Corona Cohort Y12 into Y13, braving the storm of the third wave

[Monkey2001]

Supportive thread for parents of Y12 students going into Y13.

Previous thread - www.mumsnet.com/Talk/secondary/4240252-Thread-16-Corona-Cohort-Year-12-2021-Zooming-through-Summer-Term

Mine hasn't arranged any visits yet either. I'm going to force her to visit some over the summer break, and then hopefully do some proper open days of the ones she likes in September/October.

[quote EwwSprouts]@Heifer I think your Dc was interested in biology + hockey? We did the York Uni virtual session today and DS thought it was quite useful. They said all the right things about placements, study abroad and options to upgrade to a masters after year 2. It's repeated tomorrow.[/quote]
Thanks @EwwSprouts. Yes Biology and Hockey and York is on her top 5 list at the moment. Unfortunately she is actually playing hockey somewher near York tomorrow (Driffield) so she can't watch the virtual session but I have just signed up as her so I can take a look and report back. She will be gone all day as it's about 3 hrs away from here.

Thanks for the heads up.

Thanks for info @Seeline I thought it might be a difficult process. Ds is interested in a business type degree apprenticeship. But I'm sure there won't be anything local to us. So I don't know how that would work accommodation wise. He probably wouldn't earn enough to rent somewhere, I'm sure he wouldn't be counted as a student if working. I've never really thought about it.

Heifer DD good luck tomorrow! Assuming made progress in the cup.

Crazy - we do the two hours from our part of Hampshire to Birmingham fairly regularly at weekends, it's not a bad run at all. But we do always keep one eye on the travel app for accidents/incidents on the A34. The M3 can be bad on holiday weekends.

@lovemusic that is very much on my mind too, DS doesn't have physical disabilities other than a bit of hypermobility associated with dyspraxia but he does have autism and a language impairment so will need support. Do you know about the DSA system - disabled students allowance. A tip I saw somewhere was to email the disability support departments of any unis you are interested in with a standard set of questions/queries and take note of the responses you get, generic, personal, speedy, slow, do they invite you to come and meet them. That gives you an idea. Also there is a FB group called WIWIKAU What I Wish I Knew about University, this subject comes up quite often.

I have to say I never thought much about proximity to home as a factor having gone almost as far away as possible myself (Worcestershire to Edinburgh). But this year I have seen huge value in DS1 being just 1 hour 20 mins drive away.

I think DD has seen it to and will probably stick to 'easy to get home' locations. Sometimes you just need to get home for a family occasion and sometimes you want Mum to come and get you at short notice.

Having spent a lot of my earlier years having driven over the Severn Bridge and back I was a little guilty of seeing Wales as an extension of England I think if I am totally honest, DD locked down at University amd we didn’t see her for 8 months. Not keen on a repeat of that.

DS has decided to stick within a 100 mile radius of home too.

@EversoDelighted

DS has decided to stick within a 100 mile radius of home too.

Haha, I remember deciding that I wanted to go more than 50, but less than 100 miles away from home

Thanks for the info on apprenticeships, all very helpful and I want DS to look at all his options seeing as he doesn’t really know what he wants to do yet.

So on day 8 of his self isolation, DS2 (yr10) has had a positive lateral flow test tonight, and then a 2nd just to be sure! He’s been sniffing all day but I wasn’t expecting that!
Have booked him for a PCR first thing tomorrow. It’s so annoying, we had a lunch planned with friends tomorrow and DS1 was going to the cinema. I can’t work from home so I need to call my boss tomorrow and let him know, I don’t think I’ll get paid whilst I’m off either. DH is worried as he’s only had his first vaccine (I had both as I work for nhs)

Glad I'm on this thread. You all keep me informed and up-to-date.

I can't get ds1 to do anything, about anything. It's me that seems to be driving everything / pushing him to discuss unis etc. He doesn't seem that bothered about visiting anywhere!

I registered for the Southampton open days and have heard nothing.

I sometimes think how much kids do and want to do is down to peer group enthusiasm for the task , and also how good/proactive the school is. DS's careers woman is very communicative and thorough and they do quite a lot of stuff to focus students' minds. My school is very passive. Even some of the brightest and most diligent students I teach haven't really started thinking about university.

Oh no Fiddlers, how frustrating. Hope he isn't too bad with it and that the rest of you stay negative. Is he able to isolate within the house fairly well? My DD has been self-isolating since Friday but we haven't had confirmation about the contact's PCR test yet. We had to cancel cinema and meal out yesterday too.

Oh fiddlers what a nightmare. Anecdotally, I have heard of quite a few people who have tested positive right at the end of an SI period. The PCR could still come back negative, fingers crossed.

If we limited to 100 miles we wouldn't have many decent unis since the only ones (other than local definite no nos!) in that radius are either London (ruled out) or don't offer DS's subject, except Birighma which is easy to get to in theory (although traffic hell if driving). I think we might go for journey time/ease.

We were thinking 2 hours drive rather than a strict 100 miles but we set the filter on the UCAS website to 100 miles. Luckily we are well connected with motorways and A roads here, that radius covers Bournemouth, Brighton, Bath, Birmingham, London and everywhere in between. Perhaps we should set the filter to unis beginning with B looking at that list.

Ha! It's liek when the Delta variant started and everywhere was a B!

Although it sounds like Bangor is out...!

Bangor's definitely out .

@Oblomov21

Glad I'm on this thread. You all keep me informed and up-to-date.

I can't get ds1 to do anything, about anything. It's me that seems to be driving everything / pushing him to discuss unis etc. He doesn't seem that bothered about visiting anywhere!

I registered for the Southampton open days and have heard nothing.

My DS is the same, he's so hard to talk to about Uni's. He definitely wants to go, but not to actually plan which one!

Which Southampton open days are you waiting for @Oblomov21 ? They are doing campus tours at the moment that you just book online for , I didn't realise they were also taking bookings for actual open days?

DS and DH went to university of Nottingham campus tour yesterday. DS liked it but does not want to go there after speaking to people about the course.

@Oblomov21 you are not alone! It is mainly me driving the uni thing. DS definitely wants to go but doesn’t see the need to do all the research now. He wants to do early entry application so October is our deadline which means he really needs to be looking into it all now.

Hope your DS is not feeling too bad @Fiddlersgreen. Some of DS1’s (20) friends currently have it. When I asked how they were he said they were fine, it’s overhyped. I said I was glad they weren’t ‘properly ill’, he said nobody actually gets ‘properly ill’ with it anymore. 😬🙄. Thankfully he is having his first vaccine today but it drives me mad how blasé he is about it.

Thanks @EversoDelighted, @Piggywaspushedvand @20newnames thankfully so far it’s just like he has a cold, blocked nose and croaky throat today.
Unfortunately our house is quite small and he has a box room so very difficult to isolate him from us. Debated whether he could swap rooms with DS1 but decided it was too complicated with both still needing to access their own room for things. Plus he will need to do his online schooling from our room as no space for desk in his room. We’ll just have to be extra vigilant with the cleaning and hand washing I think 🤞🏼

We haven't got much scope for isolating within the house either, DD's room is cramped and we only have one bathroom. As she is only SI (so far) the rest of us are still going to be at work/school. At least at this time of year its easier to have windows and doors open for ventilation.