Thread 39 - Covid Cohort - Our Adult Children Now Post 18

[CinnamonOrangeCremeBrulee]

This is a support thread for our young adults post GCSEs 2020, regardless of their educational setting, and their results ( or life updates for those who went into work or have had results earlier). It is respectfully requested that all are supportive and helpful to each other. If you want to start a debate, e.g state vs private, uni vs employment please don't within this thread.

Some of us have been here since first thread back in yr10, some will be new. Everyone has been friendly and helpful in the past. Everyone is welcome. It is hoped this will continue. We were previously on the secondary board and then further education, now we shall be here in 'Parents of Adult Children' gulp

Our DS/DD may continue down various pathways ( employment, apprenticeships, higher ed). Be warned there might be lots of 'Uni Freshers' chat this time of year. My experience is that everyone is welcomed wherever, whatever their child is doing we have some in work, gap years , apprenticeships etc too. Lots of contributors with different experiences and always sympathy and support to be had !

OMG @Fruitygal - I think the best she can hope for is maybe an old fireplace. There is one room that is notoriously small though - if she gets that one I've no idea where she will put all of the fake plants she has bought!

I had a huge room in my third year, with a sofa, a couple of armchairs, and a proper bookcase. The piano, however, was on the other side of the wall next to my bed, and belonged to the Organ Scholar who would practise at random times of the day and night!

@NCTDN I’ll mention the general ticker to him. Is
the What’s app group you refer to a course one or a hall one? Ds hasn’t mentioned anything about a what’s app group to me. He is massively disorganised, and laid back to boot, so it is highly likely that he’s missed lots of things.

It’s re ally terrible re Manchester accommodation. How gutting for the students concerned,

@scabby1 there was a general one for all offer holders and after results day lots left and lots joined. Then after accommodation was allocated, sub groups were made for each hall I think. It started from a Facebook group but I can ask her for the link if you want.

@NCTDN a link would be fantastic, thank you.

I think it was all from this fb group

www.facebook.com/groups/universityofbristol2022/?ref=share

Brilliant. Thank you. I’ll send it to him now.

@PhotoDad still sounds fab !

@GoldenRuby 2 fake plants only here we limited lol.
..no tell a lie 3 as she already had one and a real orchid !

@Fruitygal Yes, it was lovely, even with random hymns and voluntaries. The real pain with Oxbridge rooms (and some other unis) is that they use all the nice accommodation to host conferences whenever they can. So I got very used to being kicked out of my room for Easter and Christmas breaks, and cramming everything into a tiny store-room along with the other overseas students because we had no way of getting things home (I acquired a silly amount of books).

My DD has opted for the smallest & cheapest room she could find. It's in a shared house which is marketed as being "quiet." Accommodation was "first come, first served" at her place and she picked from a list of available rooms so knew exactly where she was going. It seems that every place has its own system...!

@ealingwestmum yes...very near to me. I'm over the border in Suffolk.

@Takeittotheboss I'm sure Ds will have a great adventure.

Ds had 4 letters all at once today from hsbc. One accepting his account. One about over draft. Bank card and pin. No questions asked if all just turned up. Now I need to persuade him to get online and set it all up.

@icanbewhatiwant how long from doing it online to arriving for the bank account stuff?

@sofakingcool we’re waiting for Reading accommodation too. Not sure if any been released? Hopefully system won’t crash Monday then.

@Fruitygal I think it's been about a week.

@icanbewhatiwant thanks x

@singingstones DS had a login for the Nottingham hub from when he applied last October. His status has changed from application on hold, to conditional offer, to unconditional acceptance and now matriculation.
And thank you @Heifer , I've found the breakdown of accommodation fees and worked out how DS just pays the £250 for now.

@GoldenRuby @Fruitygal We just paid the £200 too. Will have to get DS to reread the email. Nightmare as he's out tonight and we are up early to head to the airport. Did I mention I know no passwords so can't even print it now?

@EwwSprouts no passwords ?!? Where are you off to? After the great accommodation cock up of 2018 due to DS1 refusing to share emails etc my kids are fully compliant 😂😂😂

@EwwSprouts it was DS2 need to correct myself

@Fruitygal I wouldn't mind if he read things thoroughly. He only did emails again because I said do them yesterday as we wouldn't cross paths today. So that was another one with a 7 day deadline that could have sailed by... We're having a few days in Iceland. Very excited!

Sorry to hear so many are waiting for operations and in pain. My anaesthetist friend thinks there will be a real push from now to winter to get people through.

@whatsnext2 - I'm worried there is no accommodation left, they closed clearing pretty quickly so were obviously quite popular. Just praying they didn't give too many spaces than hall rooms..

Just feels like everything is up in the air, when we should be getting on with sorting all of his stuff out. If he doesn't get campus accommodation then I think he'll defer

@singingstones it's the student IT that is coming 3 weeks before starting . Hub logging details were sent when made offer way back in dec/Jan . I will log into her email tomorrow and see what the email was called etc . There isn't much useful in the hub but still need access.

I am so glad that my DD made some contact via facebook/WhatsApp with course-mates (she's now met two of them in person as well). She is a little shy and has suffered with anxiety in the past, but now she has someone to go with to Freshers' events and is much happier about that.

Her "Welcome Week" starts a week today, Saturday 10th! I am very impressed by the timetable. It's not just boozy club nights (not her style at all) but includes things like picnics and open-air films on campus, a quiz, retro video games etc as well as Freshers' Fair. Departmental and course-specific meetings are scattered through the week. Very different from my own "in at the deep end" experience.

Gutted I won't be able to travel down with her on Thursday but it's my own first day of term.

@PhotoDad sounds like a great freshers calendar of events.

Your room sounded fab at uni - what did you study there?

Sad about not being able to go to drop off - what kind of teacher/ lecturer are you?

@EwwSprouts iceland ! Amazing place! My DS1 is a geologist so that’s top of his list! Tried to get him to go with a friend when I saw cheap flights from a new provider a couple of months ago but most of his mates are deep in PhDs, masters and architecture courses so no money … it will be amazing x

Illness and health issues - Sorry to hear about the bone and joint issues -grinding bones sounds properly bad. They are trying to get through surgery lists. The weight loss thing is nuts and there is no evidence behind it unless very high bp and other health issues. Private is an expensive route …but friend did it and now pain free & mobile again

…decided to have a DEXA two weeks ago to attempt to work out baseline for joint health as had early menopause and then a cancer scare this year.

@Fruitygal I've read the accom offer and confirmation emails. I can't see any signature required. They've got the deposit. Maybe a difference between colleges?