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

@NCTDN yes Greenbank village. Do you know it? Any insider info welcome.

Thanks for the new thread, @OrangeCinnamonLatte!

I'm currently in a Cambridge Premier Inn. Had a wonderful day with DD yesterday, who is absolutely loving life; a museum, the market, a book fair, an amazing Greek restaurant. She doesn't have any reading weeks, but presses through to Easter and then goes back for two weeks. Today she's planned a picnic for me to meet her friends (who are also her D&D group), plus another museum and the Botanic Gardens (weather permitting).

The First Year Illustrators are starting work on their first "live brief" (i.e. for an actual client, although unpaid) which is exciting, and she's talking about a summer job to fund travelling. Fingers crossed! (She had hoped to get something part-time in term-time, but work is taking up too much time/energy.)

Cambridge is a lovely city! Rents aren't cheap, though.

Thank you for the thread.

Nothing to report here. DS1 currently home from Lincoln on a flying visit. Remarkably he has thus far passed all his MA modules. He can't seem to get a part time job for love or money though. He must have applied for over 100. Has anyone else's DC found it hard to land a job? I think Lincoln may have some specific problems with a glut of older, more experienced people since Covid or something in competition for these jobs. I suspect they can offer more hours, too. More irritatingly, he ahs only applied for two postgrad jobs.

DS2 seems fine. He seems to have lost some of his mojo but I think that often happens to students who go to uni expecting lots of really interesting learning and find it maybe not as inspiring as they thought it would be. He is looking forward to choosing modules for next year, though.

I think the first half of the alphabet is missing there!

@Takeittotheboss i know a few people who have lived at that village. One girl was really disappointed to not get the city centre but then actually enjoyed her time there. It's in a lovely area for students. I've only really heard good things but it is a lot of money. Having said that, dd also lives at the accommodation village outside the city and enjoys having the green around her. Liverpool is significantly more modern than hers but I suppose you pay for what you get! We always knew Bristol was expensive but her rent includes meals this year.
I think generally non uni owned houses and flats are slightly cheaper in Liverpool than where she is.
Which is the cheaper option for you?

@Piggywaspushed dd just fell on a job luckily after applying for a few.
Has anyone's DCs signed up for this? www.servelegal.co.uk/become-a-serve-legal-auditor/
I think it sounds great.

I wondered how everyone was doing - I lost the thread a while ago and trying to support DD when all her friends were going to Uni meant I have only caught up with @Monkey2001 on the medicine threads.
I will now read the last few threads to catch up.

Thanks for the new thread @OrangeCinnamonLatte
Well done to your DS @Monkey2001 !
Fabulous artwork, as always @PhotoDad and I really enjoyed the music come
DD has successfully completed 5 weeks of term without a ‘roasting’ in her tutorials 😂
She’ll be home in 3 weeks which means term 2 of the first year will be done n dusted- can’t believe how quickly the time has flown!
The weekend before she comes home she’s off to Naples with some friends which should be fun although I imagine once back she’ll be moaning about the amount of work she has to do before term ends.

Lovely to hear from everyone.

Just placemarking go come back later. Thanks for the York food recommendations on the last thread!

Oh gosh I'm such a dolt! I'm pasting the top half of names here too...

