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

Great news @Seeline

@EspeciallyD my DS in year 12 too so also on similar journey and also decided not London and would prefer campus. We’ve got the added bonus that DS can’t decide what to study - either physics or geography with/without a year abroad And maybe BSc/ integrated masters. DD knew she wanted to do music at a conservatoire so that was so much easier to narrow down. I’ve created a spreadsheet for DS, it’s huge already!

@EspeciallyD her boyfriend had a temp. Of 41 this morning & was confused - dangerously high. DD gave him ibuprofen & paracetamol & sponged him down. It's come down a little & he can now talk. The worst thing is he's an only child & hasn't seen his parents for the last 3 years due to Covid regs. So she's feeling very responsible for giving this to him. No point going to a&e as the queue is bad.
She's a calm, sensible final year vet student, so he's probably in the safest place.

I had a message from ds's friend today worried that ds hadn't responded to any calls or messages since yesterday. It's nice to know they look out for each other. By the time I saw the message ds had been in touch but I did know that ds saw dh yesterday and that yesterday ds was in rehearsals until the evening then had load of practice to do for the two concerts this week. ds's friend said "I thought he'd died!!!!" Either that or had a meltdown.

In other life shattering news, ds has bought a coat. An actual coat (ok dh paid for it but still!!!!!!!)

Cantonet, has he spoken to a GP. 41 temp and confused sounds scary.

Oh dear, so much nasty illness around. Hope they all get better.

Good news @seeline, that must be a relief.

Ds is also year 12 @EspeciallyD and @PaddingtonPaddington . I'm sure there are others on here too. Just had his report, with predictions of B,C,D which is definitely not what he's capable of, but I 've not seen much evidence of homework this term... To be fair to him we've moved to a new area and new school and he spent 13 weeks living with people he didn't know well, so it's been a lot of change for him. He's adamant uni is a waste of money, so we're not looking. If he changes his mind I think he'll still have a gap year.

It is awful and worrying this year with illnesses, I feel like we might be destined to stay inside every winter forevermore. Your post about the coat did make me laugh @Comefromaway 😃

We do have a new thread to take us through to Christmas and beyond. Have popped the link below

Christmas Countdown

@Comefromaway ds2 doesn't have a coat either, until now he's not wanted one. But said he got a bit cold on the seafront in Brighton the last week. He's been on a dog walk with me a few times, it's been minus 7 in the mornings. But more like minus 1 by the time he walks in the afternoon. He will wear a fleece here, but wouldn't be seen in one if friends are looking. Ds asked me to go to Norwich with him tomorrow to look for coats. I don't want to go. It's going to be so busy. We will have to either train in, or park and ride. Or park outside ds1's uni house as 4 hours free parking there, but it's just under mile walk in.

Ds has gone to collect his certificate as they have a drop in afternoon. It said between 3pm and 4.30pm. He's picking someone up, but didn't leave until almost 4pm. It's 20 mins drive to school. So he still everything to the last min. I'm a bit worried about him driving on icy roads, he's not really driven the car since September. I warned him to be careful on the bends.

I hope those poorly feel better soon. Awful to hear of other cases of meningitis. There's no persuading Ds to get a vaccine.

@seeline A huge relief I'm sure.

@EspeciallyD Can I suggest she look at Durham? All the biological sciences students do a common first year before deciding what they would like to focus on or deciding if they want a year in industry or abroad. Allows for a more informed choice if they haven't already narrowed it down. Also can do a first year module from any dept. so a history one is perfectly feasible.

It is definitely a relief! Although within half an hour of getting the email, she had one from accommodation saying she had to vacate her room within 7 days! So we have a change of plans this weekend 😆

Thanks @EwwSprouts initially she had said she wanted to be within about 4 hours of home which Durham certainly isn't (we're in Hampshire) but I know of two friends DCs who have gone there this year from here and love it, and the train journey is straightforward if long, I'm going to look into it. One of them has done Chinese as their extra module this year with a non-language main subject.

