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

DD had an idea she’d come home after two weeks, told to DH not me. By the time she mentioned it to me she was no longer sure - I’ve said I’ll never stop her coming home, but I think two weeks is a pretty bad idea. Ideally, though it’d be sad for me on a selfish note, she’d not want to come home midterm. She has two of her core friendship group staying home this year, so she might come home for them.

Taking her up there, I kind of want to do it in a day, but it’s nearly three hours each way. I hate the idea of being in a hotel while she’s half a mile away in her flat, so if we stay over I’d rather do it the night before she moves in - fortunately she’s going to the far less expensive of her two options, including for hotels!

But I don’t really know how long it’s all going to take. It’s a long time since I did it, plus I travelled mid-week by train with my parents delivering more stuff at the weekend, so quite different.

Ds is hoping to come home once a month or do to meet up with his band mates/rehearse. I strongly suspect however that they will end up going to the city half way in between our home city and Leeds where two of his band mates are going to be studying.

his very good friend is taking a year out.

I have a similar dilemma @DontCallMeBaby, 3 hrs each way on a good day. DS's arrival slot is early afternoon so we are planning to drive up, have lunch, unload, bit of unpacking so I can take some boxes and bags back, supermarket shop and then home. It's a long day though.

Dd will be two hours away by car but around 4 hours by train, and that doesn't include getting to and from the station. So I suspect I'll be going to Lancaster more often than she'll be coming home during term time. She moves in on 1st October so I'm thinking sometime at the end of October/beginning of November for a visit. Nothing planned and I haven't discussed it with her yet though. I would also like to take my grandad to visit her, he is terminally ill but currently very well, so I may end up with a couple of visits close together.

Of course she has her boyfriend to consider as well, I may be wrong but I think that will all peter out fairly quickly and will probably be a case of out of sight, out of mind for dd (it's a very recent thing, and she's a bit like that anyway).

I feel the accommodation allocation has worked well for dd at Lancaster even though it was her insurance choice. She was invited to apply in June and had to choose her top 2, which specified college and room type (not all room types are available in each college) and also include additional information and state what her priority was (she put cost). They guarantee accommodation for all first years but not necessarily on campus. She waited a bit longer than those who had Lancaster as their firm choice to hear but has actually been allocated her first choice, and it appears from wiwikau that others have had the same result. She doesn't know her room number yet so not able to connect with flatmates, but I'm sure I read somewhere they would find out closer to the time. There's a facebook page for freshers to connect with others from their course/accommodation and it seems like lots of instagram/snapchat group chats are being set up, dd hasn't had a chance to look at it properly yet.

Piggy, the Birmingham accommodation allocation seems to have upset a lot of people.
It would have made more sense for the uni to allocate, based on profiles the students gave when they picked their 6 choices.
Giving timed slots to reduce a surge on the site was a bit pointless - when DD was trying to choose, whole types of accommodation disappeared before she could select it.
She was lucky, in that she was eventually allocated a room via student services, in conjunction with the disability team, otherwise she would have missed out on the Vale completely and had a very expensive place in Selly Oak.

So far, she knows she’s one of 3 girls and one boy, but he could easily be the only boy!

At Leeds Conservatoire Ds was sent a list of rooms across the different halls and asked to put them in order of preference from 1-6.

After sending in disability evidence he was allowed to fill in the form a few days before everyone else. The accommodation then allocated rooms and everyone was informed a few weeks later.

Yes , don't think Birmingham has quite got this right this year...

We didn't visit DS when he started uni, and he didn't come home until Christmas - covid!
I think DD will definitely need visiting - not as confident as her brother, and doesn't make friends easily. Whilst she's only around 130 miles away, the drive to Norwich can take 4 hours plus so definitely not just popping up the road! I think it's probably best we visit, rather than she come home too soon though.

We know move in is on 18/9, but as yet no time slot, so don't know whether to drive up the day before, or come home the day after! Sunday move-in is a bit of a pain as shoos won't necessarily be open if we've forgotten anything.

She's made contact with 7 flatmates so far - not sure of flat size, but probably 12.

Ds1 is at Bath & hotels etc are ridiculously expensive. We’ve never stayed overnight. I went for the day in the October half term after he started but he had lectures so just saw him for dinner.

Hopefully I can get organised & visit both ds’s for a weekend this year but might not be until the spring term.

