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 !

Dh and I have been having a discussion here and I can't find the answer online. Would anyone on here know about whether the students can stay in their accommodation over Christmas / Easter holidays if necessary if you have paid for 39 weeks? If they can, and it's a catered hall, would they still have food?

@JustHereWithMyPopcorn it is unlikely that there will be food provided in the holidays, policies vary on whether you can stay.

At St Andrews (which is the one I know about) some halls you can leave your stuff, but you can't stay, in others you can stay. None provide food in the holidays.

@JustHereWithMyPopcorn I seem to remember seeing something about this at Nottingham - I'll see if I can find it. From memory I think food is provided for slightly more than the 31 week term time contract, but it's not for as long as 39 weeks.

I've just found it - halls with 39 week contracts get 35 weeks of catering (not sure which weeks they are though!).

Anyone else still waiting for their HSBC student account card? Been 8 days and there is no way to contact them as you need your card number. All numbers ask for it and cut you off if you don’t have it.

We’ve heard nothing from hsbc at all. DS has been on holiday so couldn’t do anything about it but will get him to pop into the branch on Monday and try and find out what’s going on

She had the confirmation email but that said 3 days until are should arrive, now 8. I get that they may be inundated but frustrating that there is no way to speak to a human without your card number.

It’s probably just the Royal Mail strike holding things up? Can she speak to someone in branch?

Hav head lots of other post though from sfe and NTU. Will try a branch tomorrow but doubt they can help without the card number.

Do any liberal arts people have personal statement tips? I teach a girl who is applying and she is a bit stumped on how to structure a personal statement about something so broad... what did DCs on here do to approach this?

Apparently the maintenance loans are starting to be deposit so had hoped to use the HSBC for that to keep it separate to her spending account.

@Benjispruce4 just double checked with DS and the last thing he had from them was a text asking him to upload his proof of ID and address which he did the day after. That text is dated 24/08! We don’t even know if the account is approved or not

Ds's hsbc stuff arrived all at once (letter, card, pin) I expect the mail strike held it up hence pin and card arriving together. He applied on the Thursday, it all turned up the following Fri. Then the online banking code arrived this week.

I have read the funeral may be the Monday. Ds moves in this thurs. So won't have any effect on us for moving. I'm sure stuff is planned on the Monday though. I also read shops will open bank holiday hours. So where I work that means they will open 7am to 9pm. If so, I'll be working. I think shops should close at least around the funeral time, as a mark of respect. I'm sure people can manage a few hours without going in a shop.

Ds actually started packing clothes earlier, I asked him to empty his school bag, so he told me to just bin it all. Lots and lots of paperwork, then I found 2 school reports addressed to us! He soon got side tracked from the packing though...so didn't get much done. He can't believe the final Ipswich town football match before he leaves for uni has been cancelled. It was tomorrow. Obviously he understands why. There's a possibility of one Tuesday instead. It will be nice to go one last time with friends before they all move away.

@Piggywaspushed some of the uni websites have a 'how to write a liberal arts PS' section in the liberal arts pages. From memory Nottingham was very good. I think they also had a good video on 'what is LA' or something similar. DD concentrated on the interdisciplinary nature of LA and showed how her rather strange A levels linked together (psych, business and bio) in various ways.

@Fiddlersgreen Ds wasn't asked for any proof of ID. That's weird. Do you think they look the address up and see that 3 of us at this address already have hsbc accounts?

Yes @Fiddlersgreen she did that too.

We go shopping for uni stuff tomorrow. Luckily DD2 is happy to take some cast-offs unlike DD1 who wanted everything new.

Thanks seeline. I saw the Nottingham one earlier and it's quite helpful. That's a good tip about thinking about how the subjects link. She does geography and sociology so should be easy enough. I think they all struggle with knowing how to begin the statement.

Thank you @crazycrofter!
I looked all over and couldn’t find anything. This group is amazing!

thank you also @Monkey2001

DD applied to HSBC on the 24Aug, email arrived 1 Sep but then the card, pin and letter didn’t arrive till the 6 Sep. Never received the online banking code so set it up via telephone banking.

Yes I guess that’s possible.
I have an hsbc account but my surname is different to DS so maybe that’s why they asked for his ID? He had to upload both this passport and his provisional license

@Piggywaspushed I'll ask dd for hers when I eventually see her. She goes in a week but don't think she's at home for any significant amount of time before then!

@Fiddlersgreen I expected ds to be asked for ID. He has a double barrelled surname. Half is mine and dh's. Half my maiden name. Ds1 had to go into our local branch with ID 3 years ago.

From memory, @Piggywaspushed , she showed interest in arts and science type stuff, mentioned digitalising qualitative information, and talked about being intrigued by subjects she’d not had an opportunity to study, and wanting some freedom to follow her own interests as they developed. Mainly wanting to learn everything! Warwick has some great stuff on their site. I think we were a bit worried she was picking history because it was her strongest subject,so encouraged her to go broader but actually, I think she does love history best.

Ds will take passport and full driving license for checking into the University. but I can't stand the thought of him carry those around when he goes out in Nottingham all the time. surely everyone has a picture on the phone and that's accepted? they can't seriously expect them to produce the real thing every time they go out for a drink. it would get stolen surely?