GCSEs 2018 (15) The Reckoning

The problem is that everyone is chasing it. There are talented young people at all the colleges who didn’t get a DaDA Award so have to find the fees & these are the ones the charities tend to help. Also at the moment we have two good incomes. If that changes & Dh has to give up work we do have some insurance & we may then be eligible for maintenance.

Alex can you trawl around any local Rotary clubs or Lions clubs who may be able to make a donation towards her shoes/kit/books etc.? The club my dad is in is always trying to help out talented people like your DD as part of their community good works. As they say in Tesco, every little helps, especially when you are facing so many uncertainties at present.

AlexanderHamilton he has my sympathy. I had viral labyrinthitis a few weeks ago and it was horrible even though mine only lasted a couple of weeks.

I guess the upside for dd is that she gets an award for tuition fees. It isn’t a loan so doesn’t have to be paid back. However there is no maintenance unless you earn less than £30k so that is entirely parental funded. We always knew we’d pay this in her final year. It’s just come 2 years earlier than planned.

And costs up here are far less than at the London colleges at least.

I don't believe how many posts we've had today, but I've found mmzz's plea for inspiration. So, we need continuity from GCSEs 2018 (15), leading into Year 12 (16). It's bland, It's boring, but I'm feeling distinctly like a middle aged accountant this evening:

Moving into Year 12 (16) from GCSEs 2018 (15)

You creative sorts can work on that as a starter.

A friend said she was going to pay the fees but when she realised how much maintenance she would have to make up she changed her mind.

Some of my colleagues paid fees but a little while ago when they were cheaper.

Handy hint if you have a D.C. who might not be great at budgeting, use their maintenance loan to pay rent (hopefully it will cover most of it ) then pay you contribution monthly, fortnightly or weekly as needed.

Sainsbury’s do a great meal ticket card where family can top up the balance and the students can spend it. Great for grandparents wanting to make contribution. One of our put £50 a month on which as actually a big help, especially for toiletries and cider!www.sainsburysgifts.co.uk/meal_ticket_cards.html

Alexander Your poor DH. FiL has a vertigo condition that flares up without warning. It's horrible to have dizziness symptoms like that. I hope the medics can get your dh's condition under control once they know for sure.

Alex My DD is currently staying in a non ensuite room in halls for the second phase of NCS. They would cost £110 per week or £124 for a larger room, without any food thrown in. Can you apply for more grants/bursaries/ hardship funds for her?

Alexander re rent it depends on area. One of my DC is renting an ensuite bedroom with use of kitchen but no meals for £135 a week (Oxfordshire). That would rent a whole house at home.

Uni costs - the experience of friends and colleagues is that Cambridge is cheaper than most unis and much cheaper than London or even Bristol. The college rent is reasonable and the fees the same.

The students don’t start to repay student loans until they earn over £25000. Then they pay 10% of their earnings above £25000.

Here are some amounts for annual repayments from moneysavingexpert.com:

If you earn £26,000 in a year, what do you repay?

The answer is £90, as £26,000 is £1,000 above the threshold and 9% of £1,000 is £90.

And if you earn £35,000, what do you repay?

The answer is £900. £35,000 is £10,000 above the threshold and 9% of that is £900.

www.moneysavingexpert.com/students/student-loans-tuition-fees-changes/

The uni 'debt' they come out with is an additional tax. The money saving expert site explains it well. All 'debt' is wiped after 30 years anyway and you pay a bit more income tax really.

The main problem I think is the maintenance loan. The minimum is about 4K but that barely covers the cost of halls. The max is about 8K and wherever you fall inbetween those two figures, parents are supposed to make up the difference.

There is barely any allowance for having 2 children at uni at the same time eg twins, close siblings so then parents have to find up to 8-9K depending on the family income for maintenance (food and accom)

Acoustic not auriculur I meant to say.

Mmzz he may be able to do a phased return/shorter hours that fit in with the trains better. On the other hand a singing teacher with serious hearing issues???? He is quite upset as you can imagine.

At the moment it’s looking unlikely he will be able to drive for the immediate future. When we thought it was mini strokes then his 3 months took him to mid Sept. if it’s the auriculur thing then that in itself doesn’t preclude driving although it has to be declared, it depends on the level of dizziness. But he is getting a lot of dizziness.

We need to find out how long his sick pay lasts as well but at the moment he’s not fit to work at all.

mmzz yes needs an 8 in maths physics and CS

@mmzz His first choice is a selective 6th form which is asking for 8's at GCSE for the A level subjects he wants to do. 2nd choice is our local 6th form college which is very good. My older DS went there.
We found with my older DS and his friends that by Christmas of year 12 they were kind of 'done' with school and needed a half way house between school and Uni. Hence my younger DS has not considered staying at school nor did he consider the local super selective grammar.

AlexanderHamilton the student accommodation DS1 has been looking at has a catered option for £140ish per week, but obviously it depends on the city.

I paid £80 a week for B & B and evening meal in 1987, for the first 6 weeks of my first graduate job, so £120 - £140 seems reasonable, sorry.

For those with children who have already done NCS, did you go to the showcase? My dd has been moved to a different wave, so the showcase is at a venue at least 50 mins away. Was it worth going? I went to my son’s when he did it three years ago, but it was held at a local college, 20 mins away. And I can’t really remember that much about it really.

What sort of costs do people think are reasonable for catered accommodation (breakfast and evening meal)? I've just been told it will be about £120-140 per week for dd to live with a college approved landlady.

I'm panicking about how dd is going to get to college now. The train times are awful. The earliest train of the day arrives at the station at 8.46am. There is then a 10 minute taxi ride. The day starts at 9am, not much leeway.

Coming back there are two trains every hour (five to and 25 to with a connection from the 25 to one) except for between 6-7pm. Dd finishes at 6.00pm so she will have to wait until 7.35pm for the first train with a connection as there is no 6.35pm train.

Dh not being able to drive is going to affect us so much. The irony is that mil is unsafe in our opinion to drive yet she's hanging onto her licence as she refuses to go to the dr and the dr refuses to listen/speak to us or fil