Frustrating morning here, remember in the middle of A levels DS’s course was cancelled and he was switched to another one? I did vent in here. Anyway, I suddenly remembered we needed to update Student Finance, so at first the site seemed to be down, tried again later, it let us in but the new course is not listed under the choices available so “DS” (me using his email address) has had to email the uni admissions department to find out what to do. Dire warnings on the SFE page about changes taking 40 days to process.

@Alsoplayspiccolo in answer to your question, yes DSA funds equipment and services so you submit evidence for that to them

You can permit sharing of evidence with the Uni which we did but they still asked for further evidence of how the disabilities impacted study and exam taking so we sent copies of EHCP and exam concessions for each child

Forgive me if I’m not understanding you correctly, you talk of the DSA report but I haven’t seen you mention the follow up email regarding the actual award which then links you to your supplier for ordering purposes? has your DC received the award email to begin ordering things? It should have been within 10 days of the report

I suspect she has, Tomnook, but she’s hopeless at checking emails and even more hopeless at telling us what they say!
Shes coming back from Reading today so I’ll make her show me everything.

Her SENCo emailed me this morning to say that she definitely sent all her supporting evidence to the uni, so I’m not sure where the confusion is.

We will be 4-5 hours drive away, and 5-6 by train.Really need the moving in slot because we definitely need to stay 1 night, and I’m guessing hotels will get booked up. Still don’t know what to do about kitchen equipment. It would make more sense to be allocated 1 or 2 pans etc, but as they aren’t, I’m trying to figure out what is most useful, there is also this ridiculously cheap offer at Argos, so might just be best to go with that. I have some plates etc, but I had some work done on my kitchen a few months ago and decluttered without a thought for what was coming. I always do that!
I think I will visit once this term by train , and she can do as she likes. She has a railcard.

Zebra, you could buy and return witching the 30 day returns policy if needed?

@Decorhate Yes, they are ridiculously priced. DH and I have been a few weekends over the last ten years as we have such good memories of the City but it's not one to do on a whim.

We did the offer holder day in one day on the train as the cheapest hotel we could find was £300!!! It was exhausting to be honest and I don't fancy it much. On WIWIKAU a poster recommended a pub/hotel a few miles out but an easy bus ride into the city, which we plan to try sometime. Link below if you're interested, great if going by car but not to great by train I'd say.
www.theroseandcrownbath.com/en-GB

Also Teachers discounts can be quite good sometimes
www.discountsforteachers.co.uk/

Yes I’ve seen that place recommended before. Looks nice

We plan to try it out in October so will let you know!

@ealingwestmum . left it too late, it’s out of stock!

For those of you with dc at Bath, I spent 3 days at the Macdonald Spa hotel in March for a crazily cheap price. It was lovely, might be worth putting an alert on the website we used which was called something like Spa breaks. My super organised friend did the hard work so Im a little hazy on specifics, and she’s away atm. Was great tho.

Spaseekers.com

DS has mentioned coming home after two weeks as there's a sports club event. I've just said decide nearer the time. It's a bit early but I'm crossing everything he gets into a sports team (he should do as they have a few) so he has Saturday fixtures.

I'm suffering today all, I went to a local festival yesterday and walked for miles. Sacked off one of the main acts for an Oasis tribute band and Ska band, danced a lot. Ate something dodgy and paid for it overnight. Can't move from sofa today. Dd thought I was drunk (she'd buggered off for most of day with BF) I wasn't ..
and am most aggrieved I'm suffering.

Re: Bath the Travelodge can sometimes be very reasonable BUT you have to book a year in advance or something silly. The Bathampton Arms is nice to eat too.
I stayed at the McDonald @Zebracat for my 40th and it cost me lots ! Well done you ...I like their outside heated pool bit.

Ds1 was only 40 mins drive away. So it was always easy to go to see him if I wanted. But actually we didn't see him between sept. drop off and him coming home for Christmas. Then he went back in Jan and we didn't see him again until the March when he came home due to covid. I know ds2 won't want to see us either. But for his 18th last year he wanted tickets to see Harry Hill in Ipswich, that is in November. So he will have to come home for that. He's not keen on the train as he's never been far by train. But he will have to work it out, I'm not driving all the way to Sussex to collect him. I can see myself and dh going to watch Harry Hill 🤣

@OrangeCinnamonCroissant I hope you feel better soon.

@Zebracat i booked a few different nights individually on booking.com and when we got the date through for moving in I cancelled all the ones we didn't need.