Thread 45 GCSE Covid Cohort - Bunnies bouncing into Spring

[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 dancing; and good luck with the room swap!

@craggyrat Fingers crossed for an accommodation swap- that’s a huge hike!
DD is also in receipt of the maximum loan and a Crankstart Scholarship but fortunately her college’s accommodation is all the same price and she also receives a very generous subsidy from her college.
Six large cardboard boxes have now successfully ‘winged their way back oop North via UPS ( work perks). Some of her ‘other stuff’ will be stored in college and I will collect DD and the suitcase of ‘more stuff’ up tomorrow afternoon from train station - I can’t wait!!!
@ScarlettDarling I was lurking on the weather board and noticed your post to say that DH was driving down to collect DS today- has he safely arrived?

Should add that the porters call DD ‘Miss ProggyMatt -the parcel girl’ 🤣

@ProggyMat Yes, he get there with no problems at all. Must have skirted round the edges of the snow all the way there as he drove the length of the country and hardly saw any, thank goodness!
Fingers crossed for the drive home today. Can’t wait to see my boy, although this term has flown compared to last. He had a big night out last night so mightn’t be much company for his dad on the drive home!
Bet you can’t wait to see your daughter? Is she still having fun?

@ScarlettDarling Thank goodness indeed! It’s such an exhausting drive without the white stuff.
Im sure just seeing him and bringing him home will be enough for DH even if there is no ‘chit chat’- Enjoy having your boy home!
Im thinking me, DD and Ddog on sofa in front of TV will be bliss.
She’s still working hard and playing hard - managed a weekend in Naples-but not as ‘hard core’ these last few weeks. I’ll send a PM

@ProggyMat - am very jealous of the UPS! We even bring his folding bike home now as his previous one was stolen… quite a car load! He managed a room swap for free recently as he had a ground floor corner one and as it is an open college he had loads of tourists peering in. New room does have much more locked cupboards space for holidays so that’s good. Pity he can’t keep this one for next year.

@craggyrat Lord! 😱
Mind you, thankfully DD is at the top of a staircase so it’s only the scouts that are being appalled by the state of her room- it’s a wonder she hasn’t been put on report!
I take my hat off to those doing the twice termly drives from the North as just the thought of it has me exhausted!

Just realised I didn’t word that properly! The poor scouts shouldn’t be subjected to the state of DDs room.

Morning all, DS is home for the weekend, I drove up and picked him up yesterday as its my day off, I went up a bit early to allow myself a couple of hours mooching round the town on my own, he has picked a lovely location. Bit of admin stuff with him today, he needs to do student finance and submit a form with all the details for his summer work placement, which is all agreed now, plus get back to another placement host who had asked him to come in over Easter but now won’t be following up. He is glad to be away this weekend as its another offer holder day, there was one last Saturday too and he said people were trampling up and down his corridor and talking loudly all day from about 8.30am.

@icanbewhatiwant I had a mammogram for a lump when I was about 40 (all clear) and then got called again at 49, they said they were piloting starting them younger, it probably varies between areas.

@EasilyDirected thanks. I am older than that but as you say it'll be different in each area.

@280NeuerNamen Sorry to hear he's had a torrid time and not much uni support. Hopefully Easter he will appreciate some home TLC and a little help to work up some realistic plans for next term.

@AlexanderHamilton Lovely to see more talent.

Went with a friend to see the Strictly Ballroom musical last night. Just what was needed in dreary February when I find it too easy to stay cosy on the sofa. If it's coming to a city near you I would recommend going.

DS has just told me he's coming home for Easter this Wednesday. Better get some food in!

@ProggyMat Love that she is known.

Thank you @EwwSprouts 😊

Just two weeks break for Easter and new set of exams a few weeks after so it will be a mixture of tlc and motivation hopefully.

He is doing well so far, has transferred me his savings to look after and has already half caught up with one subject for this semester so fingers crossed the momentum continues.

@280NeuerNamen Sounds promising. As DS keeps telling me this year's grades don't count so just got to pass.

Ds2 just text me. He was going to come home Thursday with dh's dd as she will be house/dog/ds3 sitting while dh and I go away for 2 nights. He's now decided not to come home after all. As it's Mother's Day and my birthday on 19th it would have been great to see him. But I thought he'd change his mind. I also booked the last week of March off to collect him for Easter hols. He said he isn't coming home now. Though if he gets bored on his own he might come home to watch Ipswich play 2 games around 15th April. His other housemates are returning home 31st March. Ds says he loves it there all by himself. I suppose I should be pleased he's happy.

Hi everyone, nice to hear about returning children etc. I have DD1 (aged 25) home which is lovely, not least because she has taken over the nerve-wracking role of accompanying learner driver dd2 (17) on her practice sessions… 😱

DD only gets two weeks for Easter (which happens to include her birthday!) so we won't see her for a while yet. But then when she returns, she'll only have a couple of weeks to wrap up her portfolios and hand in her projects and then she'll be done for the year. (One project per module; for one of them, they are making illustrated physical books from scratch, including hand-printing and binding, to learn about the skills of production..!)

Housing contract runs for 6 weeks after that, so she and her friends are planning on finding something to do, preferably paid, to make the most of their time in such a wonderful city.

I think I said Ds went to visit his band mates in Manchester to rehearse. One of them has gone back to Leeds with him for the weekend. They wrote a song and are going to record some vocals, then go out tonight with some of ds’s Leeds friends.

Also, you know when you go to a museum or gallery and there are students sitting on camp-stools, sketching? My DD has become one of them. Not for the course, just a fun way of spending a rainy Saturday with her friends.

Just spent an hour with DS doing his student finance and chatting through how his budgetting is going, he has been worrying a bit about how much money he is spending but forgetting that quite a bit of it is on driving lessons, which he has had some grandparent money for from last year, so he’s more or less on track.

Another lovely piece of art @PhotoDad what a lovely way to spend a wet afternoon. I went for a walk with a friend this afternoon and it was bitterly cold and sleeting again.

@Oblomov23 how are you feeling now, is there any improvement in your back?

@Comefromaway fabulous dancing

Last night I found that DD had mis-understood our Easter plans. Now she'll be with us for just a week, which will mean joining us on a family break in Scotland (as planned) but getting there under her own steam (train journey with three changes, which wasn't planned). This time last year she was anxious about getting to town on public transport!

This year's High Fliers report is out. Not relevant to everyone and only one part of a picture but interesting to look at:

www.highfliers.co.uk/download/2023/graduate_market/GMReport23.pdf

It is interesting thanks @Piggywaspushed . I think this chart is interesting as it shows the top employers take half their recruits from non-RG non-Oxbridge universities:

Also interesting is that the top 3 unis employers target are Manchester Nottingham and Birmingham, Cambridge further down and Oxford further still, and St Andrews doesn’t even make the top 20. I am sure that is partly to do with geography - the top 3 are large centrally located unis so if an employer is only going to go to three it makes sense you would go to those - but the extent to which St Andrews is off the radar is certainly something that would give me pause for thought.