Corona Cohort - Year 12 - 2021 - NO 'Self isolating' please.

[Oblomov20]

We just want our kids in school. Please. If at all possible.

And driving lessons. And good Mental Health. And happiness.

In-and-amongst all this Covid nightmare and lockdown debacle.

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DD becoming expert at smoothly negotiating the 4 different types of speed bump around us!

My DD has to wear a mask at all times on school premises unless at break/lunch when in her year group of 180 . So even during lessons. Private school so I suppose they can impose their own rules. Even so, the teachers don't wear masks for lessons, only if mingling with the children to check work etc. As far as I know there have been minimal cases, despite being in London.

My DSs also have to wear masks at all times on school premises (other than during outside Games).

And that's a state school. They did this from half term IIRC.

It's a brave school that does that (by which I mean sensible). The DfE guidelines don't use the word forbid re masks in classrooms but it is pretty much what it says.

My head is famed for saying he wanted masks in classrooms 'over his dead body'. Silly man.

State school here and masks everywhere except eating. Teachers also wear masks or DS says some have screens and sit behind those.

DD's school masks only in corridors. So they are lounging around the common room maskless, and maskless in classes.
I know DD hates masks but I'm surprised they aren't required in the common room. Also think tea making etc needs to be removed.

Another state school where masks are worn everywhere except classrooms. They only have either Y12 or Y13 in at a time, so only use larger classrooms where they can distance in a seating plan. Seems to have worked so far as Y12 (bubble of 250) have not had to isolate.

@Monkey2001 ds said lessons have been as normal...so tables together and sitting side by side still. We were in a lower risk area from sept until mid December though. But high risk now.

They are bound to tell schools to remain shut in the announcement later.

DS has been told dropping AS maths won’t be sorted until he is back in school, despite his senior tutor and both maths teachers agreeing he can drop it even though his maths teachers said it was a shame as he should get a good grade. However they understand his reasons for wanting to drop it. Why should something so simple be so complicated? So he will be doing 10 lessons a fortnight plus homework until he is back at school. He will probably have done the exam by then....

@estherfrewen seems unlikely they will really do exams this year. I think we are going to have 2 months of lock down and exams will be cancelled.

All those kids expecting to do mocks after Xmas...grief.

Well, after a first term of stress and anxiety and barely making it over the threshold of the classroom some days, dd1 is now apparently DESPERATE to go back to school. Wouldn't you know it?

(I suspect her view would be different if there was no lockdown in the offing.)

I used the online calculator earlier to see when we would get the vaccine. I'm not far off 50 but it came out at august 2022. So well over 18 months away. That was going on a million vaccines a week too. DH I'd say is higher risk but his still came out as October/November. Not good.

DS has mocks in the next 2 weeks. School are e-mailing exam papers to them and they have to return them under timed conditions. It is difficult for the school to manage knowing that some do not have access to printers. Luckily he won't want to cheat, but he could if he chose to. I would be more concerned about cheating for Y13 mocks which could be the basis of actual results this year.

@icanbewhatiwant I think the vaccines will come out at more than 1m week once the supply is not constrained. I think they get out more flu vaccines. Israel has already vaccinated 12% of their population and we are 3rd in the world for vaccination rate at the moment.

@Monkey2001 - think you might be right.

Looks like Dd1 (2nd year Uni) was the last to sit normal A Level exams until this cohort that Dd2 is in then. Poor teachers and pupils to have left it this late again.

Lockdown again ☹️ we knew it was coming. Our dc's will go straight to A levels. After no GCSEs AS will also now be cancelled.

I guess I can't take ds out driving in the car either now. Theory will be cancelled too.

They are going to be very good at not doing exams, aren't they? That said how many things in life have actual exams?

Boris said something a bit odd about exams . he said 'it is not possible, or fair, for all exams to go ahead'. he made it sound as if some would...

Ooh I didn’t take it like that, more exams can’t go ahead because it wouldn’t be fair, but, we haven’t thought what the fair alternative would be yet?

“In the circumstances, we do not think it is possible for all exams in the summer to go ahead as planned. We will accordingly be working with Ofqual to consult rapidly to put in place alternative arrangements that will allow students to progress fairly”

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/949536/NationalLockdownGuidance.pdf

Clear as mud, as you'd expect!

@Zandathepanda, @Piggywaspushed and a few others here have DC in 2019 and 2022 A level cohorts. They are the ones either side of the 2 years which have missed out on teaching but being given generous A level grades to make up for it . When I saw that 2021 would be as generous as 2020 it seemed like a clumsy response. I really think that it would be good for a significant proportion of the current Y13 to be offered to do their A levels in 2022 and have an extra year of teaching so that they can make up the gap in learning they must have from their disrupted 2 years.

At least the universities know what is coming this time.