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

I think whether they improve or not does depend a bit form subject to subject. So someone getting a C in English now is largely showing C skills . They'll learn more texts but their ability to write essays won't change (much) alth0ugh in some subjects NEA has an impact.

In other subjects they tend to make more linear progress - the sciences and maths.

But UCAS grades, whatever, should be on the optimistic side. So, if teacher thinks A/B, UCAS should be an A.

This is what did cause such enormous backlash with a (national) group of parents after CAGs as they did expect their DCs to get their UCAS grades!

There is also a lot of bargaining at this time of year where a student 'needs' an A because they have found a course they want to do that asks for AAB and their teachers think they are BBB- BBC. That's always a tricky one. Especially if the student decides simply having the A predicted means they will get it!!

Piggy, my DS is one who will try to persuade his teachers to give him higher predicted grades than they might based on Y12 - he's already working hard and will continue through the summer, but do you have any advice? (If you don't mind my asking.) What would convince you if one of your students was trying to persuade you? I think he has until November, when his school will finalise applications and send them off.

Yes I can see your point @Piggywaspushed. Dd has definitely got the skills in history to get an A/A* but hasn’t yet really put her back into revision, so that should also lead to an improvement when/if she does. She’s working nowhere near as hard as she did for GCSEs- mainly due to the change of schools/co-Ed environment and amount of socialising! I do think she’ll up the ante next year though.

@Bovrilly My DS (2 years ago) was predicted a B in Politics rather than the A/A* he was hoping for. (Never take an exam the morning after a flight back from a cricket tour!)

The Politics dept. said that he could retake the Summer exam the day before the Autumn term started. One of his teachers also very generously offered to give him feedback on a couple of essay questions if he submitted them over the holidays. He retook the exam + got a high A - they probably would have predicted an Astar if he'd pushed, but he didn't need it for his courses so was very happy with the A.

I would say it's definitely worth asking the HoD if he can raise his prediction with a retake or extra essay submissions.

Thanks Kingscote, that's good advice. 😱 at having to do an exam the morning after!) DS is doing science subjects but perhaps he could do some past papers as evidence and ask his teachers to take a look.
He will be doing his absolute push the boat out best on all work set early next term of course, but I'm thinking there may be work he can do over the summer to show he's capable of better.

To be honest, it was a really growing up moment for him - I think he probably thought we'd sort it out for him, but we just listened to the tale of woe and asked him what his plans were!

How did your DCs react to Boris saying complete end of rules 19th July? DS was outraged, unsurprisingly as the unvaccinated teenagers are the ones who seem to be expected to develop herd immunity. I am worried about long covid, do people on here with experience of Covid in the family think the Delta variant makes people more ill than the versions floating around earliper in the year?

Dd is very worried and she has been double jabbed and term ended. Her concerns are she doesn't want a winter lockdown with online learning and new variants. I'm trying to calm her and explain we are in much better place, but it is all a bit of an unknown isn't it?

I don't think DD really took it in to be honest, but it worries me. She won't get a jab for nearly 13months under current rules. I suppose some of her year will start being jabbed as soon as school goes back which may help. Also with only those with covid having to isolate rather than close contacts, it's going to be pretty hard to avoid ☹️

I simply cannot understand their stubbornness about vaccinating young people.

I guess we wait and see what happens now and hope there is no nasty mutation en route.

Dd has been in bed all day ill. 18 months after whatever virus hit her, she is so shattered and picking up other bugs. Don’t know how school is going to work for vulnerable children. She is getting top grades as well . At least she’s been double vaccinated in Group 6.

DS2 had Delta apparently, he just had a sniffle and a minor cough. Debating whether he was actually asymptomatic and just had hay fever or something it whether it was actual covid.
He’s completely fine now and we are finally free tomorrow.

@Zandathepanda that sounds like it could be long Covid, hope the summer holiday gives her a chance to throw it off. @Fiddlersgreen perhaps you can share your DS's secret on how to get through the virus with minimal inconvenience! Some people swear by things like Vitamin C, D and echinacea for building up resilience. Maybe we should all try turning up at vaccination centres and see whether they can get a jab.

