Thread 43 - GCSE Covid Cohort ..November 22 Remember Remember

[OrangeCinnamonLatte]

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

@NCTDN that is still nearly £700/month! Is she looking at Clifton/Redland?

In general, are big houses more per person than small ones or less? Really a house for 5 should work out cheaper than a flat for 2, but I am not sure that it does.

Clifton/ Redland/ Whiteladies road areas ( Not actually sure whether they are all the same area?!!). Most seem to be 150-160pw excluding bills

Although @Monkey2001 she's also missed out on one that was £175pw exc bills. I was mightily relieved!

@NCTDN Clifton/Redland is the prime area, for students and working people. Whiteladies Road is the border between them. So sad that it is becoming unattainable for many. How many in her group?

There's 4 and they are a mixed group which seems to be what many landlords request. It's a learning curve for them and she is enjoying flat viewings anyway!!

I’ve thought the same about the developmental stuff - interesting (and sad) to hear teachers confirming it. They’re often taking on a lot more too - I was in catered halls at 19, so mostly fed and cleaned up after. I didn’t have to think about second year accommodation for well into the second term - there was loads, and it was cheap. DD has gone straight into feeding herself and cleaning, and ‘already’ having to think about next year. That’s ‘already’ in quotes as she seems to have it relatively easy compared to a lot of the DC here. Her ‘cheap’ accommodation options for next year are twice the cost of mine adjust for inflation (actually she’s looking as low as £89 with bills, and my third year cost would now be £48, but that was no bills).

I do think it needs to be clearer to students and parents that sadly cost has to factor in the choice of university. Everyone knows London is expensive, but the range is huge for other places too. As DD is in private accommodation with a chain provider we can look up what her exact standard of room would cost elsewhere - she pays £104, in Brighton it would be £252 😱

I've never felt so far away from DD right now! She is sorting accommodation and I'm trying to get her to put the brakes on! £150 pp pw. But Mum it's the best one we've seen and right where we want to live in Lenton triangle.
Didn't know if it includes all bills and apparently the estate agent didn't know, Wanted to pay £300 deposit right now. They have managed to find out it's all bill included with no caps. Someone's Mum will be guarantor apparently. But DD didn't know anything about if it's joint or Indvidual contract or what that even meant - clearly not done any research despite me sending her info on what to look out for... As far as she is concerned, they want it, and she has some money left from my Mum she can use if needed which is true, but why pay so much when there are definitely cheaper properties out there...
I've begged her not to sign a contract until someone's looked at it, pay the deposit if you have to but do not sign anything! I am not sure she is listening to me at all right now....

Contract is 50 weeks. So basically very similar to what she is paying to be on campus catered for 31 weeks, but will need to add food (really hoping all bills with no caps is right).

Ah just text me to say she needs her own guarantor...

I'm based at home @Monkey2001 but , yes Office base is MK. My Aunt has just retired from a long academic career at UCL so I can only imagine.

@ZittiEBuoni still time to go back and finish ! Great shout from your Dd re: Music courses does she have any faves so far?

Thanks for the good wishes all!

@heifer dd and friends are on their way to Purplefrog in the hope of putting a deposit down on a house in Lenton triangle- which is £80 each (exc bills). They may be pipped to the post again but they’ve not even been considering more than £100 or £120 with bills. There are quite a few cheaper houses around. And they’re all in the same area, similar style houses so I’m not sure what more you’d get for £150???

Write think I'll encourage ds to look at Nottingham!

I did my PGCE in Nottingham and whilst I know Lenton I have never heard of the Lenton Triangle! This must be a new coinage!

DH lived in an absolute hovel on Derby Road.

@Heifer Is there any comfort in knowing you are not alone?? they won't listen, I think this is one of those things where they just have to learn the hard way.

A friend had a divey flatshare on Radford Boulevard, which was a very unsavoury area at the time, though right next to Lenton. Wonder if it's any better now. Hopefully fewer kerb crawlers <shudder>.

OrangeCinnamonLatte DD fell in love with Bristol, but also liked Birmingham a lot, and has Manchester, Cardiff and Sussex on the list. I'd be happy with any of those except Manchester, but only because it's so awkward to get to from here.

I had a look on the map @Piggywaspushed and there’s a triangle area of parallel streets with terraced houses in Lenton so I assume that’s the covered area!

