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

Ds came home Friday afternoon. We didn't see that much of him really. He went to UEA to watch the England football match with his mate then slept on his floor for the night. His mate is living in the same block that ds1 was in for year 1. Ds2 much prefers his accommodation at Sussex and prefers having 6 housemates to the thought of 12 at UEA.

Ds slept all day today, got up about 3pm then dh dropped him at the station to get the train back to Brighton at 5pm. I don't know if he's back but he messaged to say he was at Brighton, so just the last train to falmer to catch.

This time in 2 weeks he should be home for the Christmas break.

He wasn't interested in any conversation about house hunting. There's absolutely no point in me suggesting anything. He won't listen. He knows he wants to share with 3 girls. So that's a start.

DD contacted us over the weekend. She has a mock tribunal next week, and can we post her an outfit that would be appropriate for a solicitor to wear? We only really hear from her when she wants something. I suppose this is probably a good thing. Although it means I have no idea how house hunting for next year is going…

DS still hasn't found his wallet. He has cancelled one card and frozen the other (can still use Apple Pay and he has some cash). If when the new one turns up the wallet is still missing he will cancel the other one too. We are going to hold off on re-ordering the driving licence for a few more days due to the cost as he says he rarely needs it for ID now, the pubs know them or accept their student id (benefits of being in a small town uni). Seems the airtag wasn't much help after all. I am visiting him later in the week so I will have a look at the airtag location stuff on his phone when I'm there.

Ds called me last night. He is frustrated with his course but recognises that there is no course at undergraduate level that provides what he wants so it has to be a compromise and he is LOVING the opportunity to be involved with another department which he would not get elsewhere.

The tutors/lecturers are great it's just him.

He has a busy few weeks. He is helping to rehearse a 60 piece choir for the Christmas concert and is playing keyboard for the concert. He is playing with a 40 piece orchestra in a music from the movies concert (this is an outside organisation) and he is busy arranging music for his band.

He said he will be glad when he gets to work on more original music as part of his course instead of covers he is doing at the moment. I reminded him that when he applied he was in the middle of a big I can't write songs crisis and he specifically chose to apply to places where songwriting was not compulsory or part of the course (at Leeds it is a separate course on it's own.).

He has a theory and aural exam straight after Christmas plus a band performance assessment and individual keyboard assessment. He says the theory and aural is quite basic so he is confident he doesn't have to do much work to prepare!

Oh, that all sounds really good.

DS played in a concert at Birmingham in a nice venue on Friday. During the England match. That's commitment to the band!

Nice to hear about all the performances. I used to do music, I was part of the choir at uni, but neither of mine like that sort of thing.

Dd has managed to secure the £80 house! I’m so chuffed! Her minimum loan will cover rent so we’ll just need to help with bills and food. She also keeps messaging me about jobs she’s applying for so at least she’s taking her financial responsibilities seriously! She was relying on having Christmas money until I broke it to her that the wider family will probably stop giving her presents now she’s an adult!

Excellent Crazy.

Ds is going to look at private halls today with two coursemates.

Is that £80 with or without bills? Either way that's an excellent price!

The difference between second year accommodation costs isn't discussed all that much on MN - other than re London perhaps.

It’s without bills. The current tenants said they’re paying £10 a week on bills - not sure if that’s based on last year’s useage or this year’s though as this is their third year in the house. And of course next winter will be higher- we were thinking maybe £20 a week on bills?

It was lovely having DD home for a few days. We did lots of talking. She thinks she would like to stay at UEA - she likes the uni. campus and Norwich. She is going to try and get onto the straight degree of the subject she chose as her major. I think she will be better off being based in a in single school and with a consistent group of coursemates. We don't think she has done enough of the modules so far to just switch for the next semester, so will hopefully be able to restart Y1 in September, if they are willing to accept her onto the course. Hoping it can be sone internally rather than having to do the whole UCAS thing again. If she can do this, we will consider accommodation for next year at that point.

