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

[orangecinnamon]

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I haven't checked in here for a while; apologies if I have missed the general theme. Been swamped at work. DS is happy to be back in school even if he looks like a bear emerging from hibernation because he won't let us cut his hair.Tested twice a week, so far so good.

Hitting a pandemic wall myself though. Just so boored and so mentally exhausted. My mood not helped by the fact that I am 49 so have just missed the vaccines this week, and now it seems I will have to wait.

@Frequentflier I'm 49 tomorrow. It's annoying isn't it? I think it'll be May at the earliest now.

Frequent - I seem to have hit that wall this week too (vaccine apart, I have had mine now but was very frustrated last week when it just didn't seem to be happening). I'm fed up with every week being the same, I've hit a boring (but still busy) patch at work, whatsapp/zoom no longer seem like an adequate replacement for my social life or my exercise classes, my house is a tip. Worried about what on earth DS will do when he leaves school next year.

I think the earlier days of the vaccine were reported as greatly efficient..but I suppose they have to be with those categories! You can't make elderly queue for 40mins half way down the road.

I'm thoroughly annoyed that DH gets the jab and because of the age gap I will have to wait.

Happy Birthday for tomorrow @icanbewhatiwant any exciting plans?

Well done @Directionerforever's dd: great news and I hope it's a real boost to her confidence.

Parent's eve for ds next week too: will be interesting as he has (I think) high predicted grades on his report, but no indication of which grades he's expected to get for which A levels (ie the grades aren't assigned to subjects iykwim) which is a bit odd...I'll be interested esp to hear how he's getting on in comp sci which currently seems very 'leave you to get on with it (they are doing their project work) and is his provisionally planned uni course...

It's dd's birthday tomorrow too, @icanbewhatiwant: I'm off shopping later for the finishing touches to her day, but she seems very low key about the whole thing!

Yikes people are already writing personal statements? We haven't thought about it yet tho DS does know where he wants to go.

I have fallen down the rabbithole of internet shopping even though I wear nothing but jeggings. This is not good.

DS has gone from being really keen to be physically in school to preferring the home days - maybe that is because he has time for his ridiculous 3 hour workouts. For his birthday in 2 weeks I refused to get him a blood analysis and persuaded him to have a festival ticket instead, but have just bought him some body composition scales as a concession to his obsession! As it is after 31st March he can meet friends outside. I suggested a birthday picnic and he seems to have come round to idea.

DS1 was supposed to be coming home tonight for his University Spring Break, but they have just had a Covid outbreak on the halls -having had 0

My phone just developed a mind of its own!

St Andrews had 112 cases of Covid in the university since September, but had 14 cases in the last 2 days, so their biggest outbreak yet. DS1 desperate to come home, but has to do a test and wait for results, so the Advance ticket I got him is no good and we are dreading home having to isolate in his room for 2 weeks because he or one of his bubble/contacts tests positive.

Oh Monkey what horrible timing! Fingers crossed he tests negative...

And happy birthday to Ican and Andwhen’s DD for tomorrow!

Just had a call to book Dd in for her test ..she is asthmatic and suffers anxiety ...maybe thats why? I was so shocked didn't think to ask. We have to go at the end of the day for the Pfizer vaccine.

Not test obviously I've got tests and jabs and vacs on the brain!

I think asthma will be the reason. Hope a vaccine will help her to feel less anxious.

@AndwhenyougetthereFoffsomemore happy birthday to your dd too. Nothing planned for mine. Nothing really to do. We were about to go into lockdown on my birthday last year. I cancelled the planned meal out...had I known just how bad things would get I wouldn't have cancelled. It was the first meal out we'd booked on our own for years too. I expect we will have a take away this time.

I too am fed up with being home now. I work 10 months of the year for a local plant nursery. I was due to return 1st feb. But they've decided to manage without me for now due to covid. So I've not returned. But meek put on furlough either. I've applied for quite a few other jobs. But I don't get replies or I get told I'm one of many applications and that they have chosen others to interview.

Two weeks of being back at school, come tomorrow for us - leaving at 7am - has been achieved without altercation between mam and DD , thankfully, but we're both knackered!
I had my jab two weeks ago , old gimmer (AZ) which was a quick walk in, jab, and a wait for 15 mins in car park before driving home with DD

Feeling relieved! DS1 tested negative and can come home as he can help look after grandmother sinking in anxiety and depression. The students have been banned from leaving St Andrews unless they have a valid excuse - they have been firmly told that their own mental health is NOT a valid excuse. It is a desperately bad time to be a student, I think it is less bad for our Y12s as the world should be more normal by the time they go to university. It has to be!

Monkey so sorry to hear DS is struggling and very relieved to hear he is coming home. In normal times St Andrews might have been on list for DS, no way now reading that. It is a horrible time to be a student and I know a lot of people say well why didn’t they defer but what would they have done with the year ? I try not to think about DD’s year abroad at university being gone or I get upset - that was something she so wanted to do since year 13 and with funding how it is it was her only chance. She’s coming home at Easter come what may, she had to see her cat being put down over FaceTime and she needs to be home for a bit. My friends with DC at same place have said they are coming home, no idea what official policy is but she is coming.