Dd and friends have emailed the estate agent, phoned but it went through to Bham office and walked to the Notts branch but it was closed at 4.30 so I hope they don’t find they’ve been pipped to the post on the cheap house!

*coveted not covered!

Hi all.
I'm glad most of your progeny seem to be doing brilliantly well at Uni. I've completely got out of the habit of posting on here, mainly because communication was initially woeful with Ds and I had no idea what was actually going on. Then he came home for a weekend and seemed fine & quite happy, so I stopped worrying quite so much.
He's on an ADHD change of meds which has been started off very slowly & so he's not been switched on at all. They're now starting to start to work but I'm seeing strong similarities to Shimys posts. He told me two weeks ago he's booked a blood test & registered with the GP. But we discovered that all this was fictional ( after the doctors secretary had phoned up his supposed GP!) and nothing was done or organised. Hence I was absolutely furious with him down the phone.He can't be given any more meds until he has this blood test & it takes two weeks to register at this practice. I'm pretty certain he's done nothing about sorting out accommodation even though his friends have asked him.
He also has exams in January in his worse hard subjects Cell Biology & Biochemistry. I think he will need a wing and a prayer to pass them😢

Oh dear, good luck @cantonet - and @shimy too. I hope your boys get a sense of urgency and at least seek some help.

I was having a chat with my ADHD ds yesterday about ‘life admin’ and how important it was to get on top of it even if he finds it hard (this was in the context of being billed another £22 for a gym contract he thought he’d cancelled a month ago). He’s adamant he’s going to work/travel around Canada after sixth form. I have no doubt he’ll be confident about the travelling bit - and probably the work bit too! - but I just can’t see him managing all the other organisation stuff.

@crazycrofter which estate agent is your DD using? My DS phoned and said his group were looking at the "£150pppw mark, was that ok". I said it was doable but there seemed to be cheaper houses available so maybe consider those too! Sent him a link to one for £130 and his group all liked it and are going to try to arrange a viewing. Now I just have to hunt out some £80pppw examples, I didn't expect my suggestions to be taken seriously!

@blinkbonny the cheaper ones aren’t around for long! She’s mainly using Purple Frog, Unipol, On the market I think

@crazycrofter thank you and good luck to your DD!

@crazycrofter I've no idea why this house, in this area. Living in this house in the Lenton triangle means a 30 min walk to uni (25 to medical centre). I thought she wanted to be in Lenton just behind the QMC where it's a much quicker walk. The house itself isn't like the others in the area, it's a new build, but def NOT worth £150 pw even with all bills included and no cap. She has fallen for the modern finishings, open plan I think. She didn't notice that the fridge and freezer are on the middle floor in the utility room whilst kitchen on ground floor... No storage really either, not keen on the road it's on myself, the house is behind lots of shops I think as loads of bins nearby. I didn't want to pee on her parade though just said there are definitely much cheaper options around but glad she was excited about it. Knowing that it won't cost us more than this year is why we are just leaving her to it. She will have to make up any difference from her own money, we will just top up her loan to the max as this year. I suspect she will move in Yr 3 to a cheaper house once she realises she is overpaying.

@blinkbonny I'm pleased your DS listened :-)

@Cantonet sorry to hear about your DS it's so hard to work out if there are ok or not isn't it. Hopefully he can get some good revision (learning) done over Christmas and then be ok in the Jan exams.

@crazycrofter good luck to your DD getting that £80 house - sounds great.

@OrangeCinnamonLatte good luck with your new job.

@Piggywaspushed has your DS started looking yet? is Birmingham expensive?

@BlueMarigold how is your DD doing?

Nottingham lot- do your DD/DS have many exams in January? DD says she thinks she only has 1. I've looked at her exam timetable and it's blank so looks like she is right. Her normal timetable is blank the first 2 weeks back.

Dd has no idea about exams @heifer . She’s not one to think too far ahead 😂

@heifer dd and friends are adamant they need to be in the ‘triangle’ as everyone else is there so they’ll have a better social life, plus it’s cheaper to get back from town. There is a free bus between the two campuses so that might help for lectures?

thanks @crazycrofter - DD did say she would catch the bus but all I thought was oh crap that's more £ to useful to know it would be free then walk from Jubilee. Lol at your exam comment :-) I just wanted to know so I knew if DD was going to have a relaxing time over Christmas break or not. Can she work...