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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The good news for those who don't respond well to online learning is that the news is with the lowering Covid figures, things are going to start opening up from March onwards. I'm hoping that may mean schools as a priority.
Looking after depressed teens is really tough. I don't feel equipped for it.

I've set up my S.A.D. lamp in dd2's room to see whether that perks her up. Don't know whether it will be too bright for her online lessons 🌞

Anyone any experience of joining the police here? I'm thinking that may be an option for ds1 but know absolutely nothing about it.

@teta is your Dd still socialising online with her boarder friends? Or are they not feeling the need as they’ve got each other? Dd is also very sociable but as they’re all isolated at home it’s slightly different. She seems to have got into the habit of some very late night FaceTimes but I’m leaving her be as she’s still up for her lessons.

The police is something my ds has mentioned in the past. Although it’s now a graduate career, you can join at 18 on a graduate apprenticeship. They do day release study with a university (although I think it’s online!) but there’s no exams or anything.

The only person I know who’s joined the police recently is a graduate though (there’s a different route for them). Although apprenticeships are open to 18 year olds I wonder in practice if they go for slightly older candidates?

PS re the police there are now 3 routes in - the graduate apprenticeship (A Level requirements are reasonably low), the graduate route (any degree, they do a graduate diploma in policing) and there’s also the option of doing a degree in policing (self funded like any other degree) which fast-tracks you, but you’re not guaranteed a job.

We are looking at the Navy rather than Police but same sort of entry choices. Difficult to make such a big decision in a void though.

@CrazyCrofter Yes & Yes.
Still chatting & face timing but the boarders have a full programme of activities. Many stayed over Xmas.
Lots of new sixth former's this year arrived early for quarantine & testing. So they were close knit even before the day students came back. Dd has 20 mins at lunch to socialise, eat dinner & get to know the new boarders. In complete contrast to previous years where they could stay until late & there was lots of socials & sleepovers.

I just floated idea at DS to stop A-levels: he's slightly horrified. I guess we will see what happens.

Yup apprenticeships here would involve long journeys on public transport.

Ds was set on university. But is now thinking of a degree apprenticeship. But he wants to move away to do it. He doesn't want to stay round here.

We have first online mock tomorrow, open book exam which I'm sure they al think will make it easy. DS has revised and got his notes in order so he can find what he needs easily so fingers crossed it goes OK.

DD was supposed to be having more substantial tests the week before half term, but as far as I can gather they aren't happening now. I hope they're not as she hasn't done any work for them. They were meant to be used to determine whether they could drop their 4th A level, so not sure what is happening there - DD is desperate to give up one although still dithering between geog or business 🙄

DS of a friend has joined the army to train as a military paramedic. He is another bright boy who never got on with school and is really happy now.

@lljkk could you get your DS a tutor to have some one-one academic time? We have a tutor friend who has carried on tutoring on-line, which is still not as good as F2F, but at least you are interacting with 1 person.

@FoolsAssassin I’ve just realised I didn’t respond to your original post.
Yes, I do have a older dd1 and was on a gcse thread a few years ago.
Dd is a 3/5 year now and seems totally unphased by Covid.
How is yours?

Mine’s good thanks Teta, really glad your DD isn’t phased. Was a long time ago so you probably won’t remember but mine was the one who was rather vomity during the GCSES, then went travelling straight after coming back with ‘the friend’ who eventually got promoted to boyfriend, and by the end of the September of year 12 was on course number 3!

She eventually ended up at university and on year 3/4 of language degree (having switched at end of year 1) so supposed to be abroad but obviously isn’t. She has coped pretty well considering thankfully.

DS is generally much more straight forward generally but has gone weekly boarding as new college some way away and struggled to settle as hated boarding at the start. Was much better by Christmas and hopefully ok when they go back. I think I’m looking forward to being done with school now and feel for you with two to contend with!

Hope the mock goes well today Popcorn. DS was due to have some next month but not sure what is happening now.

Lljkk I think that’s pretty positive he was horrified, might help him clarify his thinking a bit. Is parents evening anytime soon? If not I would be tempted to contact his tutor so they can ask his subject teachers how they feel he is doing .

DS very grumpy this morning complaining he hates online school but won’t tell me why. I suspect he’s had a poor mark on a piece of work.

@seeline ours were meant to be dropping the 4th subject by half term, school have encouraged them not to unless specifically recommended by their teacher. So that’s 4 a levels and the EPQ going on all year. He handed in the literature review for the EPQ this week so at least that’s one thing done.

Thanks @FoolsAssassin, hopefully his mood won’t ruin things!

OK, he's told me, he got a C in Eng Lit essay. He got an A* in his last one and does not understand how the teacher is marking. It does seem to go up and down quite a lot and he is very confused. I anticipate him dropping Eng Lit if this carries on. He needs a proper 1-1 session with his teacher which he can't do from home and needs better feedback than the one or two word comments he is currently getting.

Just not surprised he's out of sorts over it. Its so much harder to talk to the teachers and get feedback. DD was grumpy over a comment on her Geography test which just said the answer wasn't correct. That was it. So it's up to her to chase up and ask for more information as she though it was correct. Its just exhausting for everyone.

Last week DD had 6 exams/end of topic tests so was shattered at the weekend. I think its so much harder with distance learning, esp if the tests don't go as you'd hoped.

Praying they get back to school soon, and sport is allowed. I can live without the pub if it gets schools going.

Just had an email from dd's tutor asking how she is, as she hasn't 'seen' her at any of their tutorial sessions - which dd promised she had been logging on for .

