GCSE Summer 2020 - Thread 11 Carry on Corona Cohort - Starting New Terms and Settings

[OrangeCinnamon1]

Welcome all to the 11th Thread for this year's GCSE cohort - The Corona Cohort!

This is a thread for supporting all young people post GCSEs regardless of the institute they attend or the grades they needed. It is respectfully requested that we are all supportive and helpful to each other. If you want to start a debate e.g state vs private - please don't within this thread.

Similarly it should be recognised that the grades our children need/deserve/want will vary across the board. One same grade outcome can simultaneously cause Joy and Despair for different posters. Please be sensitive when responding to threads about grades.

Some of us have been here since I started first thread back in yr10, some will be new. Everyone has been friendly and helpful in the past. It is hoped this will continue. Going forward any new threads should have 'GCSE Summer 2020 Thread # : Carry on Corona Cohort' in title just to make it easier to find. Not fussy about who starts those !

From now on our DS/DD may go down various paths such as employment, apprenticeships, higher ed, so we decided not to be exclusionary and stay right here in Secondary - at least until Mumsnet HQ chuck us out .

At this precise moment in time we have had GCSE results . It has been decided that the higher of Centre Assesd Grades and Calculated Grades will be awarded - the algorithim seems to have been applied a schol level to the detriment of some students. Lots of our young people have already started on the next stage of their journey with some still to start.

We are all STILL trying to protect our young people's mental health, which the government claimed was their priority...when they talk about wanting students back in schools/college in September...now we have their physical health to consider too as the mingling at various settings starts up again. Hopefully a positive experience this term!

First Thread

previous thread

@FlyingPandas Your DS certainly doesn’t need protein shakes. If my DS did half of what yours was doing, I think I’d go temporarily crazy with joy. I don’t how you get someone to love food. I raised him trying lots of different foods, most home cooked but he’s always been a picky eater. Doesn’t like snaking either. He mentioned he might try doughnuts 3 days ago, so I’ve rushed out everyday to get a bag. I noticed both bags had disappeared by bedtime each day and was really pleased. That was until he asked this afternoon, where the doughnuts were? turns out he hasn’t eaten any, DH has been eating the whole lot.

Doesn’t like snaking , neither do I but I love a snack.

Can't believe all these boys into their fitness and protein shakes. I have to laugh because my dd is a vegetarian who doesn't like vegetables 🙄🙄 and who's diet is total shit!

I wish she would try looking after herself a bit better!

God I love doughnuts!!

DS2 (Year 11) has also developed an interest in physique. He's eating huge amounts of meat and made me buy protein weetabix. He'd like some protein shakes but I'm resisting given the amount of meat he's consuming. We bought him weights and a bench for his birthday.

He's definitely got a plan about what he's trying to achieve with his body. Carefully considered regime for rowing. I'm really impressed and a bit shocked that he has it in him. This is not a child I thought had the necessary self-discipline.

@Shimy I'm not a massive fan of snaking either but snacking is another matter!

It's a tricky one isn't it. DS1 lives to snack but eats a hugely restricted diet generally. I think so much of the food thing and appetite is down to personality - and whilst DS has a decent appetite (though impacted by the medication he takes for ADHD) he is soooooo restricted in what he will actually eat! He has the kind of eating preferences you'd expect of a five year old and is very conscious that as he gets older this becomes less and less socially acceptable.

For example I cooked sausages, pasta, peas and sweetcorn for tea tonight. Younger two DC devoured the lot. DS1 painstakingly picked out EVERY SINGLE PEA AND SWEETCORN and handed them to his brothers to eat and then just ate the sausages and pasta He eats cooked broccoli (maybe a mouthful), raw carrots (occasionally but not if he can help it) and a small amount of fruit (green apples but not red ones, red grapes but not green ones, etc etc) he might look OK on the outside but I'm really not sure how healthy the inside is!

I do my best with vitamin and fish oil supplements but DS has a long way to go before he gets to what I'd consider a 'normal' way of eating.

On the plus side, he is actually eating at college (he would go from 7:30 - 4pm without either eating or using the toilet when he was at school). So that's a start, I guess.

Oh my goodness! That picking things out of the food habit drives me up the wall. I cooked macaroni cheese this afternoon and thought I’d add some mushrooms to it, DH wanted prawns in it, so I added that too. Delicious! Not for DS. He picked out every single bit of mushroom & prawn. Coincidentally, DS2 who is on ADHD medication, is the one that’s been going to the gym, really committed eats well and bulked up. He used to be my skinniest dc.

OMG I want macaroni cheese now. That sounds lush! DS1 would have been exactly the same. My 7yo, on the other hand, would have scoffed the lot. Comes to something when our16yo is fussier than most of the Y3 kids who come for tea!

At least we have similar issues and can sympathise with each other! I live in hope that one day DS1 will eat a pea by mistake and realise that it will not kill him

I live in hope that one day, he will have a bum again and proper calf muscles in the legs so he can wear the skinny trousers all his mates are wearing. (Oh I sound dreadful but this is my dream).

