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

I am sitting sniggering at love-stream in the airport departure lounge. Funeral went well but it is going to be a long evening, our departure keeps getting nudged back 15 mims at a time.

ED I saw your message before seeing Piggy's lovely typo and thought you were seeing streams of valentine lovers!

Good luck Piglet!

The results are in!

They came bottom....

I still thought they were good. But they may have lost a lot of entertainment points as they didn't have any show at all. Not even a powerpoint!

Conservatoire won (obvs).

Haha @Piggywaspushed - at least they participated! I'm sure it was a fun experience. My fellow trombonist at school went on to the Conservatoire. They do have a bit of an advantage, being a music school!

Well, it's the taking part that counts! Hope he enjoyed himself.

I'm home again, it has been a long day but everything went well, it was a big funeral and despite it being 450 miles away I met someone who lives just up the road from me.

Ah that’s a shame @Piggywaspushed but good on them for getting up there and going for it against the ‘big boys’.

Sounds like a great experience anyway, @Piggywaspushed. Glad you're safe back, @EasilyDirected.

Today's 'moment' was finding a pool of water under the cistern in the loo. It's a slow leak (famous last words) which I can't find and a plumber is turning up tomorrow morning.

But at least DD is still sending art home! Here's an illustration from one of her own stories.

Don’t forget there are two divisions. So even though Piggy’s sons band came last that was in the Trophy section which is the first tier. The shield section is the next tier down from that.

Yes, Piggy Jr is, in theory, one of the Big Boys.

The spirit of UniBrass is that they are open, non auditioned bands. They were a bit annoyed by their feedback that said they had too many tubas !

@PhotoDad I haven't commented before, but your DD's talent is amazing - this latest one just outstanding!

Well done Piggy's ds. I don't like it when the Big Boys automatically win.

I had to ring ds and ask him for dates. I was getting confused about when he finishes for each term. Plus my mum offered us her portugal alvor time-share mid april, and did he want to come? ds is very excited. He proceeded to phone me riding home on his bike from his screwfix shift. I told him I couldn't understand what he was saying and could he ring later. But no he is so busy, going to the gym, going to church, that he can't. I did express my concern that so much fun was being had, it was so very manic, that not enough down time, was being had. Not enough sleeping, lecture attending, studying. I seriously feel he is living life a bit too full on for his own good and I told him to calm down.
He's got to be out on march 31st. So I need to go and collect his stuff. He's then going to wales for a christian week. Then somehow get home for a couple of weeks, then on holiday to Portugal with us. Dh recons he can drive him back to Notts straight from the airport.
He's then telling me he finishes the term roughly 16th June, but doesn't yet know when his last exam is. But he's flying to New York for Camp America on 18th. Not flying home for 9 weeks. Then has to go back to Notts to sit another accountancy paper, in a single week (which is ridiculous), before he starts some pre term sessions, then he's off for his work experience.
I told him that whilst living life to the full and taking everything there was to take from Uni, was fine, there was a reason that he was there! and not to forget that. Because it looks mad to me, I felt bamboozled just listening to it, and that there didn't appear to be enough time to even have a shit!
He laughed. but I am a tad concerned.

That does sound pretty full on @Oblomov23 ! I keep trying to make DS look for a summer placement but everything is mañana. <sigh>

@Oblomov23 I think it is great to live life to the full as a student - busy people achieve more. When he gets exam results he can review whether the work element of his life needs to grow, but first year does not usually count, you just have to pass. Most universities finish exams in the first week of June and then just have fun whilst waiting for results at the end of term, so leave date is flexible. He could almost definitely come home early, but it sounds like he might be too busy having fun!

@PhotoDad we love being your DD's fan club - fab work and so full of character as well as skill.

My dh went there.

@PhotoDad we love being your DD's fan club - fab work and so full of character as well as skill.

She is incredibly talented. It's great to see her development.

Would anyone be interested in seeing any of ds's work/performances? I might have to name change for those posts (you'd all know but it would mean I would not be totally searchable). He has recently been doing lots of gigs and shows. I don't want to spam this lovely group though.

@Comefromaway
Oh please do. I think we'd all like it. We all love seeing Photodad dd's stuff.

Monkey, true. I can't complain, unless his marks/exams aren't good enough, I guess.

@Oblomov23 the exam period is on the website and there's definitely a couple of weeks of term after exams end, so the end date is flexible. I was looking at it hoping dd will stay those last two weeks and get her money's worth, having missed three weeks this term.

Don't worry about the amount of activity, it sounds fairly normal - or at least the same as dd. They just need to pass first year; things will change in year 2. Dd is also going on the Wales week at the start of Easter. I hope she manages to get some shifts at her local job for the rest of the holidays though, as she missed out on a week's work because of glandular fever.

Oh, Oblomov , just reading all that has exhausted me!!

Yes, lovely music welcome!

Music very welcome here! (The nice thing about visual arts is that it's easy to share, more so than an essay or a sheet of equations... thanks for the nice comments. She really is developing!)

Important message for the day, which you probably all know already; don't use in-cistern cleaning blocks in your loo. They gradually corrode the plastic pipes/joints and cause a slow leak. Plumber has fixed it (and installed some new taps while he was here).

DS has a Medicine offer from UEA!!!! His favourite course but least favourite location, so not sure he will end up there, but lovely to have the offer and know that he will be a Medic in September. Just need the A for Chemistry. Also lovely that he got it whilst visiting his GF in Nottingham, he can celebrate with her. Were any of the people who do Christian camps at church weekend away which finished yesterday? She went to that one.

Yes please @Comefromaway would love to hear your DS's music.

Huge congratulations to your DS @Monkey2001. What fabulous news!

Congratulations @Monkey2001 !

Congratulations @Monkey2001. DS is friends with a few UEA medics, they love it. Norwich may be a small city but there is plenty going on, and the campus is really nice.