Another path ....... the journey begins

[chopc]

Hello @321zyx @AvocadoPlant @bendmeoverbackwards @BigWoollyJumpers @Braveheart35 @calculatorqueen @ChimneyPot @Dobbyisahouseelf @Eastisup @jano69 @Majaso12 @MidLifeCrisis007 @NCTDN @Notagardener @OnTheBenchOfDoom @Parsonage63 @Pumpkintopf @Peaseblossum22 @quest1on @Peaseblossum22 @SATSmadness @SeasonFinale @Tenpastseven @Vargas @Xenia

Apologies for anyone I omitted to tag

Lovely to hear of stress free and friendly drop offs,

BWJ - sorry to hear your DD is suffering the the sore throat/cold bug too. Hope she recovers quickly.
Dobbie - how is your DD feeling this morning?

DD has shared her timetable, her busiest day is Tuesday, but she has a full day off on Wednesday, and only one lecture on Friday (but it runs until 5:30pm).
Overall there’s more contact time than I was expecting at around 13 hrs pw for History.

Just checking in!

Well, DS has been there a week now and appears to have navigated and survived freshers! I am honestly really proud of him (and have told him so) . He has dyslexia which often results in anxiety in new situations when he needs to process loads of new information quickly. We've had a couple of zoom calls with him sharing his screen, asking questions about things, but generally he has managed to get himself organised and have been fairly sociable, out meeting people and signing up for things.
He too has succumbed to the Freshers' cold however. He had covid a couple of months ago so I'm not so worried about that, but he has a hacking cough.

Good to hear everyone's DCs are starting to arrive and settle in.

@Jng1 great to read your update, sorry to hear your DS has also succumbed.

DD has given up (for now) with the printer, but she has managed to navigate the process for printing at the library, so every cloud etc…😁

[quote AvocadoPlant]@Jng1 great to read your update, sorry to hear your DS has also succumbed.

DD has given up (for now) with the printer, but she has managed to navigate the process for printing at the library, so every cloud etc…😁[/quote]
@AvocadoPlant, I asked DS about the printer, and it turns out that he hasn't managed to get it to print on WiFi either, but has it wired directly to his laptop - I'm not sure if it came with the cable, or if DH took it with us. (DH being a techy nerd did a 'dry run' with all the equipment at home before we left, to check everything had the correct software and connections etc).

Thank you @chopc for starting a new thread for us all. I cannot believe that this is the last week for Ds being at home. It is reassuring to read everyone else's stories of positive drop off experiences. Ds's college has said 30 minutes to unpack the car then move the car over the road onto the massive park and ride car park. They have made it very clear that all parents/carers are welcome on site after the car move so they can have a good look around as obviously no tours for parents during lockdown.

Sorry to hear that some of them are feeling unwell, I think a couple of years ago we would have just brushed it off as freshers' flu but now there is the added worry of it being covid.

@BigWoollyJumpers considering how much student accommodation there is in Leeds (my niece is there) I cannot believe they put them in Hull as freshers. An hour commute is ridiculous.

As Xenia's are doing the LPC I would expect they do have training contracts lined up. The reality is that even going forward most firm's will still offer training contracts to students who do qualify via SQE rather than that them as paralegals so that they do continue to get decent training ( @chopc)

@OnTheBenchOfDoom during the last week at home, time seems to play tricks, some times it’s just dragging along & at other times a whole day seems to disappear in moments.
I hope you’re enjoying this last week with your DS at home.

Engley, ha yes we (I mainly...) were a bit worried as well, taking the "reputation" of LSE students into account....But the girl next to dd seemed a nice and chatty girl and her parents were greeting us as if we were long lost friends
Did you manage to park ok? With dc1 few years ago it was a bit of a nghtmare, but this time we were fine

Sorry @SeasonFinale - I was thinking that the SQE is an alternate way of getting the required experience as opposed to having a training contract where your seats are all with one firm?

Btw have you heard of law apprenticeships? Starting salary around £25K which is impressive for an 18 year old

I live very close to the Trinity halls of residence in Dublin. I never paid much attention to the students before but I was watching them move in this weekend and then spotting them in groups doing their first grocery shops.
I was feeling very maternal towards them.

It is lovely to see them back though it has been quiet without them for the last 18 months

Yes - have heard of Law apprenticeships. My husband's firm looked at them and thought it would not provide the best method of training for a solicitor and won't be going down that route. They will still be offering a 2 year training contract/fixed term work contract post academic qualification post SQE mainly recruiter from those gaining places on their internship programmes for y2 law students/y3 non law graduates and funding the SQE element.

I haven't heard enough about the apprenticeship route myself to form a judgment as to how workable they are likely to be. I also suspect in some circles there will still be an element of snobbishness towards people who may qualify using that route which may hinder future employment or progression prospects unfortunately. So I would always recommend the "usual" routes in wherever it is possible.

