Gcse 2018 (10) The one with half term

[Stickerrocks]

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/secondary/3256691-GCSEs-2018-9-Will-we-get-to-half-term-for-never-was-a-story-of-more-woe-than-this-of-Juliet-and-who-is-Banquo

Oops. Can't remember how to link nicely, so this will have to do.

Dgd has got work experience at local hospital in neurology department and doing voluntary work in a dementia unit one day a week where dd works. Also she intends to get a Saturday job. No boyfriend on the horizon though some of her friends have one. She finds boys in her year ' immature and idiotic' in her words. I said maybe its because your so serious! Maybe it will change in 6th form!

No boyfriend here either but I'm glad, some of her friends have far too much drama at this already stressful time. She is talking to someone though. Apparently that is like a courtship ritual in itself but I'm old so don't really understand.

mmzz I've been thinking of your DS since you posted on Friday, as I said in my previous reply, but find the full back story utterly miserable. Your poor DS needs to make that move. I think he'll find people at his new sixth form very welcoming, especially if it's a school that you've mentioned (I could be completely wrong about the school of course). Staying on somewhere to be tolerated is no life at all. Anyhow, adding my best wishes that things turn out right.

Well this GCSE season just keeps on giving , Dc woke up at 11.45 and projectile vomited and has been vomiting every 30 mins since .Neither of us can actually remember the last time he was sick , probably when he was about 7 , he's more of a hay fever and chest infection type , this scenario wasn't on my agenda at all.Poor thing he looks ghastly, is fretting that he's not revising and I have put a call out to GP fo r a phone appointment just to get some advice as he is now vomiting dark green bile and is pretty yellow to look at.

Lovely GP just called and said 30mls of water every 10 mins and to call them back at 12 , so lucky to have such a brilliant surgery .

I suppose if there is any silver lining it’s that it’s this week when there are no exams.

Peaseblossom22 better this week than next week.
Hope he feels better soon.

Pease You poor things. Reassure him that he's done so much work already that a couple of days lolling around won't do him any harm whilst his body recovers.

Peaseblossom22 what a shame for him! He must be exhausted. Hopefully, it will be under control soon.

If your DS were to add up the numbers of hours he's put into revising for the remaining papers, and what he had planned for today/ tomorrow, I suspect he'd find that he has already done the vast majority of the work anyway and what's left is just a small %.

The important thing is that he gets well soon, worrying about the exams can wait.

x-posted with stickerrocks except, as usual you've said it better than me!

Yes , just said that this is why you revise at Easter , so you have a buffer , but he is one of those with 14 exams still to go including History which he wants to do for A level and has set his heart on top grades.Have reminded him that it would have been worse if this had happened the night before the exam next Monday .But I do feel sorry for him.

@Peaseblossom22 - sending get well soon vibes to your DS. At least it's this week and not next. Fingers crossed it's not one of those bugs that does the whole family. I don't think we've had one of those for at least 7 years but I remember well the horror of buckets of sick and the washing machine on at 2am in the morning 🤢

Pease wish him better. Definitely a mercy that it is this week. Take time to get better.

Mmzz my heart broke reading about your DS. Whilst it is so very hard you have to believe that he has a bright future ahead of him. The love and support you give him at home will go a long way. A fresh start at 6th form or at uni will be the best thing for him. And whilst we never wish these experience on our DC sometimes these make them stronger in the long run. And I am a strong believer in karma. That bully won't go far in life.

Pease hope our DS makes a rapid recovery but in the meantime could he maybe listen to a youtube video on history whilst he's led down recovering.....just a thought obviously perfectly OK to do nothing.

mmzz you do make me laugh!

Pease even if he doesn't get top grades, it's not the end of the world. Yes, his pride will be dented, but as long as he gets the grades he needs to study whatever he wants to do next, it really doesn't matter in the great scheme of things. (I know he won't believe you!)

