University 2020 :9: And they're off, making hay while the sun shines.

[MillicentMartha]

New thread, trying to be upbeat!

Old thread www.mumsnet.com/Talk/higher_education/3996883-University-2020-8-Use-the-CAGs-don-t-use-the-CAGs?pg=40

DS is at St Andrews where they have only had 39 confirmed cases of covid so far, several of which were contracted outside Fife.. The students moved in at the beginning of September, so have been there 6 weeks.

They have managed this control of the spread by really tough rules and lock-downs. I don't know whether it is worth it as it is impossible to stop people coming and going a bit, so if catching it does give you immunity, it seems like it might have been a better strategy to stick the students in a massive party with no vulnerable people around and let them get it over and done with - as Leeds and Nottingham appear to have done!

Totally agree monkey. It's surely inevitable to spread amongst students so while they are all 90% online, let them all get it with no risk to their lecturers.

@specialted lovely circuit laundry. Not bad reviews from DD re the laundry. Clothes do not come out sopping wet which is good, despite the expense. DD house is quite close to the main Grizedale hub where the picnic tables are, and the music was coming from that direction in the middle of the night. She said it woke up the whole flat.

No covid to report either, shes had sinus issues (she sometimes get sinus problems at times) and that was since Thursday and has improved over the past few days.

After freshers week, with some of the lectures and courses all clashing with others in her house, Saturday night seems to be the best night for the house as a night out. This week comprised of work, library, cards and games in the flat in the evenings. The plan was to keep the Saturday nights free for the house to go out, but with Boris's statement tomorrow, shes not sure which way its going to go.

Well, ds is still locked down until Friday (county)! Not sure if he is going to emerge to post apocalyptic campus with everything off limits..
He has plenty of.food I hope still unless he let it all go off without cooking it, and several jigsaws and star wars monopoly for socialising with. Only one other person has tested positive of 12. Some of the others have convinced they had it before in march april so no point getting tests.
Ds has a lovely view from his window of a large oak tree.

I suspect the sound of a party in thethe distance is a break in the monotony.

Quite a few of his flatmates were he said avoiding him so as not.to get it. A bit awkward.

There is Covid in residence at dgds but they do not inform u of how many but dgds flat clear because they keep to themselves pretty much. They socialise outside in garden in their bubbles but they go out as a flat group on Fridays and Saturdays only and socialise in their flat otherwise. They don't have anyone else in their flat. They know of 3 flats isolating through grapevine and they were party flats holding parties in their flats and going to other flats.

@Nettleskeins hope he gets out soon. sounds like the flat is holding it together quite well. It is awkward to avoid the one whos got covid, they are your friend, but best course of action to keep covid contained. Boris is giving his speech in the commons at 3.30pm so will know more then. was hoping to come and visit and drop a care package off a week on friday, but thats looking unlikely now.

So if Boris announces no travel
In or out of red zones that means no chance of seeing DD until Christmas even assuming they relax it for that.,.and no chance of her seeing her boyfriend. It's bloody outrageous in my opinion!

I gave ds a large dose of vitamin d before he left. Im hoping this has had something to do with his very very mild (no sore throat, no headache, no temp) presentation.
Just to remind anyone that if your child didnt get much sun, outdoor exercise (ds didnt really unless you count a bit of bicycling in anorak and jeans/helmet) this summer, they may need a vitamin d top up to get them through this coming winter. Ds1 had what we think was covid at his uni in late jan, and it was a much nastier presentation, fever, sore throat cough for ages. He is always low on vit d, we have to keep reminding him since he tested deficient aged 17

Justbto clarify, DS2 is the one who has just joined Lancaster! Ds1 is in his third year elsewhere.

Tinky, I am assuming that "reasonable excuse"'a la cummings, will.still play out, even in a red zone restriction. So a mental health reason for leaving, or just plain moving house, and then moving back again...all these will be valid reasons. And it will be guidance not law. How will they enforce it??

Manchester uni case numbers seem to be reducing, thankfully. Graph from their website. I hope it'll mean some resumption of F2F teaching at some point, but I'm not holding my breath.

That’s very encouraging Millicent

That is very interesting Millicent. Does it mean that it has "burned through" student population much faster than through the other, obviously more socially distanced adults and hierarchical households with small kids and adults. Meaning the northern figures will go down after a bit, but it wont be because of the lockdown at all, but just because there isnt the same "fuel" in form of susceptible students. Im not a statiscian though.

Hello to all, and especially to fellow MNers with freshers at Lancaster.

Popped in to catch up on the HE threads again as some of you were very helpful at the time of the results and securing places.

Waving to all Lancaster mums - and there seem to be quite a few of us with DC there.

So - our story: DS1 went off to Lancaster to read Geography as a BSc with one year abroad. He's in a 13 person flat in County College, in the main building, also overlooking the oak tree (it's the college symbol).

We were really pleased with the accommodation. He got his second choice even though he went to Lancaster as an insurance offer. When we moved him in it was much much nicer than I had thought it would be.

Some of them in his flat had covid symptoms last week and got tested - results were positive. He felt mildly ill so had a test on Thursday and result was positive.

They are being good about their isolation - he's been very, very lucky, his flat all seem to like each other very much and have become like a family unit very quickly. He managed to get a food delivery from Asda which came on Saturday. He sent us a joke photo of a bag of Pot Noodles and lager cans pretending that was all he'd got so he's obviously staying cheery.

