Thread 25 - Covid Cohort - Christmas Trees, No Omicron Please!

[OrangeCinnamonCocktail]

This is a thread for supporting all young people post GCSEs 2020, regardless of their educational setting. It is respectfully requested that all are supportive and helpful to each other. If you want to start a debate, e.g state vs private, please don't within this thread. Please also be sensitive when responding to posts about grades.

Some of us have been here since first thread back in yr10, some will be new. Everyone has been friendly and helpful in the past. Everyone is welcome. It is hoped this goodwill continues.

Our DS/DD may go down various paths (such as employment, apprenticeships, higher ed) We have decided, for anyone interested, they will most likely find us within the Further Ed board.

Orange Cinnamon (Head Monitor )
Previous Thread Found Here

Feeling relaxed today - school finished for DD yesterday and DS home from uni. Feels like we've made it to some sort of finish line! Whether we can remain covid free until Christmas is another matter - two grannies in their 80s coming for the day (if we're not in lockdown by then). Both DCs have bought all their work home just in case, but I think DS would head back to uni whatever the rules. He did last year!

Congrats on the offer Heifer and lovely photo monkey.

Yes I worry about TAG's too, DD got caught out in GCSE for the same reason of only x number of 8 and 9's given. Even though her year was expected to out do any previous year academically. It was very frustrating esp as some kids got lower GCSE's then their mock grades. This is why she's desperate to do exams. All we can do is hope it's okay.

We saw Spider-Man last night with dd (ds rejected our offer as he wants to go with friends!). Dd and dh thought it was one of the best marvel films yet. I enjoyed it too, but it finished at 11.30 and I really struggled to stay awake!

Love that photo @Monkey2001!

DD made me pick her up on Tuesday with all her stuff. She had the start of a sore throat, and decided to wfh weds after PCR on tues Eve. The LFTs picked up covid first, PCR confirmed weds evening.

Not sure how the next week is going to play out, lots of moving parts, hoping that I can still get my mother, pushing her back to 24th and the flight from California comes in, subject to DH and I remaining CV free.

@ealingwestmum oh no! Fingers crossed the rest of you remain covid free and all works out with your mum. What a nightmare.

Sounds really good, @fruitygal. Planning to watch a Christmas film tonight here too. Got my wrapping finished yesterday. Christmas is coming. Just overshadowed by COVID again.

Thanks Horace. She’s fine, a little under the weather, headache etc but nothing more at this stage. She was due her booster today, but now that she has covid, I won’t stress about that in the near future. In reality, I’m ok with her having C now vs later, it’s just the wider impact, as I’m sure all of you are weighing up for the coming weeks.

I am mainly posting this to ensure people have a little more confidence in the LFTs, they may not be perfect but do use them if you have them.

Sorry to hear that @ealingwestmum, hope Christmas works out for you, but Covid feels like a tidal wave right now.

0h dear @ealingwestmum. That is really unfortunate. I hope she doesn’t get too poorly. Mine goes off to her Dad on Sunday, don’t want anything to disrupt that so she hasn’t done much outside stuff. But of course, college is an absolute germ soup, so it’s pointless really.

Sorry to hear that Ealingwestmum , hope it passes quickly for her. What a nightmare happening now with your Mum coming.

Everything has suddenly gone a bit strange again hasn’t it . My mind is slightly struggling to adjust again and I’d been quite good at doing so before.

Haven’t seen DD since September and just want her back for a bit now.

Oh dear @ealingwestmum that’s bad timing - or possibly good timing if she’s out of isolation by Christmas and no one else gets it? Fingers crossed for you!

@Zebracat can’t believe you’ve done the wrapping! I’ve taken tomorrow off work to do my Christmas shopping! So far I have presents for two nephews and one niece - so 3 more to buy for, plus parents, siblings and our kids. It will be fine, it always is - as long as I don’t get covid!

Heifer congrats on theory.
ican I love the whole drama of going to watch football, driving up to London, walking to the spurs stadium.
Ds1 announced he's booked or take Ds2 to see Spider-Man Sunday night.

I'm worried about TAGs. Selfish though, because Ds1 would thrive in exam conditions. He's already done mocks a few weeks ago in November. Teachers asked them all if they wanted to do extra essays in exam conditions over the last few weeks, to provide a more evidenced based case, before they broke up for Christmas. Nearly all students agreed. I think ds has done 6. Psychology, sociology and business. X2. He's gonna take a break for a week for Christmas, then study again, for his February's mocks which will be again in proper exam conditions.

If he doesn't get the grades he wants I will fxxking furious. If he fluffs it himself obviously that's fine, but if he doesn't get AAA because of other conditions, I will be beyond irate.

I fear you all may see the dark side of me, come August. That's not a pleasant thought, even for me, now!

Dd had last minute ‘mocks’ last week with not much notice and no exam leave. She was very busy and only managed to revise for Psychology and History, so I was a bit worried about RS which is usually her best subject. She just messaged to say she scraped an A, so that’s good.

