Thread 34 Covid Cohort - Heat 'Waving' DC to final exams and drinking more

[OrangeCinnamonCroissant]

...water

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. It's all relative!

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 continue down various pathways ( employment, apprenticeships, higher ed) We have decided for anyone interested they will find a thread within the Further Ed board.

Possibly a move to Parent of Adult Children Board in future? Post Results?

Previous Thread

All finished here. Such a wonderful feeling and the long summer stretching ahead. Dd has her first driving lesson tomorrow and much like your dd @crazycrofter , I don’t think it’ll come naturally to her.
Glad today seems to have gone well for the most part.

Congratulations to recent finishers.

Ds1 is nearly one year driving so Dh and I are looking at hopefully much cheaper insurance next month.

DS finally got up and has gone off to band rehearsal ahead of gig on Saturday. They haven't done much practising together for about 2 months as they made the decision to focus on A Levels so am hoping they can still remember how to play 😂(am pretty sure they will).

When they started generally either DH or I would pick up the other band members and take them to the rehearsal place - once he passed his test we happily passed over the duty 😀

@Oblomov22 ds1's insurance dropped by half one year later. But ds2's hardly went down after the year. Though ds2 passed his test later in the year as we took out insurance that covered them as learners and once passed. So ds1 had held his full licence 8 months on renewal but ds2 was only 4 months (due to covid delays) Maybe that was why.

I was hoping for this but it hasn’t happened. DS is 20, has 2 years NC and our quotes today are nearly £850!

DD is all finished though-hooray!

Dd said today's exam was the 'best mechanics exam ever!!!'. I'm really pleased as she has worked hard at it.

Dd doesn't want to learn to drive, we were in a nasty car accident a few years ago and she's nervous about it. I'm hoping that with time a combination of seeing her peers driving and not having me on hand for lifts will help reduce the anxiety! I love the freedom driving brings.

@Shimy unfortunately driving lessons at uni seem hit and miss in my experience. My DD1(23) and cohort who tried that route are majority still non drivers( obviously some down to covid, but not all). Hence, the two of them (her and DS1) to try and get going now.🤔🙄

Re car insurance- what do you do once they're at uni? DD will leave her car at home but will need it in the holidays.

Sounds interesting, thank you. I'd thought about an intensive course for dd. I drive but am not a great lover of driving so may leave it to the pros. No dh as I'm a widow.
We live in quite a convenient place for public transport. A short walk from 2 train lines that go into London and a bus stop. So the dc can get themselves about fairly easily.

I drive them when needed too

DS drives a lot after many (ahem) goes at passing his test. But he will be 19 in Sept, so an oldie for the year.
dd is 17 in Jan 23 and I think I will book her lessons up now, there seems such long waiting lists! She is desperate to learn to drive.

Yr12 DD is learning to drive at the moment. Going out in the car with her is a very different experience to DS. He passed first time after 13 lessons and was quite calm and collected. DD has a test booked for November and it might be too soon or she might surprise me. Either way, I'll be a lot greyer by then. She does have a habit of suddenly grasping things though. She got full marks in the theory test!

Good luck to all sitting papers today! 🍀
Last one for DD: Greek literature- two hours with Homer and Euripides.

Last Chemistry today, last Biology tomorrow.

Good luck everyone today 🍀🍀Final Further Maths today and DH is going to bring him and all his stuff back, will have to work out where to put it all !

Good luck today.

DD has restarted her driving lessons, has a test for Sept but is hoping to be able to get an earlier one if she is ready before then.. She is struggling to switch between her car and the driving instructors so we've said to stop driving hers (it is an old car, someone gave it to her) and just stick to her weekly lessons for the time being. In an ideal word she would have 2 weekly lessons but at £32 per hr that just isn't possible for us.

Talking of money - DD is off to Spain soon - what is best re payment card/cash etc? usually when I go, I take cash and split it between 4 wallets (2 each for DH and me) so if we lose a wallet we still have some left... DD doesn't use cash much, mostly pays for things on her phone currently, but I assume that isn't a very cost effective way (Natwest) for her in Spain. What do you normally do?

Proggy I do like your exam descriptions. I have got all day with DD at a college taster day and then clothes shopping in the afternoon 🥵, so two hours with Homer and Euripides sounds quite appealing.

@singingstones I think I’d prefer the college taster day and clothes shopping! 😂
I’m useless at languages.
That said, I watched Medea , with DD, played by the fabulous Helen McCrory and was absolutely blown away

DD has been learning off and on since October but has let it slide this month. Trying to book her test but there is nothing around London - literally nothing!

Which apps have you used to book a cancellation - I think that is our only option

@Seeline if you keep going on the test booking site tests do suddenly appear. I've heard it's best to try on a Monday at 6am but it seems more random than that. It was easier to find a test this year for DD than it was for DS last year. Lots pop up for the next day/week. The blocks of dates were all in November when we booked a few weeks ago

@Seeline We're in London and booked a test a few months ago at somewhere completely random (can't remember where but somewhere in the north) and then used the Testi App (really awful name!) to change it. As Mummyinbeds says, we'd heard about the 6am on Monday thing - for us all tests did come available at quite random times and you need to be ready to pounce. DS has his test in a few weeks ... A few months ago someone on this thread (maybe Piggy?) was asking about Apps for rebooking but I don't know how to search for that. Good luck!

@ProggyMat Hooray that DD finishes today. DS has already been given some pre-reading by his college - apparently more will follow next month. 😱

@mummyinbeds I've been trying for a while now at random times and days, and there have been no tests at all for most of the London area, some occasionally in far flung parts in late November.

It doesn't help that our local centre shut a couple of months back and that was always really busy, so now we don't actually have a particularly local centre.

I would be grateful for app recommendations.

We used the Testi App for DS - it worked well for him.

DD has her last GCSE today. Does this mean that the vast reams of paper will start disappearing soon?

DS had a 4 hour band practice last night. I'll probably see him at some point this afternoon...

@seeline our local one shut but a big petition got it reopened, it's now shutting again a year later. The waiting time here was over six months and so clearly a centre is desperately needed but now our nearest ones are a 30 minute drive away which just puts a bigger demand on the local driving instructors time.

good luck to any one sitting exams today.