We still have absolutely no idea how she is doing in her subjects either, as no feedback from anyone (if dd has had feedback, she hasn't mentioned it - but then, she wouldn't. Just says it's all going 'fine'.)

The school's server is back up, but their phone lines have gone down...

DS doing English Lit as well and marking does seem a bit all over the place. He always shows me his assignments afterwards (my degree is English) and I don’t really know what they are looking for. Each feedback contradicts the last! He was scoring full marks in GCSE mocks and I think his confidence is a bit knocked but he is persevering. French seems to be his best subject somewhat unexpectedly. He is definitely benefitting timewise from dropping the AS maths. Has had French assessment back but still waiting for English and history. I would say for English the kind of answers required are far in advance of what I produced in the mid 80s for A level and more like what was expected for first year degree.

@FoolsAssassin I definitely remember the 'friend' 😄.
I think a lot of ours will end up taking circuitous routes through education.As long as they end up approximately where they wanted to be originally ...

We have an online parents evening tonight. Ds has only 5 mins each for bloody A levels! This is a boarding school. The sfl dept. can't even organise his lessons properly. They're not sending him invites for some reason.
He actually loves Boarding ( though it took him a while) but I'm not impressed by the school. I have a younger one too @Fools. I'm currently spending my life corralling the two boys🤯. Ds1 because he's dyslexic & disorganised & ds2 because he's bloody lazy.

Just I’m not surprised that’s thrown him a bit either, big difference. Is one of the 4 Further Maths? 4 plus EPQ seems really full on . DS has 4 plus a project but he has gone the Maths/FM, physics and comp sci route . When you have essay writing in the mix it sounds like a lot.

Teta it’s coming back to me now, he was the ‘Not Boyfriend’ for a bit😂 He was around for about 4 years in the end. I take my hat off to you with 4 , 2 have nearly finished me off ! Am hoping DS will grow to love boarding and the transition to university is nice and easy. DS has dyslexia but generally copes pretty well with it. DD needs assessing for it, hoping University can arrange it.

We had 5 mins slots for parents evening and apart from one where we over run by 5 mins it was surprisingly very ok and I don’t want to go back to face to face as went really smoothly and we got all the info needed.

One good thing about our online parent consultation...ds attended. He's never been to the ones at school. Ds1 came to them all as will ds3. But Ds2 refused. I was never sure which teacher was which in the various rooms, so I had to look at all the name badges, when ds1 was with me it was obviously easier.

Dd is wanting me to be assertive with school about the pace of her Psychology lessons! I'm not really an assertive/complaining person!

She says the teacher goes through it at lightening speed and is constantly saying 'we have to move on' (this was the case pre-lockdown too). Also, they're made to write notes throughout; the teacher has been told by the head of Psychology not to share her slides with the students. Dd feels she's always struggling to keep up and she isn't really learning as she's so focused on writing notes. The notes have to be turned into a revision portfolio which is checked by the teacher.

She's also compared notes with her friends at her old school and they've not completed as much content yet (1 module complete and 2 started, whereas they've fully finished 3 and are onto a fourth). She wants me to tell new school that their approach is wrong as old school gets better results! I'm not sure I feel comfortable saying that!

I'm trying to work out the point of contacting them and what we can actually achieve. Dd would like to have access to the powerpoints so she can just listen and not feel so stressed.

In the midst of mocks here, but DS relaxed about them, although not as laid back as DS1 was. He is doing PE right now. I think I might print some papers to encourage him.

DS1 just got his marks back for his December exams, which is half the mark for the year, and he got a first. Covid contributed to that mark as he had fewer distractions than he would have had in a normal year, so a silver lining there. Bit of a relief that the gap year does not appear to have impacted on his ability to do exams.

Good news Monkey 🙂

Crazycrofter that’s not great at all. It’s a subject that needs a fair amount of discussion in my opinion. I think I would email the teacher and say she feels she is struggling to keep up, is very focused on taking notes and you feel as a result isn’t processing the course content in a way that will give her the knowledge she needs when it comes to answering exam questions which would be a real shame as she is very committed to the subject and motivated to do well as considering it as for a degree, Then ask in the circumstances if she could have access to the PowerPoints as you feel this would take the pressure off and enable her to fully focus on the content in a more focused and constructive way ? Someone else hopefully has a better suggestion.

I can hear DS talking, think he’s doing some group work as there appears to be some amusement going on which is lovely to hear.

@crazycrofter

Dd is wanting me to be assertive with school about the pace of her Psychology lessons! I'm not really an assertive/complaining person!

She says the teacher goes through it at lightening speed and is constantly saying 'we have to move on' (this was the case pre-lockdown too). Also, they're made to write notes throughout; the teacher has been told by the head of Psychology not to share her slides with the students. Dd feels she's always struggling to keep up and she isn't really learning as she's so focused on writing notes. The notes have to be turned into a revision portfolio which is checked by the teacher.

She's also compared notes with her friends at her old school and they've not completed as much content yet (1 module complete and 2 started, whereas they've fully finished 3 and are onto a fourth). She wants me to tell new school that their approach is wrong as old school gets better results! I'm not sure I feel comfortable saying that!

I'm trying to work out the point of contacting them and what we can actually achieve. Dd would like to have access to the powerpoints so she can just listen and not feel so stressed.

At my University lecturers are forced to share slides and make available recorded lectures (years ago they didn't as felt it might stop students attending). This is for accessibility reasons in the main. Perhaps that is a tack you could take?