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

Good news on the sleepover Anne. Hope it remains positive during school for her and doesn’t revert...

I've booked ds's lessons for mid November just after his birthday. They are £58 for 2 hours here. I guess it depends where you are for price. Ds1 has taken the small car to university with him. So nothing for ds2 to practice in. He did do a few stops and starts up and down our private drive before the car went. Mine and DH's are automatic. So not worth him driving ours.

Our plan is 3 or 4 sessions of clutch control/steering/indicating in the massive car park of a local sports venue, a couple of lessons, lots of practice with dad (more patient than me), more lessons to brush up test technique and test at Christmas. Theory test booked for half term.

DS has a stinking cold now : no covid symptoms. Will ahve to see how he is tomorrow as I don't really want colds an other bugs being passed around schools either!

He is hardly ever ill but is more prone to colds than me or DS1.

What with his 3 hour lessons, he isn't keen to miss a day : they get through so much in one session!

Mine had to have Friday off whilst we waited for my covid test results (negative, thankfully). Dd was very anxious about missing any more school, so I’m hoping that doesn’t happen again. Year 10 at her school is self-isolating now, but because the whole year is out, they’re getting live lessons.

All seems to be going well here, but dd hasn’t had any marks yet. She did a history essay in class last week but apparently they quarantine them for 72 hours before marking. She’s also got two tests tomorrow so it does feel like the work is kicking in (and she’s starting to her stressy!). Socially she’s enjoying it though.

DS has a cold too, but half the school had it last week, so not feeling guilty about sending him in! Though, as DS pointed out, the speed at which the cold spread across school is not encouraging in terms of how quickly Covid might spread. But then I think most of us think the only thing stopping Covid spreading though a school is no one having it in the first place! (No disrespect to any school; I know they are doing everything they can within the parameters they have to).

My colleague was telling me that her daughter (who is in Y13 at a local school sixth form) was invited to a houseparty with over 50 people last weekend. Her daughter sensibly decided not to go, but I was (perhaps naively) very shocked that such parties are still going on amongst sixth form pupils - I presume with parents' knowledge/permission?

Sorry to hear of all the colds and ailments. But conversely good to hear DC getting into their courses.

I know what you mean Red. We have split 2 gatherings of 6 over the weekend, and they are all from the Y12 ‘bubble’. I advised DD to head off the ‘why didn’t I get an invite’ with proactive sticking to the rules mantra, so she didn’t get a huge backlash. One of the friends said their parents had offered to host on DD’s behalf, as they weren’t bothered by the rules. She politely declined.

10 years ago I would have been incensed with a I can host my own kid’s fucking gathering thank you mindset, but my old(er) aged me doesn’t take offence anymore. People are so different. Especially right now...

I think we must have exceptionally law abiding friends, I don't think any would have a party over 6, but have to admit I am wondering whether I would stretch to 7 to have my parents over at Christmas if DS's GF is with us. If they could just allow 10 by Christmas we would be happy.

How weird is it to be in a situation where it is illegal to have dinner for 7?!

No test result here, was delayed getting to us and who knows when results will be back.

DD is finding Pyschology dull but just got an A in her first essay so that's good. Hoping it gets better for her as I thought she would love it.

Things are back to normal with us - I've stepped back and she is coming to me when when wanting to chat/ need help. Hopefully it was a massive blip and I just caught her at a very bad moment.

She asked if I would make her a casear salad for lunch today(she is trying new things to take as school is only providing sandwiches at the moment and she's realised how expensive it is to pop to the shops every day). So I cooked her a chicken breast when I did a roast last night, got up especially to get it ready for her to take to school (I', currently suffering from viral labyrinthitis so everything is a challenge especially first thing :-) got it all ready (making it look nice etc) and she suddendly says - ah I forgot, I'm coming home at lunch time today! :-) at least it's in the fridge ready.

Re parties etc - we are in a local lockdown here so no one allowed in each others houses which DD is finding hard. After her club hockey match on Saturday she came straight home (no teas at club house), then decided amongst them that 6 of them (all same age, although 3 different schools) would go out for a meal instead, so off they went to a restaurant. I ordered an indian for DH and me :-) Seems mad that she can't go into her school friends house, but can go out for a meal with 5 other people from different schools (I wouldn't have let her go had she already not been playing hockey with the same people).