Ok I take back everything I said about DS being focused and organised - his first bit of homework is due tomorrow and he hasn't done it

My younger 2 are super fussy. Ds2 will pick out the tomato, pepper, onion, mushroom etc out of spaghetti bolognese!

Positive case confirmed at DS's school

Oh no @Piggywaspushed

Yes, funny how so many boys have spent lock down learning about fitness stuff.

According to DS if you want to build muscle you have to eat more as well as doing exercise, or your body does not have the resources it needs - his analogy that trying to bulk without increasing your calorie intake enough is like building a house with half the bricks you need. Protein shakes are good for getting the protein, but you need calories. Milk is good and can cheat your body as it feels like a drink, but has a reasonable amount of calories and protein. Peanuts are also calorie dense and "clean".

For the exercise, if you don't have equipment he says calisthenics (body weight exercises, pull ups, push ups, dips, squats) are good, or could join a gym for a while. Can use resistance bands if not strong enough to do the full body weight yet. Loads of stuff available on line (I guess the problem is finding the right stuff).

My two DSs have both got a lot less fussy in the last year, but DS1 has a friend who only eats fish and chips or pasta with peas, cheese and garlic bread - even at Christmas! Both my DSs hate peas, the only vegetable they both like is carrots, but will eat broccoli, beans and mushrooms if presented to them. Both were brilliant as babies, ate everything I gave them, not sure where I went wrong but not helped by the fact that DH fussy about veg.

Oh no Piggy. how much of a bubble has to isolate in his school?

I don't know monkey. The email said a number of students. His school has excellent zoning to keep year 12 and 13 apart and I guess my DS does different subjects. We got the email at 11 pm. Really impressed by how late someone at his school is working on all this.

Sorry to hear of positive cases, inevitable I suppose. I live in the SE in a low incidence area and it's almost impossible to get tests at the moment (lots of discussion on social media) as all the resource has been diverted to the high incidence areas.

Piggy - mine's an early riser too, if he's not up by 7.30 I wonder if he's ok. He has Asperger's and likes routine.

Flyingpandas - not only will mine not eat peas and sweetcorn he won't eat sausage or mash either. Or broccoli or carrot. He only likes strongly flavoured foods, so is perfectly happy with curries, stir fries, noodles, middle eastern food, Mexican, pasta with tomato sauce. But nothing plain. Hates roast dinners. He loves cooking though and is interested in nutrition.

And yes to wondering if there will be a crash after 6 months of doing very little, we are back to 2x school (y10 as well as y12, different schools), hockey, football, Explorers, part time job. Y10 is back swimming x5. I'm back to being a taxi plus yoga and dance classes on top of work.

That picking bits of food out drives me crazy too. Both of mine complain about mushrooms and onions. But I put both in every chilli, spag Bol, curry, etc I cook I say!

My 2 eat what they are given! Despite objections.

I can't keep up with how much they eat. Ds1 is doing boxing 3 times a week again. Ds2 football. I'm spending copious amounts on cooking 48 meatballs for spaghetti and meatballs that got wolfed down, with 2 garlic breads.

I'm buying extra: Yoghurts, grapes, bananas, pineapple, chicken breasts, part baked French sticks, tins of tomato soup, baked beans. For snacks. Costing me a fortune. I'm sure I'm spending £400 on food some months!

Like crazy, shimy, monkey, mine are totally into fitness and eating. Ds1 has protein shakes. Although Ds2 eats a tonne of shit aswell. Ds1 told me off the other day for how much processed food we eat, when I bought Aldi minted lamb kebabs, with beef kebabs, (new potatoes and steamed broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots) .

I get fed up of eating the same meals. I stand in the middle of Sainsbury's or Aldi and think what am I going to buy for our next 2/3 meals. I can bear/bare? To eat the same meal yet again.

All we eat is:
Chilli, spag Bol, lasagne, I make cauliflower sweet potato and chick pea curry aswell, jacket potatoes, fajitas, enchiladas, roasts, salads, steak, chips and home made curry sauce , steak pie with steamed veg, fish and chips, sausages and mash, quiche and salad, home made chicken kebabs, burgers, beef casserole, shepherds pie, lamb shanks, gammon, pulled pork, paella, risotto.

If I never ate any of those dishes again it would be too soon. So boring.

Ds's won't eat salad. So when Dh and I have steak and salad, Ds2 adores chicken dippers. Which is basically his favourite food. Which has to be the epitome of food shit doesn't it?

When I win the lottery, or my Ds1 becomes a billionaire entrepreneur - I'm going to hire a chef, so that I never have to cook, nor supermarket food shop ever again.

Ds1 has just announced that its 'Pink tie Friday'!!

Pink tie Friday ?
Wtf is that?

@Piggywaspushed - positive case confirmed at DD’s sixth form college too (fortunately not in her bubble).

2 teachers in our school (central London) had symptoms last night.

Website gave them Ventnor (I of Wight) as their nearest available test centre...

Oh that is just pathetic. Sort it out, Hancock!! Stop victim blaming!

Rant over...

@FlyingPandas - neither of mine will eat peas. I always think of them as being a completely inoffensive vegetable - apparently not! The love broccoli though. And cabbage.