Thread 53 - Covid GCSE Cohort - Happy New Year 2025 to our fab young people

[Delphigirl]

New thread! Looking forward to traversing 2025 with this fantastic group 🎉😘

I can’t make comparisons as I didn’t (nor DH) go to university. But I managed to secure early career paths as if I did, and enjoyed being independent and on the housing ladder at 20 so made up for the academic loss, though possibly at the expense of long life friendships one makes at university. I’m not sure I could have shared space with others either.

I am so pleased DD has been the complete opposite and thoroughly enjoyed it so far, this year away has been quite mind blowing for her, far exceeding her own expectations.

But she and all the returners are dreading final year, and Dublin will feel even more small and insular. But it’s also heads down, less drinking, getting back into better shape etc (is her aim at least) as the Capstone/dissertation and remaining study modules account for 100% of her final grading, a change they made mid term and leaves very little margin for error. On her course only 11% achieve a first and her aim is to hold her marks in that grouping.

And she’s missed her violin, so returning to orchestra place will be a plus.

I'd forgotten about that fallout @Piggywaspushed that is bound to have coloured his memories. He does sound like a very sensible and mature young man.

I feel this for DD. Bristol is by no means small, but after a year abroad of venturing from one European city to another practically every weekend in between uni studies, I think reality will come crashing down.
i can’t recommend a year abroad enough after her experience. It’s far exceeded expectations.

Neither DH nor myself went to university and I was worried how DS would cope at first as he had a very insular home life - swimming for 10 years meant he had no social life apart from the club and no time tor desire to do anything else! When that stopped with covid he was a bit lost. But he has had an absolute ball. I think the smallness of the college system helped at first but he has embraced it heart and soul and the sporting opportunities have been amazing. I think he will find it interesting as a teaching assistant there over summer and seeing it from a different side.

I thought about you guys this week @craggyrat with the Panorama programme, mine received a heads up msg from her club coach and club. It was her previous club that had all the same characteristics, an Olympic HC hire who would abuse, weigh, body shame. I moved DD after an international swim camp where they were not allowed dessert like the lower squad, even after being at pool for over 5 hours. DD describes her past in a Stockholm syndrome way but really misses swimming, attributing so much of what she is now to the sport.

‘I have really enjoyed reading about yours flourish over the years, and he is going to apply his own character and really add value to the teaching role.

@ealingwestmum thank you. Swimming definitely is a character builder isn't it... my DS can't quite break away from it even now! He did get his Blue second year but rows more than swims now. I think our DC would have a lot to talk about! We're going to watch Panorama this weekend. Our club was pretty bad too with stuff i won't go into as quite unpleasant. It is infinitely better now. DS did some Welsh junior talent squad camps when he was early teens and they were amazing but Swansea was a bit far for regular input. I think for the hours the kids put in and the pre school 5am starts they all deserved a far better experience, whatever level they were swimming at.

The programme didn't have the most robust investigative journalism I have to say @craggyrat but having had lots of involvement with the hierarchy of club management to Swim England, it's good to see a new face at the helm, fingers crossed that they continue to deliver positive change.

Wishing all of those DC with balls and end of year shenanigans...enjoy!

I've lost touch with the world of swimming to a large extent now, hadn't heard about this programme. I was on the committee of our club for a few years when DD swam, however she wasn't very competitive and the combination of covid and then an injury meant she gradually phased herself out by about age 15. But there were issues with a coach, his services were dispensed with after one too many safeguarding breaches, this was after we left, but having made one of the reports myself it didn't surprise me. Knowing what I now do as a school governor I can see that recruitment of coaches etc is fraught with pitfalls, sports clubs can't jump through all the hoops schools do but are heavily reliant on DBS checks, I'd say swimmers are particularly vulnerable because of the intensity of training, frequency of competing often far from home, unisex changing villages, skimpy clothing.

I knew there was at least one other swimmer in our cohort @ExpensiveDecoration ! Yes, covid did more damage to the sport compared to others, I think the subsequent energy crisis further impacted the running of leisure centres across the UK, leaving them either unopened or in vast need of investment. As a can't swim adult it's so sad to see an essential survival skill so lowly prioritised, a lost generation of children who can neither swim or have been ever been to a dentist.

Oh dear, I'd better get another coffee and cheer the fuck up as they say.

They did a previous similar programme about the dark side of ballet schools. Dd knew several of the participants and attended a school that wasn;t spoken about in the programme but where the same laywer was in the midst of legal proceedings. As a parent I was horrified by some of th things dd said to me tha she had seen happening.

We were lucky in that we had a brand new sports centre open here a few years ago (walking distance of home) but I remember the news about lots closing due to costs when the gas and electricity prices shot up. Even without that there was an issue with inclusion, our club was full of private school children and really if your parents didn't drive (we trained at 4 pools in a 10 mile rural radius) or weren't available to taxi at all hours it was very hard, and it's an expensive sport with the amount of training and travel.

