End of Year 13: Results, Summer and plans for September and onwards

[Rollergirl11]

Noticed the current thread is almost full so thought I better start a new one for discussing results day and our DC’s plans for uni/gap years or anything else!

So DS did much better in his GCSE’s than we anticipated so we are all very happy. However he only got a 4 for Maths and he needs a 5 at his sixth form otherwise has to re-sit. He was only 1 mark away from a 5 so we are going for a review to see if the extra mark can be found.

Feeling relieved that everything is fine now. I don’t think I realised how tense I was! 😂

That’s good @Rollergirl11 and all the best with the review.

DD is being her usual laconic self when asked anything - either that or she explodes. Pretty sure she is really overwhelmed.

Glad she isn’t going til later next month- will leave the Ikea trip etc for a bit for her to get her head round everything. I’m not working tomorrow so we are going shopping for sports wear as she’s hoping to up her fitness game at uni.

Trying to persuade her also that having a few things from home might be comforting and better than buying new of everything 😁

@Rollergirl11 - glad your ds achieved well and I hope an extra mark can be found so he can avoid the resit. At least extra marks are easier to achieve in something like maths than for say English. Fingers crossed.

That's great news @Rollergirl11 - fingers crossed for the extra mark.

DS headed off for Leeds Fest today...rainy this morning, cleared this afternoon, but very strong winds & rain predicted from 5am. Hoping his tent is well secured!

Well done to your DS @Rollergirl11. Hope the maths review pushes his grade up..

Congrats QueenMabby and Rollergirl on GCSE grades.

DD has gone to London to meet up with 2 girls she was at primary with who are also off to university end of the summer.

Enjoy the Bank Holiday weekend everyone!

It's pouring with rain here. DH is taking DS up to Lancaster today to do a visit. He did open day and then an interview there but as it wasn't his firm or insurance he didn't retain much info about the place and nor did they get a decent look at the city so up they go again. Hope the weather's not terrible all day!

Hope the weather improves for them QueenMabby. It's raining in Scotland too! We've been visiting my DD but are going to stop in Glasgow on the way home to check out exactly where DS's Hall is, since are more or less passing.
My Facebook memories tell me that 8 years ago today we were doing DD's IKEA trip. DS's is planned for Tuesday- all seems very real now, then I'll be a full blown empty nester. Very mixed feelings to be honest!

DD is attempting to register online with Bristol which is proving to be a complete pain. She has found some people who will be in her flat (once she can actually live there!)

DS is registered, done his online induction for his accommodation and booked his arrival slot now. He's going on his birthday, so we'll book a nice restaurant for a meal before we leave him and I'll get a birthday cake for him to share with his flatmates that evening - hopefully that will be a bit of an icebreaker!

@QueenMabby hope the trip went well to Lancaster :)

DD1, shes not really heard a peep from Manchester apart from her supervisor. With it being a phd, I dont think the unis much send a lot as regards to fresher for postgrads, but I imagine she will hear soon on the enrolling and setting up an email. DD2 has almost finished on the enrolling. The zoo biology lot are still struggling to access the animal unit task, hopefully they can sort out the technical issue. DD2 boyfriend is coming to ours on Tuesday, His college starts early september and they move to the studio 6th of September. DD2 Freshers starts 13th of September. Has booked a 6 event pass, and has chosen 4 so far. a Quiz night, Trentival (festival on clifton campus), Drag bingo, and an open air cinema in the city.

DD's birthday is not long after she starts Bristol - her's is the 20th September. Will feel weird not seeing her on her birthday.

She's found many different group chats of different people she may or may not ever meet including one where people have all been putting pictures of their pets 😀

Exciting to hear about enrolment news and plans for settling the dc in. Ds (London uni) is hoping to hear where he'll be living this week. He's just uploading ID and other admin bits. Getting very real now.

It's a bit easier for us as we live in London so don't need to worry about changing doctors, dentist etc and can make trips into town with any bits we've forgotten. Hoping ds hasn't missed anything re; student finance as he can be scatty.

News on this front is that we have made progress.

DD eventually agreed to a request for her grade in Art to be remunerated.

She submitted lots of evidence to Sussex as to why she needs a certain type of accommodation and to be on campus due to disability reasons. They came through on Sunday evening with an offer for the halls she'd requested. PHEW.

She's going to a transition day there later this week, and is joining online groups to meet people.