On a more positive note Parents evening went well for DS and he looks and sounds a lot better than he did this time last week. Someone knocked on his door to get him to sign a card in the middle ot one of his sessions which made me smile and his tutor is absolutely lovely- knew just how to gently persuade him to look into extra time, is getting him to go to puzzle club which I think is STEP practice and checking he is finding the food ok.

@FoolsAssassin sorry about your DD, I don't feel like the government have recognised that the student cohort are missing a particular year on their lives which they will never get back.

Don't write off St Andrews yet, I will report how it is going in September. It is still a very special place, great flexible courses and DS1's teaching has been excellent. Nicola Sturgeon has forgotten about the students, I wonder how popular she is with her first year nephew at Edinburgh!

@Monkey2001 - glad your DS is coming home. For a while it looked like DS1 was going to be 'stuck' in Oxford for the holidays but the rules changed.

I'm afraid that it's been a bit of a mixed bag for students as to whether they have been allowed back and can come and go.

For some universities where the accommodation is mainly on site it's been harder to get back than if students are in private accommodation. It's frustrating but it's not really the universities fault that they have to impose rules. Hence I wouldn't rule out St Andrews on that basis @FoolsAssassin - it is lovely.

It’s too far for DS I think, he is going to want to be closer to home. Horrible week with him last week, he looked like a zombie off the train and didn’t really speak until Sunday but I think he had been feeling under the weather which didn’t help.

I had been worried he wasn’t coping with 4 A levels and he has a project too but parents evening has put my mind at rest . He works really hard bless him. DH said he doesn’t know where that comes from, I was just about to say I didn’t either then decided to claim that one 😀

@FoolsAssassin I forgot to say English students are allowed home for Easter by law -maybe someone had realised that the university mental health budgets could not take the strain if they tried to stop them!

Sorry about your / DD's cat Something else to add to the mix of an already stressful time. Good news on DS parents evening though.
I'm amazed how DC cope with 4 A levels as DD is just about coping with 3 (and poss an EPQ next year) - we emailed her first choice uni to ask if an EPQ would be helpful and at that one it counts towards UCAS points so the pressure can relax for top grades if she has that to fall back on.

Have any of you signed your DC up for virtual courses on Springpod? DD is doing one over the Easter hols and her friend did one in medicine in Feb half term. DD's one is 10 hours 6-16th April.
She also has mocks straight after Easter break so will have a busy Easter holiday.

She is so exhausted and a bit weepy so being back at school has made her so tired that we have cancelled her volunteering hours until after mocks. Her head of 6th form has also got her to interview students and then write it all up for the school magazine this week so I've said that she doesn't have to say yes to everything. She's worried if she says no the head of 6th form won't have anything to say on the teacher statement to unis - the teacher won't have enough characters to include everything DD does at and for the school so I've rubbished that thought. I actually think they think that it's easier to ask DD as she'll always say yes and do a brilliant job but I'm not risking her MH so have said you are allowed to say no. Disclaimer: I was much the same at her age and then in my late 20s realised what a doormat I was and just snapped out of people pleasing and putting others first ALL the time.

Anne It sounds like you have done this but you have brought up something that I think others should be aware: the points v grades system. For the subjects and unis older Dd went for, they wanted 3 As. So if she had BBBB rather than say AAA she would not have got in. There was no point doing a fourth A Level in her case, even dropping it to an AS (unless she wanted to do it for the fun of it). However they would go down one grade to AAB with an A at EPQ so she did that as it gave some leeway. Some of her friends wanted courses that totted up points so the AS and EPQs counted as well as grade 6 and above music exams.
Of course this is only useful if you know what course to do before you really start Year 12 (!)
However, it did catch a few people out. Particularly those doing a ‘random’ 4th A Level (not talking about further maths etc).

I think the 4th being Further Maths makes it more bearable than a completely different 4th and the fact that physics and maths go so well together.

Think the going back in at this point during an intense term dealing with online learning is taking its toll on a lot of them.

Ds is doing 4 A levels. They drop one after the summer exams. He's always known he'd drop film studies. But now they aren't taking AS levels in the summer he says he can't be bothered with trying anymore. He said he's really behind with homework and with stuff he should hand in. He's promised he will catch up on work over Easter. But if he does go to university there won't be an AS grade to go down on application or acas points, so he doesn't see why he should do it now.

The school have said they will have a summer AS exam timetable and sit exams in the normal way, then go back in the summer to collect results, but of course they won't be official results.

DS was keen on university at the start of year 12, he wanted to do something along the lines of history/philosophy/ethics. Now he's decided he'd like to look for a degree apprenticeship, I said there will be a lot of competition so he needs a plan B. He said plan B would be university, but no longer history. He now thinks he should business. He has moaned non stop about how boring business studies is. He's thinking of job prospects rather than the enjoyment of the subject. I think I'd rather do something I enjoy.