@BigWoollyJumpers

With all the stress about accommodations not necessarily being our first choice, did anyone see the young man on the news this weekend who is an undergrad at Leeds and is placed in Hull !!!!!!! I think they said this applied to some clearing students and they are offering a 10% reduction in rent and free buses, but even so....... an hour commute .

That's awful @BigWoollyJumpers, poor kid! Hopefully there might be some movement and he'll get a halls place at some point.

@Engley that sounds great! So friendly, must be a relief for you.

Dd has FaceTimed a couple of times, she seems ok, still a bit anxious but that's to be expected. She met up today with a school friend also at Bristol (different halls) which was nice. She's making friends with people on her corridor and they seem nice. I haven't quite got used to her not being here yet!

@Majaso12 still no timetable here - how about you?

I see over on the year below chat that Durham has announced that for this year’s applicants they will no longer guarantee accommodation. More of a best efforts situation. Can’t really see how that would work. In fact, so unappealing that it might sort out their over subscription problems in one fell swoop.

Pumpkintopf No nothing for dd, but the only department that have published it is the physics department. They will get it published properly for all students at some point so they can put it in their timetable. Wish they’d hurry up. Here is the physics one: www.imperial.ac.uk/secure/login/?requested=L21lZGlhL2ltcGVyaWFsLWNvbGxlZ2UvZmFjdWx0eS1vZi1uYXR1cmFsLXNjaWVuY2VzL2RlcGFydG1lbnQtb2YtcGh5c2ljcy9pbnRlcm5hbC9zdHVkZW50cy9jdXJyZW50L3VnL3RpbWV0YWJsZXMvWWVhcjFUZXJtMTIwMjEtMjItU3R1ZGVudC54bHN4&signature=MjdjZjU0M2YwMzNkZGIyODIwMzA2YWU3YmNiZGEzYWE3MmQ2NjcyZDgxOTJkOWIwNTRiZTQ5NTdjOTBjYTM2Y2YwYzhiZDA1YWViZDgyNmM2NmUxNDBjZWU2MjkwYTE3MGVhOWIwZDQ3ZmRlMmUzNjM0NWY3ZjUwN2I0YWE4MDc&error=6

He will need to log in

Pumpkintopf. Use this link instead:

www.imperial.ac.uk/media/imperial-college/faculty-of-natural-sciences/department-of-physics/internal/students/current/ug/timetables/Year1Term12021-22-Student.xlsx

Where did you read that @Revengeofthepangolins ?

I agree it will sort out their subscription issues as one of the main attractions of Durham is the collegiate system

@Notagardener
@Parking was no problem at all.Parked on single yellow as it was Sunday,no charges.Very near entrance of halls.
Apparently first night went well...went to sleep at 5am...,he went out after dinner...most were up for chatting and getting to know each other.Seems to be having fun!

So relieved @bendmeoverbackwards.Thanks

Was heading out this evening too!Freshers event with students from his halls.
I want to say to him “pace yourself...but won’t!Im sure he will work it out about having too many late nights.

Thanks @Majaso12 ! Much appreciated

@chopc www.mumsnet.com/uploads/talk/202109/large-380224-image1
Hmm. Don’t think I know how to copy images between threads. In Further Ed there is a year 13 chat which has a screen snap to this effect although a brief look at the main website still talks about guarantees so a bit curious

DD's PCR was negative, so confirmed to be good old freshens flu. 10 hour turnaround for test result, pretty impressive. She feels pretty rubbish though, so sadly thinks she will miss her lectures today. Glad I packed the medical tin for her.

Pleased everyone is settling in. DS also has the sniffles. His timetable is 10 hours but I've stressed the point that he needs to do reading as well! He seems overwhelmed a bit with the admin and at the moment he seems to think it's easier to ask me. So I'm going to try and back off this week and let him get on with it. I never had this issue with DS1 who just got on with it. I think perhaps DS2 who although far more academic but less organised has always relied on me to sort everything.

DD is also still feeling quite poorly. She has a full day, including the first meeting with her supporter for her dyslexia. Though I’m not sure how much she will manage.

BWJ - sorry your DD is the same, but a sense of relief that the PCR test result was negative.

CalculatorQueen - the admin side is quite tricky. I guess it’s the first time they’re having to deal with it all themselves.

Well, I think with CQ DS also having sniffles , we can declare ‘full house’ in the freshers flu bingo at Exeter!
Hoping they’re all on the road to recovery very soon, and not missing too much this week.

I agree the admin side of things is quite overwhelming, and in fact this is what (dyslexic) DS has struggled with most! He shared his email screen with me on zoom and was basically inundated with emails from every different department saying 'welcome to the university, this is what we do, if you need XYZ here are some links etc'. In amongst all this were a couple which were actually important and relevant to his course this week, but they were in real danger of being lost in the tsunami of other 'fluff' (his words!).

Hope all poorly DC's make a smooth recovery.

Still no word about moving in slot at Durham. But we will go up on the Saturday as planned. There has been news though about freshers events for which DS is getting his fancy dress costumes ready.