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

No we didn't crazy. He just put N/A!

Thank you for the lovely messages. I've nothing specific to get stressed over, genuinely think it's linked to age and hormones!
Dd has 3 holidays abroad over the next couple of months, so between that and working she's busy enough.

4 days to go, 4 exams to go. DD has had a conviction that the English Unseen will refer to the Victorian attitude to mental health, so is reading Yellow Wallpaper again…

Glad to hear that your DD was okay @crazycrofter. Hoping for the same for mine.

I saw Casper this week, he is an expert in vomming and staying up all night, so maybe a degree in Politics?
we seem to have a bit more calm here. 1 exam left and then straight from school to the Airport for a break with friends. Back in time for Prom, a week of collapse and then she will plan the rest of the summer. I think she is also going to Brighton with other friends. We haven’t booked anything yet, want to see if todays procedure resolves my health issue. Love the idea of a craft activity the day before results tho, will research.

DD has had a nice relaxing day today (tidied bedroom, done nails) etc, next exam not until Friday so I thinks it'a great idea to have a breather.

@BlueMarigold & @Chewbecca we can worry together a bit over AQA Biology, lets hope P3 is better (DD thought P1 was good so hoping there is some riggle room).

@singingstones I also worry that if DD doesn't get the grades she needs for Nottingham but does get insurance she may decide to defer. Some of her friends already are and she does often say part of her doesn't seen ready to go. I know if she gets AAB she will go off to Nottingham in Sept so fingers crossed.

@Monkey2001 I know what you mean that a gap year can be great for some, but for DD I don't think it would be. I could see her regretting it come September and wasting the year and being no better off.

@EwwSprouts Tennis in that heat! did he melt? how was Biology?

@Shimy welcome back, great to see you. I'm so pleased that your DS made it through his last paper. Got fingers crossed for you that things work out well for him (even if it does have to be Plan b). Re core maths. DD was happy enough with it - said it was better than P1 so all in all I think she is expecting a B and possibly A? who also said who knows. She doesn't need the grade - unless she decides to go off to Sheffield in clearing as they offered ABB if she gets a B. Actually I can see her doing that rather than going to insurance if she can...

@NicolasSarkozysCumDumpster Re DDs plans for summer - lots! and they all cost money... She is going to Spain to friends villa (10 of them) for 1 week, then home for 5 days before going down to Cornwall with same 10 friends to friends house. Then 10 days later off to a weekend hockey festival, followed by Commonwealth games with us and then Board Masters late July for 5 days with hockey friends. Back for results, and nothing planned after that apart from 1 day at Leeds festival late August. Hoping to get some days out in our boat that we haven't even used yet with her.

Welcome to the new people (sorry I couldn't see your names) this thread is brilliant, doesn't matter if you started in yr10 like some of us, or late to the party - you're here now :-)

Sorry to hear about people being ill - hope you all feel better soon.

Oh just found out why DD never seems to have any money - for some reason when she buys drinks at Whetherspoons I get an email.. Seems she drank 3 cocktails last night at £6.29 each - she hasn't yet learnt that as a student you need to find the cheaper drinks!

There's so much news on here it's hard to keep up.

Ds2 is still having a break from revision as his last exam is 28th.

Ds1 finished moving all his stuff back from his university house and arrived home this afternoon. He and all his housemates did Tesco covid tests, all negative. When he arrived I gave him one of mine to do, the flowflex tests. Positive. So he's been sent to his room as I don't want dh to get it. But I'm sure he will at some point as so many people have it round here. Ds had a sore throat that started weds, so I'm hoping he might do a negative test by the time he flies out to USA on Monday eve. He's going to stay with his friend in harrow tomorrow, they'll go to Heathrow from there. Ds2 still hasn't had covid. I'm sure he will soon.

@Heifer That made me laugh, DS would be mortified if i got an email each time he bought a drink at Wetherspoons . He got in at 3am last night after going to a friends at midnight (after coming back from the lakes where he had been drinking with other friends), apparently he spent 10-15 mins with a random cat on the way home. He bent down to stroke it and it got on his lap and they sat on the pavement having a cuddle before DS walked the rest of the way home. He has some lovely photos of random cat on his lap. It looked very cute. I'm sure he will miss our cats more than any humans in our house when he goes to uni.

DS has three exams left but is flagging and seems to be struggling to get back into study now after a couple of days off as he had exams each day Monday to Thursday last week. Next week he has 2 x chemistry and 1x maths. HIs worst exam is Monday morning so he really needs a good day tomorrow. Hard when some of his friends have finished and some aren't doing exams at all as are doing apprenticeships.

@icanbewhatiwant at least USA dropped the requirement for a pre departure test last week so your DS should still be able to go.

@Heifer have you seen the new Complete University Guide league table for 2023?

Hi @BlueMarigold yes I someone had posted it on the WIWIKAU group - noticed that York was up to 6th place? is that what you meant? DD says she would happily go to her insurance at York if she gets BBB (as it would be No from Nottingham, or Sheffield which seems to have been mentioned again recently.. What does your DD think now? Still want Birmingham and happy with insurance or other way round now?

