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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I worked it out from the school emails that Year 13 and Year 11 would have only been in school for a week between cases if it had been whole year groups. It seems to be 11s and 13s mostly. As it is I think there could be individual cases where this is so. Does this mean 11s and 13s more likely to get tested while the rest think that it’s probably a cold?
Pupils are supposed to have set seat places so it is the person directly behind, to the sides and in front in the 48 hours before symptoms that get sent home I think. Between lessons they all go and chat to each other in the very small area designated for their year groups .

School is asking for everyone to please stay away from each other over half term!

I've just ordered DD Aiming for an A in A-level Psychology Paperback – 29 Jun. 2018 from Amazon as figured it may help. They did have flashcards and some of the comments did say there were helpful but only as a extra revision tool as not enough info.

@Zandathepanda - at DDs school they have to wear masks when not in lessons & SD.

Considering we are tier 3 it's amazes me to see comments on our school parents group that a large group of yr8s were out at the cinema last night! Apparently some parents seems to think thats fine as they are in class together anyway! We arent' even supposed to be socialing at all inside or outside with people outside of our households.

DD asked if she could go to the cinema with 1 friend last week and I had to remind her of the rules.

@Heifer Thanks - I shall have a look at that.

Yes they wear masks out of lessons when they are inside but no social distancing can go on due to space.

The rules get a bit blurred with school friends I think though @heifer. We’re in tier 2 and dd knows she can’t meet her old friends after school in Dixy Chicken any more! But on a Friday she stays after school for rugby and a few of them (from the same school) have a free lesson last period before rugby. Last week they went to Costa during that free. The alternative is they sit in the common room together. There doesn’t seem much difference to me but are they strictly not allowed to go to Costa from now on?

Wish it were half term next week, I think DS is knackered.

What have they covered so far Seeline? I used to use notes and mind maps so not a lot of good for her ! Very rusty and not actually looked at syllabus for A level for years but I would recommend that she downloads the syllabus and when revising finds a way that works for her that makes sure she is covering everything mentioned in the syllabus ie. so she looks at it and can say ok that bit related to X.

Also to download some of the past papers and make a list of the past questions for that section so she has an idea of exactly what she will be answering and keeps that in mind when she is going through her notes.

She will need to know the relevant theories , be able to evaluate them and provide studies and experiments to relating to them. When she is looking at the experiments she could maybe develop a strategy to evaluate them that she could record on flash cards maybe?

What was the experiment designed to measure?
What type of experiment is it?
How was it carried out?
What were the results and how do they relate to the theory they were testing ?
How do they relate to the hypothesis?
Where there any weaknesses regarding the experiment eg. were the number of participants small?
What further experiments could be done to verify the data from that one?
Are there any ethical considerations regarding the experiment (some of the old ones, see Milgram and Zimbardo?

Off the top of my head if flash cards work for her I don’t see why she can’t use them, just that there would be quite a few for each section but she can then work at condensing them so that at the end so eventually a list of theories and experiments will trigger the knowledge she needs if that makes sense?

That’s all a bit ad hoc and pre decent caffeine levels but I hope there is something in there that is helpful. There must be lots on online resources now so hopefully other people can fill you in on those.

Thank you @FoolsAssassin - I am ashamed to say I have no idea what she has done yet, but has referred to a prison experiment and someone called Baddly a lot?? I know nothing about psych, so don't really want to offer advice if it completely the wrong approach. I have to say, I think if flash cards work for her, I don't see why she can't use them in some form. I shall show her your advice - from my uneducated position, your approaches sound very useful so thanks again.

Ds is loving college. I can't believe the virtual parent's evening I had last week. They love him and he is flying. One of his tutors who we know as she also teaches at an extra curricular told me they love the fact he looks like he will be on course to make their progress figures look good in 2 years time with his bare minimum (except for music) GCSE grades and what he is now achieving.

Importantly he is also making friends amongst kids who get him.

My attentions have been more focused on dd. Her college appears to be rapidly declining and she is unhappy how a lot of things are being handled which is very sad as she is in her final year there after it previously being a wonderful school/college. The teachers are still great, just a change of management.

Ok that is Social Influence (Zimbardo, prison experiment) and Memory (Baddeley , model of working memory) so she can look those up on syllabus and there will be lots of past papers to look at as they were taught when I did it rather a lot of years ago so she can get a good idea of the sort of thing she will be answering so can see how what she has covered in class will be applied.

If not too stressed by current affairs then the psychology A level students have a great real life situation they can look at . There is a lot of behavioural science going on at the moment, they will be able to relate some of things happening at the moment to the Social Influence stuff they are covering of they have a think about it and watch carefully.

We have DD home with us whilst preparing to go next month for her time abroad (hopefully). Her online lectures started at 6.45 this morning, think she is finished for the day now.

Hi! I've a dd in year 12. I'm currently waiting for the 6th form to close. They've had one positive case, resulting in 25% of the 6th form being asked to isolate (not dd) and I believe now two or three are waiting results after having symptoms.
Add to that dd and her friends went to the park on Monday in a free and one of them decided to jump off the swing. Hmm! Apparently A&E is fairly empty but a broken arm will still take 6 weeks to mend.
They apparently had thought going outside to the park was safer than sitting inside the 6th form room.

