Class of 18. No need for new school shoes

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

Old thread:www.mumsnet.com/Talk/further_education/3478916-Class-of-18-now-in-2019-blimey

A thread for those of us whose kids left school/sixth form/college a year ago. Friendly chat :)

I'm the only one still going to work at all in our house now. DH is mainly WFH anyway, DD1 is dutifully watching all the lectures and tutorials the uni are sharing and is actually happy to be communicating with her home friends via social media because she ironically finds that easier. DD2 and DD3 are both in exam years, but should be fine with results. They've both worked hard all year, and had decent enough mocks. We think the worst that will happen may be DD2 not making the integrated masters she wants, but the same uni will take her on the normal course. Fingers crossed. They have both been set work by school already, and are happily heads in books. DD3s prom was cancelled today. It was scheduled for the end of June. I fear we will surface to another world.

There doesn’t appear to be an exemption in the PM’s lockdown announcement to enable parents to collect students so DH is off in the morning to collect both DSs (who have both completed their isolation for suspected CV-19. Thanks in part to all the idiots who don’t have the basic sense to self-distance and in part to the Government who didn’t have the sense to put in place robust measures earlier.

We are all fine. Dog walking is being fine tuned though. There are so many more people in the parks now, not suprisingly. Children (adults all) detoxifying from the tension, still a way to go. We are sitting in sun a lot and ds2 has squeezed badminton into our 40ft green space. Dd is playing piano for first time inyonks and dses declared a truce, despite rudery!

For anyone in Unite accommodation it is possible to cancel and save the last term's fees

www.unitestudents.com/the-common-room/health-and-wellbeing/an-update-from-us-on-covid-19

Ds still has some of his stuff there and we dont drive so we are crossing fingers that by 20th april there will be some let up in restrictions and distancing and he can go back for two weeks, even if uni is online. I think he is already desperate for some sight, albeit at distance of other students. But not sure, tbh it is the least important thing, the rent. He loves it there and wants to at least be there for a tiny bit of summer.

Just took dog to park today and saw the signage that all dogs.need to be on lead now. We are trying now to do more stmulating stuff in garden as result. Dd just.showed me a new dance routine. Still all quite out of synch motivationwise. All up earlier today which helped beat the blues. Dd even went for a run on street, she never normally runs or does formal exercise, but compressing it into a slot seems to havebfocussed their minds.

DD still not at home. She thought she had caught mumps but thinks now it is tonsillitis. She has been given penicillin via a phone chat with a nurse. I think the rest of her house are going home tomorrow so I am hoping she will follow suit.

I was wondering for those who do not have to pay the third term accommodation fees, will their loan be reduced as they will be living at home?

DD is hoping she will still get paid for her job, or at least 80% of it.

Not going out is starting to get to me. I need a new hobby but I really cannot be bothered.

Hope you are all keeping well and sane.

I hope your dd feels better soon Ursula.

We are doing ok. dd after a week off is studying for exams that may, or may not happen. My work has drastically reduced this week, though it looks like it will pick up a bit soon. I've been doing things like playing mario kart with her.

I'm glad that we cleared her room out, so it's one less worry. I've no idea if she will be getting her next instalment, or whether they will charge for her room. But I've definitely seen food consumption go up drastically!

I'm still lurking. DD is finding it hard to be motivated to do any university work. She did a lab write up from a fake practical and looked at a couple of online lectures earlier this week, but spent most of yesterday drawing.

She is really missing seeing her university friends, and having her flatmates on tap to socialise with.

She said it would be easier to revise if she knew when the exams will be. With no dates and no idea what subjects she needs to study for she feels lost.

It is tough to feel motivated when there is so much uncertainty.
Ds is at Warwick and all year one exams have been cancelled and his year 2 exams will be online.
It’s dd’s Birthday today, but she seems quite happy at home watching Star Trek.

I promised DS we'd go out somewhere for his birthday dinner when we can. He then compiled a long list of things that he might like to have done (cinema, bowling, cat cafe) and suggested we could work through them all "later". Nice try sunshine

Ds is finally getting a bit more motivated. Doing some online projects /work set. Ironically he is.helped by prescence of a piano, which he doesnt have in halls. Weve now refused to cook their meals! Parental revolt. Ds2 responded by saying we had run out of ketchup. Weve also stopped ds1 allowance, he looked surprised dd is learning guitar, finally. It has been under her bed for two years...strawberries planted and path swept. Hope your dd alright, ds1 gets terrible sore throats.

