UEA (2019) dealing with the unexpected and on to 2nd Year

[juicy0]

New thread for the parents of 2019 freshers. Thank you all for sticking around!
At the start of the year we never would have guessed the topics that are currently being discussed in this page but I'm grateful we still have each other to help navigate our way through this with our DC.
With the emptying of 1st year rooms seemingly on hold for many until the end of lockdown our thoughts will soon turn to 2nd year accommodation and whether term is likely to start as normal in September.

Ds left about 3.30pm. With his little Corsa packed full. I thought he said 4 housemates had already moved in last weekend, but it was only 2 of them. Three are moving in today and the last tomorrow. Though ds was off to stay with his gf later, she's cooking him dinner. I'm sure he will have a good time.

I did say if he doesn't like any of it, the course or whatever he doesn't have to stay. After reading that email I don't know what goes on in his head. I said it doesn't matter how much has been spent on the course I'd rather he was happy. I also said he could stay in Norwich and get a job instead if he preferred. But he said the course is fine. He's more worried about not liking the house, the downstairs bedroom or his housemates etc. I said if he really doesn't like it we'd have to advertise him room to let. and he can come home. But I'm sure he will be fine. It'll be good for him to be with people his age, see his gf etc. He will be back Friday morn. so I don't have long to wait to hear about it all.

I messaged ds earlier to ask whether his furniture had arrived for his bedroom. He's just messaged no. There was meant to be a bedside table, chest of drawers and wardrobe delivered during the last week ☹️

As I said @icanbewhatiwant, I would tell him to advise the landlord and letting agency that he's withholding a % of rent until he has a 'proper student room' with the legally required bits of furniture! I do think the letting agents and some landlords take the 'P' with students.

@NewModelArmyMayhem18 thanks. I've messaged ds and apparently the landlord is building it today. Then taking it to ds tomorrow plus building the wardrobe in the bedroom. Watch this space!

Oh, that's exciting! New furniture is always a plus in a student let. Sounds as if the landlord is a good one!

Ds also messaged this eve. to say the bedding I sent doesn't fit. I sent double.. it's a king size bed 🤷‍♀️

His room really must be large to have a king-size bed in it and still room for additional furniture @icanbewhatiwant.

@NewModelArmyMayhem18 yes it would have been a second living room. I haven't seen it but he showed me a photo. It has double patio doors and a big fireplace. He's hoping the wardrobe will go against the hatch into the kitchen. Hopefully the landlord will turn up today to build it.
Funny we have had an Ikea delivery today too. I'm not a fan of Ikea but ds2 and ds3 wanted white Ikea for their rooms. They both needed new desks, they were delivered at 6.55am this morn.
So I'll be building ds3's desk today. Ds2 wants to build his own. I also have ds3 off school with a cold. It's been making its way through the whole year group. I know several have had their dc's covid tested with negative results. But I'm positive he's just got a cold, he's almost better but I thought I'd rather keep him off one day so he rests, than send him in and risk him picking something else up or as he's tired he could get worse. If it wasn't for this virus he'd have gone in. He's not missed a day off school in 2 years. I hope ds1 didn't take it with him to his new house! He didn't show any sign of it anyway.

Well...due to a problem with my Ikea delivery I had to drive to the Norwich Ikea today. So I couldn't resist calling in on ds. The landlord was there putting the wardrobe together. Ds's room was ok not as big as I thought and packed with furniture. It's a squeeze getting through his bedroom door round the wardrobe, but at least it's covering the hatch into the kitchen. Next to the wardrobe is a piano, which ds doesn't really need. The chest of drawers was just in the middle of the room not sure where it was going to be put. Then on the back wall there are the patio doors into quite a nice garden. To the left of the patio doors there was an oval claw foot dining table. Ds told me he doesn't want it he'd rather have a desk. The landlord said the previous student liked the table because he could cover it in books. Then the fireplace was on the next wall and his bed on the back wall. The floor space wasn't much with 3 of us in there. Minus the piano and dining table it would be better. It's quite a big house. The old car is there to stay too, it belongs to the landlords son. A big old Volvo. The landlord used to live there but has now downsized along the same road.
I'm sure once the landlord has finished they will all have a move round of ds's furniture he might work it out better.
That was probably all useless information for you all to read 😂 I need to get out more!