@279Nouveauxnoms / DS / Engineering / Bath
@Alsoplayspiccolo / DD / English and Film / Birmingham
@AnneOfCleavage e / DD / gap year + Primary Education / Chichester
@anon2022anon / DD / Media / Newcastle
@Appuskidu / DD / Psychology / Birmingham
@Benjispruce4 / DD / Sociology / tbc 2023
@blinkbonny / DS / Sociology / Nottingham
@BlueMarigold / DD / Biology / Birmingham
@boxcar / DD / English and Drama / Birmingham
@boxcar / DS / Geography / Swansea
@Cantonet / DS / Sports Science / Surrey
@cariadambyth / DD / History / RHUL
@cheninblanc / DD / Digital Marketing for Fashion / Fashion Retail Academy
@Chewbecca / DS / Economics / Loughborough
@coffeeandbiscuittime / DD / Medicine / Newcastle, HYMS, Sheffield, Bristol
@collywobble / DS / PPE / Loughborough
@Comefromaway / DS / Music / Leeds Conservatoire
@craggyrat / DS / History / Cambridge
@crazycrofter / DD / Psychology / Nottingham
@Decorhate / DS / Economics and Politics / Sheffield
@Delphigirl / DS / Oceanography / gap year + Plymouth (or Dalhousie?)
@deuxgarcons / DS / Comp Sci / Swansea
@DoggerelBank / DS / Biotechnology / Manchester
@DontCallMeBaby / DD / TESOL and Korean / UCLAN
@ealingwestmum / DD / Middle Eastern & European Studies / TCD
@EwwSprouts / DS / Biology / Durham
@EerilyDevilled / DS / Wildlife Conservation and Countryside Management / RAU
@Fiddlersgreen / DS / Journalism / Leicester
@Fifipop185 / DD / Funeral operative apprenticeship
@Fonty / DS / History / Exeter
@Fruitygal / DD / Biology / Durham
@GoldenRuby / DD / Anthropology and Sociology / Durham
@handmademitlove / DD / / York
@HarrietDVane / DD / MFL / Warwick
@Hattifatteners / DD / Vet Med / Bristol
@Heifer / DD / Biology / Nottingham
@HibiscusIsland / DD / Biological Sciences / Warwick
@HoneyMobster / DD / Medicine / Oxford
@Horace123 / DS / Classics / Oxford
@horrificbiology / DD / Biology / Lancaster
@icanbewhatiwant / DS / History and Philosophy / Sussex
@Isthisjustnormal / DS / Comp Sci / York
@JustHereWithMyPopcorn / DS / Law / Nottingham
@KingscoteStaff / DD / Medicine / Newcastle
@kiwiandcherries / DD / Primary Education / Winchester
@Knickerthief1 / DD / Child Nursing / York
@Mango0 / DD / Maths / Lancaster
@MirandaWest / DS / gap year + Geography / Newcastle
@MondaysChild7 / DD / Interior Design / USW
@Monkey2001 / DS / Medicine / 2023
@mummabear74 / DD / Environmental Science /
@mummyinbeds / DS / Law and French Law / Nottingham

Hi everyone,
I hope all is well. @Zebracat so sorry about the flight scare - hope she is recovering from that. I had such a good week abroad by myself, read 9 novels, floated in the sea and spoke to nobody except to order food and say thank you! I really needed that. DS is on his boat, getting some great photos of him up masts, diving deep, hiking to waterfalls etc etc. amazing to think of him sailing all the way to Tahiti. DC4 (DD) is now thinking about uni entry for September applications - Arabic or Arabic and ME Studies or Persian … that sort of thing. I started a thread in higher education so if anyone has anything to add please do join it! Or let me know here. Any recent knowledge about Arabic/Persian at Exeter would be super useful. I’m also interested in any thoughts you have about what one might do next after an eg Persian degree. @ealingwestmum has already found me there and it is lovely to hear how much her daughter is enjoying TCD.

My other thread
Arabic unis thread

@NCTDN YSJ was DD’s second choice 😊 I did rather want her to go there as York is so lovely, but neither DD nor the family finances have any regrets so far!

Thanks for the tag, sorry I haven’t caught up in ages.

DS still very happy at Leicester and new-ish relationship still going strong! Wasn’t heartbroken for long.
We sent brownies from M&S website for his birthday, I know someone on here was asking about sending cake etc for birthdays. He said they were really nice and we were able to choose the delivery date, we chose the day before his birthday as all post/parcels go a central delivery point and I didn’t know how long it would take for them to notify him it was there.
Was really difficult for me not seeing him on his birthday, I didn’t know I would feel that way but it was a really tough day for me. We FaceTimed and that was nice.
He will be home for the whole of April, hoping to get some paid work and do some driving lessons.
Will go back and catch up on the last thread now

Morning everyone 😊
I'm sorry to say I haven't read up on the thread, just read through this one. But I'm very happy to say that's because DD has taken to it like a duck to water. One of the hardest parts was actually having her home for Christmas for a month, because of the whole adult or child mindset- she wanted to do as she does at uni, but be run around after like she's still a child, kept very late hours, and forgot that there's working people and a preschooler in the house who need to sleep. But we got through! We went to see her for her birthday last weekend, and facetimed her on the actual day.