DS seems to be enjoying what he's doing but not seeing him do much work at home (and he always come home early or goes out with friends when he has "study" periods last thing) and no idea what progress he is making! I am hoping that no news is good news ... (would the sixth form be more proactively flagging to parents, if he was really struggling, or do they talk more to students at this stage?)

We have another week before half term, but he will be very ready for it. I think half term will be spent like the period after lockdown ended - small groups of teens roaming streets/hanging out in parks. DS and a couple of his friends have adopted a spot on the top floor of a town multi story car park as a place to hang out - due to reduced footfall in town there are rarely any cars up there. One of those things that I'm torn between thinking that isn't actually a bad place for them to be (outside, lots of space, no crowds), and thinking that the car park owners probably don't want teens there even if there is only a few of them and all they do is play music loudly and drink Red Bull.

I've just found this lovely Y12 thread 😁 DD is studying maths, physics and biology. There's around 150 in her cohort and out of the 16 taking physics, she's the only girl. I was a little worried about how it's going to work out for her but so far so good. Progress reports are out next week but she's had one success so far in an early maths assessment. They set a high pass mark of 75% and were told if they didn't pass they'd have to keep taking it until they did. She was relieved to pass as most of her class didn't. 😅

How many of your Y12s are doing EPQs? It's not something that was discussed at DDs school but she has friends at other schools that are doing them. I suggested that she talk to the teachers in the subject that she's most interested in doing a project in to see if it's possible.

Hello mummaminnie My DS is also studying physics (and maths) I'll ask him later how many girls there are. Good that your DD is coping with being the only girl though.

DS is not doing an EPQ because he's doing an AS level (in a subject that wasn't offered at A Level but he really wanted to study) so already has enough on his plate, but EPQs are heavily encouraged and he knows quite a few students that are. Good idea for DD to get a teacher onside.

EPQ is more or less compulsory at DDs school. If they don't do it, they still have to do a piece of extended writing based on research, so really makes sense to do the real thing.

Last day for dd today before a two week half term. It’s feels like it’s been a long term but she loves her new college, loves her courses and has managed to make friends despite the fact she has only met half the class in her subjects as the process at her college is in one week and remote learning the next to limit the contact.

This approach seems to have worked well have only been informed of 2 cases and one was in the opposite cohort and one on her cohort but not in her classes so she didn’t need to isolate.

Think she is really tired and has had tests in all subjects last week and this and it’s been a big jump for her in terms of managing her workload and deadlines - think she came close to missing one which resulted in major panic and tears - hopefully lesson learned and now she’s into the swing of things she will settle into a routine come November.

We are away (fingers crossed) for a week to the seaside tomorrow - currently in medium tier.

My DD is doing an EPQ it’s completed in Yr12-submitted next May.

Mammaminnie at DD's school they start their EPQs end of year 12 but it's an option not a necessity but DD wants to do one. She already has an idea that is based on history but that has sociological aspects too so covers two of her subjects so will chat to head of 6th form when they time comes.

We still have another week and DD is flagging. She is so tired as isn't used to the c.30min walk there and back every day as she got a lift with a friend's dad in years previously but who has now gone to college. She loves the walk as listens to music / podcasts but think it's tiring with a heavy bag. It's a friend's birthday today so has another bag with presents and picnic snacks with her.

She's also started talking about her bloated stomach and wanting to eat more healthy. Reader, she has a washboard flat stomach and couldn't eat much healthier so I am a bit worried and not sure how to go about talking about it. Any suggestions?

I did A level Psychology back around the turn of the millennium, as an evening class - I seem to remember my best revision tactic was boring DH and my friends with all the details of the experiments Didn't really help when it came to the statistical bit - my bugbear!

At dd's school the EPQ is written in year 13, and I think anyone can do it - but it's something I'm going to ask her tutor about when I get my 'how your dc is settling in' phone call before half term

AnneofCleavage, your dd's comments about eating and weight do sound concerning If it develops nastily, please come over to the teens with eating disorders support thread - I'm on there getting help, advice and a sounding-off board for my younger dd But fingers crossed it doesn't go that far

Let me know if you'd like me to link it for you

DS's school offers a research project which is compulsory for everyone in year 12, then if they want, can develop make it into an EPQ.

@FoolsAssassin - thank you, really helpful 🙂

I did suggest to Ds that he could do a lot of work on an EPQ during lockdown but he did not take my advice!

I contacted his school about the very low target grade in one subject & they have replied to say it was a mistake & they have now changed it. So it’s always worth asking if something does not look right.

It’s a novelty to have a child doing essay based subjects - getting through loads of pens & paper!

TheySeeHerRowling thank you so much. I would very much appreciate a link to that particular board. I'm so sorry you're having to go there for similar reasons. I'm so glad I asked as sharing issues and worries is so much better than bottling them up or feeling alone.

We’ve had email updating the handbook. Includes timetable to be used in event of full school closure.