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

@crazycrofter Thanks for the heads up on the Hone Bargains bags!
I legged in this morning with DD and she’s grabbed one of each colour way- really impressed with the size and of course the price!

Has anyone going to Birmingham tried to use their email? DS needs to authenticate various tings (eg Unidays) and isn't get any of the authentication email through to his uni email address.

I am not sure how far my DD has got with this. We have sorted payment for accommodation but I don’t know what else she has left to do.

We haven't done that bit yet!

Interested to hear the views on DSA laptops, DS has gone with the HP upgrade for £78 extra, DD is still waiting to order so still considering a Mac which is what her home computer has been for the last 3 years

we’ve been told it’s 10 days lead time so should be done for start of term hopefully

We went into Home Bargains today, they only had Mickey Mouse or Spider-Man bags, not sure DS would have been too impressed so didn’t get any sadly.

DD upgraded the DSA laptop to a Mac as she was used to using them at school for music especially using with Logic for composition and the laptop needs to last for her 4 year course. Thankfully she got the upgrade paid for from a grant from a music group she attends. She’s had 2 hours of the 6 training hours provided by DSA on the computer and programs so far but needs her academic email address to download Office which she hasn’t got yet so waiting for that first before using the rest of the training hours as some of the DSA programs work on Office.

Thanks for whoever posted about printer paper, I checked and DD has that too and looks like you just upload a receipt to claim it back. The printer is staying in the box till DD moves in (it’s a Canon one).

My dc's always use google docs to do online work. Ds1 did his biology degree not needing anything more. His laptop didn't have office or anything on it when he bought direct from HP. I think the one we just bought dc2 has libre but he told me he didn't need it putting on. But it's included in the price from our local place.

Has anyone taken mac book air 256 or 512 upgrade this year for DSA?

When my DS did this he wasn’t an Apple boy for phone etc but android and used a gaming pc so laptop was HP or Lenovo but DD uses a very old mac of mine 10 plus years old that is dying plus has iPhone so mac would be better. ….

Supplier sent us standard info and when I go on their website can not work out if the prices I see include the £200 contribution or I need to add it? ( if I have to add it’s more than JLewis)

256gb £990
512 £1250

What are other people paying or have paid?

can DD have the software printer etc and not take the laptop and buy it from John Lewis

@PaddingtonPaddington we have the printer on the dsa offer plus the paper and ink budget.

Being able to read on paper rather than screen very important for a lot of dyslexics

You need to log on once to set it up - then sometimes when it has a technical gremlin and forgets you - same as the normal subscription 365 Office (where it periodically develops amnesia on me).

Teams - you just download separately and again, log in with your uni credentials. The one that drove me mildly insane during remote learning was having to log into our VLE constantly as it would log you out after 15 minutes - so you'd log in, set yourself up watching a lecture, go to get the next one in the list to work through - and find it had logged you out... about 90 times a day!

One thing that tripped me up when the pandemic hit was that I had Sonocent audio notetaker as part of my DSA (it runs recordings of your lecture alongside your powerpoint files) and, while it worked well on my Mac going to lectures and recording off the microphone... the Mac version didn't, at the time I was using it, have the facility to record from your device's sound output when everything went online - so I gradually moved away from using it and ended up with a combination of Goodnotes and Agenda that worked for my particular uses.

As for laptop deals - get registered for unidays when you can do - and have a look - from what I recall usually there are deals going with Apple (these are usually just free AirPods though), HP, Lenovo and Dell via them.

Thanks!

We can't get on to Unidays because he can't verify using his university email, which is annoying.

@Fruitygal i just checked for DD and the MacBook Air 256gb upgrade was £891 which included the £200 contribution.

Yep you can have the software and your own laptop you provide - just need to make sure you meet the DSA laptop specs (I was asked to provide a spec sheet before my DSA needs assessment meeting). As for MacBooks... I may have managed to kill my beloved Pro the other day with a coffee related accident and had to pay £1200 to replace it with another base model 256 storage. I have a fairly large iCloud storage though, plus OneDrive so even hoarding lots of image files, lecture notes and the like - I've never come near filling that level of storage up!

I'm picky about my tech so I bought my own machine for them to put the software onto - chap came out to the house and just did the install of it all onto the machine. Think I got Audio Notetaker, Read and Write Gold (which I used probably the most), Dragon Dictation (I just use the Mac speech to text) and Medincle which adds loads of medical terminology to your autocorrect dictionaries. Plus a microphone (used for about a week before I just used the on-board mics) and a battery pack and headset.

Thanks @PaddingtonPaddington

Piggy, DD hasn’t done anything to do with Birmingham, other than register and sort accommodation.

Those with DSA, was it all done through DSA assessment, or did your DC have to send any kind of supporting info/evidence to the uni?
When DD was trying to sort out accommodation, because she has been recommended an en suite as part of her DSA assessment, the disability support department at the uni told her she needs to send them all her supporting evidence (over and above the DSA report).
I thought the whole point of DSA was that they had your application and then used that to carry out an assessment of need, which was then forwarded to the uni for approval.

As things stand, DD has a report with over £5k worth of equipment etc recommended but hasn’t heard anything further - I’m panicking that she won’t have any of it in place before she moves in 3 weeks’ time.

I wouldn’t have thought their uni emails addreeses have been activated yet? I don’t think dd has one but she’s away at the mo so not checking emails. I assumed they’d do all that sort of admin once they got there? Dd has a MacBook so will take that with her. You can’t use Office on MacBooks anyway can you?

DSA is only about academic support, anything supporting accommodation needs etc is through the uni, also exam access arrangements. DS's uni asked us to submit all his disability supporting documentation when he applied and then advised us on how to proceed for DSA, they have also asked if it can be shared to staff who will be teaching him so they are aware that he might need eg things explained bit by bit rather than all at once in group or practical work.

I've talked to DS about PC vs Mac again tonight, he wants to stick with the Windows laptop despite having an iphone and ipad as he's never actually used a Mac and is used to PCs at school and doesn't want more delays now. He managed fine between his Ipad and school PCs before so hopefully can again.

@Alsoplayspiccolo you should have had details of where to order it all from, perhaps chase up the DSA assessor on Tuesday for the info.

They were very keen for them to get uni emails for Birmingham. We only wanted to use it because Amazon Prime is cheaper before September 15th...

@Alsoplayspiccolo We have had to supply supporting evidence to DSA and Uni for both DC

DS is a little ahead of DD in ordering as his situation at the moment is less complicated on paper (needs more diagnosis)

DD will be ordering after the bank holiday and also has to set up her Taxi account that is provided by DSA

@Piggywaspushed Prime student is free for six months. And then £4.49 a month after. There doesn’t seem to be a time limit to joining up as far as I can see?

I’ve just realised this is one of the many offers I could actually sign up for myself using my ac.Uk email address! I know some colleagues have NUS cards and every offer going, but I’ve resisted so far as it doesn’t seem right!

Thanks, EquallyDivided and Tomnooktoldmeto.
We hadn’t been told anything about uni needing anything previously, so I’m going to have to get onto it.

This might be a stupid question but who actually funds the equipment?

It's £39 if you sign up before 15 September.

DS has his Bath uni email all set up.

Hasn’t done anything else yet though.

@Alsoplayspiccolo if you applied for DSA fairly early on each uni 1st and 2nd choice sent emails requesting both diagnostic assessment of the SEN and the DSA report back in May and early June. Worth checking back on the emails.