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 !

Right, so dd has worked out how to pay her deposit, but she still hasn't had an email about moving in dates. @heifer has your dd has a move in date yet?

Have any DC had the Nottingham IT email yet?

No IT email yet @singingstones .

Just caught up after a weekend off moving DS1 into his new house. Well appointed, modern house with 4 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms, does not feel studenty, they would have preferred something older and more central, but they are really grateful to have anything and this one will be easy to heat (all double glazed) and the space is great and the landlord has not increased the rent as others have to exploit the acute accommodation shortage. There are still people at St Andrews without accommodation for this year (returning students and students who did not accept accom in time) - one mum posted a picture of her son camping near the beach, which is obviously not sustainable once the academic year starts properly!

DS's room quite small, but cosy. Weirdly had no shelves or drawers, just a massive built in wardrobe with 3 doors worth of hanging space, so instead of going for the traditional pier walk and a nice lunch we went to B&M and bought a chest of drawers (plus screwdriver and hammer) and spent the afternoon assembling it so he had somewhere for underwear etc. Also did a big Aldi shop, DS a bit clueless as this is his first time self catering. There were a few things I wished we had taken; his chair was not very good at all and we have good ones at home. The bathroom had no shelves or towel rails so I think I might send him some things from the Ikea Tisken range - www.ikea.com/gb/en/search/products/?q=tisken. I think they could be good for ensuite people too. His housemates who were already in were not very good at telling him what was there.

Re gaming stuff, I would agree that it is best not take big gaming things if it will stop them from socialising, but if they are keen socialisers it will be fine. DS1 bought a Switch in his first year, but that was Covid time and mixing opportunities were very limited.

@crazycrofter your move sounds so stressful and I am shocked by MIL wanting rent for space she does not use!

Thank you @crazycrofter - she passed!!! So pleased for her, now she can focus on packing and enjoy her last four days!

Congratulations! Great to get that out of the way.

@crazycrofter no email here yet re IT or move in dates. I was worried I would miss it this morning as had to go into work for a few hours. Am sure it will be first come etc when the moving in date email does finally arrive.

Has your DD (and others) had email re ID cards photo needing to be uploaded yet? DD has promised me an hour this afternoon to sort out....

congrats @kiwi, well done. My DD has her just before uni.

@Monkey2001 what’s worse is she currently has other children and grandchildren staying with her rent free and her house is already full of other people’s stuff! She’s a narcissist …and has favourites 😢

@heifer dd has had the photo ID email. She said she’s trying to find a nice picture!

Well done to dd @kiwiandcherries !

Well done @kiwiandcherries !

DS has had the photo email and has done it, apparently

Yes, we have done the photocard - that is on one of the links around the hub I think - one of the tasks maybe?

Fabulous timing Kiwiandcherries, well done to your DD!

Well done, @kiwiandcherries -- and I can't even imagine moving right now, @crazycrofter. Good luck to everyone starting new ventures!

My DW was going to take our DD to uni on Thursday so I could do first day of term at the school where I teach. She's currently ill in bed and I am busy putting cover lessons in place, luckily most colleagues are understanding!

Nottingham people - DD’s friend called the uni and they said that you can’t actually pay the accommodation deposit til Wed? But dd had already paid it by that stage?!

@crazycrofter it's actually DUE by Wednesday! Even got another email about it an hour ago! Really rubbish email, just saying you if you're reliant on loan you only need to pay £250 by 7th Sept, this will be deducted and the remainder is due by 7th October - doesn't even mention you can amend you plan to 3 equal instalments if you ask.

@heifer it's not clear is it?! Can you remind me who you need to email please to pay accommodation in three equal instalments?

[email protected]

Give full name, student number and ask for Option 1 (3 equal Instalments) option 2 is 9 monthly instalments.

I received a reply back saying ok, but DDs is still showing as owing 3 different amounts so hopefully ull update eventually.

Also the email I mentioned receiving earlier - can't for the life of me open the link guide to paying accommodation fees as it keeps trying using other email addresses and then won't accept any of them. Thank goodness I've worked it out myself! Not looking forward to the IT bit...

Thanks @Heifer . Dd will do the IT stuff herself I think(/hope!). I told her to set herself a reminder to check her loan is Uk and pay the rest of the accommodation fee on the 26th as I expect that will be a busy day!

To all those dealing with the Nottingham accomodation communications....it's not improved then in 5 years!
In which case brace yourselves and pace yourselves for general communications from here on in!😁
Just finding out what was happening/due to happen was a constant battle for our DD & us parents throughout her 4 years there.😭😕😤

Hi all! We are just back from a holiday in NYC and jet-lagged. Was a welcome break from all the grown up stuff happening and probably our last holiday as a family of 4. DD1 moving to London with friends this months and DD2 off to uni.We haven’t bought anything yet though having done it once with DD1 I’m more relaxed. We have set up HSBC ac and railcard. I guess I’m waiting for her to lead now the important stuff is done. I was back to work today after the summer off so she needs to sort things out.

Well done to @kiwiandcherries dd. Sorry to hear about all these issues at Nottingham.

Not very impressed with the uni admin. DS completed accommodation registration and uni registration about a week ago and got an email saying thank you, when we have approved your registration you can get all your timetable etc information by logging into the portal. He hasn’t had another email but kept logging into the portal which stayed resolutely blank. I re-read the email again today then logged into the portal myself and had a good old nose about, eventually finding a whole further portal which we knew nothing about and which had all the info we’ve been waiting a week for 🤦‍♀️. So now we have a whole further list of things to do, read, sign off and we can finally get the DSA training and mentoring booked in but its all got very last minute as he goes on Sunday. Feeling a bit stressed.

Yes I have been really surprised how user unfriendly they are admin-wise. I have negotiated the Indian train and business visa system more effectively!