Like another poster above, I'm slightly irritated about the post situation there. Effectively, they can't get their post at all as they are isolating and can't collect it. DS1 says they can ask for anything urgent to be delivered. However, I'm sure they'd all like to have treats/books/new pants sent from home to cheer them up, and there's no point us sending stuff if he can't get it.

He was having a very good experience up until now. Had some face to face sessions as well as online lectures, and was enjoying having fun with his new flat mate gang.

From what I hear from him and see here, the virus really seems to have taken hold there. I hope none of them get it badly - most seem to be ok so far. Let's hope it can be managed through the campus community and they can go back to in person classes and activities soon.

Sending best wishes to the lovely parents on this thread - you were a great resource and support in August/September. Good to see so many of you still knocking around, I'll come along more often now I know we can share current experiences.

@Nettleskeins I very much hope that's the case, that most have now had it, some asymptomatically, but the decrease might be students now not bothering to get tested because they don't want to isolate. TBH I think the majority of students are more community minded than that, though. So hopefully it's a real decrease. There are 40,000 students at UoM so only ~4% of students have tested positive so far, with probably far more without symptoms.

@WellWoman, welcome back. Lancaster cases don't seem as high as at Manchester and Nottingham as yet, but I'm sure they aren't far behind.

Thanks @MillicentMartha. I'm having a lovely catch up reading back on this thread. Great to hear everyone's DC's experiences (I should be doing some work though).

@Nettleskeins my daughter also read that vit D is good for you and shes been having vitamin tablets and also a yoghurt every day. Our DD2, we think had this in jan as well as myself. We was coughing which lasted about 3 weeks. DD2 friend got tested in June and they said shes already had covid-19 and the only thing she can pin any kind of 'ill history' was back in January.

We also had a virus in June 2019 also and we think this was one of the other comomon coronavirus's about like h1n1 or something. The June 2019 one was so bad we have to have paramedics out for DD2, and she came out with a strange rash. And I couldnt go up the stairs for being out of breath and kept coughing so hard, seriously I needed tena. That took 3 weeks to get coughing to stop, and a further month to feel back to some kind of normal.

@WellWoman Hi welcome, Lancaster mum too :) www.lancaster.ac.uk/accommodation/covid-19/# there is a form they can fill in to have essential parcels delivered but not sure how that works out though. Daughters fortunate her group of 12 are close knit. I dont think its a case of 'if'now, but 'when' they catch it. they have been stockpiling on bits. pic below are DD1 tins.

I checked in with DS an hour or so ago, inspired by all the Lancaster Uni news here. He confirms that there is no way they can leave the flat, unless they are smokers (!)

He's very chirpy, despite everything. He is trying really hard to budget carefully, which of course we've been encouraging, swapping ideas with him for cheap meals. He now thinks £7 for the washing service is a lot of money. I reminded him that when our machine was not working for a few days last year while our technician was waiting for a part I had a couple of service washes at a launderette near us (central London) that cost £16 each. He was horrified but it did help persuade him that it might be worth having a load of washing done. I sincerely hope he does, he's no soap dodger but boy did his bedroom get stinky some days, which I guess is just hormone related, he'll need to keep on top of it.

On Vitamin D - yes, it has been shown in some studies to be really beneficial in minimising impact of viruses including Covid 19. There is some good info on the CV threads on here. We were all taking it anyway, as we did last autumn/winter after GP advised DS2 to take and I did a bit of research and thought we'd all benefit. DS1 asked me to stock him up with Vits C and D and zinc to take to Lancaster and has already topped up with more Vit C on his Asda delivery. (Flatmates probably think he's totally square, or whatever they say for that these days but I was very pleased some of what I say about nutrition has penetrated.)

@sammyjoanne - I see the Sainsburys bag in your pic - that free bus ride must have been like catnip for them, DS was delighted to save the £2.40 return fare!

That was before he had to isolate of course..

@WellWoman oh yes the sainsburys run on a Wednesday really does help. I heard about that,not being able to go outside unless your smoke when self isolating. its a bit rubbish. The least they can do is to stand by the building somewhere within reason and away from others.

All being well Lancaster stays in tier 2. Nottinghamshire is in tier 2 (and the councillors and mayors have not objected to the level grading) which means we can go up a week on friday, and give her drop her care package off outside her townhouse, and we can go for a walk round williamson park, and morecambe sea front and canal path, as its all outside :)

DS1 has been using the Sainsbury’s bus too . Saw him yesterday to pass over his birthday cards and presents. Not ideal but there’s worse things. His flatmates have got him some chocolates which is lovely and they all seem to get on really well. We’ve FaceTimed and he sounds happy, despite five hours of lectures on his birthday.

How ridiculous that non-smokers aren’t allowed outside even under similar conditions 😠. Hope all the affected students around the country are doing okay.

@sammyjoanne - you are lucky to be going up, hope you can see your DC at both unis. Lancaster is a very long way for us. To much for a one day drive there and back unless an emergency or we can both go and share driving. Not too bad on the train and I might try to get up next month and take DS out for lunch in town as day trip.

I have had to come to terms with the fact that I want to see him more than he wants or needs to see me and step back from trying to mummy him. A bit hard as he had a lot of problems about a year ago, and really did need us then. BUT I am so, so glad he is happy and striking out on his own. He does tell me he misses me, but I also get clear signals to leave him to get on with it for now. I'm trying to respect that....

DS in hall lockdown in Bristol has tested positive. He feels totally fine at the moment. Still has to lock down for 14 days.