@Oblomov21 I don’t think it will be a repeat of our lots’ GCSEs thankfully. The school will have to base grades on actual exams or assessments taken, and I believe they need to be told beforehand that an assessment will count? So I’m thinking it’s still in the students’ hands, as it would normally be?

My Christmas shopping is inspired by this thread. I have the Mr Incredible and Spiderman morph suits, picked up 2 reading pillows from Dunelm for DS1 and GF. DS2 Christmas and birthday present will be a uni laptop, but I have got a few bits like a little food processor from Aldi for making protein pancakes at uni. Bought lots of socks yesterday. Still need to do our family non-secret Santa, but we have a consumables rule and £10 limit, so not as difficult as usual. Think I might make some almond paste to do marzipan fruits and try to think of some more interesting, topical shapes.

@Wheresthebeach I agree with@crazycrofter that schools would not have to play the algorithm game this time, the thing which will make the real difference is how and when different schools do tests. Somebody I know at a grammar school said they were given mini tests on each area of the curriculum, but knew when each test was coming and what it would cover, which seems very generous. We know no pre-Christmas assessments would be used. Some people have talked of Y12 assessments being used. Our school is likely to be mean with grade boundaries though - like @Heifer's school, PE historic results have been low, and as boundaries were set to be pinned between 2019 and last year some subjects, like Music and PE will have very high grade inflation if they go ahead.

I've been paranoid all week that dd2's carol service will be cancelled - but today's the day and she's at rehearsal now so I think I can reasonably assume we're home and dry...

Lunchtime music concert at church next Wednesday has been cancelled though - unsurprising, but sigh.

Gah, ealingwestmum, awful timing on the part of your dd! Hope it passes quickly with no onward infection.

Monkey, I hope your ds is having the most festive day imaginable! Love the photo.

Need some Mumsnet positive thinking for DS's EPQ presentation today, please. You won't be surprised to hear that he's not well prepared! On Tuesday he was 'too tired' to think about it (after going to a gig in London on Monday night). Last night, also 'very tired'. At 7 this morning, he suggested I drive him into school so he had an extra half hour to prepare. At that point, he had a few bullets. By the time he reached school he had two or three designed Powerpoint slides. The presentation's last thing this afternoon and should last about 10 mins. He's quite good at winging things, but honestly, I despair.

@DoggerelBank positive vibes coming his way! I think I said before that "winging it" is a great life skill!

@DoggerelBank hope he surprises you and pulls it out of the bag! He sounds like my year 11 ds! He really can’t summon any motivation until it’s really urgent. I’ve driven him to school every day for the last 2 weeks so he can revise in comfort in the car! In the rush hour traffic it’s over an hour there and back for me - I’m shattered! Glad he’s done now.

I also agree that winging it is a useful skill. I always noticed at PwC that the more senior people were very adept at it!

Fingers crossed @DoggerelBank.

@Oblomov21 - I love going to the football too. I go with friends from my 6th form college, so that's 35+ years going together. I haven't been since Covid, DS and I only go occasionally and aren't season ticket holders, we weren't in the booking bubbles that were set up initially and have been too busy with open days in any case this term. Hoping to to go and see DS's team for his birthday in Feb, someone else is getting tickets with any luck.

@Monkey2001 - I also have the cuddle cushions courtesy of shopping suggestions on this thread a few weeks ago. They have been stashed in my office at work, was planning to keep them there till the last day as they are pretty bulky to hide but brought them home on Tuesday having wrapped them up on the conference room table and put them back in their Dunelm bags. I left them in the car overnight and sneaked them through the house to the garden shed while the DCs were still in bed yesterday morning.

@ealingwestmum sorry to hear about + result, but glad DD got home.

DS had a teams meeting with the UCAS coordinator this morning, I was on a break from working myself so had time to sit in. His predicted grades are as expected and his references were amazing, I felt very proud. He has been so lucky with his subject teachers, they have built really close relationships (he had them all for GCSE as well and two have been his year head/form tutor). She has emailed them over for one last check then the form can go, finally, it's been a long haul.

No PCR results yet, local SM is saying 48-72 hours for results now. I feel fine in myself, just a bit of a sniffle and as DH tested negative on Tues with the same cold I have a glimmer of hope. I may have to WFH till Christmas now, my work isn't really cut out for it on an ongoing basis but I can bring enough home to muddle on with short term.

Big, big fan of winging it. 🤞 DoggerelBank

Thanks everyone for the well wishes.

🤞for EPQ winging it!

Waiting for PCR test results here too.
Still testing negative on LFTs, so fingers crossed.
Everything crossed for your mum still being able to come, ealing, and for negative results for you, Exquisitely.

We had some more good news, following on from DD’s CTF draw win, which is that our chat with the head, regarding whether DS can stay for 6th form because of our financial situation has resulted in a very generous bursary offer (and a complete change of tone from the bursar!).
Such a relief, especially given that it looks very likely that the arts are going to be hit by the latest Covid news again.

To top things off, DD’s UCAS form has finally been submitted.