Thread 44 GCSE Covid Cohort - Countdown to Christmas & New Year

[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

Dd did her first day at work yesterday and came home complaining of sore feet. When she looked inside her steel capped safety shoes it turns out I’d ordered her size 8 instead of 6 😬 I thought I was doing her a favour by sorting them out for her! She’s ordered a pair of 6s for next week and wondering if she can polish the 8s up well enough to return them?!

@icanbewhatiwant is he working in NZ too or just travelling?

@crazycrofter he's gone with a company called BUNAC there will be a group of them arriving at the same time. Ds is going with one friend. The first week the company take them on trips so they get s bit of a holiday, then help them find work from the second week. Ds wants to work a few months then travel a bit, then work etc. but the friend he has gone with has been working for the 3 years that Ds was at university, so he had lots of money saved and only wants to travel. So Ds thinks they will go their separate ways. I'm sure as there will be a group of them that Ds will find others working too.

My DD is also in Birmingham in Aiken and she said there is a bit of mould in the kitchen.

@ZittiEBuoni Great update. Lovely to know she has a choice.

@icanbewhatiwant Sounds a good hybrid between work and play, organised and independence.

@icanbewhatiwant my ds wants to do that sort of thing at some point after A Levels. I’ve told him he’ll need to work for a while first!

@crazycrofter yes Ds has worked full time every summer from end of A levels until third year of university. Then he worked full time from august until nov this year. Do he has a fair bit saved. Though flights were almost £2k He has to prove he has at least £3k in the bank on his arrival too.

Ah yes, it’s the same co I looked at but for Canada. Ds has a Sat job and will be offered full time work in all his holidays apparently, but I don’t think he’ll save up enough by the end of year 13..

Catching up- sort of- despite intermittent t’internet and exhausting calls to my provider…
@PhotoDad Love your DDs ‘Game of Thrones- esque’ shot and the ‘tight lipped’Robin’!
@Heifer well done to your DD - beep beep!
DD is going back to Oxford next week - can’t believe how quickly 5 weeks being home have flown although @DontCallMeBaby I ‘see’ your DDs room and ‘raise’ you my DDs room 😱🤣
@ScarlettDarling when is your DS travelling back?

@crazycrofter it's all such a lot of money isn't it. Ds1 might run out of money before the year is over. Then Ds2 wants to do a year in America for university year 3 too. He's never even been on a plane before.

We're the same with dd. She doesn't need a car for most of the year but for three months in the summer it will be needed.
Insurance for her head dropped when I reduced the annual mileage.

Dd has her theory today. Fingers crossed please as second attempt. She has been having lessons (paid/arranged by herself) at Cardiff. We've also found a very local school holiday playscheme for children with additional/special needs she can apply for. Fingers crossed for that too. Be nice to get summer job sorted. I've been trying to encourage her to look further afield but the boyfriend is pulling her home.

@ProggyMat Ds is going back next Thursday. It’s the latest day he could return as he has an exams on Friday and Saturday. He has some friends going back as early as Monday but we can’t drive him until the Thurs. When is your dd returning?

Driving DS back to Bristol today. He'd booked a coach ticket but due to train strikes, it's virtually impossible to get to the coach station 😡. He's got Christmas goodies to take back too

DD not having much luck job searching. She only needs something for 8/9 months so feels bad about applying for permanent jobs. Only temp jobs at the moment are TA type things which ask for qualifications she hasn't got. I'm surprised - the TAs my two had at school possibly had maths and English but some were doubtful.
The other option is waitressing etc, but DD is really uncoordinated and none of us can imagine her carrying tray loads of plates/drinks. She spills everything at home!

Good luck with the theory test OrangeCinnamonLatte DD!

Are there any temp agencies locally your dd could sign up to Seeline? Or maybe shop work? My dd would be the same waitressing, she would end up paying more for breakages than she ever earned.

I didn't know temp agencies still existed @ZittiEBuoni 😳! Thought everything was online these days and the search function on those is really poor. I shall get DD toinvestigate

@icanbewhatiwant DS has driven his car pretty much every day since he's been home so at least he's got a bit of use before heading back next weekend.

How do you feel about you DS going to NZ? It sounds like a cool opportunity. I was never a traveller and that would have scared me but my sister has done so much travelling around the world on her own it always amazes me how unfazed she is by it. DS1 wants to go to the US but the more I see it on the news or social media the less I want him to got here.