Both DSs settled back in and working to a greater or lesser extent. Bit of a change for us in terms of the amount of food being consumed (like having a pair of locusts). Some discussion about how often it’s necessary to go out and stock up on food. DH did a food shop today and I think (panicking a bit) bought more than necessary for a week. He did a big Brexit stockpile which, in fairness, has been quite useful. My view is that twice a week is reasonable as it enables a better view of what’s needed and doesn’t result in waste or over buying. DSs think once a week is enough, but they don’t have to do the meal planning and avoid waste......

DS has had some positives in the last couple of days.

He got a higher than expected mark in his last assignment and then found out that they are increasing the weighting so it comprises the entire grade for that module.

Yesterday evening he and his friends had a gathering via video conferencing.

DD is working on her final essay, due tomorrow and all done then until September. She had a video conference about choosing Honours modules during the week and came out of it very excited about some different options, and also a compulsory 3 weeks abroad that is fully funded! She thinks she is ok to progress to Honours, not sure when that is confirmed.

We are all self isolating as as soon as DD got back, the friend she had spent her last week with became ill!

Shanghai this must be so difficult for you all as a family. And when it should have been your last few months in China too.

@raspberryrippleicecream
Yes, we are stuck here now as China has closed its borders to all foreigners, even those with residency.
My dh got one of the last flights back on Friday (he was in HK) and is now in a quarantine facility for 14 days. He will then be allowed to go home. (Assuming he continues to pass all health checks). We have not seen him since 12th Feb and it’s going to be a few more months until we are all back together.

Goodness @ShanghaiDiva that sounds really tough.

DD1 is now glad that she had her exams before the end of this term, but annoyed that she "wasted" her last few months studying every minute and not making the most of being able to spend time with her friends.

We have been isolating for the 2 weeks since she arrived home as DD2 and I have both had some symptoms.
We've now agreed that her boyfriend can move in with us for the foreseeable future.
He lives alone and has been utterly lonely and miserable for the past week since lockdown started.
I'd (selfishly because I'd miss her!) rather have them both here than DD decide to go and live with him which I could see possibly happening.

I'm still at work - we have a lot of key workers' children at my school.
Slightly envious of everyone who seems to be spending their days doing yoga and reading, but I know I'm better off being busy really!

That is so tough Shanghai.

Oh my goodness Shanghai that must be really hard for you all.

DD continues to have almost daily online sessions with Uni. They were due to finish classes for Easter then be on study leave at the end of this week anyway, so I assume that will stop. She has been very low profile and very quiet in the house, so I am hoping that she will be a bit more vocal and involved come the end of the week.

Having originally been on the rota to be in school two days a week, I'm now not even in once a fortnight because so few children are actually turning up. We're getting signed up to Google Classroom over the holidays though, so hopefully we'll have some regular contact with the children, and do what we can to work on keeping the gap between those with parents keeping them working and those who are happy for them to be on TikTok and YouTube all day to a minimum.

Thanks for all the good wishes. This is my dh waiting to be transferred to quarantine. Not outing as I am sure nobody would recognise him!

That's quite an outfit Shanghai

Your dd is probably finding it a hard adjustment Hardwick. I hope she feels better during the break.

My goodness Shanghai

i'm a TA. I've volunteered to go back after self isolation but there are very few kids in, only one last week. Not sure what is going to happen after Easter.

Shanghai he looks like he's wearing a transparent version of Darth Vader's helmet and you are right, he's totally unrecogniseable.

DS was supposed to have a practical assessment next term, I thought it would be cancelled as there was no realistic way to do it and today it was. They finished the rest of the assessments a few weeks ago so it's not a great loss for everyone except the finalists. I don't know what they are doing as DS stopped reading the email aloud before then.

I'm having a delivery of eggs, milk, bread and veg tomorrow which means I should now crack this "shopping once a week" lark. I'd forgotten the impact DS has on bread and it usually wouldn't be a problem because I've been baking ours for at least six years. I'm now down to the last three bags of flour. It's trivial stuff but thinking about little things takes me away from the bigger picture.

I'm trying to master Sourdough, 'Knitting' but can probably only have one more attempt until I can get more flour!

I found an only slightly out of date bag of bread flour at the back of the top shelf in the cupboard today. No evidence of weevils, so I tried it and made 8 lovely bread rolls. I am quite delighted with myself (I usually just use the bread maker)! I'm only disappointed now that I don't have enough to make another batch. I'm sure flour will be back in stock soon though.