Thread 35 - Covid Cohort from GCSE 2020 'What They Did on Their Summer Holidays'

[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. 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

👍🏼 Particularly since I won’t have to take her out in my car!! 😂

I think the thing that made the most difference to DD’s learning to drive experience was going out in my car, drive to work and back etc The lessons are just too expected to have many of them. Hers were £30ph and on a waitress wage, that’s a lot of money. We paid for the first 10 and all tests.

*too expensive

Our problem with driving is that neither of our cars is really suitable for a learner, DH's is a big heavy diesel and mine is an automatic.

@Benjispruce4 Exactly!
Driving lessons are not cheap and DD chose to spend her 18th birthday money - as she’s always has done - on other ‘stuff’.
She too is and has always been employed in minimum wage jobs - for quite some time.
As a lone parent I’m not being precious about my car - although in one sense I ought too, as it’s a ‘banger’😂
In all honesty, I’d prefer that some else took her out on road- for more reasons than I have disclosed ! 🤣

Driving lessons in the university city might be a good idea. Where we are, so much money is wasted on the 45 min drive in the instructors car, on a straight road to the nearest city. Then 45 mins in the city and all the way home again. So learning in a city would have been a great idea for us.

The thermometer outside in the shade hasn't gone above 35° here. The wind feels like a hot hair dryer blowing. Ds3 had an award ceremony this afternoon. They was hot in the school hall. We have ds1's graduation ceremony tomorrow. I think that will be hot, it's showing as 29° in Norwich tomorrow 🥵

Some of you know DS1 who us very different from DS2. He now has a job in a shoe shop and has almost single handedly organised a holiday with mates tomorrow, where he will celebrate his 21st. This is amazing.

Good news @Piggywaspushed , hope he has a fab time! Some kids (often boys!) are just late developers.. one of my brothers was similar.

About driving tests, can I just ask - is it right that the second half of the test involves following a satnav/road signs?

@crazycrofter yes, at least 20 mins is either following satnav or signs. I think 1 in 5 is signs with the rest being satnav. I think signs are harder as we all just instinctively use satnavs. We realised a month or so before his test that DS was weak on signs and practiced a lot which was fortunate as he got a follow the signs test.

You can also buy test routes in satnav. We found they weren’t exactly the same but did use all the same main roads as the test routes so useful for practice without the instructor as I didn’t know the town.

Thanks @272Newnames thats really helpful. Her test is in a different area of Birmingham which I know well but she doesn’t. How do you buy the routes In satnav?

Fond memories of doing mine in Sheldon test centre Crazy . Very hot July, and I had a major hay fever sneezing attack. We sat there for 20 mins, he in silence, to let it pass. When I returned to test centre (late), my boyfriend’s face was covered in newspaper print. He’d been sat with face in hands in the heat, thinking I’d crashed the car or worse :) It was an austin allegro, fondly named Agro. Young love hey.

Haha @ealingwestmum that’s a great story! Her test is in Kings Heath… traffic round there is awful so I usually avoid it like the plague, but I think we’re going to have to take some drives over there…

I confess here...I don't drive so we are a one car family and DH car is not suitable at all (Automatic Estate) .

Sold on the Uni town idea though!

DD's driving has been so infrequent since passing Orange, that she still has the P plates on, nearly a year on. And has not practised car parks, motorways, unknown areas etc so I am still apprehensive when she goes out. I made up a no-one in the back of car rule due to insurance for first 3 months which I fessed up to later (and she thanked me for it, her friends thought I was 'savage' but fair dues). But in reality, we're no further forward.

It's such a tricky one. But still so heavily compromised due to the back log, drivers really shouldn't be having to trek to unknown centres like Crazy's et al to get a shot at passing.

Good luck whatever option you take, and I empathise with the automatic challenge too, we'll be getting rid of DD's 24 yr old starter car because the insurance and ULEZ is just too much to continue for the returns from uni.

I've seen some of your comments re DS1 previously @piggy. I've got the impression that he wasn't as confident as DS2 at this age etc, so that sounds brilliant, well done to him. Loving the holiday organising, great skill to have (job good too but organising holiday even better) :-)

re driving - also admit I don't drive either - so 1 car family too (old car plus 1 new van so neither good for DD) She has a driving lesson in 10 mins and test booked week before uni, she was hoping for an earlier cancellation but with only 1 lesson per week currently I am not sure if she will be ready any sooner anyway.

He is heading off now! Been a nightmare day though as we had no idea how to get him to Leeds an hour ago. Friend has eventually said he will come and pick DS and his other mate up from Peterborough, otherwise we were stuck. Carnage on East Coast and West Coast rail line today. A level crossing at Sandy actually melted!? I can't even picture quite what that means!!

Nightmare! Trains are all down here too 😬 Hope the flights go ahead ok.

Is he actually flying? I just realised you didn’t say so it could be a UK holiday! Either way, hope it’s fun.

Dd and dorm mates decided to enter the football tournament on camp. Not sure she even knows the rules, certainly I’ve never seen her play football! She just texted to say they lost 6-0 😂

Yes, flying to Crete.

I have instructions - wear sunscreen, no silly fishbowl, no laughing gas.

They are planning a proper meal on his birthday, apparently , or he is. We'll see. Think Malia might shock him a bit!

@crazycrofter

we used the website below. As I say the routes aren’t exactly the same as the actual routes but seem to be very close and cover the usual roads used on the test. I found them really useful. Definitely £10 worth which is what I paid.

ndpdrivingtestroutes.com/

That’s brilliant @272Newnames - thank you! Dd is pretty much away now until 10th August and we move (hopefully!) on 31st so we’ll have 3 weeks to get some practice in!

Ha ha good luck to him @Piggywaspushed !

Just been catching up after a few days away. Well done on jobs, holiday organisation/survival etc.

DS was home alone and I actually returned to a tidy house - hoovered, washing in the machine, dishwasher run and emptied. He said he watered the patio plants but it was too dark to verify. He seems to have survived on pizza and bean burgers. There's hope for him yet!

As for driving tests, we practised in the nearby town where his test was. DS has zero sense of direction. The test headed away from the town to an area he'd never been before and then he got the 'follow the road signs' option. He ended up in a supermarket carpark 🤣 Somehow he still passed but it may have been pity from the examiner.