Study in the time of COVID-19 (2019/20 intake): lockdown restrictions, relaxation of rules and repeat... And will the Grinch government cancel Christmas?

[NewModelArmyMayhem18]

Carrying on from our previous thread.

I believe these threads have probably been running since the summer/autumn of when our DC were about to start/in Year 13 (so 2018)?

Shimy that’s great news. That’s the first placement I have heard that has been awarded. Hopefully the first of many! Dd still looking.

Zanda Wishing her all the very best. It’s very for the, hard balancing online learning, plus coursework with searching for a placement. DS has been holed up in his room juggling everything since September so it couldn’t have ended in a better way.

Good news @shimy. Would you mind sharing whether he got the placement through uni contacts or entirely by himself?

That’s great news @Shimy Ds has just started applying for placements. One has come up in our town which would be fantastic if he got it. Fingers crossed.

By himself via indeed.co.uk

Fingers crossed for your DS Decorate

Great news Shimy my DS is also looking for a placement for next year, he's had several interviews (Zoom) and one 'real' one but no offer yet.

Ragwort fingers crossed for you too. DS’s interview plus assessment have all been online as well. Good thing really as he could have had to do lots of travelling. What’s your DS studying?

He's doing Economics with Business, Shimy so looking for a general business placement, what is your DS doing?

He’s doing Computer science. In actual fact, I saw the advert and sent it to him. I see placements for business students a lot though but we’re probably looking in the same places. Is your DS checking indeed.co.uk, Prospects and facebook jobs ?

I'm not sure he is so those are useful suggestions, thank you.

Same old story that parents are so ancient and 'passed it' that any advice we might offer is not appreciated, I did mention that I was responsible for graduate recruitment in a previous job but the response was 'it's all different these days' , yes, it probably is but I like to think I might still be able to offer some useful ideas ! (I think back to those days of meeting lovely, keen, respectful students when I used to do the 'milk round!').

Ragwort - ‘it’s different these days’, actually it’s not that different at all. DS started off with gradcracker.com but it became obvious pretty quickly that their requirements were way more than what DS could provide; stellar A’levels for starters. Loads of suitable placements on their if your DS is of that category.

‘On there’

Well done to your DS for finding a placement, @Shimy. Being tenacious is an excellent quality, particularly at the current climate. Good luck to other DCs who still need to find placements.

As a total aside, but related to previous talk of Christmas presents, can anyone think of a blinder of a secret santa for a 17 year old boy. DD has got to find one and we are struggling with ideas.

Well done to those who have found placements. That takes some doing right now. DD has decided not to do a placement next year as she is worried that she will fall asleep on the job. Ideally she would like to do something for 6 weeks or so, then she would have time to recover before going back to university.

Congratulations on placements! DS is waiting to hear if his friend finds one before finding a house for next year....

Thanks all. Fingers crossed for all.

Collected DD on Friday after her last seminar. Poor girl has done nothing but watch online lectures since she came home. She hasn't even had time to do the Christmas tree yet. Her workload over the holidays is ridiculous.

The downside of online lectures is that the lecturers now take longer than the 50 minutes they would take if delivering in a lecture theatre.

The downside of online lectures is that the lecturers now take longer than the 50 minutes they would take if delivering in a lecture theatre. That surprises me. I'm finding that most Zoom stuff happens a lot more quickly than the 'in person' equivalent!

It seems like DD's lecturers like to ramble on. Maybe they are overcompensating for not having any F2F teaching?

Oh dear @Ginfordinner, that's not good.

@Ginfordinner my DS says that his actual lectures are short. More time is taken up with seminars. He finished and submitted two pieces of work last week and has one more to do for January but is going to take some time off first. There had been talk of f2f tuition after 2 weeks of the beginning of the next semester, but we seem to have moved on now, and not in a postive way.

Given the latest news I am thinking of getting DD temporarily registered with our GP again as she has repeat prescriptions that can't be interrupted. I'm not at all confident that the university wants students back at the beginning of term.

They certainly don't want Newcastle students back until the beginning of February. My 4th year DD will go back earlier than that but will be home for longer than she would have been.

Gin we found using the online service connected to a local pharmacy chain good for repeat prescriptions for my 16 year old. She just requests it online which is much less hassle as we aren’t allowed to step foot inside the GPs. There are apps for most of them - they may let you collect it at another branch?
Uni Dd tried and failed to get registered in Newcastle which works out better now!