Thread 42 Corona GCSE Cohort - 👻Creeping it Real for Oct22

[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 advice to be had.

previous thread

Re next year accommodation. I cant be worrying DS with it yet I don't think - we'll see. If he brings it up then we can chat about it. Nottingham seems quite cheap to me as a city.

Righmove are advertising student lets for 2023/24 in York and lots of other areas.
It may be worthwhile keeping an eye on there?

Looking at Nottingham Unis website, their advice (not short of accommodation in Nottingham apparently).
Oct - do nothing, settle in
Nov - Get informed. Nov 20th New Home talk in Halls
Dec - Get organised. Starting thinking about who, what, talk to older students
Jan - Get ready - Consider final decision and start looking.
Feb - Get active - House hunting time.
Mar - Keep going - Still plenty of rooms.
Apr - Don't panic - not too late they promise.. Try flatmate finder etc.
May - Get advice - Contact SU advice.

@Heifer That timetable agrees with the advice from ARU. I've just looked at what's available right now on Rightmove, and there are furnished houses (3-6 bedrooms) for around £120-140 pppw, which is what DD is paying now. Obviously it's for a longer lease, and bills aren't included, but it's not stupidly more. It's reassuring, and better than I thought Cambridge might be.

There will definitely be towns/cities where you will need to get sorted earlier. Just reading on WIWIKAU that someone in Durham was paying £624pcm for 12 month contract and asked landlord if they could stay next year which he agreed. Meanwhile students queued overnight at the estate agents last night!! and landlord has now emailed the student to say rent will be £996 pcm to take into account inflaction and rising energy costs - that is 59% increase apparently....

A friends dd is at York in private accommodation. The house they are in is quite expensive, but the owner rents it as a holiday let for 3 months in the summer. So they only rent for 9 months. That's a brilliant idea. They have a signed up for year 3 too. But just need to vacate for 3 months in the summer.

I've text ds about accommodation.

Someone stole his nice wash-bag from the swimming pool. I told him to a)be more generally savy. b)only take a small shower gel to swimming.

Bloody hell that's ridiculous!!

My DD in Reading, and lots of friends looking, I think probably the nicest ones go first?

Off to see DD tomorrow for a few days! In the meantime, here's a "fairytale" lino-cut with digital effects added. She seems to learn a new technique every week.

Did you see that Reading are holding Accommodation talks today and a couple next week?

This accommodation panic (not on here but generally) feels like Covid toilet paper dramas all over again. All these students rushing into signing contracts don't even know each other properly yet, its a recipe for disaster. And these rental prices are crazy. I feel stressed reading it. 🙁

@photodad, love that lino print. I bought some lino for DS2 a few weeks back to show him how to do it, I used to love doing this in school.

I agree re the property rush, and I was reassuring dd that some of the early signers will probably fall out with potential flatmates before Jan and pull out anyway. She’s really stressed about it, but I know it will come together and I’m a bit relieved she hasn’t rushed into something. But she’s feeling that all her closest friends are sorted so there’s no one left to share with 😬

Thanks @sofakingcool

That looks great @PhotoDad

no mention of next year accommodations yet from DS. Will mention it when I see him for reading week in a few weeks

Knowing there a couple of York experts around: any recommendations for somewhere we can take Ds for supper on Saturday? Adventous food welcomed, ideally a chilled rather than party atmosphere ;-)

DD is home. Apparently cheese is really expensive! Who knew?!

I'm a week behind and catching up, but we didn't realise that phones are covered on our household insurance policy. I thought a separate one was needed but gadgets are covered.

@Isthisjustnormal we ate at Iguanas near the minster www.iguanas.co.uk/restaurants/york/ - Latin American food. It was great and good with any allergies.

AoC my dd was honoured with a years no claims on insurance even though she was only a named driver on my insurance at the time.

Thanks @handmademitlove :-)

Amazing, this was one of my first year revelations, 31 years ago!

On the subject of my great age, I had a catch-up with one of my staff today and we figured out I was wearing a pair of boots that is older than her 🧐

All those who felt rough after covid and flu injections? How long did you feel ill for? When did it start? I had both yesterday, one morning, 1 evening, and seem fine so far. But might it hit me tomorrow or in a few days?

@Oblomov22 I had my Covid seasonal booster on Wednesday a.m. Arm felt really sore for a while. Yesterday I felt very low-energy but nothing worse. I'm back to normal today. Anecdotally from friends/colleagues, it won't last more than a day.