Study in the time of COVID-19 (2019/20 intake): online learning, the rule of six and who knows what's next? Anything could happen!

[NewModelArmyMayhem18]

Following on from the previous thread as our young adults start their second year at universities up and down the land (and some overseas too!).

Placemarking

I’m here!

I’m here too! I hope they don’t have too many disruptions this term. Younger son’s secondary school have just sent a year group home...

How are all the younger siblings getting on at school? Any bubbles been sent home to quarantine yet? Hope not. They need at least a month in school to get back in the zone.

I'm waiting for someone to get a positive test at school. Ds2 year 12 and dc3 year 7. Lots of colds about and lots being tested. But negative so far.

It has only just occurred to me that I will be breaking the law if I help DS to move into his flat of 6. I could insist that one of his flatmates helps instead but I refuse to just drive, park and go straight home, without seeing where he is staying.

Thanks for the new thread.

Siblings: dd2's feeling very smug about being 6th form.
Ds was enjoying having dropped some of his most hated subjects. Then was ill (not covid) on Friday-I think he'd overdone himself on circuit training after his appendicectomy in June.
Today the whole school had a "mental health day". Ds came out in the worse mood I've ever seen him. Apparently it was a day in one classroom with one teacher with them having to write things like "What is my dream?" Ds wrote "My dream is never to do one of these days again". Which isn't much different to how he answered the question to his year 2 teacher: "My dream is to grow up and disinvent school."
He has requested I email the school and tell them he won't attend any more "mental health days" as they are bad for his mental health.

Witchend yep it must be some government initiative (you may remember Dd answered ‘bored’ to the question ‘how are you really feeling’). Sounds like they would get along!
Two pupils in her year 12 bubble of 200 have been sent home, tested negative and are back in school, still coughing. Having rubbed shoulders sitting next to each other all day in school, school have said if they go off grounds they can only go round in groups of six. Meanwhile, Uni Dd will be presumably be playing musical houses so flatmates and her can see friends. Monty Python anyone?

@Zandathepanda
I asked ds how he'd have answered the question "how are you really feeling?" today and he came straight out with "Bored."

Pity they weren't in the same group. They could have had a good time moaning to each other.

Added to ds' moans was that the 6th form (and so dd2) had an ice cream van for them.

Checking in!

DS2's school had a confirmed case newmodel. It's a very well bubbled sixth form annexe of a main school and so only year 12 affected and then only the close contacts. so, he is sill in and no cases since. Just as well since they haven't set up remote learning yet!

My school in the clear so far. Just as well, cos if we get a case the shit will hit the fan. We literally have no bubbles. Unless you count 1600 people as a bubble!

That's naughtyzanda. they should be off with symptoms : even with a negative test.

Mental health days are bad for my health ,too. Stress workshops make me feel stressed.

I literally hate them. We had a wellbeing day once. I said they should give us the day off . Instead we sat around talking about FEELINGS and being made to do crafts.

@Witchend, your DS made me I can imagine he was far from the only one!

I don’t think having a MH day is really the right way to support individuals with their MH - just shows how far some schools need to move forward!

@Piggywaspushed, I know the whole “bubble” thing is a joke, but....

Yes, a day focused on mental health is possibly counter-intuitive unless led by a trained MH professional? It's way too long to expect most teenagers to 'navel-gaze' for that long- about 30 minutes would probably be sufficient.

A bubble of 1600 - wow @Piggywaspushed!!

The whole 'bubble' thing reminds me of that whole public information 'STD' broadcast about sleeping around that was quite the thing when I was young: you sleep with one person and actually you're sleeping with all their sexual contacts ant theirs (and so it goes on). Surely it's the same with the year group bubbles. It's actually group bubble size x how many people are in each pupils social bubble (and then in theirs again) surely?

Instead we sat around talking about FEELINGS and being made to do crafts.

Not madame, I hope? Although I have to say that the macrame plantpot holder I made as a student nurse on our psychiateic day hospital placement was a bit more of a success than the time someone tried to teach me tatting. You start with a knot. And in my case, end up with a bigger knot. Apparently the finished piece is meant to look something like lace. Definitely not a single large knot.

