Thread 15 - Corona Cohort Year 12, 2021 Lateral Flow & Driving Tests

[orangecinnamon]

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Hi @icanbewhatiwant hope you ok . I don't think I have any more useful advice for you..I have found helpful advice in the past on the Young Minds website. I think the important thing with CAMHs is to get as many people involved in the referral as you can , so school, GP etc.
They are so woefully underfunded that they have no choice but to delay /divert referrals as much as possible .

Sheffield have explained that they are at the Applied Economics end of the spectrum, so I guess that's a thing to try to discern from course descriptions. I think the elite eg Warwick might be more pure mathematical and modelling. Certainly, a fair amount of covid modelling has come out of Warwick.

@Frequentflier

DS is not even thinking abt his PS and is instead studying for end of term exams so he can get good predicted grades. Our Easter hols have begun.

Those of your offspring interested in Economics, which unis are they targeting, if you do not mind saying?

Don't get me started on Dd boyfriend who wants to do Economics....at exactly the same Universities Dd is applying to for Music . As you can imagine a source of worry for me !

Dd just told me the boys were taking about a massive end of term year12 party tomorrow night.
I am trying to work out if they’ll all be covid-free when they come back to school. Wonder which cool parent is being down wiv da kids ?

Might be down A and E wivout the kids if they aren't careful...

I think quite a few of Yr12 have had it already and now are invincible of course.

Indeed they are ! They have forcefields of invincibility, bless em.

No thoughts of PS here. School have a higher ed week in June, and nothing much happens before then unless Oxbridge/med.

Holidays start tomorrow. DD will be starting work for exams in May and writing a letter of application to become a prefect! She and a group of friends are heading into town for lunch (break up at 12.30). She assures me it's just 6 of them ......

When I was at school prefects were voted for and students had to apply to be one. In the dc's school here anyone can be a prefect. They fill in a prefect form in year 10 and then year 11 they wear a special prefect tie. Ds2 said most people were prefects when he was year 11. He came home with some ties as friends didn't need them as they'd got a prefect tie. He didn't apply though. Neither did ds1. The ties are useful for ds3 as we now have 4 ties. I thought it was a bit strange to have lots of prefects.

At DDs school, they have to write a letter of application. Those are screened by staff with things like character, grades etc taken into account. The L6 then vote for prefects. Those elected then vote for a senior prefect team and Head Boys/Girls. HB/HG candidates are then interviewed by SLT. I've got paid employment with less hassle!!

The school do use their prefects a lot - helping supervise lunch times, corridor patrols, detentions as well as all open events, parent teacher evenings, admissions process etc. so I suppose they do need to be careful who they pick.

DD’s school do applications for Head/Dep Head girls, school prefects and subject prefects. They had 60 applications for Head girl, 9 were asked to prepare 2 min videos to be shown to the school + had interview with Head teacher/Head of 6th and then whole school + staff vote.

A secret algorithm is then used to balance votes and interview scores and the white smoke goes up.

A secret algorithm is then used to balance votes and interview scores and the white smoke goes up

@KingscoteStaff

Kingcote loving the smoke! Here they do a paper vote added to the teacher vote then the 6th Form head gets the final choice I far as I can see. Without exception, the popular kids dominate but the two most likely to apply to Oxbridge get in. Eyerolls, (including subtle teacher eye-rolls) all round when the positions are announced.

Wow, this is an insight into a different world! We don't have prefects.

There are usually two senior students (no longer head boy/girl) but I think we didn't do that last years. That is total popularity contest.

DS's school has a welfare committee. Students apply by writing something. I think teachers appoint but there may also be a vote. Basically everyone who applies gets something as I suspect not many do. I think DS is 'equalities champion'. He attends Teams meetings and spends most of the time sighing at the other students whining about teachers.

Hello all, have had an extremely busy month with work and haven't been on here very much. Interesting to see people are starting to think about personal statements, I do wish we got a bit more info from the school about what was being discussed with regards to uni and applications, I think they discuss some things in school but (for those of us with kids that don't 'remember' or tell us what's going on) it would be nice for parents to be given some kind of timeline.

