Lockdown Diary - Thursday 13th August 2020

Up early today so son #3 and I can head off to his school for A-level results day. I don't have a good feeling about it, but I'm keeping it to myself.

Cleaner arrived about 10 past 7 but I'm up, showered, exercised and dressed!  Downstairs for porridge and coffee before we walk to school for 8:30 a.m.

En-route to school, short-cutting through the park, we encounter a friend walking her dog, stopped for a brief catch-up, but we need to get to school for our 8:30 a.m. slot, so have to get on and get there for the great reveal.

After a few minutes of waiting, son #3 gets called up and picks up his envelope. On opening his face drops and I know he's not got what he was either expecting or needed.  Economics was the killer blow - he'd got an A* in his mocks and had been getting straight As or A* in all the tests leading up to lockdown - and this had been downgraded to a C, at least 2 grades lower. After a few further chats with teachers we spent a while on the UCAS website, before deciding we'd be better off doing this at home.

Mid-morning his Economics teacher called, to say she'd submitted a CAG of A, and further it turned out that some departments, for example, Geography, had got all the grades requested, whereas others, in particular Economics, History and Maths had students CAGs had largely been downgraded. I don't see how any Government minister can claim this is consistency.  Not long after this school had hastily created a webform to allow students to request grades be appealed and some departments were going to appeal as a whole.

Credit where credit is due, son #3 got down to it on returning home and started chasing his preferred University, as well as researching others through clearing. By mid-afternoon he had an offer to do Politics and Economics at his second choice, based on his current grades, but I think he still hopes to persuade his first choice. He and son #2 wrote an excellent email to the admissions tutor at his preferred choice, so maybe he might still have a chance.

To be honest though, I feel like this is a generation that's been let down (and this probably applies to the GCSE students too, though those results aren't out until next week): the only people qualified to assess the likely grades that pupils would have achieved are their teachers and to change their results on some arbitrary basis (for example, allegedly no-one from either Eton or Harrow had their results downgraded), potentially based on where the student lives, is grossly unfair. Mocks are not always a great indicator of final exam success either. Few students take them seriously - sons 1 & 2 got a U and E respectively in their Physics A-Level mocks, and both were planning to study Physics or Physics related subjects at Uni. I was really worried at the time but they actually got an A and an A* in the actual exams. I seem to recall my A-level mocks were a poor indicator of the results I achieved.

Jesus! What a day.

Not quite so hectic on the work front, but there are tasks I need to undertake both for off-boarding from my old client and on-boarding for the next one.

Results or no results son #3 and some of his mates are off to the pub tonight to celebrate / commiserate, which is a well-deserved opportunity to let off steam.

For some inexplicable reason, I seem to be stricken with some unwelcome suppression of my mood. There are times when everything is an effort. Some days I feel like I'm trapped in one of Dante's nine circles of hell, mostly in the first circle, it seems. From somewhere amongst the rubble I have to drag myself up to do all this shit again, though I can't think of a good reason why. I seem to expend so much energy trying to change things, but there must be a leak somewhere, all this energy is not producing any results.  It's all a matter of Physics I guess.

Down to three (plus one in the background) in the evening: son #2 made dinner whilst I consumed wine and helped, a bit. 

It seems a bit cooler tonight, so maybe a decent sleep is on the cards - I'm certainly knackered enough, though the wine and other factors may be at play here.

From the album 'Psychic', here's Darkside with 'Heart'

[[]]