Speaking of jobs, has anyone on here done a big career change? I am so disillusioned by my job now I am seriously considering something completely different but because it's so specific all the job searches just suggest things in the same field - I don't want anything to do with the building industry at all. I was awake at 4.30am thinking about it.

I'm not sure how Dd managed to sign up with her agency for TA work it is in Wales so possibly different. She did have to do some training before but only online stuff (safeguarding etc) I think.

Good luck to your DD @OrangeCinnamonLatte hope it goes well.

@ScarlettDarling DD is travelling early Thursday morning as her exams start on Friday too.
She's a bit miffed as some of her friends are also going back on Monday but she'd already booked her train ticket so did not want to ask her college for 'an early return'.

My two look on Indeed.com for jobs, some listed there are through agencies, including all the TA ones, there are links that take you straight through to the application form.

DS is going back on Sunday for a few days but coming back again on Weds for the rest of the week, he doesn't need to be on campus till Fri 20th. Term starts on Monday but the new semester starts on the 23rd so in between is an exam/assessment period, his is assessed by assignments which are due in next week, and he's got his first driving lesson up there next week too. Spent last night talking him through some of the theory stuff with the app and we will have a crash course (bad choice of words ) on signs and roadmarkings on the way back on Sun.

@Seeline ds1 found a temporary office job through Reed. He was the same...wasn't sure whether to tell people he was going to NZ. At the online interview they had him doing excel and typing while he was timed and that was good enough for them. He told me that even I (meaning me) could do it. Not sure how to take that!

@JustHereWithMyPopcorn ds1 is not that easy to live with, he's so bad tempered, he makes a lot of mess too and denies it was him, it winds us all up, so in a way I am quite happy he's gone away. But it doesn't feel real that I won't see him for a year. I think it's good for them to travel...I feel a bit jealous too, I've hardly been anywhere myself, dh won't go on a plane and his passport ran out in the early 80's he doesn't intend to get another, dh has no desire to travel at all. When we had the farm he didn't even want to go on holiday, he used to say he can't go because of the cattle, but we had plenty of offers of help if we wanted to go away. So the dc's haven't been far, the older 2 went on trips abroad with school, mostly by coach. Ds2 hasn't been on a plane yet. Our first whole week away together as a family was in 2018 to Dorset after dh sold the farm, the dc's argued the whole week. It was a nightmare, we went to clovelly the summer after. But we won't ever go again as a family. The older 2 don't want to come anymore anyway. Though if we went abroad they'd come. We've just booked this years holiday to the Peak District. We've not been there. Just dh, ds3 and me. I can only dream of countries I'd love to visit. I think my travelling days will come when I retire!

@OrangeCinnamonLatte good luck to your dd 🤞

@icanbewhatiwant I went to NZ for 5 weeks when I was about 22 (I was working full time so went over Christmas with annual leave from both years). Similar journey, London to LA, then SF and final stop Hawaii. It was really weird how warm it was when I got there and it was Christmas (not so nice arriving back in England in Feb). I stayed with a friend who was working out there initially in Auckland, then we drove to the South Island, stayed with relatives of hers who had a holiday lodge over New Year, then they all went back to work, I hitched a lift further south with some other people from the holiday lodges and stayed at their place for a couple of days before joining a backpackers tour bus thing for a week which was a blast, then hitched lifts with some of them back to the North Island and made my way back to Auckland. I can't imagine doing the same now. My Dh is a cautious/reluctant traveller too and the DCs are happy to come along if I arrange it but no one else in the family wants to travel enough to get their finger out and actually organise anything.

I understand that @icanbewhatiwant sometimes the separation is needed for everyone's sanity, perhaps a year away might make him mature a bit.
So you really haven't travelled at all! I have been lucky enough to go to many countries but never long term, two weeks is enough for me usually and then I want to be back where I feel comfortable! I do enjoy seeing places but a year or constant moving around for months would not suit me at all. Start planning your retirement trips now!

Good luck to your DD today @OrangeCinnamonLatte

@EspeciallyDetermined that sounded great. It must be so good to have some memories. I can't get round the time thing in my tiny brain...Ds is 8 hours behind us in San Francisco...yet he flies across the sea and jumps forward 22 hours. He's going to lose a day 😂