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

Obvs depends on course and DC but DS isn't taking a printer, I don't think he'll need one of his own.
His airer has arrived today though and I am looking forward to vacuum packing the duvet later, never done that before but I'm told it's very satisfying

Talking about parcels, I’ve been sorting through loads of stuff recently and found all the letters I received at uni - loads of them, from my parents and four siblings, from school friends, from random relatives. One of them from my mum’s cousin mentioned that she’d enclosed scones left over from the church refreshments the night before 😂 She said she’d scraped the jam off them so they didn’t get too soggy!

DS had an online meeting with Surrey Uni disability unit yesterday. I'm afraid I listened in, but didn't get involved at all.
I was seriously impressed by the guy talking to D's - Late 20's . Asked DS how his ADHD & dyslexia affected him ... in his own words. Went thru' his dSA form & asked him about the individualised help & exam mitigations. Asked him whether he had any worries about starting uni. Explained about all the help available in the housing blocks. There's a lot of mental healthcare available if you need it. He told Ds to chase up the equipment after a couple of days. If he needs extra help with the usage he can go over the technical help. They even managed a brief chat on the games they like to play online. So, a very comprehensive 45 mins. chat.
I'd heard from friends prior to this that the level of care in Surrey is impressive but I didn't really believe them!
Dd1 in Bristol had nothing like this
Her vet tutor didn't even meet up with her once the first year. They made arrangements to meet & she never turned up! There was absolutely no care at all. Apart from the vet 'parents' the first few weeks.

I hadn't planned on DD taking a printer as they have them in each block but it was suggested in her DSA assessment that it would be useful so she can print out anything she wanted to read rather than screen due to her dyslexia. It will all be trial and error with DD to see what works best. She has software to read txt out to her, for her to speak and it will type, and even both.

The DSA system at uni is exactly how the world SHOULD be - compared to the battles to get through the SEND systems in schools!

As for printers - our uni print credits were pretty decently priced - I did a lot of printing off of longer articles at uni initially (until covid hit) - but it was all black and white as we never did manage to locate the mystical colour printers somewhere on campus over the course of three years. Depends how well you can engage with on-screen text though - I found that when we moved from the textbooks into more involved journal articles, I really struggle to engage with them on-screen and need to butcher them with notations and highlights and post it notes - so needed to print them out to really understand them - which was a pain during the pandemic lockdowns when I had to do it all at home. One of our staff is also incredibly fond of multiple 60+ handbooks for various assessment requirements which is also a pain in the arse if you like hard copies of stuff.

I did find the combination of an ipad and apple pencil absolutely godly in terms of cutting down the printing bill - I used to print the lecture slides as a pdf and then write on them with the pencil, and kept a lot of textbooks (obtained by various illegal download means) on the device - or I'd screenshot the pages of prep reading from the library e-books, add it into a goodnotes file, and read it that way at my leisure. It kept my printing needs right down. I started a bit of a trend - by the end of the course half the cohort had pencils and iPads on the go (for a while Apple's education store - via Unidays had a deal where you got free airpods if you bought an ipad air and pencil... so all the mature students bought them and gave their kids the free airpods as Christmas gifts that year!)

Durham is brilliant for parcels - the porters take everything in and then text the student to let them know.

It's also another tiny opportunity for pastoral care - one of DS's friends was really unwell - hadn't got up for a couple of days - and the porters noticed she hadn't picked up a parcel/letter and nudged the JCR rep to check up on her.

@NCTDN yes, DD is going to Chichester Uni (Bogna Regis campus). I haven't found the traffic too bad but yes to looooottts of roundabouts 😁Is yours going to Chichester Uni or is it Sussex or Brighton?

Congratulations on all the GCSE results on here too.

omg @crazycrofter that is hilarious about the sones!!! Can you imagine if one of our kids got scones in the post now!
@Cantonet really impressive re the help at Surrey. Light years ago, that’s where I went. Hopefully the chat has put your son & your minds at rest.
DS has heard re accommodation but waiting for arrival times etc. Think it’s around 17th he’ll be going. He’s at Leeds festival this weekend so I’m expecting him home on Monday like a bag of rags…..
He vaguely mentioned to DH about getting a few bits for his room. “Such as?…….” said DH. “Dunno” was the reply….”maybe some lights”!! On that note, any recommendations for non girly string lights or any other suggestions welcome.