My kids went to primary school in a very deprived area; hardly any kids had swimming lessons and they didn’t go swimming with school at all - I assumed it was an affordability issue. Such a shame though.

Dd is finally getting her act together and viewing 10 six bed houses on Tuesday, all of them between £90 and £100pw. I can’t believe how many houses are still available at this point at this price, it’s less than she’s been paying this year!

Ours were lucky that the old sports centre was 10 mins walk from school so they were all able to go for lessons with school without having to get a coach or similar.

@ExpensiveDecoration there was a swimming pool within 10 minutes walk of our primary school! 🤔

Hmmm. I thought it was part of the national curriculum that they had to have a certain amount of swimming lessons at school, it wasn't offered as an option, nor did we pay for it, it just happened. That is sad if some aren't getting any swimming at all.

I thought the same re school swimming. DS primary all went in year 4 and all the local schools had year 4 gala. All free to parents

DS, 2 years older than DD had no primary swimming at all.
DDs year were offered a term in Y6 if they couldn't swim 25m. Lessons were at a secondary school in the neighbouring county, a bus ride away. Parents were need to accompany them along with 1 TA.
We don't have any public pools local to the school. All would involve a longish walk and at least one bus. Coaches are just too expensive. They would miss half a day school to do lessons!

I had no idea it varied so much! We were very lucky in our area by the sound of it. The emphasis was - rightly - on those who couldn't swim or were not v confident. DS year had a few squad swimmers and county standard ones so they just got a lane to themselves and got on eith it. It was a v sporty primary with a dedicated sports TA and loads of green space which was one reason we chose it. DH used to be parent helper for cricket and tag rugby. The headteacher had a massive thing for maypole dancing which was basically all year 6 did post SATS. Happy days!

Ours was weak on sports and music (it was a one form school and limited facilities) but being 1/4 mile from home and otherwise a good school meant we never seriously considered any other, all the kids in our part of town went there. The others were fairly similar anyway but all at least a mile away I could walk to ours and be back within 20 mins to get off to work but would have had to drive to the others to get to work on time.

Hello everyone! For some reason I've completely fallen off MN, but I would like to pick up this thread again soon, even if I ignore everything else here. DS is mid-A-levels, and DD has handed in all her final portfolio. She has two big shows coming up, one local and one national, where new art/design grads display their work and publishers/agents wander around and sign up the new talent (or not), so we'll see what happens next... Who knew that was how it worked?

I'll try to catch up over half-term, but hope that everyone is well!

The tiny lower school my kids went to had its own outdoor pool. They got to swim every day it was warm enough from May to September. I'm not sure what happens now - the pool became too expensive to run and was filled in. There was no swimming when they moved to middle school (yr5)
My two also went to a nursery with a fantastic indoor pool. They had swimming lessons once a week with a dedicated swim teacher and could both swim by the age of two/three. We obviously had to pay extra for the swimming but it was worth it to not have to do the changing/drying/getting in myself bit.

Actually our DCs primary had a pool when we first moved here but it had been filled in by the time they started, I'd forgotten about it. My primary had one, it was perishingly cold, full of dead flies and leaves and the changing room was a dark and dingy shed. Awful.

DS was a complete water baby when he was young, couldn't keep him out of the pool on holiday and was obsessed with jumping in, flumes etc, but he could never manage the grades because of his dyspraxia, he couldn't coordinate the strokes properly despite several years of lessons, including one to one with a specialist disability teacher. He is competent in the water but not stylish!

Both state school pools in our town have now gone which is a real shame. We didn't take him swimming until he was about 3 - we had gone on holiday and we could tell he was a water baby then. He was an amazing little swimmer. We were in America when he was 5 and he was swimming fly across hotel pool - the swim coach from Purdue University came across to DH to see if he would look at college scholarship when he was old enough until he realised we were english. Sadly at 5 foot 7 his swimming glory days were short lived! Fun times though

Interesting topic as I'm currently learning how to swim. I'm 8 weeks in and loving it. This will be the 2 time I've booked on lessons, the 1st time was in my 20s. I ended up being able to do a little bit under water but couldn't float and couldn't lift my head out of the pool to breathe. This time around I'm determined as i feel it was be my last time. I'm told swimming is great especially for fibro and overall joint movement/strengthening. Even though i cant swim proelry yet, I always feel great when i get out of the the pool, like I've shed some tension in the muscles.

I'm struggling a bit with the 'treading water', I just sink straightaway .

Ah that's brilliant @Shimy good for you! Like DS I am competent but not stylish, I have always been able to float, tread water, doggy paddle, muddle through but my technique is awful and I am extremely slow. I had lessons as a child and again for a bit in my 20s but the teachers always wanted me to do proper breast stroke legs (obviously) and the turned out feet sets off a pulled muscle in my lower back which I am susceptible to generally. My eyesight was always an issue too until I discovered prescription goggles about 20 years ago, I'm -13. I'd like to try again but have enough hobbies already. Maybe one day.