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

@ProggyMat How has your daughter found the train journey? It’s such a pain that there are no direct trains from up here to Oxford. It’s quicker to drive which is ridiculous really. Dh is taking ds and will stay over in a premier inn on the Thursday night after doing a bit of sales shopping at Bicester!

@JustHereWithMyPopcorn I hope ds1 does mature but somehow I doubt it. I've been to menorca, corfu and France. So no...I'm not well travelled. I went to corfu in 1995 then didn't go abroad again until I took ds3 to France with our village twinning group in 2019 I had to go to Norwich for an interview to get my passport. Yet all 3 dc's had one. Yes I'd only want to go for a few weeks at a time. Though if I went to NZ or Australia I think it would need to be a month.

@ScarlettDarling I don't think she minds it-she's used to a 6 and a half hour coach journey to Birmingham to see her boyfriend,though!
She says she'll be 'living like a Spartan' the first few days back as will be concentrating on her collections rather than unpacking/sorting out her room😂
I might collect her at the end of summer term -which will involve an overnight stay as I couldnt do there and back in a day- and hopefully see more of her college and Oxford itself

@ProggyMat We did there and back in a day when we dropped ds off in October….it was a very long day and we wouldn’t be in a hurry to do it again!

Good luck to your dd @OrangeCinnamonLatte . @JustHereWithMyPopcorn what are your transferable skills?

@seeline dd got her warehouse job on Indeed. It's straightforward enough. Although she did 24k steps yesterday so you have to be fit. But your dd dances doesn't she?!

@crazycrofter I'm an architect and run my own practice so I would think there are a few but I don't want another job in this industry so need to make that have a broader appeal into other sectors. I haven't had a chance to sit down and go through that yet. I'm trying to think what I'd actually enjoy doing for the next 15 years and then see if my skills can be useful in that field. I need (realistic) inspiration but it's not coming, I think my head is too full of catarrh!

Hi all thanks for the good wishes ! She passed and is v pleased !

Yay!! @OrangeCinnamonLatte fab news!!

That’s great @OrangeCinnamonLatte 😃

Phew @OrangeCinnamonLatte well done to her! Now the ordeal to book a driving test.....

@OrangeCinnamonLatte Congratulations!

@ProggyMat Some Oxbridge colleges (not all) have guest rooms which students can book for relatives staying overnight. Maybe worth investigating?

@JustHereWithMyPopcorn There will be lots of opportunities open to you. Depends on how far removed from architecture you want to be and salary expectation. These are outside the SE:
Our local police force is advertising for an estates manager £50k
Local alms house charity was looking for a chief executive in the summer £60k
Headway Charity "Whether already part of the industry, or ready for a brand new challenge, Headway – The Brain Injury Association is looking for an enthusiastic individual to join the organisation and play a key role in servicing its clients."

@OrangeCinnamonLatte Hurrah!!

@PhotoDad I think she’s happy enough to revise at home for her collections- if she were to go down earlier I suspect she’d be ‘back in the social whirl’ ! 🤣
The deadline for a request for an early return back to her room was before her college announced the collections dates and she’d already booked a cheap train ticket!
Lesson learned for next term me finks!

@ProggyMat is her room not just there for her to return to whenever she wants?

No, as most rooms in Oxford Colleges are not, along with other Universities where the student pays for their room during term time only and they have to ‘clear it out’ each term so that it can be used for conference guests or tourists.

Her term time accommodation is extremely cheap which more than compensates for the stress of having to ‘clear it out’ and she also receives a very generous discount from her college.
She can request extra days of accommodation which has ‘caught her on the hop’ this term, so to speak and next term will no doubt ask for more days in ‘her room‘ during the end of vacation and prior to the next round of collections.

Thank you @EwwSprouts not sure any of those would be right for me (lack of self belief plays a big part here) but I appreciate that what you’re showing me are a range of opportunities that are out there. I need to take some time and think about what I want, I’m steering away from wanting responsibility as my anxiety levels, which have always been high, are definitely rising with the arrival of menopausal changes but realise that means a lower salary expectation.

On our way north again, it’s zipped by 😢 @ProggyMat the room now barely looks like she’s been there … tbf she was quite sensible not to put stuff away as it made it easier to pack, and not accidentally leave things. But it did make it look like total chaos in there.

We’re taking our vacuum cleaner with us to give the flat (mostly her bit) a quick once over as apparently it’s all far too much effort to report the broken hoover …

Decorations down, tree out, both DC packed apart from last bits on the drying rail. I’m a bit worried that they might feel they’re being swept out with the pine needles, so we’re taking them both out for brunch tomorrow on the way to the station.

@JustHereWithMyPopcorn I know what you mean. I career changed six years ago and went part-time and low salary in the charity sector. Oh the joy of not being measured on key performance indicators or recording activity by the 10 minute chunk etc. I've moved jobs since and gone back to managing a team but it's not full-time. The nature of the job is 'deal with what's in front of you' so when I go home there is far less to stress about and not much I can do, apart from the odd grant application. Be kind to yourself.

I haven't career changed as such but went from multinational corporations (several over about 20 years) to a tiny local business following redundancy about 10 years ago and would never want to go back, totally agree about all the stuff @EwwSprouts mentions. It is SO much more relaxed, the whole company can sit round one table for meetings, everyone knows everyone, no corporate guff.

Thanks both, yes I want to be able to leave the job/stress at the end of the day and not lie awake worrying about everything. I also feel like I want to go back to a salary instead of constantly worrying about bringing in the next project and will I invoice enough this month etc.

Its good to hear that you’ve done it successfully.

I'd like to go part time really but DH did about three years ago so now I can't. I'd love just one weekday off a week to recharge.

You have to be careful about that though. When DC wfh it’s not quite the same as having a day at home alone. Not that I get one anyway as full time, we’ll 8.45-4.00.

*well