@272Newnames I am surprised she hasn't asked me to unlink it but I think she is hoping I will get the rounds in at uni :-) I did say one day I would surprise her and order a round but hasn't happened yet as I am still giving her money to go out often!

Bollocks. Just been checking DS's email as he doesn't always keep up with it very well and he had had an email from the RAU to say they are pulling the plug on his course. They are offering an alternative but DS chose the cancelled one in preference to the offered one. He hadn't opened the email and doesn't know yet. I don't normally open his unread emails but nudge him to do it but I'm quite glad I saw this first while he's at home for the weekend and he didn't find it himself during the week in boarding. This could throw him right off his stride for his last exam but I can't not tell him till after that (Weds, won't see him till Fri). Not happy with either the change or the timing 🥵.

I get an email whenever DH buys anything in Wetherspoons (not that he does very often). Must be something to do with the Apple sharing.

@Heifer yes I thought you might want to see that York has gone up! Birmingham is still the favourite but DD is happy with the insurance. It’s shot up 30 places so that’s reassuring.

I’ve been reading along with this thread and was on one of its previous incarnations but changed names and lost track of it. My DD is all finished now, AQA business on Thursday afternoon was her final one (said she thought it was the hardest of the three). Straight out the exam and in the car to drive to Manchester for Harry Styles (after we’d been together on the Saturday in Glasgow).

Her plan is digital forensics at LJMU. Only 112 UCAS points needed so just everything crossed at this point.

good luck to everyone!

Oh that’s rubbish, Extremely. How do you think he’ll take the news? Do you think it’s because they haven’t had enough applicants?
It feels late in the day to be cancelling courses.

Oh ED that’s awful. I’m surprised they do that at this stage. Agree you have to tell him but what a pain. Do they automatically offer him a place on the other course?

Oh @ExtremelyDedicated how incredibly frustrating. And what appalling timing. What do you think he’ll want to do?

welcome back @EddieHowesBlackandWhiteArmy !

@ExtremelyDedicated Sorry to hear your ds's course has been pulled, that's an awful shock and the last thing he needs right bang in the middle of his exams. I think not telling him until afterwards is a very good idea. Do you think he there's a chance he could still get onto the alternative course?

Re: Advent Calendar.........
Well, you silly moose! fancy wanting to buy your ds an ADVENT CALENDARRRR!!!!! so entitled!

In 2019, We were midst preparing DS1 for uni, much like now. Shopping was being done and there had been lots of tips on where to get various things helpful mn posters...anyway, I started a casual thread just asking what type of bag Mners kids off to uni soon were using as I wanted to get DS one.

2 Loons, in particular, popped up on the thread, snarky replied, 'Why are you buying him a bag? surely he can buy his OWN bag! he must be traumatised his mum buying him a bag! why isn't he asking his friends? why do you need to know what bag he will need?......you're so controlling!..... You get the drift.
It went on and on, they became quite abusive, lots of nasty posts about what an awful person I was. It was horrible! @Piggy and couple of others popped up and defended me and said she thought I was really nice something like that.
It was a horrible thread, lots of others also jumped on to stick the boot in, there was name calling too. All because I asked for bag recommendations. I shed a few tears.
I did buy him a bag from some of the more helpful posts and he's still using it till today.

I think some people are just so miserable in their own lives that they feel pained when they see a wholesome thread and only feel better when they spill some poison. There was a thread when this lot were in year 11, a poster asked about universities and peoples experiences. A poster jumped on to say, 'Butt out! your dc's university choice is nothing to do with you and you have no right to influence it".
Word for word as I've never forgotten it. The OP I could tell was a bit rattled by this comment. A couple of posters said they too had asked about unis in the past. The snarky poster then posted back to say, their parents had never shown any interest in their further education and had washed their hands of them when they 14yrs. They had struggled alone ever since to make something of themself and so thought this was how parenting was done and they found it weird, a parent showing such interest in their 17yrs old life.

Sorry long post!

ED that’s really rubbish about your sons course choice. I hope he has a back up that he will enjoy just as much.

Thank you @Isthisjustnormal 😊

Yes, they have offered him a place on the other course (the entry requirements are exactly the same and they share a lot of modules). I guess this is the point at which they have had all the final acceptances and rejections and there just weren't enough acceptances. We did know there was a risk of this happening (or even of both courses being binned as the enrolment numbers quoted at open day seemed low) which is why DS accepted an insurance with a higher offer. I have talked to him about it now and he was ok about it, says we'll talk again in the morning, luckily he has taken the day off work.

I couldn't really leave telling him as I had no idea how long it would have taken him to spot and read the email and I thought it would be better coming from me than them. It was a rather long waffly try-to-put-a-positive-spin-on-it email (which I had to read twice to be sure I'd understood and I don't have his language impairment). Thank you all for the kind words.

@Shimy you have made me laugh! Advent calendars, bags, we spoil these DC 🙄.

I’m really sorry to hear that ED, how immensely frustrating. I hope he isn’t too disheartened. Such bad luck.

@ExtremelyDedicated Sorry this has happened. Is he happy to accept the alternative course?