Thread 38 Covid Cohort, After Results Day

[CinnamonOrangeCremeBrulee]

ALL our children are heroes of their own stories, they have thrived through a once in a century catastrophe and they will succeed

This is a support thread for our young adults post GCSEs 2020, regardless of their educational setting, and their results (life updates for those who went into work or have had results earlier). 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 Sept?

Previous thread

www.mumsnet.com/talk/further_education/4613457-thread-37-covid-cohort-2020-results-thread-heroes-of-their-own-stories

Orange have you got flip flops or crocs for shower?

Dd is really lucky and been allocated en suite. I'm thinking we need to take a new toilet brush and shower curtain as even if they supply them, they could be grotty?

@NCTDN lots of parents take DC for big shop. I think you are in Bristol and you can pick those things up if you need them when you do that.

Well done for all of the excellent GCSE result!

Dd received her accommodation offer yesterday and I'm very relieved it's on campus! It's also reasonably priced and looks decent. It's all feeling very real now. Dd is away for the weekend so I'm getting a little taster. Although I'm pretty much just working all weekend.

We're taking new loo brushes, hadn't thought about buying a new shower curtain!

I’m worried ds won’t have any smart clothes to wear for sixth form a week on Wed 😬 I told him I wouldn’t be able to take him shopping next week but we can get stuff online. He said ‘Mum, duh, I have legs you know! I don’t need you to take me’ 😂 We do really need him at home for all the heavy lifting next week though, we we’re moving ourselves. And once we’re moved he’s promised he will do the transition work, which will take him at least three days!

Yikes @crazycrofter how smart does he have to be? DS's 6th form was smart casual so he was kitted out from Next.

Oh yes apparently the shower rooms are really grim. I'm quite impressed Dd determined to give it all a go actually. She can be quite precious sometimes.

it used to be suits/jacket and tie but they’ve just relaxed it a bit so he doesn’t necessarily need a jacket. To be honest it’s a bit confusing as they’ve made it unisex so there’s just a list of things they can wear on top and bottom. So it says ‘shirt and tie’ as one top option - so I assume he can’t just wear a shirt. But then he could wear a smart jumper as that’s an option, or a blouse!

Its tricky not knowing anyone going there as he can’t ask what others will be wearing!

Congratulations on all the GCSE results!

We've made some progress: DD has had an enrolment email but has yet to receive confirmation of which hall she'll be in. We've made a start on kitchen things and a few bits to make her room homely, but I'm holding fire on bedding and saucepans until we know which hall she has. I wish they'd hurry up as I am a control freak like to be organised.

That is tricky @crazycrofter the only thing I can think of to suggest is perusing their social media. Shirt and tie is pretty unlikely I would have thought, DS had to wear suit with tie for formal events but most men seem to wear an open collar with their suits nowadays. DS lived in navy chinos and polo type shirts, or could get away with smart tee shirts (as in ironed, thick fabric, no logos, no wonky hems, no stains or holes). They were not allowed hoodies but the school made an exception for their y11 leavers hoodies - virtually everyone came up through the school and had them but they were only in navy or pale blue, no standout coloours. I bought him a plain grey sweatshirt to wear with the polo shirts too.

Does anyone here use HP Instant Ink with a printer? DS has an HP printer as part of his DSA and it has 6 months free ink subscription, but it feels like yet another account to set up and address to change at the end of the year (which would be easy to forget if the ink comes automatically rather than you ordering it), but on the other hand convenient when it works. No idea how much printing he’ll do though.

I have the Instant Ink subscription - it works well for us. You set the level of subscription according to how much printing you tend to do. We've got the lowest one and it suits our family (most printing is done by our two DC for school work, as neither DH nor I wfh).

Does the ink literally just turn up in the post @HarrietDVane ? Or do they email you and say its coming. I can just imagine DS running out of ink because he’s left the address where he was the previous year or similar.

@EquallyDivided Do you get money back for ink as part of the DSA package? Just asking as DD will do (up to £180 a year for ink/paper I think) but to claim it she has to email them the receipts each year etc. Will a subscription make that harder to do?

I'm not sure @Heifer I'll have to look into that. It is the printer itself that says 6 months free Instant Ink (probably pegged at the lowest level). I have to say although DSA has been a breeze compared to EHCP and PIP in terms of getting it agreed, actually sorting it all out has been pretty complicated and given the nature of DS's LDs beyond him without a lot of help from me.

We have the instant ink cheapest package. It works out really well. Ink just arrives in the post and you can a free post envelope to send back the empty cartridges for recycling

We have an Epson printer with refillable cartridges and ink bottles so have never looked into Instant Ink before. I’m just worried the cartridges will turn up at the place he was living the previous year as it would be easy to forget to update the address.

@Heifer it doesn’t look as though DS will get help with ink/paper costs from DSA, but I don’t anticipate him using huge amounts of either. I have bought him a ream of paper.

I love out instant ink subscription. It's very flexible. You get a rollover of pages not printed each month (actual number dependent on package used), it's relatively inexpensive to use extra pages if required, and it's really easy to change the package if you're busing extra regularly or not using all the allowance. I often up the numbers for exam periods for printing past papers etc and then put it back down afterwards.

But yes - you would need to remember to change your address.

I've just been looking at it on the HP website. I'll get him to sign up. We need to open up the printer and connect it to the laptop etc anyway.

I was wondering how they all get their parcels. In my uni days we would certainly have had plenty of letters and I think the flats had pigeonholes but pre online shopping parcels would have been few and far between, I guess they are set up for a constant flood of online orders nowadays.

Birmingham has something on their info about not taking in parcels and students have to rearrange couriers. This is v different form DS1's accommodation who had a porter desk type thing and stored parcels.

I got so fed up with our succession of inkjet printers, the ink is expensive and I've never found a reliable one, that I bought a laser printer. A bit more expensive but not too bad from Argos (£110). It's very basic - mono, wired, doesn't scan, just prints. But it's so much quicker and less hassle. Anything that really needs to be colour I will get done in a shop. Plus I can make pdfs on my phone instead of scanning.

DS's halls will not take in parcels either but the postie delivers to each block plus they have Amazon lockers and other lockers for other couriers to use, apparently.

We hadn't even considered a printer! Our attempts to print out DD's A-level Art coursework essay, which needed good quality colour, on our home printer were an exercise in frustration several times over so we've assumed she'll use the uni's printing facilities (she ended up printing the final version at school). I think that's a good assumption? Obviously different for people writing lots of essays.

(Did you know that Art A-level requires an essay? DD's was 4000 words, plus bibliography!)

pdfs on a phone is a total gamechanger isn't it, our old printer was all singing all dancing with a feeder scanner which was absolutely invaluable in the days when I was getting DS's EHCP and scanning masses of reports in. Now I just do it all on my phone, the only tricky thing is getting good light without a shadow of a phone on it.

My dd1 had a printer for a design degree and never used it as the department printers were so much better. My DS didn’t want to take one as he says he didn’t need to print anything - wrote his essays in Word and emailed them off. I would hold off getting them a printer until they are at uni as it might be a waste of money. They may never want one.