University life for our soon to be Year 2 undergrads (2019 intake): social bubbles (bursting?), the new normal and hopefully no second wave

[NewModelArmyMayhem18]

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@Shimy DS not done anything worthy although he is doing some of the MN 'earn £10 a day' thread type activities (and has earned £1K in a month or so). I do keep telling him he needs to 'pull his finger out' with some 'enriching' activities during his second year. Time will tell whether he will or not.

DD is shielding and her CFS means that she sleeps most of the time, so she hasn't been working, but has been very creative when she is awake enough - sewing, embroidery, drawing and painting. And cooking of course. She is an excellent cook.

New £1K a month! I don’t know the MN thread you’re talking about but, well done him. DS did a week’s virtual work experience, that’s about it.

Gin your DD sounds VERY creative and talented. With talents like that she will never be short of a bob or two if she sells any of her work.

She has also been doing henna tattoos on herself and on my hand. She certainly doesn't get her creativity from me.

DD had an internship in Africa that was cancelled due to Covid. Now working night shift stacking shelves at a supermarket. Bit of a different summer than planned.

My DS has been working in a factory, useful experience to understand why he is studying and going to university - he says he's never worked so hard and been so bored in his life. . That was a fixed contract and next week he is back to his riverside pub job which he loved last summer.

Interestingly @Ragwort when my SIL was 15 she wanted to leave school immediately (in the 1960s you culd leave school at 15). MIL got her a part time job working in a pub kitchen (I think). After a few weekd SIL said how much she hated it. MIL told her that this was the kind of job she could expect to have if she didn't finish her education. It worked, and SIL stayed on and took her O levels.

My DS has been working as a TA in a local primary school and is doing stints on their summer sports camp. He has really enjoyed it

Just worth checking on the uni website - ours are making masks in the limited face to face teaching compulsory for next year. It's not been publicised to students - but buried in an FAQ page on the website (they've not bothered to tell disability support services, mental health support service, or the teaching staff yet either) - I'm working to get clarification on it for mask exempt people but if students aren't expecting it (we'd been told they'd be needed to move around congested areas of campus only) it might be an unanticipated change. I only found out because I was procastinating faffing about scrolling around the site.

Accommodation update : annoying girl ahs signed her release form , but the two other house sharers are procrastinating about signing it, too, as they are terrified no replacement will be found and they become liable. I have told DS to tell them no replacement will ever be found if they don't sign it....

The woman who expressed interest via FB told me her DS contacted lettings agency and they said the room was not available. Fuming. This was apparently because, at that point, the girl had not signed the form. Now she has , the woman (fed up of me no doubt) is ignoring me on FB and the lettings agency want the lad's email!

Wail!

Oh God @Piggywaspushed Those letting agencies are terrible in my DDs experience. Their current landlady is dealing with them directly. She is like a second mum

Lettings agents are a pain but that’s probably why property owners hire them. It makes the landlords seem kinder.

Ragwort Did your DS work in the factory throughout lockdown?

@Newmodelarmy, what is this magic money making thread? My DS has not managed to find any work. Too many furloughed staff, and anyone hiring wants people who are around beyond September.

This thread tells you all you need to know - some of the jobs are quite boring but others much more interesting, @simbobs

@Piggywaspushed your experience with the letting agent just bears out my thinking that all they're interested in is collecting the money owed and nothing more. How frustrating.

So three could bail out leaving the fourth in the doo doo - what's to stop them all from bailing out?

Well, yes, nothing really! We have asked this. The lettings agent basically said they would all still be responsible for paying. But, again, what if one/two/three/four don't!

Mine is working in distribution centre, moving boxes from one lorry to another for a supermarket. Definitely not the useful internship he had planned but he is earning some money and gives him some structure to his week.

@New thanks for that link. I don’t know how I missed that thread. What a shame!

Thanks for the link. Wish we had known about it sooner.

@Shimy it may be more like £1K in six weeks to two months (the time is passing so quickly he's probably been doing it longer than I think!) but anyway, there is some money to be made doing it, particularly if you're tech-savvy and motivated, @simbobs.

@NewModelArmyMayhem18 That’s still really good money. I’ve shown it to DS and he has registered on a couple. Even I’m going to give it a punt! I’m reasonably tech savy ;)

DD has been volunteering at our local covid-19 support hub until it finished a couple of weeks ago.
It was lots of work for her sourcing what was needed to go in the food packages and finding the cheapest place to get it from, but she enjoyed it.

shimy, no, he just worked for a fixed four week contract in the factory. Earned good money for that. Prior to that he set up his own car wash business with some success didn't wash my car though . He's at his pub job induction training today, he loved that job last summer, fabulous riverside pub in a tourist area - very laid back and lots of young people working there.

Well done to all those DC who have found jobs. I have one DD whose exams were postponed until the first day of term! So her summer has been wrecked! The other has done a couple of virtual internships, talks etc. and been applying for jobs/opportunities with varying success.
I’m just wondering if any of you have had any practical information from any of your unis about 1.How freshers are going to be brought onto site/inducted ie anything practical about how SD/masks are going to work in reality? DD2 is a Freshers rep and the guidance we have received about groups of 6, each 2m apart doesn’t really seem feasible!

1. The format of the “face-to-face” teaching? Again, is this supposed to be groups of 6, each 2m apart?
2. These “gatherings “ of up to 30 - is each person supposed to be 2m apart??!!!
3. When 2 student households (max in household = 6?) meet are the 2 household supposed to be 2m apart?

One of my DDs has been told there will be zero face- to-face in semester 1 - she is devastated. The other we just got referred to the government guidelines so I literally have no idea what is going to happen Does anyone know anything?

Hello everyone
it's been an age since I last came on the thread, but have just caught up with the last couple of months... glad to see everyone is generally ok,.. apart from house stuff.. sympathies @Piggywaspushed
that's why I popped in really... ds2 doesn't have any accommodation organised and I'm fretting.. him not so much..
so in case anyone remembers.. both of my sons went to uni last year..
DS1 is doing Economics at loughborough. everything seems to be going well for him. He has a house share with 5 others for this year and he got a 1st in his end of year exams.really pleased for him.
DS2 is having a much harder time. he's at Durham studying Theo Physics but wants to transfer onto nat sciences maths with physics for yr 2.. I think this is very unlikely as he has to get 60% in the exams, and he completely and totally went to pieces. Had horrific anxiety and depression and we had to get the uni and gp involved. This has been hovering around for a couple of years since he was diagnosed with Keratoconus (which is a corneal disease ) and has had a couple of rounds of eye surgery already. On top of that, he didn't organise a house share, and has no where to go.. We emailed the uni to ask for assistance months ago and they're been generally rubbish in providing any kind of information. Plus its not easy for us to sort out as we live on the south coast, about 6.5 hours drive each way..I'm worried about him tbh and am not looking forward to August tbh am worried that we'll have upset in the lead up to results .. who am I kidding, we'll definitely have stress and upset in the lead up to 18th..
Has everyone else with DC at Durham got housing sorted?