I don't think it will do her any harm to stay at home from Christmas to next September. She is very young in her year and she really did miss out on all the growing up/social stuff due to covid and the fact that she couldn't go to pubs etc until after she had left school!! She can find some part time work, which she hasn't done before, and practice some adulting skills.

If she can't switch courses, I'm not really sure where we go. She doesn't seem keen on trying a different uni, so doubt that she would want to restart elsewhere in September. I know there is no rush, but she also seems very down about the possibility of finding a half decent permanent job with only A levels and little experience.

@Seeline that sounds really positive that she's got firm views on UEA and has decided that the course is the problem.

As a plan B could she apply for some retail/business degree apprenticeships? Quite a few large companies offer them, eg Unilever, Morrisons, Siemens etc and they're very competitive but if I recall correctly, your dd has really good grades?

She could get a job in retail or an office in the meantime as experience, and it might also help her get an idea whether she'd actually like to do an apprenticeship. Ignore me if that's definitely not up her street! I've been researching apprenticeships for year 12 ds as he definitely doesn't want to go to uni.

So, I have discovered that these 52 week contracts mean previous tenants are supposed to clean house and leave it tidy. This is another new one on me. All houses in Lincoln have about 3 weeks unoccupied and the agencies clean them - some better than others it has to be said.

No wonder WIWIKAU is full of people complaining about the state of houses when their DCs move in.

That makes sense @Piggywaspushed , I guess they're maximising their profits!

Dd seems to be the one 'in charge' of her group; she's been doing the phone calls and has just sent everyone's holding deposit off. I assume her house is a 52 week tenancy as it starts in mid June. Surely the letting agency must at least do a tour of the house before new tenants are in to check for breakages etc and decide how much deposit to keep?

Ds1's tenancy for second year house was 50 weeks. I assumed they all would be similar. Ds1 stayed 2 years so negotiated a 48 week tenancy for year 2 as they'd stayed 52 weeks year 1. I said on here recently that a friends dd who is at York university has a 44 week contract in her private rental, then the landlord rents it for 8 weeks as a summer holiday let. That's a great idea. They've re booked their third year, so the dd can go home for the summer and not have to pay rent. It's a shame more places don't do the same.

I suppose there’s more demand for summer lets in York compared to Birmingham!

@Seeline that sounds positive, glad she at least loves the place. It might be possible for her to do an in-year switch, would she want to if she could? I guess it would be less pressure if she started again, hopefully in good health! I know lots of gap year students who are happy with their jobs. DS2 loves his hospital job, several got jobs in the school they had just left as LSAs, a couple doing bar work. There is plenty of work around, according to the news there is a record number of vacancies.

DS's GF has also found a reasonably priced house in Nottingham. Apparently Gordon Ramsay's daughter is living there at the moment so they are dreaming that he might send food parcels to her old address!

We are lucky that in Scotland there is no end date for tenancies. DS1's group rented from 1/9, moved in 3/9, can leave end of May or end of June, as they choose.

Meanwhile, DD's "life" class has been concentrating on speed. Can't spend forever on stuff as a jobbing illustrator! This is a big step for someone who is a bit of a perfectionist...

This piece took 8 minutes!

Wow @PhotoDad thats amazing 😮😮

That’s lovely @PhotoDad

Ds seems to have found a house -£102 a week incl bills which after Bath seems very reasonable though more than we paid for Dd at Leeds

@PhotoDad Your DD’s artwork always makes me smile!
This one is absolutely stunning! 😍

Ds’s friend who is on a gap year got a rejection today from his first choice place.
i think he has taken it badly.

@Comefromaway That's unlucky. Isn't it a larger birth year this year?

@Seeline Sounds like a very productive chat. Have they really done so much in term one that she cannot catch up as she's done part anyway?

@Monkey2001 I'd be more worried GR turned up and had a rant about the state of the kitchen!

@PhotoDad Impressive.

It was an incredibly competitive course but he’d set his heart on it.

Ds and his friends liked the private halls they went to look at today so are going to go ahead.

@Seeline that sounds a good plan.
@crazycrofter your dd will have two weeks for the price of one compared to many including my dd!! That's fabulous!