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

Dd had both of hers at 16. Sore arm and a bit of a headache (sorted by paracetamol) for 48 hours but that was it.

If your DC are 16+ and you don’t have walk ups in area, try putting their NHS number in the Gov booking site and see if you can proceed post DoB section. Most regions will have these relaxed, but it may vary by postcode/region.

DS has actually had his (as pre-existing condition), but he had to be booked in both times and it was a bit of a faff as they didn't have any Pfizer available for ages. Our area has always been fairly low incidence, so I guess they haven't felt the need to do walk-up sessions.

Whole of Year 12 just sent home. That's 200+ students.

I've just checked the NHS booking thing, DS not allowed to go yet.

Does this mean DS can't go to the open day he has booked for Saturday? He's not a close contact to anyone with a positive test.

Sorry to hear that @JustHereWithMyPopcorn. At our school they are supposed to fully self isolate, but most of them don't. We started off fully isolating but, after negative PCR and finding out that the positive case was somebody DS had not spoken to, we went with doing a LFT before seeing anyone, but he did not go to choir, rugby or gym. Managed to get to the bottom of the stack of Covid tests!

Oof - got a letter from the school about DD's end of year results (don't call them mocks apparantly). U for maths. She's been having issues generally - loved GCSE but hasn't clicked with A-levels and the timetable has been really difficult for her as clashes have meant she's relatively isolated from most of her usual peer group for that subject.

Reaching out to teacher to see what can be done but I'm getting flashbacks to my A-levels. DS really turned a corner and knuckled down, DD seems to be putting her head in the sand a bit after realising being smart and coasting GCSEs won't cut it for A-levels (I did this too and came out with terrible results). I managed ok but its a much tougher world out there these days..

@SandyBayley Trying to find out about the Birmingham open days in July that you mentioned? The website just has an option to register your interest for the Autumn open days, no mention of July. Do you have a link please?

@Monkey2001 I've just had an email from school. Basically they've sent everyone home because of a couple of positive LFTs, they are waiting on PCR results. They have decided to be super cautious due to how contagious the Delta variant is. I have just done a LFT with him and it's negative. I'll keep doing them daily I think and then see where we are. DS says none of his immediate group have had a positive test so hoping we don't get an email to isolate as a close contact.

@Seeline booking is currently only open to anyone who registered to attend the cancelled slots. I think it will open to everyone else at the weekend.

@MrKlaw A lot of students in DSs school got low marks in maths end of years but they always seem to pull it out of the bag by Year 13 somehow. Fingers crossed that all is not lost!

@Seeline - did you have a booking for the cancelled Birmingham Open Day? We got an email with a link to rebook - not sure if this will work for you. app.geckoform.com/public/#/modern/FOEU0260p3FbcLUr

@MrKlaw - not really got any advice but much sympathy! Sounds very like my A levels after coasting O levels.

We can’t do the new Birmingham days but have decided to put it as a choice and if he gets an offer we will go then. DS has done a lot of their online stuff

thanks for the responses. We really want to get her back with her peer group (she's in a totally different school 20 minutes away but part of the 'partnership' and the only one from her school in their class). We want the school to look at the timetabling to help for next year, and if we need to do private lessons we will. But she needs to want to do better.

That is tough @MrKlaw, hope DD engages with finding a solution.

I wasn’t sure if site would allow for 1st jabs Justhere. It’s a sensitive line of ‘promoting’ vaccines available for

@ealingwestmum yes, that makes perfect sense. I have also been hearing from my west London based friends about this and we are just outside with a very big peak in cases in the large town DSs school is in so was hopeful we might be allowed to book online but this is clearly the wrong approach!

Thanks @SandyBayley and @estherfrewen - no we hadn't booked for the cancelled ones. DD's sudden change of heart on degree course meant that Birmingham hadn't cropped up before.....

I will try that link, but if not, I'll keep an eye open.

MrKlaw I had a similar experience with gcse to A Level Maths too. Just wanted to sympathise. As you say, she’s got to want to do better. Sounds like you are being very supportive which is worth so much.

MrKlaw You’ve nailed it, ‘She’ has to want to do better. We went through this with ds1 who was gung-ho about everything till the end. Just keep encouraging her like you are, sometimes you also need to take a step back but it’s a very difficult dance. Most of them do pull their finger out towards the end though, although in these times of exam cancellations it’s not proved a good strategy.

@Monkey2001 I did get the Testi app although I probably could have done it through the gov.uk site as some of the earlier dates are still available there.

@MrKlaw that was me in sixth form too! I pulled it out of the bag for history but only because the teacher made alarming comments about my coursework so I assumed it must be bad and revised hard for the exam. I got an A in history but Cs in the other two. I often think it’s made no difference at all in the long run! I’m in exactly the same sort of job as my Oxford educated / 4x A brother! But you’re right that it’s a more competitive world now….

@Seeline if you can’t make an open day, it’s still worth visiting the campus and city. We did for Southampton and I’m not sure what difference it would have made if we’d gone to an open day. I guess you see inside some accommodation? But it would have been busy and stressful!

Sympathies @MrKlaw, I have been there myself and now DS is recreating my sixth form experience. Our wake up call was in January (CCU in interim report) and then he managed BCD in recent exams, so still a way to go. We are offering as much support as possible but it's tough to know when he needs a kick up the arse and when he needs a hug and to be reassured that he can do it. (We often get this wrong.) It's going to be a long year I think. Your DDs situation sounds tough and fixing the timetable a good place to start. As is tutoring, which naturally my DS is refusing 🙄
A level maths is hard of course, but with some good one to one teaching I'm sure she can find her way back if she wants to and if she believes she can.