Thread 17 - Corona Cohort Summer Vacation to Yr 13, Finding Freedom?

[Orangecinnamon21]

PLACEHOLDER FOR NEW THREAD ...PREVIOUSLY TO BE FOUND IN SECONDARY EDUCATION

That's interesting Monkey - DS isn't considering Newcastle as it's far too far away but I like to look. As I mentioned a day or two ago, having an EHCP doesn't seem to be a contextual factor anywhere I've looked so far but interested to see that he would qualify there due to also being in receipt of PIP (disability benefits).

I fear contextual offers don't apply to Ds1. I also fear I won't qualify for any money /grant / funding.
I am really confused by everything I've read. I've only just started looking into it tbf, and am bamboozled. Is there an idiots guide?

The top thresholds are
£41,540
£62,286
£58,215

I know that sounds like a lot of money to some. If you are single parent in some parts of the country that would seem like a lot.

But round here, £40k for a Dh main breadwinner is not considered a lot. And I used to only take earn £13k part time. But now I'm earning more, with my second job. So I fear we will be over the top threshold. This isn't good. Is it worth my quitting my 2nd part time job for the time being?

What are those thresholds for @Oblomov21?

We're waiting to hear back from the Southampton access scheme - dd qualifies due to our postcode, so I guess she'd also qualify for a contextual offer. It's a very blunt instrument as dd went to a very high achieving independent school (on a bursary) and is now at a grammar school. She won't really need a contextual offer anyway though, because offers for OT tend to be 3xB and she's predicted above that.

Dd's gathering in the garden with 12 friends passed without incident last night - phew! We were out for most of it, getting back around 10, when I suggested she might like to turn the music down a little! The only hiccup was year 10 ds thought he'd invite 2 of his friends along! They were quickly dispatched to his room though...

You're all making me worry with this menopausal talk! I'm 44 and no signs yet, but I'm dreading it!

Re Newcastle. They were very liberal in handing out £1000 in 2019 for students whose parents didn’t earn much. I do not know the criteria but it came as a nice shock to some students who weren’t expecting it. Also factor in costs. Newcastle’s accommodation is really cheap compared to others. Also location - being next to the city, it’s very handy for jobs. Lots of my Dd1’s friends work very easily alongside their studies.

There is a handy table towards the bottom of the page re: maintenance loan amounts

www.savethestudent.org/student-finance/maintenance-loans.html
Copied from page re: minimums
students with parents earning above the following thresholds will receive the minimum Maintenance Loan for someone with their living arrangements:

£3,516 if you live at home and your household income is above £58,220
£4,422 if you live away from home and outside London, and your household income is above £62,286
£6,166 if you live away from home and in London, and your household income is above £70,004.

I understand there is provision to ask SLC to reassess entitlement in year if something happens like redundancy etc.

@Oblomov21 I too have increased hours in my main job and taken on a second p/t role in recent years, so it has briefly occurred to me to drop the second job but actually we never know what our total income from DH's business is going to be from one year to the next so it might not make any difference to us. I'd say it very much depends on what other factors there are around your jobs. Probably too late for next year now anyway.

We know someone who went from full loan to nothing in the space of a year because of a really good harvest on the farm.

..,And that year she got nothing they had a bad harvest again

Nightmare. Ours fluctuates pretty wildly too, the Brexit vote had an immediate, significant negative effect, but things have improved to a certain extent now.

With student finance when they ask for parents income, if you've earned unusually more, then you can request to use the current year income instead. When ds1 applied they wanted tax year 2017-18. DH retired from farming that year and sold the farm. So obviously had a large income that year. So we used 2019 estimated income instead. DH invested money and we don't actually earn much now. So ds1 was given maximum student loan. They don't take into account savings, whether you've got a mortgage, where you live etc. (as in people in say London will earn more than rural people, but London people will have bigger mortgages, rent etc) probably things that should be factored in. They do ask how many dependants you have. But I don't think they consider whether you have more than one dc at university.

Sorry to digress but it reminds me of another farming story on how the system has changed: I was in a meeting with 4 headteachers and they were discussing the cheek of parents asking for their children to take holidays out of school (‘for every week of term missed, a grade goes down at GCSE’ ). A farm worker had asked if they could take their primary kids out for a few days at the seaside. There was lots of condemnation from everyone because of the long summer holidays (they were discussing potential cuts to length). I said can I politely point out that the summer holidays are when the harvest is due in and it was this person couldn’t get time off and I knew that it’s ‘all hands on deck’, even the older children will be helping, which is why I believe, traditionally, we have August off in the first place. That went down like a lead balloon.

icanbe that’s interesting and useful about asking for a different years income to be taken into account.

