Thread 36 - Covid Cohort from GCSE 2020 - The Final Countdown to Results Day for Some?

[CinnamonOrangeCremeBrulee]

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

Article from The Times today about budgetting.

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/ff8403d8-1974-11ed-b1f4-627a202c7457?shareToken=0a2423ba815779587ddb7932ef71084e

I am taking a half day from work tomorrow as I have quite a lot of leave and all DS's DSA stuff is arriving so the plan is to spend the afternoon checking out the laptop and software, booking the training he gets for the software then doing some budget and admin stuff. He has decided to go with the Nationwide student account as he already banks with them and Martin Lewis recommends it but needs to set up a separate account, a Monzo or similar as this article suggests, I think its important to have a backup card in case you lose one. Also needs to set up Apple pay.

Congratulations comefromaway. Nice to have it all confirmed.
sorry your DH is being stubborn singing - I agree with others who suggested calling the hospital yourself.(I find that sometimes just the threat of me taking action is enough to get DH moving).

I think everyone is beyond stressed now - yesterday DD announced that she no longer thinks biology went well!

It is different in Scotland though - AH's are done by the creme de la creme. Students can leave and gain uni places after Highers. Students who progress to the AH's are at the top end of ability, on the whole.

@Fiddlersgreen thanks ! Still under the age JUST 😂 by a couple of months but they are doing them early to keep up after covid so not saying no.

@EquallyDivided DD keeping hsbc as easier but heard Nationwide was good. Both DSs used no overdraft after first year - DS2 tried to keep up with the divorced parents crew kids in the first year and ended up with one but paid it off in summer with a job and realised he didn’t want to go there again.

Divorced parents crew kids are the ones where daddy earns £150-250k but ran off with PA, tennis coach or other young thing. Child lives with mum who’s working p/t so gets full loan then Daddy bungs them £150-200 per week and pays for accommodation so have full loan plus cash. These kids will eat out most days and just buy new clothes when they need washing 😂😂😂 I kid you not! DS2 went to a non flashy uni but you find a fair few in every uni.

DS2 still friends with a few and has a crazy best friend who’s more down to earth and they are close mates even after uni which is great.

Congratulations @Comefromaway! That's great news!

I am afraid my parents pulled that stunt when I went to uni (grant days) although my dad earned nothing like that amount . They fibbed about where he lived (with my mum , on and off, at the time), to my eternal shame. That said, my mum did bugger off to the US the next year and my dad never gave me a single penny anyway, so...

DH's dad did something even more audacious, given they definitely were not divorced and his wife only left him when we were in PGCE year!!

So much coercive control around finances...

Ha ha @Fruitygal DD had HSBC student ac and avoided the overdraft until y3. She also struggled to keep up with some pals at Durham. The winter/summer balls there were £80 a ticket for students!!! I know they are optional but who wants to be left out?

Congratulations @Comefromaway : what lovely news :-)

Congrats to comefromaway’s DS.

I hardly slept last night tossing and turning and worrying about various scenarios. One of which was DS wanting to beg his firm to take him even though he didn’t get the grades and then would end up as the struggler on the course.

DS’s firm will not budge on grades I’m pretty sure although his insurance is in clearing so fingers crossed. And who knows what the grades which actually come out as bearing in mind all the recent press and analysis.

interestingly, as his insurance he chose the BEng rather than the MEng as it had lower grades and you can swap across after year 2. In clearing the BEng and the MEng have the same grade requirement, could he just ask to go straight in the MEng on that basis? would he do that before accepting the place?

I can’t wait for Thursday to be over even though I am dreading it.

@Benjispruce4 DD is fingers crossed for Durham (bad covid during exams so who knows) what did your DD study? - the balls at unis are expensive but she’s put some money aside to pay for the expensive events as boys experience has given her a lot of tips on what to budget for.

I saw something on WIWIKAU that implied that if you get better grades than expected, you can “shop around on clearing” without losing your current offer. I really feel like this is incorrect information. I believe there was something available in previous years called Adjustment but we can’t do that this year. On the ucas page it says you have to decline your current offer before going into clearing.

@Piggywaspushed my favourite was a few years ago when a large multi birth family who my DC was friends with one of them and I was on chatting terms with mum suddenly their kid announced they were divorcing he moved out. She applied and got full grant for all siblings as mum alone?!?! A year later in summer DS asks me to drop him off there and the Dad’s car on drive. Clearly a Strategic decision ….

@Fruitygal she did Anthropology and loved it. Just got a first and a good job in London so it all worked out. She loved Durham.

@Fruitygal happy to help with any questions if needed. It’s a lovely city and she/we felt she was safe there.

Morning all! A couple of days left. UCAS has sent an email, DS says, that explains all the processes again to them. Hub (formerly Track) opens at 8.15 and and when they log on they will see a countdown timer (web socket) that tells them when their app has been updated. I guess this is to try to stop all the page refreshing!

@tryingmybest13 that’s a much better idea. Thanks.

Congrats to your DS @Comefromaway , fab news!

When I was at uni we had a couple of students in my year who were on full grants but their dads owned their own architectural practices (decent sized ones) with creative accountants. They would come in flashing new expensive watches every month or two, new clothes all the time, out partying etc. It made me a bit cross I must say as I got a very small grant as both my parents earned literally just over the limit and were on PAYE so no fiddling the figures. Most of us were living on discount food and wearing our clothes to death so it was quite galling!

I had my first anxiety dreams last night, kept waking all night in a panic, feel awful this morning and need to go and see a new client.😞

I actually slept deeply last night as it was slightly cooler. Still no rain though!
DD and I had a chat late last night and she said she was a bit stressed. Her bf is away this week( I think it makes Thursday simpler actually) but she’s missing his support and getting in to York affects them both as he is at Leeds. It’s far enough away to have their own lives but close enough to meet up. So I think she’ll look at other courses at York rather than other universities if it doesn’t go to plan on 18th.

DS has no emails of any description from UCAS/

@Piggywaspushed I think it came yesterday pm but some of mates have it and some don't. It is just a general one with fact sheet links
@Benjispruce4 The relationship is another thing for your DD to navigate. Sure it will work out but more stress!

DS spoke to me about results yesterday. His take his that he has no control over it since he took the exams so although nervous re his uni , not going to be stressed.

I'm not a regular MN poster but I remember previous threads for this because DD is in the same cohort and is now anxious about her results on Thursday. Biology had been going OK until paper 3 (OCR). She didn't think that went at all well. And she won't speculate on maths (Edexcel) or physics (AQA). I'm trying to keep her calm and have been telling her that there will always be other options IF she doesn't get the results she wants but I'm stressing for her too (albeit in private 😬)

Roll on Thursday and they can all start doing something about it. It feels like we're in limbo at the moment.

Fingers crossed for everyone's DC

Nor does DD, unless they've arrived overnight (she has yet to emerge from her room!).

I can't remember who is doing the mattress topper trial but look forward to getting your results :-)

@MummaMinnie Good luck! DS had some trouble with AQA Physics paper 2 and simply can't call it either. Maths: some trouble with paper 3 (mechanics, which he is normally fine with: tired brain freeze), so he is unsure even though other papers went fine. I think they do tend to focus on the bits that they did not do as well on!

@272Newnames , DS is another Bath person. Kind of similar situation as applied for MMath at bath but insurance is BSc at Cardiff and I think at last look the MMath is also in clearing and that asking to do the MMath had occurred to me. I think and don’t know that if they get their insurance then it would just automatically update as accepted by insurance and would have to ring to ask to change but I have absolutely no idea really.

Welcome @MummaMinnie , the more the merrier and fingers crossed for your DD.