GCSE’s summer 2020 thread 5 - And then there were none..

[FoolsAssassin]

Once upon a time there was a group of year 11 students who had spent the last few years preparing to sit their GCSE exams in the summer of 2020. Then one day they woke up and found themselves as characters in a real life disaster movie and as if by magic the exams disappeared.

What lies next for the Corona Cohort?!

Thread 4
Thread 3
Thread 2
Thread 1 (Year 10)

Anyone lurking please feel free to jump on in .

Hope he has a good birthday @Piggywaspushed. I think it’s just occurred to dd that her birthday in a month will probably be in lockdown. She usually has an event of some sort with school friends, a sleepover with other friends and a meal out with us so I think that’s got to her too 😢

Happy birthday to your DS, @Piggywaspushed

Happy Birthday to your DS Piggy

Crazycrofter that is the question we skirt around in this house. I know a few universities have been told no lectures until Jan 21. DD still waiting to hear about her year abroad. Her friend on course has had hers fully cancelled but DD’s is still postponed rather than fully cancelled withntalk of online learning from host university.

@FoolsAssassin yes, I get the feeling universities will end up delaying on campus activity until January.

Dd is moving for sixth form, she's sure about it but is also upset about leaving her lovely group of friends. I have a feeling that if it's online until January she will really start to regret it. It doesn't leave much time for making new friends does it and of course she'd be doing subjects at home without friends to chat with about the topics/check understanding/compare homework etc. She's a very sociable, people orientated person.

I know there are lots of more worrying things about this situation, but this does worry me!

DS moving too and supposed to be weekly boarding. It’s all a bit rubbish for them but maybe they will be better off longterm than those in year 10 and 12 - they have 2 years till next exams and for a bit people will clock 2020 on date of GCSE and know what happened?

Will be rough that they do A level exams without having sat GCSES though maybe for some who do find exam sitting hard it may work to their advantage slightly in a weird way. DD’s GCSEs were an utter disaster and she has improved over the last few years but her GCSE disaster haunted her for a bit.

It maybe that being the Corona Cohort is more advantageous than being a year either side possibly. Who knows, it’s all played out very differently to what we all thought , whoever could have imagined this.

Happy birthday to Piggy's DS!!

My DS's birthday is next week. None of the things he wants are possible in lockdown (he knows this, and doesn't expect, just interesting how the normal computer games/designer stuff is deemed less important this year).

I have said (not sure if this is helpful) that he will definitely remember his 16th birthday for ever (I don't remember mine at all).

For music, does anyone know if external qualifications can be used as evidence? DS didn't submit his performance NEA before lockdown, but I was wondering if his external music exam could be used as part of the proof of his playing standard?

Happy birthday to @Piggywaspushed DS. Many happy returns

They’ll all remember their unprecedented 16ths. Ds’s is also coming up in 2days hot on piggy’s DS. I’ve been wondering what to do? Welcome any ideas.

Well, I am not the expert here! We are just lolloping about and I am still WFH so a normal day with a cake and some pizza etc.

And now the PM has hijacked his birthday! Just like Kate and William did by getting married on it. Pshaw.

Happy birthday to Piggy's DS! Maybe make it a Zoom birthday pizza night with a couple of his friends?

DS form tutor has set up a Zoom lunch today as a way of them all keeping in touch. All those chomping mouths looming at him, the teacher is a braver man than me .

We're just having cake and takeaway (not had takeaway since lockdown started, so this is a big deal) for DS's birthday.

When a friend of his had a birthday a couple of weeks ago, they had a plan for their group of friends to all call him at once on social media. Judging by the volume of DS's shouting talking this happened and was quite exciting! So sort of a virtual party - might be something you could do? Though at this age they organise themselves really, I guess.

Happy 16th to your son Piggy!

Happy birthday to Piglet. DS2's birthday was a few days after the lock-down began and a couple of friends came and had a socially distant chat outside. I made a birthday cake and we all stupidly forgot that he could not blow the candles out and then share the cake!

Some of our neighbours set up tea tables out on the pavement and had parallel afternoon tea 3 meters apart, like at a tea room but close enough to chat.

@crazycrofter there is likely to be a little relaxation in a month. There is talk of following the Belgian model where a household can choose a slightly wider social group to mix with (10 people), but you can only mix with that one group. I think schools will go back in the autumn, but they might have to teach half the class at a time if that is necessary to retain the distance. Apparently the 2m is a bit of a random distance, so it might be 1m which makes it more manageable. It will be much harder to keep the infant years distant, but I hope they realise that it is not appropriate to keep them apart as the side effects of not being able to play would be devastating.

I love the idea of all the friends calling on social media all at once. Shame we ate pizza last night, so might not be so special doing it again in 2 days but we’ll see.

Happy Birthday @Piggywaspushed DS!

I'm petrified about what this will do to Universities ( and my job). So many of the smaller institutions are financially vulnerable anyway .

Also worried about potential knock on effect in 2022 when our Yr 11s due to go to Uni - will we see more competition for places as those who have deferred /gap year and not gone to Uni start to go ? ( Presuming Covid-19 is under control by that point).

Am I the only person who ahs never used Zoom?

DS has only just put Skype on his phone so he can have his euphonium lessons

@OrangeCinnamon I'm also worried about universities as I work at one! I do feel sorry for those who will have their degrees disrupted, mainly because part of the university experience is living there/student life - it's not about online learning on your own :(

How have you managed to avoid zoom @piggywaspushed?!! We use it for our church meetings so we've been on it loads. It's just like all the other platforms - skype, google hangouts etc, just with more people!

First time I used Zoom was last weekend when a friend suggested we have a family meet up & play a board game across t'internet. Managed to to keep three teens engaged for a while.

Never used Zoom either. I guess if you don’t have any reason to partake in groups, then you won’t have used any of the apps. Frankly I hate anything to do with videoing and avoid it like the plague.

We seem to be on Zoom every day. Both out jobs are using it, also yoga, dance classes, Explorers, music lessons, meetings with friends. It's very useful.

Is Zoom an app? if so, I wouldn't have space on my phone. My choir keeps trying to get me to zoom sing but I have avoided this far!

My laptop is a school laptop so absolutely no new software allowed!!

also I have no friends and hate my family

Don't use Skype either crazy

Zoom is an app that can go on either phone or laptop.
Out of interest what is your school using to deliver online lessons?

My DCs schools are both using Teams.

sprouts Google classroom ; no 'live' lessons as such but plenty of work.