I assumed that a 'Mental Health day' would be a sort of Inset day in the time of Covid and therefore a day off school for pupils. What a let down...

Checking in. My college student is still home as her Chicago university decided only to have 3rd and 4th years back this term.

My two high schoolers are doing hybrid school ie online Mon, Wed, Thur and in person Tues and Fri. They are wearing masks and keeping 3’ apart pretty much all of the time in school - they say it’s weird but you get used to it.

If they get any positive cases at all then school will go online-only for a while.

They are each seeing one or two friends unmasked, indoors, outside of school, and DS went to an outdoor distanced birthday party with 5 friends, but mostly we are still living a fairly solitary life. Having 2 adults and 4 teens at home makes it less lonely and quite fun.

Thanks for the new thread. DD2 is enjoying 6th form and has made a couple of new friends which I’m pleased about as her yr11 class were a mean bunch. They have to stay in a 6th form bubble but masks in corridors has stopped already as they’re all in different subject groups and the 6th form isn’t huge anyway. Several children off with temperatures and coughs at my primary school awaiting tests.

a bit more of a success than the time someone tried to teach me tatting. @MarchingFrogs my grandma was really good at tatting (and yes, it does look like lace). Unfortunately, we were not close to her (she was a very formidable scary woman), so never learned how to do it. How I wish I had though. Somewhere, neatly packed away in a drawer at my parents' house are lots of examples, probably getting on for a hundred years old now! She was also excellent at embroidering tablecloths - another dying creative art.

@HoldMyLobster I have a vision of you and your family in a lovely large house surrounded by plenty of land. As I imagine the American Dream! I am sure you must have lots of fun but do you not get lots of strops too with four teens? Or do they all get on very well?

My two, whilst now my two are very much more 'in tune' than when they were younger, tend to be a bit madcap when we're all together. They have a very loud and full-on energy/dynamic that they don't have individually!

Your high schoolers' school approach seems the correct one. I think it would have worked better here to have different year groups in on a two-week rotational cycle so there's much more space in schools.

I note that DS's university is dragging its heels releasing the timetables for this academic year which possibly does not bode well for 'in person' learning. I guess they may be wise to wait and see what other restrictions BoJo lobs at us.

My MH was indeed an inset day (pre Covid). There was no tatting. There was an hour sat in uncomfortable plastic chairs talking to an 'osteopath' (he was, in fact a sports physio) where he told us not to do all the things that teachers have to do, spent ages criticising how we sat ,and then gave us his business card.

Newcastle is still suffering from the cyber attack so students can't log in to enrol or re-enrol. DD said the second years would be automatically enrolled.

Yesterday's weather was glorious so they had a barbecue.

That's a PITA @Ginfordinner. Did you say it impacted the University of Northumbria too? Someone with a local grudge against higher education institutions then?

That sounds beyond tedious @Piggywaspushed. Seems that schools need to be a whole lot more creative around mental health days, whether for pupils or teachers! I guess it's quite difficult at the moment with social distancing required?

[quote bigTillyMint]@Witchend, your DS made me I can imagine he was far from the only one!

I don’t think having a MH day is really the right way to support individuals with their MH - just shows how far some schools need to move forward!

@Piggywaspushed, I know the whole “bubble” thing is a joke, but.... [/quote]
I think the theory was probably not so bad. But that, due to covid, they had to stay in the same classroom, same teacher and can't even move around in the classroom probably took away any possibility of fun. I don't think they'd really thought it through. Being a nice day they could at least have had a lesson sitting outside or something.

Crafts and feelings Piggy! I think ds would have found that even worse. In year 1 they gave up on him doing any crafts or art and sent him to year 2 to do maths whenever they did some. He thought he'd got the best out of that deal.

DD2 has a sore throat. She says she can hardly speak, but isn't exactly known for playing down symptoms. She was angling for a day off. I pointed out she's going to have plenty of days off shortly, and she needs to get on.

Gin Dd had a glorious day in the sunshine and got on the Metro to the beach. We live miles from coast so sea=holidays for us. From practically shielding for 6 months for her sister, she was having the best time with her flatmates. Soaking up lots of Vitamin D too. It made my heart sing to see the photos.