I hope you and yours all have a good week, I will be reading this thread with interest (can't go anywhere) so hoping you can keep me entertained :-)

Good luck with the testing, hope results hurry up and all clear.

Hope DD/DS settling in and making some connections if not friends yet.

How are you DD/DS finding the subjects they have chosen?

Psychology - dull
PE - easy
Biology - Hard
Core Maths - loves it

Dd is also doing Psychology @Heifer. So far, she says the lessons are dull as the teaching style sounds very unimaginative- lots of copying down from the board. However I think she finds the concepts interesting. She’s loving History as she’s developed quite an interest in politics recently, plus the lessons involve lots of group work. RS is growing on her, again there’s lots of debate which is good.

DD is also doing psychology and really enjoying it so far. She has some kind of test/timed assessment coming up (today, maybe?) and seems to have spent a lot of time preparing for it.
Drama - enjoying
English Lit - enjoying
Geography - not enjoying as much as she thought she would. She got a "negative" last week for not handing in a piece of homework; she told the teacher that she'd struggled to know how to do it but the teacher, understandably, pointed out that she'd had a week to ask for help. Part of me was cross with DD and totally in agreement with the teacher, the other part wanted to point out that DD's ADHD means time management isn't her strong point (she struggles with forward planning, so there's a good chance she didn't realise until too late that she needed to ask for help) and she really hates having to ask for help.
We have parents evening this week (remotely), so I'm going to mention it then.

Parties - DD went to an open air "sesh" on Saturday night. It ended up being about 50 kids from 4 or 5 schools, dancing and drinking in a public park... I've told DD that if we get an email from.school, informing us of a mass covid outbreak in year 12, she'll be in trouble! d
As of this evening, our county is in lockdown, as are all the surrounding counties (we 're in South Wales).

I’m surprised that ‘sesh’ wasn’t broken up by the police @Alsoplayspiccolo! There was a post on our local Facebook about the police breaking up a gathering of 50 people who were watching a brass band!

I know what you mean about ADHD and forward planning, ds is the same and almost cannot even think about something if it’s not due for the next day. Does she have friends yet in her classes who can help her?

Dd always relied heavily on friends for help and guidance at her old school. Initially, I really noticed the lack of them as she kept asking me for help! I know she’s getting on well with those she sits with now - particularly in history where her partner is apparently an expert on American politics! - and the requests for help seem to have died down. It does make me think she’s lacking in confidence though, as she’s totally capable. Sometimes she overthinks things - and asking me is no help as I do the same!

Ds's assessment of his subjects (he's home early today as the school have just this week changed the system so they are home more often:

• psychology: enjoying very much - his teachers sound very cool and engaging though. He has a test next week but says it is just checking concept understanding rather than essay
• maths: enjoying - no harder than he expected
• comp sci: mostly figuring out their project for the year so far, so sounds like starting slowly and he doesn't feel he's learnt much that's actually new yet (there are new students in the comp sci course who didn't do the GCSE and apparently they have lots of extra coding work he doesn't have to do!)

Overall, my sense is he seems less pressured than some of your dcs: I'm not sure if that's because he's been uber sensible at school (he's chosen a table on his own in the maths class as he reckons he gets through work much quicker that way ;-) or if he's ignoring too much of the 'if you have time' instructions and just doing what is actually required. I guess time will tell!

I worry about the lack of pressure as well - havign moved from a highly pressured school to a more normal one I cant tell how DS is getting on. He would normally be behind his peers now and doing below average in tests but seems to be fine - is he really fine though or have the expectations dropped?

Sorry to hear about all the colds...DD off school with one now. Seems to be doing the rounds.

Looks like this week is assessment week for many of our DC.

DD’s current feelings about subjects...
Spanish: loves. Pace is fast, homework is frequent but not lengthy
History: enjoys, not confident in essay writing technique yet
English: enjoys but feels quite inadequate in class
Maths AS: actually keeping up but relentless homework’s, as teacher says she has half timetable vs other subjects. Don’t fully get this, as surely it is half A level curriculum and timetabling is correct if done over 2 years?

