Thread 19 - Corona Cohort, Enrolling on Year 13, hopefully NOT unlucky for some

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I was just wondering about those second jabs! If they decide not to give second jabs to 16 and 17 year olds they become single jabbed 18 year olds which makes no sense.

Thanks @KingscoteStaff!
My DD totally loved Sheffield and has a really great group of friends partly from her course which was small in number and intense in workload (landscape architecture) but also from medics, linguists, all over really. It is a great city to be a student because of its size (not too big not to small) and safety and greenness. It is also good value for going out. She had no complaints at all - loved it in fact. Although no campus, the parts she needed (arts tower SU etc were all close together. SU wins best SU most years and halls also good. Def worth a look.

I live in Birmingham and work at the university, if anyone has any questions!

@Delphigirl

Hi Piggy The halls in Vale village which are closer to the main buildings at Brum are not far away at all, eg tennis courts. You could carry a cello to and fro alright (I was a cello carrier for years) but probably not a double bass. Shelly oak is a dump but strangely much loved and no worse than eg fallowfield in Manchester which I accept is a low bar.

We went to look around Glasgow at May half term when DS was thinking about Geog/environmental geoscience and I have to say it was fantastic. What a great city and I preferred it to edinburgh by a long way, which I was not expecting. Fewer tourists, less tartan tat. University really nice and in best bit of Glasgow - west end is beautiful snd fab and full of independent shops snd cafes and small cinemas and second hand book and record shops. So much going on.

I think it is Glasgow that is supposedly more 'ancient' than Oxford and Durham or something...

@crazycrofter Is there any private student accomodation in Birmingham, as in near the campus?

Scrap that...that is not right..it has some bizarre historical fact related to it's status as a Uni

@Fferny1 DD is applying for vet med and Bristol is on her list. I might ask some questions later.
DD turned 18 this week and we couldn't book her first vaccination without booking the second. She is going to have it in October. We hadn't even realised that those born later in the school year were only offered one vaccination

Re Birmingham, DS fresher last year so straight into Covid. He was in a 5 person flat, 2 flats to a floor so although they were meant to stay in flat bubbles there was some mixing to which a bit of a blind eye was turned. In any event the policing was not as heavy handed as many places. He had face to face seminars in Sept Oct and again from March. In the meantime they were allowed to stay in halls and the library stayed open (book a space) except during core lockdown. There were also online office hours and lecturers were responsive, set a lot of work and marked a lot of work promptly. He worked v hard as there was not much else to do and has got mid 70s average for his first year and apparently tgat gives him first pick of year abroad unis which he is delighted about. He is going back into 2nd year to face to face seminars snd he thinks some lectures but I’m not sure about that. Moved to a house in Shelly with a big group of friends. So all in all as good an experience as it could be last year I think and I can’t really fault Brum. Oh also they vaccinated everyone who wanted it so he was double vaxed well before the summer which was good.

Ds doing political science btw

@Piggywaspushed

I was just wondering about those second jabs! If they decide not to give second jabs to 16 and 17 year olds they become single jabbed 18 year olds which makes no sense.

Yes and when they are single jabbed 18 year olds then they have to go back to self isolating after being a close contact etc as they are then “over 18”

DS doesn’t go back to college until 13th!
He won’t get his timetable until then either which is really frustrating as he’s trying to find a job so would be useful to know when he will be free.
He still hasn’t decided what to study at uni but still adamant he wants to go next year!
We’ve had first mention of PS from college in an email this week and they want a first draft submitted by half term. DS has no idea where to start or how to write it and neither do I.
I thought the college would go through this with them and help them with it??

Delphigirl Thanks for sharing that. Very useful to know as Birmingham is on DS's list.

@Fiddlersgreen there is lots on the web but I think this is the best thing on how to write a personal statement that I’ve seen. If your DS follows this he won’t go wrong!

@shimy do you mean private halls like Unite? There’s a brand new block called Battery Park in Selly Oak.

And there’s Oak Brooke Park

Why didn’t that link appear?
m.youtube.com/watch?v=955Z7n2L_C0

Personal statement vid

@Heifer Ds has had a sore throat since coming back from Reading but had a PCR test & has been doing LFTs every day & all negative.

Before Covid I think it was quite common for kids to come back with a virus. Similar to Freshers flu. So maybe just that.

Just posting these here so I don't forget how to do them in the morning...ive spent.the best part of an hour trying to remember how to do witchy ones.

What is safety like in Birmingham? Specially for girls going on a night out?

@Fiddlersgreen I can book ds's second vaccine. I haven't as hoping there might be a more local place to book soon. I know they do them at a chemist in the nearest town, but it doesn't seem to come up. Ds will still be 17 when he has the second vaccine. But will be almost 18...perhaps that's why I can book.

I don’t know - I think selly is quite rough and lots of drugs being offered on the street etc. I’ve heard of a couple of people DS knows being mugged but those are blokes.

I will ask his gf about safety but bear in mind they haven’t really done any clubbing as the clubs opened after uni finished for the year

@Delphigirl that’s so much, I will get DS to watch with me tomorrow!

@icanbewhatiwant that’s good to know, I didn’t realise you could do that. DS had his 1st vaccine this week but we couldn’t book it as his birthday is in Feb so he could only go to a walk in. I hadn’t thought about trying to book a second.
I’m guessing all those 16/17 clinically vulnerable teens had 2 doses as it would have been before they came out and said they would only be having one?

CV Dd was16 and had hers in Feb and May.
You don’t have to isolate if you are under 18years and 6 months or double jabbed. Interestingly there are a couple of pupils who repeated a year so are a year older in Year 13 so 18 already. If exams do go ahead I wonder if there are a few permutations that mean pupils would still have to isolate?