DS has now handed in his EPQ - thank the lord - only his presentation to do now which will be after the Easter break. He has also now informed the school that he would like to drop Economics. He hasn't had a response yet....

From my school experience this is early for Personal Statements , just : the schools on here aren't necessarily representative of the whole (and the parents more engaged!).

The earliest any of ours start is the summer term but most don't do anything on PS until about October : to be honest, as a lot of it should be filled with academics, they might need to add and alter a lot anyway by the time it is submitted.

'Phew' Piggy, I don't think he's even thought about it!

We had, as predicted, a very difficult parents evening and just had a meeting with DS where we have tried to intervene and put forward a plan. He shrugged and went out to the park with his mates.

I think he is in danger of being kicked out of school. What do children actually then do in that situation? I am way beyond my limit of experience here. All my friends are chatting about Oxbridge.

Dd extracurriculars for her personal statement is a bit challenging at present...it is Music so they are needed and she wants to apply in Oct. She is under the impression that those who apply for conservatoires at this time also apply to the Unis and consequently some get slightly lower offers (wishful thinking). Luckily she has discovered how much she loves sociology and is discovering ethnomusicology through wider reading/EPQ. There have been a couple of online choir/opera things she has done but barely any performance since year 11. She is also supposed to be working towards her grade 5 piano ...but she is not having formal lessons . I hope she is going to be ok. I know extracurricular is not supposed to count but for music it must come into the decision making. Fingers crossed as she is going for the Musicology with performance type courses and they don't seem to be massively competitive.

It's just a worry...she was a late starter to music and will possibly be up against those with 3/4 instruments playing since year dot.

In other news she signed up for a online Yoga teacher course which was reduced to £15 from £500 I just keep telling her it will be a good start. The meditation may help!

@ChristopherTracy

We had, as predicted, a very difficult parents evening and just had a meeting with DS where we have tried to intervene and put forward a plan. He shrugged and went out to the park with his mates.

I think he is in danger of being kicked out of school. What do children actually then do in that situation? I am way beyond my limit of experience here. All my friends are chatting about Oxbridge.

Is it a case of starting again elsewhere...on an apprenticeship or a different course. My understanding is that they can be funded until 19 so for some... three years. Do you think they may suggest moving to a different course within the sixth form instead?

Thanks @orangecinnamon two of his courses are ok, the other two (unfortunately including maths) are not. I get the feeling they will give us another term to try and turn it around and then they will decide. I'm not sure they will let him drop down to a btec in one of them and whether that would be a good option anyway.

Is that what people do - they start again at college doing something more hands-on?

So is he doing 4 A levels @ChristopherTracy ? Is there any chance he could drop one? The amount of 'extra' time my DD has gained by reducing to 3 subjects is amazing.

Is this a state or private schol christopher? Funding wise, 3 A levels or equivalent are what is needed for state schools to get funding so some of ours are made to mop things up if they drop to two A Levels (eg an extra AS or ramping up a BTec to a double option). But the 4 is a no brainer : he really shouldn't;'t be doing 4! Arguably , if he drops one, the performance in the other not great one will improve.

It is quite unusual for state schools to manage sixth formers out (not unknown but unusual ) because they need the per leg funding (as they like to call it!)

When you say badly how badly? Honestly, at my school, we struggle to 'get rid' (sorry for turn of phrase) of students who are getting all Es/fails in year 12, although some subjects seem to manage kids out more easily than others (the sciences usually but also history and maths).

BTECs aren't necessarily an easy option and a lot of the coursework has been covered already, they are totally different to A levels.

What other options do you have locally if you think he does need a fresh start next term. Three years can be funded for any student, many need an extra year at level 2 before progressing to a two year level 3 course. This tends to be at colleges rather than 6th forms I think though (I'm in Hampshire which has very few state 6th forms, may be different elsewhere).