Her boyfriend broke up with her yesterday so that was great timing (!!) - he had a lot of anxiety about moving to further ed himself and doing a vocational course that is 40 hours per week and he has no money so will need to get a job, and with that and the distance wasn't sure how they'd see each other. Fortunately DD after the initial upset seems fine about it, she knows realistically it's better she can just focus on university, and she would have had to have been the one doing most of the travelling to see him anyway due to his lack of free time and money. I think it's for the best, but it's been a lot of change in terms of expectations v reality for her in the past few weeks (she's autistic) and I'm impressed with how she's coping.

@MirandaWest I love the idea of a group chat where they all put pictures of their pets!

Autocorrect Typo: remoderated, not remunerated. Although it would be great if she could get money from the exam board

If I'm remembering your story correctly @WriterOfWrongs, that's great that your DD is on board with Sussex now and has been given the accommodation she needs. Bad news / good news about the boyfriend, better a clean break than dragging on I guess. She can just concentrate on herself and her uni experience.

Thanks @stoneysongs She got on board with Sussex the next day after exam results for pragmatic reasons, but didn't want to think or talk about it too much until she knew her accomodation. She'd had to apply to be on the waiting list and there was an outside chance she'd end up not on campus... Luckily the housing dept pulled through. Now she knows where she's living and she had her online meeting with disability support and has her support plan in place, all the stressful important admin has been done, it's all locked in and she can get excited.

We're going to do her Ikea shop at the weekend - her now ex bf was going to come and stay so this will be a good distraction.

That all sounds positive @WriterOfWrongs - even the break up in a strange kind of way. I know that school relationships can survive going to different Universities* *but it's rare and often just add extra stress. My DD still had a boyfriend at home (he opted for an apprenticeship) when she went away and I was glad when they split up. He was a nice lad and if they'd stayed in the same place it might have worked long term, but they were living different lives, in different places and it became a strain. I think it delayed DD settling as she was always coming back to see him or he was going there but not wanting to socialise with her new friends. So harsh as it may seem, I think a clean break before University is probably not a bad thing.
Good news on the accommodation front. Hopefully she's now looking forward to an exciting new start.

Sussex for me is one of those unis a bit like Lancaster and Aberystwyth, everyone I see talking about their experience there seems to have loved it. DS was umming and aahing over it for a while, but ultimately too much of a pain to get to from here unfortunately.

An eventful few days @WriterOfWrongs ! Onward and upward.

Lovely to hear your update @WriterOfWrongs; glad your DD can finally get excited about it all and her everything seems to have fallen in to place. Sorry to hear about her break-up but echo what others say that probably a blessing in disguise.

DD got her 1st choice accommodation and has booked her 30 min moving in slot for 14th September so feeling very real now. She also had an hour long teams call with the wellbeing team. They have opened a learning plan for her and have given her all the usual access arrangements as well as unlimited deadline extensions. She can also opt out of things like spoken presentations if she wants to. Basically anything that spikes her anxiety she can choose not to do. DD said that she does want to challenge herself which I was very proud of. They also said that DSA will cover things like 20 private therapy sessions so we are going to look in to that.

She has joined lots of groups for her subject and accommodation and is speaking to quite a few people on Snapchat so I think she is feeling less nervous about it all. We went to IKEA and Dunelm today to do the big shop so feeling pretty on top of it all.

DD and her boyfriend are going to give long distance a go. It is a bit of a concern for me on two fronts; one that she won’t immerse herself fully in to student life because of BF and two that if/when they split up it triggers a relapse for her that she will have to negotiate without me on hand. Only time will tell and I guess both of us need to get used to the idea of DD being less reliant on me and navigating the ups and downs that life inevitably throws at her herself.

We did our IKEA trip yesterday, along with half the freshers in the North by the looks of things! It was quite amusing hearing the various parent/student arguments discussions and lots of us were sharing sympathetic looks over the cutlery display.
We took elder DS along too and he proved quite useful, telling me what out of the stuff I bought him he uses every day and what is still in the packet 2 years later.
I treated myself to a new wok too...I know how to live!😂

Thanks all x

I treated myself to a new wok too...I know how to live!😂

@MrsAvocet wok n’ roll

sorry, couldn’t resist

DD and I went to Dunelm and Tesco today and got various uni things. Think we’re getting there 😃

Wok day here too! I'm just realising how far away a 5 hr drive is. Be lucky if we see ds again before xmas, I think. I hope it all lives up to his expectations