Support thread for parents of teenagers

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WA Nov 2020 2:58pm, 30 Nov 2020 7,889 posts	0 WA I'm the same Paula! I wasn't rubbish at maths at school, but I was never interested in it. O'level was as far as I got.
kaysdee Nov 2020 5:09pm, 30 Nov 2020 94 posts	0 kaysdee D15 sent home today for her second bout of 14 day self isolation. 4 positives in one class and 45 sent home as close contacts from 1 case. Not sure that instills confidence to social distancing measures (they’re not sent home as bubbles, but based on within 2m close contact]. S13 is home too due to staff shortages. I feel for the schools and the kids. D will be back in school 5 days, break up for Christmas and has mocks in January. She feels woefully underprepared.
It’sBeginningToLookALotLikeFleecy Nov 2020 5:12pm, 30 Nov 2020 51,461 posts	0 It’sBeginningToLookALotLikeFleecy It’s hugely disruptive isn’t it? Ds2 is out of quarantine on Wednesday then school goes back on Thursday after 2 weeks. Hopefully they won’t be back long enough for it to spread much before they break up! Really hope neither of my kids gets quarantined again, hopefully most of their close contacts have now had it...
kaysdee Nov 2020 6:01pm, 30 Nov 2020 95 posts	0 kaysdee She hasn’t known either of the kids from the previous or current instance well enough to contact them to ask about their symptoms. I mean, I know everyone is different, but I think I read somewhere mid teens were more likely to experience the loss of smell/taste as their main symptom, so I’ll be bugging her with “can you smell this perfume?” again. Luckily, she rarely ventures out of her room anyway and my other vulnerable son’s bedroom/life is downstairs, so I’m not too worried. I think the issue with her school is they don’t go home as bubbles, so it just drip feeds from class to class and doesn’t appear to reset. They do report the overall prevalence is still very low at 4% - for students. It doesn’t mention staff rates, but it is obviously an issue as both the entire year 8 and 9 are home due to staff shortage. They’ve also had catering staff shortages and a couple of weeks of only packed lunches for sale.
It’sBeginningToLookALotLikeFleecy Nov 2020 6:20pm, 30 Nov 2020 51,462 posts	0 It’sBeginningToLookALotLikeFleecy Ds2’s best friend tested positive with no symptoms and the others had very mild symptoms, same with ds1’s uni household. The main issue with schools is there isn’t enough testing surely? Plus they’re about the only indoor place where masks aren’t worn when in close proximity to others
kaysdee Nov 2020 6:28pm, 30 Nov 2020 96 posts	0 kaysdee Yes, their school ask for masks for communal areas, corridors and even from the gates into the school grounds to the building (each year has its own entrance/exit) but no masks in class. It will be interesting to see how quickly the mass testing in T3 areas comes on board. We’re in Newcastle, so I expect may be one of the areas it gets rolled out to. I read mass testing in the general populace, but also specific locations like schools. But then I also read about the govt intention over the possibility of no 14 day isolation and daily testing. That could be a game changer for schools.
Meglet Nov 2020 6:34pm, 30 Nov 2020 21,349 posts	0 Meglet I heard an interesting analysis on the radio of how China is managing now. Life almost normal. They control it by strict quarantine of foreign arrivals, and if there are any outbreaks they test whole cities. We need more testing.
Big Al Widepants Dec 2020 11:51am, 1 Dec 2020 4,700 posts	0 Big Al Widepants You wonder how there can be any credibility left in the exam system, when you have the SQA coming out with stuff like this: tes.com
DingDocMerrily Dec 2020 12:00pm, 1 Dec 2020 38,442 posts	0 DingDocMerrily BAW, thats bonkers, and also very sad. Music has been hit really hard during the pandemic and needs support by people who understand what it is to become skilled at playing
icemaiden Dec 2020 1:00pm, 1 Dec 2020 5,012 posts	0 icemaiden My son is in year 13, taking grade 8 in 2 weeks and applying for music colleges. All tuition has been online since March, all scool progress assessed by recordings. He is actually having a face to face grade exam. And all music college auditions are by recordings and Zoom interviews are. Bit of a nightmare all round, but he is seeing light at the end of the tunnel.