Thread 14? Corona Cohort Yr 12 2021 - 'Vaccinations and Eliminations'

[orangecinnamon]

Just place marking for the New Thread!

[Hopeful201]

Frequentflier, my DS has applied for some work experience on Springpod and is waiting for the result. Our school recommended it, so I assume it is good! My DS is looking at medicine and they like them to have work experience-clearly impossible right now. So fingers crossed he gets a place on the we.

[sandybayley]

@Hopeful201 - DD has an interview to be a vaccine 'helper' at one of the London hospitals. We thought it would be good for the medical application. She's also done brownies and helping out at local food bank.

Frustratingly her we in our local hospital last June has yet to be rescheduled.

[JustHereWithMyPopcorn]

Grade report is out and not too bad at all, mix of mainly Bs and a few As (all subjects have 2 tutors and all give a mark) and good engagement marks so I'm relieved - until the next one rolls around again!!

Never heard of Springpod, what is it exactly?

[Shimy]

Springpod is a hosting site for various organizations advertising work experience opportunities from what I understand.

[estherfrewen]

First online parents evening went really well. Hope DS keeps it up ! He’s very happy as are we. He’s applied to Springpod too for law work experience but not heard anything.

[AndwhenyougetthereFoffsomemore]

Ooh, thanks for the suggestions of spring pod: nothing relevant to DS at the mo but looks useful :-)

[orangecinnamon]

Have all the potential med applicants seen the Brighton Sussex Med School online course
HERE

[ChristopherTracy]

DS was really upset last night about his failure to understand a lot of the maths topics at the moment. It is awful to see your child in tears like that. I am really worried for his mental health but he doesnt want to talk to the counsellors or the doctor.

Please can we have a date to go back!

[Frequentflier]

Am so sorry to hear that, Christopher Tracy. Maths online is definitely hard :( DS has a hard time with Physics.

[Nard75]

The trouble with boys is that they won’t talk about how they are feeling. DS1 bottles everything up and will never discuss any problems he has. This makes it very difficult to help them with anything that is going on in their head. He is struggling and really needs the interaction of school.

[20Newnames]

That's so hard for you and him ChristopherTracy, it is so much harder for them to get help remotely with concepts they don't immediately get. It's not as easy as a quick question to the teacher and ten mins after class.

We had virtual parents evening last night and the teachers were all really positive about DS. Physics teacher thought nothing of him getting a B in the recent exam (target is A)and said most are a couple of grades behind target currently as this cohort have not had exam practice, have been taught remotely and the exams were remote. He really wasn't concerned at all and said there were very few As and As in the class, which was reassuring.

Onto Springboard I am a little confused, as I looked up engineering work experience and there is a two week programme from 6 April but there are virtually no details of what on earth they would be doing. Does anybody know how this works? I am not sure I could get DS to sign up and commit to two weeks with virtually no information. Does anyone know how it works?

[FoolsAssassin]

So sorry to hear that ChristopherTracey DS was very low yesterday too. It is really getting to everyone now . He finds it hard to verbalise his feelings.

[Seeline]

I think all the online learning is hard. My DD said the other day that she doesn't really feel as though she has learnt anything since Christmas - bodes well for next week's exams!

She has been talking with her form tutor about her worries, and yesterday had the head of L6 contact her for a 1-1 chat. She has recommended that she have a chat with one of the school nurses (who I think are probably completely overwhelmed with the number of kids referring themselves to them!) DD said most of her friends are in contact with them.

[ChristopherTracy]

I keep on telling him that - that everyone is feeling it and everyone is finding it difficult and lets just concentrate on the one subject where the wheels havent fallen off and deal with the others after etc etc

There is such a disconnect between what he knows he could try to improve it and what he actually does. I think he is staring into space a lot of the time.

[Shimy]

@20NewNames Re: Springpod -

Click on 'View'. It gives a short spill (Why we need you & Benefits),
Then click on, 'Join Talent Pool to Apply'. When you click on this, it will send you an email.
Within the email click on the button that says, 'Apply Now'.
You will get the full details of there.

[Frequentflier]

I will try to post some details about Springpod over the weekend and also some other work ex which DS teacher has sent me. DS is currently in class but will pry some details out of him.

[Oblomov21]

We get fortnightly phone calls. To check up that they are ok. Weekly Head emails. Monthly HoY emails. Impressive.

HoY email yesterday said next week we'd get a Report - Grade collection - predicted v working at. Because our parents evening isn't till March.

[Shimy]

Oblomov Did you get a report grade at end of last term? I'm just wondering which term the new reports you are getting are for, also I'm really surprised some schools are starting to give predicted grades. I don't know whether it's our school being a bit late ( parents meeting not till March) or other schools just really early.

[20Newnames]

@Shimy, thanks for that info re Springpod (handy if I actually call it by the correct name and not Springboard!).

[Seeline]

We get working grades every half term. With DS we got UCAS predictions quite late - poss end of L6? Can't quite remember, but we never had actual predicted grades. This was last year though so probably would have got them at some point if it hadn't been for covid.

[Hopeful201]

My DS has got a place on his work experience for Springpod. He is really pleased as he wants to see what med is all about. He was really worried he wouldn't get a place, goes to show how worried they get even about small things. MH is really taking a bashing :-(
@orangecinnamon my DS did the Brighton course, definitely worth doing IMHO.

[icanbewhatiwant]

Ds tells me he missed an assembly where they were told about exams. What they'd do and when. I asked him how he finds out what he's missed and he said it doesn't matter 🤷‍♀️

Yesterday I opened his bedroom at 8.50am and called out to check his was awake (as I do every morn) I get a grunt in return. Apparently he went back to sleep and missed half hour of his lesson. I feel I can't keep waking him up. I often call out at 8.30 then again at 8.50. I don't know how he can have a shower then go back to sleep...he often does. He certainly likes to sleep.

[Monkey2001]

@icanbewhatiwant - empathy!!! I wake DS up and then phone him 10 mins later. When I delegated to DH to wake him up one day he missed a lesson. DH said he had spoken to him and turned the light on, what more could he do? Maybe if we did not wake them thoroughly they would learn from the experience of missing lessons.

[FoolsAssassin]

Monkey and icanbewhatiwant same here. Last week DD rang so I forgot to check. Call from college, he slept through call from them. Bought a sunrise alarm clock. He was awake and had opened window. Someone rang me and I didn’t go in, college called me.

He is having a growth spurt which isn’t helping. He was really cross with himself for doing it again.

[ealingwestmum]

what more could he do?

If I had a pound for every time DH said this

There's a very good reason why I wear the label bad cop.