Thread 29 - Covid Cohort - Whirlwinds and Waiting

[OrangeCinnamonCroissant]

This is a thread for supporting all young people post GCSEs 2020, regardless of their educational setting. It is respectfully requested that all are supportive and helpful to each other. If you want to start a debate, e.g state vs private, please don't within this thread. Please also be sensitive when responding to threads about grades.

Some of us have been here since first thread back in yr10, some will be new. Everyone has been friendly and helpful in the past. Everyone is welcome. It is hoped this will continue.

Our DS/DD may go down various paths (such as employment, apprenticeships, higher ed) We have decided for anyone interested they will most likely find us within the Further Ed board.

previous thread 28

Congrats to your DS CT!

@Wheresthebeach is DD ana to dairy and egg?

@Fruitygal No not ana. She's FPies to egg, which they say she should have outgrown. Waiting to hear if she needs overnight in hospital to test egg or if the ladder is safe.

For milk, it's trigger asthma before. Doing milk ladder now and so far so good. Hoping that she can have at least baked milk which would make like easier. I'm keen to get the severity of the allergies confirmed before she goes away so she knows how careful she needs to be.

The thing is at Portsmouth, although the uni isn't a campus, it is mostly all fairly close together in the city centre. Students live all over Southsea as well as in halls and because its so flat its easy to cycle or walk around. The seafront halls (Rees?) are still pretty close to everywhere else.

So pleased wheresthebeach, like ED I had a great time at Portsmouth moons ago.

Hooray ChristopherTracy 🚗

Congratulations to DS @ChristopherTracy

@ChristopherTracy

I really need to sit down with DS' dad and work out exactly what we are going to pay for each. That's going to be a very unfun conversation.

On the upside, DS has passed his driving test!

Yeah I had that conversation with DS's dad, his reponse was that "he'll try" . I'm not holding my breath...

Also well done on the driving test!!

I loved living in Portsmouth but my actual uni experience was a bit meh but it's so long ago (it was a Poly then) it's not relevant to today's students, it was largely down to being unlucky with hall flatmates and fellow course students.

Ds received an offer from Bristol today (AAA). He is delighted.
(It was only a week ago that they sent him a “your application is on hold” email).
So that’s everything in - 4 offers (York, Leeds, York, Nottingham) & 1 rejection (Manchester).
I think the universities in question are pretty similar in terms of reputation/prestige (am I wrong on this?) and the courses look similar too.
Ds hasn’t been to any open days; he hasn’t ever even been to any of the cities he applied to! He is pretty certain however that he wants to firm Bristol & have York as his insurance. Being a Yorkshire girl who has lived in London since graduating, I’m a bit sad that he isn’t firming Leeds or York but hey ho.

Well done to test passers and those still getting offers.

Ds had his business results today. It was his final written exam. He scored 198 out of 200. Top of the class! He still has quite a bit of course work to complete yet though. But at least the final exam is done. So only 2 A levels to concentrate in the summer exams. So he should get distinction star for business. He's also handed in his EPQ at last.

Amazing news scabby and icanbe, congrats to both DSs

Lots of great news on this thread! 🎉

@Wheresthebeach

Shocking that it's going back to 2012, and it's appalling changes. Making everything so much more expensive.

We had a really good day in Portsmouth. City is lovely, didn't realise there would be so many old/impressive building but there are. All the building in an easy walk, save the Marine Science Centre down on the sea.

The Professors were much more approachable, did presentations on their work and current research. DD was told that she would be allowed to help straight away in the research they are doing on a shark nursey if she came (which is her area of interest). I've told her not to count her chickens on that, but the immediate 'we'll get you involved straight away' was nice. We spent just over 2 hours with the Professors, and students presenting their research with everyone milling around and talking so DD got a real sense of what it's like.

Some accommodation was pretty grubby, but we later discovered that 2/3rd had been refurbished and we'd seen un-refurbished! But some was nice enough and just over 6k.

The new sports centre is amazing, and the TASS scholarship people were very encouraging. I need to find out if she'll be told before she has to finalise her choices if she'll get a sports scholarship as that would make a big difference.

She'll still see Swansea, but as Portsmouth has given her an UC offer I'd be surprised if she didn't firm Portsmouth and just not have the stress of worrying about grades.

I'm so glad ..was thinking of you yesterday as had a day off so we drove into Southsea with dog. It was v drizzly !

A warm welcome really helps.

Well done to your DS’ scabby and ican!

@scabby1 Sounds like he has his pick of 4 fantastic Unis there, tough choices ahead!

Congrats to all on the latest set of offers, driving test passes & exam results! This thread is continuing to move at serious pace! Also glad the offer holder visits are going well, even if it complicates things!

Am going to get DS onto student finance this weekend to try & get things going there if I don’t annoy him too much!!

Newcastle offer here! DD delighted as it is currently her top choice! Let’s see if that changes after she actually visits…

Yay, that’s brilliant @KingscoteStaff! We visited Newcastle (city) a couple of years ago and loved it!

Brilliant news @KingscoteStaff!

@Wheresthebeach ooh! Swansea is lovely, hope she doesn't get even more confused.

Thanks everyone .
Congratulations @kingscoteStaff

Fabulous news Kingscote, she has a choice! Congrats to her and fingers crossed now for Monkey and sazzy. I knew medicine was tough but I thought that was just after they start the course, not before as well!

(The awful wait, I mean)

Lovely to come on here and read all the great news of more offers, driving test passes and qualifications. Happy to add that DS has done well in his mocks so peace reigns!