@Zandathepanda

Sorry to digress but it reminds me of another farming story on how the system has changed: I was in a meeting with 4 headteachers and they were discussing the cheek of parents asking for their children to take holidays out of school (‘for every week of term missed, a grade goes down at GCSE’ ). A farm worker had asked if they could take their primary kids out for a few days at the seaside. There was lots of condemnation from everyone because of the long summer holidays (they were discussing potential cuts to length). I said can I politely point out that the summer holidays are when the harvest is due in and it was this person couldn’t get time off and I knew that it’s ‘all hands on deck’, even the older children will be helping, which is why I believe, traditionally, we have August off in the first place. That went down like a lead balloon.

Yes, of course!

Before fines came into play they used to be quite accommodating with DH stupid fixed leave system. I then became a dab hand at getting holidays cheaper (you have to plan way in advance is my top tip).

I'm really looking forward to the days when we can take term time hold again...who knows what the prices will be post covid though!

@Zandathepanda yes DH always used to make be making hay/silage on and off through May and June (they are as late as July this year) then harvest July/august. Then it's a mad rush to get straw bales made and in, the land prepared for new crop, that goes on until Oct. so years ago it would involve the whole family, July and august being the busiest. My dc's showed little interest. But we never went away as DH was always busy when the weather was warm. Now he's retired and can go away the dc's don't want to go away.

Yes and the comment about if you miss a week of primary means you go down a grade at gcse has aged well in these times hasn’t it ?!

icanbe yep sounds about right!

That was Dh childhood too. He never went on holiday.

@Zandathepanda DH is a typical Suffolk farmer. He won't go far...definitely won't get on a plane. We are venturing as far as Dorset next week though. As long as we don't get an isolate message.

"Now he's retired and can go away the dc's don't want to go away."

The irony is not lost on us lot. To be added to the other irony list of .....
Menopausal with teenagers timing.
Etc
Etc.

Ds1 has been on Roaccutane for a week. But when his tablets run out, there are no more consultant appointments till September. Just one of my many ongoing saga's. To add to the list.

I fought, hard to get him virtually seen, blood tests done, etc. I have made, no exaggeration 35 + phone calls in the last 3 months. Each person only giving me one snippet of info, never the full picture. I'm surprised I haven't come out in a stress rash myself, in sympathy, worse than his acne.

I have both boys with braces now too.

No wonder I was almost sobbing to my GP that I'm struggling, even despite my visit to HRT clinic this week where they doubled my dose.

Is it wine o'clock yet?

We've had both in braces too, just DS now but he's got at least another year to go as his were complex and needing several stages. He still needs me to come to every appointment with him, its at our normal dentists, I must have been there about 10x this year with him, DD and for my own checkup. Well it feels like it anyway.

That is rubbish about the roaccutane, so many people must just get fobbed off and not be able to pursue these things

@Oblomov can you not try phoning up the Dermatologists secretary to see whether they can issue you a prescription or failing that even a private one to plug the gap?
As long as your son doesn't need a blood test it should be fine to do.
We have done that in the past but have always had to go privately anyway as the waiting list is so long around here.

Just some comments on the work experience discussion a few days earlier.
My husband and I both have corporate jobs. At our work we are not allowed to give or own children or anyone else’s children work experience. Everything must go through HR for safe-guarding/ health and safety reasons.

HR only wants to run these programs for the very most disadvantaged children.

Asking our business contacts at other organisations for work experience for our children would be breaking anti-bribery and corruption rules. This is specifically spelled out.

We were relieved when work experience was cancelled due to COVID. At that point DD had written 8 letters herself with one polite rejection and otherwise just ignored.

Work experience is a pain and a risk for businesses. So there isn’t much of it. And what there is, is ring fenced for the most deserving.

I used to work in the NHS and there was definitely lots of nepotism going on there. My director at the time used to have her uni daughter during summer hols working in our team not just shadowing but allocating project work duties for her, including visiting and interviewing clinicians off-site, etc and it was paid! i thought that was a fantastic gig for her but really a job that a fresh graduate more deserving could have got, especially since her degree wasn't even within our line of work.

Re: Couldn't find any paid work, so encouraged ds to go to any of the local charity shops and apply there. He started at one last week and is loving i, he wants to study a business course so it should give him some good experience. I think employers value voluntary work experience as much as they do paid (or nearly as much!). Its tough out there at the moment, it was tough before but the pandemic has just made it awful.