University 2020 :5: Results day approaching and beyond

[MillicentMartha]

Old thread
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/higher_education/3855474-University-2020-4-The-wait-for-grades-and-better-days-ahead?pg=40

Less than 3 months to go until we have a better idea what the future has in store for our DC. Let’s hope that even if most lectures are online that accommodation is open and they can move up, across or down to their university towns and start their student life.

We should have been in the middle of exams, instead we have this strange limbo of lockdown. It could have been worse, though.

So DD has had another lovely email from Exeter.
I hadn’t appreciated the significance of this, but it’s a campus uni with lots of open space and sheltered outdoor areas - lots of trees!! The uni is planning on capitalising on this and running as many of the freshers events as they can outdoors. So happy DD is hoping for a better freshers experience than had seemed possible a few weeks ago.

errrorofjudgement

Good to hear, do you live far from Exeter?
We're about an hour away, but nothing could persuade my DC to live that close to home. Bah

Well I'm not going to stop posting when I choose just because of some schoolgirl accusation about last word!

Also, I wasn't aware that my post was directed to you or indeed to any specific poster .

Railing repeating what I said, and said politely, is hardly bullying, even I don't tend to dole out virtual flowers a lot. IPerhaps compare and contrast the tone and language of other posters, which is downright rude. I know a good deal about educational matters, over a long period of time, (and I don't mean merely from the perspective of a parent), and tend to know how things pan out in real school life. This has nothing to do with anything Ofqual does or doesn't say - Ofqual is busy minimising the teacher input in any event, so it's of ever diminishing importance, our opposing view! You are also a single teacher - you can't speak for all teachers and SLTs everywhere.

Manchester is definitely less green, sadly. Though there are a few courtyards. Shame he didn’t go for Nottingham with its gorgeous parkland now!

That should say even if I don't tend to dole out a lot.

@JugglingFromHereToThere ooooo brass bands restarting??? I'm a brass banding person as is DS so that would be so cool

@thesunwillout - we’re only a couple of hours away.

But we had the same issue with DS2, he refused to look at Bath as it’s our local city and felt it would be too close to home. But instead chose Warwick which I think has a very similar feel, but was a nightmare on public transport from us.
Actually thinking about it, DSs both received but ultimately rejected their Bristol offers once they realised it’s only around 40 minutes away by train!

I am very hopeful for musical groups starting up (my youngest has had her county orchestra summer camp cancelled and I did wonder why they couldn’t do small groups...). Yes to outside things and for Exeter emailing to say that. I think more of that can-do optimism would have helped reassure more students. Prob too late now for some smaller unis unless they have big campaigns ready for clearing.

But you seem to enjoy arguing and upsetting everyone so much, goodbye. Who am I to spoil your enjoyment? The irony of your posts about bullying isn’t lost, either. You won’t get any flowers from me, though. And your views are just that, the views of one parent who happens to have rather more than the average amount of offspring and are rather less worthy of note than those of the teachers on here. Unless you are now a teacher as well? Or perhaps you were a school governor once, like me?

errorofjudgement that’s so good! Dd has had similar from Southampton (though via their freshers groups not official) ... they have a lot of space & will be trying to run as much as possible out doors. It really cheered her up.

The uni is planning on capitalising on this and running as many of the freshers events as they can outdoors.

That's really good to hear and I hope others will follow suit.

Ah, we had similar! DS1 rejected Bristol and Bath as too close to extended family. He went to Warwick which was a pain to get to by train and the coach took a scenic route, more than twice as long as driving.

DS3 still has Birmingham as insurance and that’s only 40 minutes by train, a bit close for comfort for him. Manchester is much further away, but DS1 lives there now, so at least I can kill two birds with one stone.

@torydeathdrug Southampton is where DS1 went. It’s not actually a campus but I think it has a real campus feel with all the main uni buildings and SU along one road, his freshers accomodation was about a 5 minute walk, or 2 minute cycle ride downhill to lectures. The halls were very much like a campus as they were set in their own grounds. Plus because it isn’t actually a campus, there’s masses of student housing available within walking distance for second years onwards.

@MillicentMartha Why is Warwick so flipping difficult to get to !
DS has graduated now but still lives locally along with many of his uni friends.

Millicent I would know far less about education than I do if I had no formal experience beyond that of having had eight DC go through the system (although, to be fair, that's well in excess of one hundred school years as a parent, so I would have hoped to have picked up a few things from that too).

Also, I'm not clear that I've upset anyone and I do always remain completely polite and don't use shouty words or accuse other posters of holding views which are 'disgusting'. Maybe just read back over some of your own posts Millicent.

(Also, as an aside, where did I say anyone was bullying? I don't think I did say that did I? I complained about rudeness and aggression, but I think that was it. Happy to be corrected though).

I blame Beeching!

Moving on again! I just shared our very successful cooking rota strategy on the GCSE thread. Our household have each been cooking dinner 1 day a week Monday to Friday, started with DS preparing for university, but now all in, including 16 year old DS2. DS1 can make take away quality curries (BRILLIANT recipe book forum Aldi) as well as chilli, Nasi Goreng, various fish recipes. So if self catered will not be living on peanut butter wraps (was a real possibility!)

DS3 has started a once weekly cooking session. Started fairly simply with a tomato sauce for pasta, which was lovely! He’s borderline dyspraxic so he needs some practice cutting onions. I think a sharper knife might help. I’ve just bought him a student cook book written by the ‘Grub on a grant’ writer Cas Clarke which has lots of basic instructions (like how to poach an egg) on top of some nice recipes. It’s a bit dated so he’s got a more modern cook book as well.

We are trying green roasting tin here (although y1 is hopefully halls for dd)

Catered halls, Newgirls? I thought that would be a good idea for DS but despite not being much of a cook, he was determined he wanted self catered. I thought plenty of time for that in second and third year.

The roasting tin cook books look nice! I’ve just bought DS a small enamel casserole tin.

I’m taking notes for next year! We’re trying to teach my DS cooking but it’s gone a bit to pit (sorry ) as we’re both working and sometimes just need to throw something together quickly. You’ve got me thinking that I should get him going again on it, especially now he’s not got much going on (job hunting for his gap year- even his driving theory has been cancelled !)

Pun fell flat due to autocorrect 😆

My DD is not bad at cooking so I'm not worried about that aspect of her living away from home. It's more the cleaning I worry about as she is so messy 🤦‍♀️

For anyone with DC hoping to go to Warwick they have updated their 2020/21 accommodation prices.

They've not opened accommodation yet but are obviously in the process of doing it because there are new pages that have appeared.