@icanbewhatiwant how did you resist moving the furniture around to make more space 😂
The piano might come in handy for a sing along with housemates if we get out into lockdown again 😉
DD started pre season netball today and is planning to move into her house on Saturday. It's been wonderful to have her home for 6 months and I'm going to really miss her but I really hope, for all our DC sake, that they can enjoy this term.
Still no timetable as far as I know and they were due on 7th sept 🤷‍♀️ it's making it very hard for Dd to commit to her part time job when she has no idea what regular hours she can do. If the uea say all teaching is online until January I think that will be it, DD will be gutted.

@juicy0 yes had the landlord not been there trying to get the door on the new wardrobe I might have been tempted to have a move round 🤣

Yes...I wish their timetables would be given out soon. It'll be interesting to see if there will be any contact time. I think ds has been told lectures will all be online. But he's hoping for lab time. He said his gf is only online (English)

If anyone is interested and would like to help, someone has set up a petition on Change.org regarding the double priced rooms.

Not sure how to link (or if allowed) but if you search 'Stop university of East Anglia demanding us to pay the rent of two people' it should come up

Good news here. DS has had email confirmation that he passed his resubmitted piece of work so has successfully passed the year. A big relief. Hopefully it will be a bit of a kick up the rear end to make him realise he needs to seek help from Learning Support if he is struggling, and that he has to but the effort in. His next challenge is to try to fix up a placement for this year, but hasn't been able to until now as he wants to do this in a school. He has an existing and recent DBS in connection with his summer job, but a new setting will undoubtedly need a fresh one of their own so that could also be a problem as they are taking a while to come through.

Great news GoldenRuby

@GoldenRuby yes. Great news.

@UEAparent2020 I hope you all manage to get the fees reduced.

Thank you @sluj and @icanbewhatiwant .

Great news @GoldenRuby

@GoldenRuby great news,

My DS finds out on Thursday if he has passed his resits, must say I'm feeling rather anxious.
We did the big move in to his house today, it's been a long day.
It's a long way from Somerset to Norwich, I had to drop the dog off first in Wiltshire, then go to our storage unit in Bedfordshire, then go to Norwich.
Luckily some friends helped and met us with a van at our storage unit.
DS said he wanted his double bed in his house, they have a garage where he can store the single bed from the house, when we got there his room was smaller than he remembered, only just room for a double, but them we discovered we'd left a bit of the double bed behind!
Left him with the the double mattress on the floor, will decide what to do tomorrow.
The house is really good, very clean and good furniture and its massive, really large kitchen diner loads of storage and another room with extra fridges washing machine tumble dryer etc very nice garden, I was really impressed.
There are 8 of them, so 8 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, and a sitting room, not too far from uni.
DS was excited but also a bit overwhelmed, he was very sad saying goodbye to the dog as he doesn't know when he'll see him again ( the dog flys to Canada in 10 days).
Just praying it all comes together with his results, the stakes are high!

Well done to your DS @GoldenRuby and good luck to your DS2 for Thursday @Itscoldouthere. His student house sounds lovely. You had a bit of a 'round the houses' type of trip didn't you? Hope you are having a relaxing day today?

@UEAparent2020 glad that the impacted students (and parents) are galvanised to try to get a reduction on the 'shared but not' Ziggs accommodation. It doesn't seem very 'UEA' TBQH but I guess times are hard and they're potentially trying to claw back as much lost income as possible. It's not an excuse though.

@Itscoldouthere good luck to ds for thurs 🤞 You certainly had a long trip. At least the weather was good.

Hopefully they will do something. Would be better if they didn't try to pass on the whole impact of their decision to the students!

Good luck to everyone returning this week. Son is off Sunday, its a 3 1/2 hour drive so going to be a long and tiring day!

Thanks everyone. @Itscoldouthere fingers crossed for your DS on Thursday. That house sounds fab! The location of DS's is on a somewhat colourful street. Lots of kids playing out on the street but a 10 year old did approach DS on his way back laden down from Aldi and asked him for a can of beer!

@icanbewhatiwant

You mentioned your DS's gf was not on campus last year - do you know how she got her student id card? My friend whose son didn't get accommodation has no idea what they are supposed to do - they haven't been given any instructions

thanks in advance

Don't they get the student card on the registration day? Whether or not they live on campus they will need to turn up on the registration day to trigger the finance payment, get the campus card and the free goody bags. We did this in the sports hall on the day DS moved in and it was all set up with different desks. If you are not moving in on campus, they will need to ask which day to register so as not to miss out.

@sluj

They've been given no information at all of what to do!