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

@AnneOfCleavage DS got the what3words app for Explorers they were doing treasure hunts with it and I thought it would be a good idea for us all to have it. We can all see each other on FindMyIphone (some MNers would throw their hands up in horror) but like you I find it handy to check eg if DH has left work yet, I also like that the DCs can see where we are if they need to. I rarely check on them, no need, but it's useful occasionally eg if we are trying to find each other in a large shopping centre.

@Cantonet with ds I find he almost has to learn by his own mistakes. He can’t anticipate things otherwise, he just maintains everything will be fine and ignores my advice - and then learns by experience that, for example, staying up all night results in a migraine! 😬 Hopefully your ds2 will learn that being late for work isn’t great!

I tell you what, the more I read about it I am convinced DH has ADHD but he's having none of it. He is EXACTLY the same in the failure to anticipate consequences of any actions, I'm the opposite and it causes a lot of tension between us.

DD is having another go at ADHD meds at the minute, fingers crossed for her.

It’s so frustrating isn’t it @EspeciallyDeIighted . And ds is very non-conformist, so unless he can clearly see/has experienced the consequences of an action, he won’t obey a rule. I’ve lost count of the number of times he’s said to me ‘it won’t matter if I do x/don’t complete y/wear a etc because no one cares!’ and then finds that actually, yes, there are consequences to doing that thing! He had three suspensions from school for doing things that I’d warned him would get him into trouble 😩😩

So for example last year I had left my work laptop on the kitchen table with the lid down. Came in and found DH sitting there chatting to his mate on the phone and with a full glass of wine sitting on my laptop (there was lots of empty space on the table but the laptop was right in front of him). The first thing I see is a laptop ruined because of a spilt glass of wine and me owing my IT department £500. Him - but I wasn't going to knock it over, what's the problem. This sort of thing over and over.

Good luck to her @volterra. I’m afraid ds gave the new meds he was trying about a week before throwing them out the window 😩 (I did retrieve them from the road before someone found and sold them!)

Ugh yes @EspeciallyDeIighted that’s very familiar! Ds would also be adamant he wasn’t going to spill it - but he’s so clumsy, he probably then would!

DS1 has spilt coffee all over a laptop twice .

We are leaving him on charge of a house, 2 cats, doors and keys , electronics and an essay he must not fail in in a week....

DH isn't clumsy but our cats do jump up onto tables etc so spills can happen. Of course he's right that it was very unlikely but to me the consequences are severe enough that it's not worth the risk. It also means that he is forever leaving things out so someone moves them or putting them away in the wrong place and wondering why he can't find them.

Thanks @crazycrofter . Attempt 1 was a disaster! Trying to get student finance sorted for them both. Neither DS or DD can log in. When DD could last week there was nowhere for her to upload the form. I can login but the ‘upload supporting evidence’ link the guy said should be there isn’t. DS has had letter saying that both DH and I need to fill our supporting evidence but DH’s account says there is nothing he has to do and he doesn’t actually remember doing it 🥺

Also DS has just realised he has missed the deadline for Bath accommodation now as tried when first opened for a good few days and kept crashing then wasn’t well and forgot and I was busy with move and also forgot. He has just emailed extenuating circumstances form so I shall ring in the morning anonymously to work out what happens next. His meds have now been increased so hoping he will feel better by end of September, have seen improvement I think on higher dose.

Good luck with that @Piggywaspushed !

Oh dear @Volterra , too much happening all at once, something was bound to slip through the net. Hope you get finance and accommodation sorted and ds continues to improve health-wise.

Oh no Volterra! Accommodation is so stressful.

He walked out of his job today @Crazycrofter 🤦🏼‍♀️. It was only the third week.
He said it was an awful job - washing up for 6 hours straight. But he was fine last week. I think not going to bed at 6 am was the main factor. Plus as the youngest he's totally spoilt & irresponsible 😡

Oh dear @Cantonet 😩I’m not sure I’d be up for six hours of washing up after no sleep either but it’s a shame he hasn’t connected the two things 😬 My ds is desperate for a job (he’s 16 in two weeks) and has grand plans for how many hours a week he’ll work, but I’m dubious about the idea of him getting up early on a Sat and doing tedious work! We’ll see! He never rouses before 1 on a Saturday at the moment…

@Piggywaspushed totally our fault! Wonder if we plead 3 funerals, housemove, probate problems and illness if they will be sympathetic?! Onwards and upwards. DH has spent all afternoon on it but we think student finance will have all the info now - as long as Royal Mail deliver it all as DD can’t upload her form.

Poor Cantonet and Volterra (agree that with too much going on something had to slip).

Ring them tomorrow Volterra? They should be able to easily sort the fact dd can't upload her form, I mean come on?!

@Oblomov22 hers is in the post now as is a hard copy of my financial details for DS and a copy of that uploaded to DH's account. I suspect will need to ring them again but will give a few days. They do at least have confirmation from her university that she is resitting the year so that is something.

@EspeciallyDeIighted I had to read that twice about dh and the laptop. I thought you meant dh was sitting on the laptop with a glass of wine 😂 I was thinking why would you sit on a table, on a laptop. Made me laugh at my misreading.

@Volterra, you can email your evidence to student finance and as long as you put your student number in the subject line they are able to sort it. Check on their website though. I am sure we ended up sending our evidence in the post because they wanted to see real ID.

I hadn’t realised that, thank you @BlueMarigold.We’ve never had a problem with the previous 4 years with DD’s application but I guess it never was going to be straightforward with her interruption of studies. I did think DS’s would be OK. I still don’t understand how they can email me to ask me to support his application then not have his account linked to his account !

Gearing myself up to ring Bath’s accommodation office this morning. In better news we are moving next week. Our sale hasn’t gone through and have had to start again with new buyers but are in the very fortunate position of being able to move anyway so am getting out of here. After the year it has been so far I feel the need to be as far away as possible and am really looking forward to moving back near home, hopefully a new start for us all 🙂

@Volterra I hope the move goes well x

Thank you 🙂