Corona Cohort’s Year 12 adventures

[FoolsAssassin]

We’ve made it into year 12 and rapidly approaching the end of the first half term .

Lots of challenges we could never imagined as we started the year but we’re all keeping on keeping on and this thread is for anyone who would like to jump on board to share the rather unusual journey this is turning out to be.

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All calm here today DD slept for 13 hours. Still feels sick and not wanting to eat but is drinking plenty so that will do for now. I have looked at private adhd referral but the one local to us is not taking on any more referrals until the new year due to covid. Even before covid the wait was 4 months for child assessment. I am going to look elsewhere.

WRT college, I am still concerned. I have worked out she has had no more than 15 hours f2f contact with each teacher since September. Her self isolating this week has really not helped. The routine of having to get up and get into college helps with her mental health I think but as it is, she won't have been at college for 4 weeks.

I just called the college helpline and apparently the teachers will contact me in the next few weeks on 'an ad hoc basis' to see if I want to talk to them about her progress. I can't imagine anyone NOT wanting to

I have the email address of her media studies teacher (who is also her tutor) now and I am in a quandary whether to email her to let her know what has happened this week. DD would absolutely kill me if she ever found out. She feels everyone judges her all the time anyway, and for her to think a teacher knows would quite likely mean she wouldn't go in to college again. But on the other hand, I feel they should know. I don't know the teacher, never met her so no idea if she would be discreet or not. I just can't risk her letting it slip.

On another note, dd has still had no contact from anyone regarding her dyslexia and how the college are going to support her with that.

She even said to me yesterday she wished she had stayed on at school. This is someone who absolutely hated her school and almost has a panic attack if she ever goes near it! That says something about the college I think

I have done an online parents eve with my dt's last year. It was fine. Similar to Easily's experience above. I wonder if it will be so easy with college ....

I had an email this afternoon about parents eve next week. Ds will have a letter too. We have a choice of 2 eves next week and have to tick which teachers we'd like to see. Then I think we will be given institutions for a video call. I never do FaceTime or similar as I don't want to be seen. I'd rather a phone call any day ☹️

We have Parents' Eve next week - 5 mins for the 6 subject teachers and 5 mins with head of 6th form who is also IC Medic applications.

I did my Year 6 parents last week and found it very smooth - didn't have to deal with the parents who refuse to stop talking EVEN WHEN I HAVE STOOD UP, WALKED TO THE DOOR AND OPENED IT FOR THEM!!

Parents Eve is this week for us- 5 mins for 8 subject teachers and a further 5 mins for DDs EPQ supervisor.
We will be timed out after each ‘5 mins slot’, that’s if I manage to actually log in as I’m shite at tech
We have another parents evening next year which i believe is after DDs end of year exams. Hopefully, at that point in time we will be in the position to have face to face meetings.

Ooh this is interesting, We're meant to be having a parents eve at the end of the month, had assumed it wouldn't happen but maybe they'll try a zoom meet

Is it just us with no parents' eve till the new year

Ds has had his (telephone consultation with his tutor.

Two years ago when dd was in Year 12 Parent's evening was January.

We haven't heard anything about a parents' evening either TheySeeHerRowling

Sorry for your DD's troubles pasanda. I hope you find someone to help you soon.

I think ours is after Christmas some time, but I’m not entirely sure.

I think ours is March! Should have had pastoral one in Oct but didn't have anything. Just had report which was purely effort grade focused. Senior tutor review in early December for the students to find out if they are on the correct path or if struggling

Report is in!! Nothing lower than a B which is good news but can't understand why when he's had 6 or 7 assignments for one of his subjects and got As in all of them, the teachers have given him a B for attainment.

estherfrewen, we were also supposed to have a pastoral 'meeting' last month but it didn't happen - I suspect because I had already been in contact with dd's tutor re managing her aspie anxiety

But I had other things I would have discussed - questions about EPQ and enrichment activities None of it particularly urgent though, so I guess it can wait until the NY

No sign of a report or a parents evening. I am unsure whether to email and ask when our first check-in will be. I used to think no news is good news but at DS' old school that actually wasn't the case sometimes.

Our school announced this morning that they are closing/home schooling for all pupils, for 2 weeks, starting Monday.

Blimey, that’s a bit out of the blue Oblimov! What’s the reason?

@pasanda - the college really do sound to be letting her down :-( Is there anyone who would be able to take a more wholistic view and chase things up for you in school? I know different schools and colleges structure things differently, but student services/student support/SENCO or similar? What have you decided in terms of letting them know? It's difficult now they are verging on adults, and you do feel that their desires for privacy are valid. I wonder if you can keep it broader, and just say that she's really continuing to struggle/needs some support, so you need to touch in on pastoral care along with dyslexia provision and contact time for those with additional emotional needs? It feels like you need a kind of team plan with school so that you - and dd - are clear on what you can be expecting from them at least.... I think schools are just so flat out at the mo with 'the new bl**dy normal', that we do need to shout a bit when our dc are needing help...

We've had a report, but not expecting parents eve until next term - report at least was really positive, as ds is hitting B/A/A* in his testing so far which is very reassuring :-)

@Oblomov20: I think you are down near me (Surrey/London borders?) - I'm surprised to hear that for a school locally - although our school has been stressing that where they are likely to struggle is if they have lots of teachers off SI (which stupidly hadn't really occurred to me!) - did they say why they'd made that decision?

DS gets a report tomorrow although will be an interim one with effort, behaviour and homework grades so not anything too illuminating.

Will have to check when parents evening is - not for a while I don’t think

Does anyone else think we’ll have any early closing of schools before Christmas? Particularly after seeing @Oblomov20’s post. I think they make look at closing them a week or so before normal.

Well, it has come as a bit of a shock to me. Because it's been very very quiet covid wise in all the primary's and secondary's round here. As I said 2 nearest schools have had no cases at all.

All of a sudden our secondary had gone from 3 cases, to 8. Then today they said 18 cases. And 360 thus self isolating. Of which my 2 ds's are 2 of those.

(My Ds2 insisted his was unfair because he was nowhere near said child.... but what can you do? )

So, it seems a bit .....over...... but they said they'd consulted with public health England and taken difficult decision.

So. That's that!

We’ve had about the same number of cases but split over three months. Lots of disruption to Yr11,12 and 13 but only for those sitting in a 1m radius around the positive child. This week they announced the sixth form had to wear masks on in ‘frees’ as well as between lessons. No masks still in lessons.

Dd's school has had zero cases, but dd2's (in the neighbouring town) has had quite a few, including a good friend of dd2 It's odd how it seems to have clustered in a couple of locations in the county, whilst barely affecting others only a few miles distant

I don't think there'll be a wholesale school early closedown, but maybe zoned shutdowns here and there, along the line of the tiers

That's a bit of a scary how quickly it escalated! Best to act quickly though I suppose.

@Zandathepanda my two have had to wear masks all day in school since half term.

@TheySeeHerRowling

Is it just us with no parents' eve till the new year

No...Jan for me here...

DD texted at lunchtime to say 10 Y12s and 23 Y11s had been sent home today! We'd only had 1 previous case weeks ago when 12 U6 were sent home. We're London/Surrey borders too...