@monkey2001 he’s just been very lucky!
We have all been taking a multivitamin and separate vitamin D since I’d read they could help, way back in the beginning of covid. We will continue because it’s obviously better for us than not taking them

So Gav has announced no more bubbles in school from 19th July (last 3 days of term). I have a feeling the school will ask them to keep wearing masks anyway, masks were brought back last week at our school.

From 16th August no need to SI after a Covid contact if you have been double jabbed or are under 18 - so just the 18-20 year olds waiting for their second jab will have to isolate. That is good news for holidays and driving tests, but bad news for virus spread.

My first thought when I heard that was ' so just uni students then?' OKaaayyyy....

@Fiddlersgreen. It annoys me that more hasn't been made of the benefit of taking vitamin A tablets. Apparently HRT is good for us women of a certain age too in terms of boosting immunity. But above all I was always incensed about the way we were "permitted" to leave our house to exercise once a day like it was some sort of privilege. We should have been forced to go outside and exercise! So many lives could be saved by getting the overweight to focus on reducing their BMI. A healthy BMI is akin to being treble vaccinated!

Sorry meant vitamin D not A (but A is good too!)

@MidLifeCrisis007 yes I agree however I need to work on that healthy BMI

Ds has had talks today at school about university. They started filling out ucas stuff online. He's now thinking he wants to apply for university incase he can't get a degree apprenticeship. If he applied and then does find an apprenticeship, is it easy to drop out the university application? I'm assuming he will know whether he's found an apprenticeship before he accepts offers, but if not and accepts offers, is it still easy to drop out?

He's still not sure whether to go for history at university (with ethics at Sussex uni) or business studies. He's thinking a business degree will be better job prospect wise. He doesn't really enjoy business. I didn't go to university, but I feel it's silly going for a subject you don't enjoy, maybe I'm wrong. But I have given my opinion that I think he should study something he enjoys.

Some of your dc's are getting great results. Ds's will be 15th.

I think business degrees generally have quite low employability but that depends on the uni and course. I guess that is largely because so many unis offer business so there are a lot of business graduates. Often they do end up in lower paid, unrelated jobs.

That said, the degrees with high employability are obvious and very specific - eg healthcare.

DD has recently been diagnosed as being deficient in vitamin D, as has a friend’s DD. DD is going to have s maintenance dose permanently apparently.

Business varies massively in quality of course and employability. It all depends on the course and the university.

Something like international management and modern languages at Bath or similar at Warwick and you are playing a completely different ballgame to ‘business’ at a lower end university. The top ones have very high employability and are sought after, the less prestigious ones very much less so.

@FoolsAssassin

DD has recently been diagnosed as being deficient in vitamin D, as has a friend’s DD. DD is going to have s maintenance dose permanently apparently.

A lot people are Vitamin D deficient. I’d stopped taking it when I went back to work after furlough as I thought leaving the house each day would be enough sunlight but I had a blood test for something else and it came up that my vitamin D levels were low

@Monkey2001 - my DS was delighted by the PM’s announcement - I suppose it is to be expected that teenagers will have different views about it in the same way we do. I’m sure part of his attitude is because he had the Kent variant in November (tested positive) and had zero symptoms - didn’t so much as clear his throat or sneeze. It was amazing - his school had been doing brilliantly with no disruption at all. And overnight the entire school had to close and they had huge numbers of positive cases. DS promptly gave it to DH and I (DD didn’t get it) - we were quite ill for 2 weeks but then 100% better. DD’s school was also badly affected last year. So as a family we definitely feel less anxious, especially as DH and I have had both jabs.

In terms of which variant is worse I have no idea. But what I do know is with doctors having learnt so much in the last year and the repurposing and mixing of medicines as well as new treatments we’re in a much, much better place. One of my colleagues sadly died from covid in April last year and a very close friend was ventilated for over 3 months beginning the first weekend of lockdown in March. And the NHS was brilliant but didn’t know what to expect and weren’t anticipating all the possible complications. A not-so-close friend went into hospital with it earlier this year - only there for a few days and apparently was told by hospital staff that they are so much better equipped to deal with patients now. I guess the lesson is you definitely don’t want to be one of the first to get a new illness.

Sorry to hear of anxious DCs. But I do think (hope) that they are being kind and understanding to each other. Not as judgmental and intolerant as the grown ups.