She has signed up for a shared house with her current halls mates for next year too, and has a bar job that sounds like hell, but is keeping her out of trouble on a Saturday night!

@Fiddlersgreen I wish I’d heard about the M&S brownies earlier, they can’t deliver in time for S2’s birthday next week. Though he may actually come home for a few days at the end of the week so we can have a delayed celebration

Thank you Orange for the new thread (and Delphi for the tag ;)

I HAVE been following all your news, especially loving the love-bombs of artwork and music making. Less so that bad health scares in many of your families. I had consciously dropped off the thread because I had some strange ex school mum who had worked out who I was and then continuously dropped info about DD in public gatherings that had come off the thread. I hardly step out the house nor talk with anyone in RL these days and thought I had posted very little about DD other than her location which is pretty identifiable, but this was bad form in my view, and happened a few times. But having had my username for nearly 20 years I refuse to change it for some nonce so hope she's got bored now. (Not saying any of you are boring btw!)

Delphigirl, I have no idea what, at this stage DD may actually do with her UG degree, but I do know that aside from the usual FCO/civil service/journalism/FE routes that are open, business roles are much in need of EMEA specialists across all disciplines, so language speakers with good cultural, politically aware with decent soft skills should be able to hold their own. I did suggest she also kept her maths to at least AS level so assessment centres and psychometric testing wouldn't be such a shocker, especially when up against the highly qualified STEM candidates, which she's now forgiven me for. I don't think she'll go straight into post grad, but maybe later after some work experience.

I have nothing negative to say about her first year so far. She is having a ball - the course and people she's with are apparently a joy to be part of, and she does not miss the London crowd that seem to be still cliqued in many of the UK unis. She's finished Y1 in early May, but most of her summer break will be taken up with 5 wks au-pairing in Spain, inter-railing (again) and what ever work she can get to refill the coffers, most likely life-guarding. She is tutoring both GSCE and A level students english and spanish for a large tutor org that works well with her course hours online, so has managed to overcome the challenge of Brits getting jobs in Ireland. Has toured abroad with her symphony orch in Jan and takes advantage of cheap flights regularly with her MFL lot. The nicest part of all - getting invited to local friends' houses for the weekends doubling up with getting around Ire. Not busy at all then.

Thank you for the new thread and tagging me. Big day for DD tomorrow as she gets the results of her first semester exams and also has her driving test.

Thanks for the new thread tag.

New thread.

ds has a busy few weeks. It’s reading week next week but he is briefly home as a function band he’s involved with are doing some promotional filming today.

He had Sitzprobe for SpongeBob yesterdsy. Show opens next week. Then the following week is Company.

He is really excited to have been asked to be musical supervisor for a new musical a group of students are writing. There is a development showing at the end of March. And his drummer friend will be involved in it too which is nice.

He still isn’t overly enjoying his course. He was rehearsing with a lecturer from his insurance choice and he feels their new course (not one he applied to but was offered it) would have been more up his street in terms of content BUT the networking opportunities and change to get involved in stuff is much better in Leeds.

@ealingwestmum I’m so delighted for your DD, she sounds like she is having the absolute best time. I have news about McGill which I will dm you, I am certain your dd made the right choice.

sorry you’ve had some RL issues Ealing

Thank you Comefromaway. It’s nice to be back :)

Thanks for the tag!

DD has just had the results of her first set of Medic exams - they give them their place in the cohort! I guess you have to be emotionally tough to be a doctor, but I wouldn’t have liked that (Softie English type…)