This happened to me when I took my maths & English O levels early. I was horribly poorly on the day on one of my maths papers and got a pathetic(!) B rather than the A I had set my heart on. I actually cried because I had got an A for English instead and I was heart broken and furious at the same time. I'm now an accountant who has taught dozens of global prize winners for their professional exams, but does it with a measly grade B!

Pease I hope your DS recovers soon and that you are able to have the energy and calm to nurse him back to health!

It seems this half-term break is needed for physical and emotional recovery as much as anything else.

I fear my DD has lost momentum with 'only' 4 exams to go. It's almost more difficult to have long stretches of time in between.

Almost!

Minor name change but still here.

Pease your poor DS! Hopefully he’ll feel much better in a couple of days. I’m sure a couple of days aren’t going to change his history grade but I can understand his worry and 14 more exams is a lot,

Well, it was nice to be up early today (for us) to get both boys to school and college for revision session and catch up on assignments respectively. I've done the supermarket and put some washing on.

Sorry to hear about the plague house, Peaseblossom and I hope your DS is feeling better soon. Takes me back to getting shingles right at the start of A levels. You just feel so helpless. Hopefully he'll be up to some gentle revision soon and back to strength by next week.

Just got back from N Yorkshire visiting my parents. Dd did no revision in that time but I am relaxed about it (helps that she has only 4 papers left), and she has settled down to study this morning without too many complaints. It was a change rather than a break because the primary purpose of the visit was to visit my mother who finally went into a Nursing home for dementia a few weeks ago. The nursing home seems very good - but every time we see her she is more confused and still more frail and skinny.

Haven't read the whole 9 pages but have skimmed and read the latter pages in more detail. I hope those of you with struggling dc (resisting revision) find their mojo again soon. mmzz - I read you more detailed account of your ds' bullying and it sounds very traumatic. In your situation I would consider counselling to mitigate against possible longer term psychological effects. I appreciate that this might not be easy if your ds is resistant to that idea, or you may believe its not necessary / navel gazing transatlantic shit .

Cblue - my dd's dyslexia presents similarly to yours. Her SPAG isn't fabulous, but her comprehension skills and ability to communicate (even in writing as long as she has a pc so she can re-order her text as she goes along) are good. If my dd wanted to study history and English Lit A level I believe she could manage - she is pretty good at both but they don't float her boat. My dyslexic niece studied history for her degree.

Peaseblossom I hope your ds feels better soon.

Re the National Citizens Award - they gave a presentation at dd's school and she told me afterwards she thought that it sounded 'crap'. Perhaps I should have explored that with her rather than taker her at her word

This summer she has one weeks work experience with a Visual Merchandising company who do the displays for high end and household names. She doesn't particularly want to do this as a career but she does lean towards employment in the 'creative' field so its good to give her an insight into what this might look like.

She has no summer job lined up and I am not going to encourage her to find one unless she really wants to. Would quite like to see her chill for 2-3 months.

hmc NCS is exactly the sort of thing DD loves. Her first week is spent surfing, kayaking etc a few miles away from the rest of my family (ideal in case of emergency). We're going away during her second week for a rare break without her, whilst she is based at a local university learning how to do "stuff". Then they spend one or two weeks back at home undertaking a project in their local community, building gardens, working with charities and similar stuff.

It sounds good. Reading your description Stickerrocks I am guessing that my dd didn't like the sound of the two weeks community project

Thanks for all the kind messages, he has fallen asleep now which hopefully will do him good and has kept some water down. amazed that some people only have 4 exams left

My DS3 isn't quite halfway through yet, but only 10 exams to go. I think those doing IGCSEs have had a bit of a headstart on the state schools, they started a couple of weeks earlier.

Peaseblossom22 that's good news.

Only a few papers left = started early and doing iGCSEs.

Those of us with DC doing all GCSEs still have 10+ to go. (DS has 11 left: english lang x2, History x2, Geography x2, Maths x2 and one each of the sciences). Anyone doing further maths has a couple extra.

DD certainly doesn't - she's just fractionally over half way through too Peaseblossom. Very bad luck for your DS to get this ill but I guess it's about the best point that it could have happened - hopefully he'll be back on form by Thursday.