I'll see you all on the new thread! A quick placeholder; my school breaks up tomorrow at lunchtime and then all four of us will be heading up to the Highlands for a week where I will probably be off-grid. Best of luck with upcoming reunions with DCs!

I’ve been reading the thread, but keeping pretty quiet. Our girl is in a right mess. She’s come home today and finally told us what’s going on
Something really shocking happened this Autumn to close family members, and it has affected her terribly and reignited a lot of the earlier trauma. But she responded by not keeping in touch and complaining about trivial things. So we got really confused, and quite cross. The university, when she finally told them she was struggling, responded magnificently. She’s barely done any work but has extensions until Easter. She has started anti depressants, and is clearly not great. She has spots and filthy hair and actually smells a bit. She’s always been fastidious as a cat. I’m not sure if she will be able to make up the work. Like baby Seeline , she also wants to swap to single honours, and I am wondering if she would be better starting again in September. But it’s late now to sort it. I am bitterly regretting that I didn’t go down and find out what was going on, but she was so unresponsive, didn’t even reply when I told her that 1 of our dogs died, 2 weeks after our cat. At least she’s home and safe now.

Oh zebra that sounds tough. At least she is home with you now for some care.

Zebra** I hope now she is with you, she can get sorted.

Oh @Zebracat : that sounds tough. Although brilliant that she managed to reach out for help at uni and that they responded so well. Hopefully having had those conversations early might make it easier to explore options with them in terms of course changes? Hope that you are ok: it must have been such a shock for you.

@Zebracat I'm glad she's home & you've found out what's going on. Now you can help her get better. Hopefully the antidepressants will lift her up a bit initially, but they can sometimes take a while to kick in.
@comeaway DD'S boyfriends temp. broke yesterday thank god. He's now just normally feverish & is fully coherent.
The hospital near them was one of the ones on strike but the plan if they couldn't get the temp down was to bundle him into a taxi & take him straight to a&e. Unfortunately his flat mates were worse than useless in this situation & its a good thing DD was there. Really high temps seem to be common with this latest flu outbreak, so just be aware that more than paracetamol may be needed.

Oh sorry that sounds really officious!
I'm now getting in Calpol & nurofen syrup in case of more flu In my family. As the sore throat is so bad it makes it difficult to swallow tablets.
Who's got kids applying for uni this year? Dd2 is in the middle of applying for architecture.
She's completing her third portfolio & has just pulled an all nighter 😧

Oh @Zebracat that sounds really tough! Glad that the uni has stepped up to support. If she is serious about swapping to single honours, I'd say go for it. Once DD had finally decided that's what she wanted, it has taken around 3weeks from formally starting the process to getting agreement. She took a while to decide that's what she wanted so it seems like it's taken forever, but it hasn't really.

@Zebracat sorry to hear of your girl's troubles, but reaching out to the university shows an impressive level of coping skills and it sounds like she has turned a corner.

Interesting that almost all the DC on here doing combined honours or liberal arts have switched. Maybe it is best to go for Scottish universities if you want to mix it up as they have a much more flexible structure built in to the whole degree programme.

oh @@Zebracat so sorry to hear she has not been getting on well but glad she is back with you. Take care of all of you including yourself

There are a lot of you Cantonet. It will be nice to follow some application journeys again.

Oh @zebra please don't put any blame on yourself, I hope your girl feels a bit better in time and so glad she was able to reach out to the Uni. Take care

Sorry to hear that @Zebracat 😢 With dd I often find that if something big is going on, she acts out and moans about minor things and seems (to me) petty and immature, until she finally tells me what the real issue is and I realise why she’s been behaving like that. I hope your dd can turn things round at uni, but if not, maybe she just needs some time to recover and a re-start in September. She’ll be in good company on this board!

Dd is back and has admitted that she’s really behind with work. She’s got lots of lectures to catch up on before her exams.

Thoughts are with you @Zebracat . Good that she got help. I hope being home will give her some comfort and perspective.