I have boring and difficult work to do so naturally leapt at the chance to see how they market fairy lights for boys, was not disappointed 😂

@crazycrofter I love that about the scones.

I've been having a sort out of ds's university bedding for ds2. Boring grey duvet covers and sheets, the actual duvet looks new still so I'm not going to replace it. Mattress topper too. I just need a mattress protector and sheets, no idea where ds1's sheets are, I've had the whole cupboard out...it's a big cupboard too.

I have found a video online that someone made of the halls, I saw ds's flat number on the entrance. The wardrobe looks nice and big, with hanging space and cubby holes. Ds1 only had a small single wardrobe at UEA, so I was pleased to see ds2 will have bigger. That's assuming all rooms are the same. There were 2 shelves in the ensuite with a glass shower cubicle, ds1 had a walk in wet room. There wasn't anywhere to put stuff. So hopefully there will be better storage. The uni video doesn't show it so well. I don't suppose Ds will want to watch it!

When buying a laptop, all the other costs mount up don't they! Does everyone add Office to theirs these days?

Brilliant singing ! Can’t wait to see DS’s face!!😂

Actually piggy most universities have a free Office download code for registered students (they have an institutional licence which allows this).

@Piggywaspushed
here is the info for brum

intranet.birmingham.ac.uk/student/student-hub/solution.aspx?nodeId=3793

@Piggywaspushed I believe students can usually access Office 365 with their uni email address. Haven’t confirmed that yet, but it’s what I found when researching!!

I saw that too but I think it's a slightly different version.

I'll investigate further though.

DD has been working through "induction" emails. She now has an email address accessed by Outlook. Then other information is sent to students on Teams, and the Online Learning Environment, and the Intranet page, and also on the uni's App, and I think I've forgotten another one. (I think that the timetable is viewed on something else?)

I feel that there must be a better way, and can only hope that some of her friends will be on the ball about checking everything!

Anyway, she's found that she has 2.5 days of classes per week and that they start at 10 am, both of which sound very civilised, especially as she'll be living 5 minutes away.

Thanks delphi!

@PhotoDad my DS 2 years into uni has multiple logins, vle's, portals etc. DD has started her online registration and already had at least 3! You'd think someone could invent an all-in-one system!

@singingstones my DD would love those dinosaur lights - any idea where they're from?

Here you go @Seeline

Fairy Light Dinosaurs String Lights with Timer - 3M 20LEDS Dino Light Indoor Night Light Fairy Lights Small Dinosaur Figures Set Children's Room Decoration (Battery-20 Dinos-Remote Control Timer) amzn.eu/d/jeQEvMB

Thank you singing 🦖🦕🦖

Hi all

DS's now done all his online registration, too! And we did the laptop today as well. Things are moving on for all DCs. Tick tock!

DS is doing his registration tomorrow, we have gone to the beach as it's too nice not to. Agree about all the accounts and emails, DS did his entire 6th form studies through Teams so he's a dab hand at that, and used Office365 in the GCSE years for all his BTEC coursework. He seems to be setting up a new account every day at the moment, all his DSA softwares, various apps etc.

I agree, DD knows all about Teams and Office. It's just ALL the others! Accommodation is a completely separate system. Plus she had an email from Student Finance England, confirming dates and amounts of payments, and had to re-set her password, because apparently *.gov.uk websites don't play nicely with Google's "remember my passwords" function.

Setting up Microsoft Authenticator was also... not easy. I think I'm more stressed than she is, though!

@PhotoDad So glad you said that about Microsoft Authenticator. DS was going round in circles as had not come across two factor authentication before and Microsoft kept trying to log itself in with his private email.

Email was finally set up and a quick look taken at optional modules so he can have a think about them. Has left the VLE for another day. Looks as if there is pre-course reading. No room allocation yet. It's all feeling a bit real now!