him off.

@Horace123 - that's nice to hear. We've just gone back to face to face meetings at work (relocated the meeting room to an office with several openable windows) and its so nice, even though we've worked on site throughout we've had all our meetings of more than two or three people online.