However DD has been in reflective mood over History and English. She knew former would be a tough start given she didn’t take GCSE; more on lack of writing technique than actual content knowledge. But in English, she’s been blown away by the high standard in her set. To the point that she doesn’t think she’d be able to read straight English at Uni if it was representative of what standard needs to be. This was one of her strongest areas previously.

I don’t think it’s all bad that she feels this way, and she’s acknowledged she has to up her game. And wonders if being more of an all rounder is now not great vs excelling in specialist subjects to take forward. My personal view apart from the obvious that you can’t be great at everything (and so relative) is that education is just one period of your life’s learning, your interests spill into beyond the formal learning years.

@ealingwestmum I think English can really knock your confidence as it’s so hard to know if you’re on the right track. I didn’t do it for A Level, but I started on a combined arts degree course which included American Literature. The marks I received were on a par with my history and geography marks, but I really struggled to know what they were looking for (even though I was obviously getting it). In the end I moved to single honours History.

If she’s really unsure, is there another humanities subject she could switch to? RS? Sociology?

I think History A Level essays are different to GCSE anyway so she probably hasn’t missed much.

How is DS finding subjects?
PE - most interesting and most friendly
Maths/FM - likes the main teacher, but content still boring, mostly GCSE
Physics - OK, nice teachers

Another one not doing much work, no idea what the standard of his work has been, not much handed in and no parents evenings until Feb.

@ealingwestmum sorry to hear your DD is struggling, does your school set for A levels? I have not come across that, I think it is usually one group in an option block unless an enormous sixth form.

@ealingwestmum Top tip for English (given to DD by Older DS) is that it is massively worthwhile doing ‘flipped learning’ for English. He would read the material ahead of the lesson, plus a couple of bits of research - even if it was just wiki background on the author or some random’s poetry blog. He then felt he had something to say early in the discussion sessions and (in a ‘fake it til you make it’ way) then felt emboldened to come up with his own thoughts. DD is doing this know and it has helped her confidence.

I think that if you are dealing with material for the first time in a group, so much of your brain is processing your reactions that you don’t have any room left to come up with thoughtful questions or insightful comments.

DD’s comments:
English- loves Streetcar, not so sure about Wordsworth, is completely bonkers about Pope.

Chemistry- hard. She thinks the teacher is trying to scare off a few students who might not be up to it - lots of tests. Loves both teachers.

Biology - great, one teacher more approachable than the other (and with more of a sense of humour...)

there sis till a spec with Pope on it?? Goodness!

I love Pope!

Teenagers always respond to Streetcar and I love teaching it. Get more and more uncomfortable about the misogyny each time, though. It's a great discussion but some kids are at a very basic level with their understanding of male violence and very much judge Blanche,and even Stella.

DS seems OK with everything but Spanish is still unresolved. He talks most about sociology but probably because he knows I am interested. He finds economics hardest.

Thank you everyone; some great thoughts and experiences there. I think she’ll be ok, just thrown by the high bar. Previously she thinks being in a group where most were STEM biased in their strengths, she probably stood out in class and as a result, ranked highly in the sub setting. I would have assumed her current grouping is based on timetabling vs ability, but the group will clearly now be of those in her year (and newcomers to the school) that excel in English and may consider taking at HE level.

Parents’ evening in a couple of weeks...good time to sense check.

I also think as a time poor person in the past, this has massively caught up with her taking 2 essay based subjects. She needs to adjust accordingly to cover the reading needs, not just bang out an essay like she used to!

DSs thoughts on subjects:

Maths - likes it. Prefers one teacher to the other

Geography - likes it. Probably prefers physical geography to human but both are good. Both teachers good.

Religious Studies - favourite subject at the moment. Enjoys being able to discuss things and likes both teachers.

Also likes his form tutor.

All in all pretty good.

Had slight worry when had another “important” email from school today but was that a year 13 has Covid 19 and their close contacts are isolating.