Thread 46 - GCSE Covid Cohort , Searching for Summer Solstice

[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

He has a job interview next week (arranged from Tahiti!) for host in a high end restaurant. Wants to earn some money for a few weeks and then is going on holiday with his girlfriend in August before uni.

@estherfrewen i love bats too… we have lots around here and I live watching them zooming about at dusk.
I do remember having a bat fly into the hall of the house on Halloween when the kids were v small - SO exciting. Must have been in about 2007. I’m sure I posted on here about it 🤣

Just caught up.Exciting times for people. Loved the car parking stories.
We are drifting along. I don’t know what’s happening in September. I don’t even ask because the thinking seems so blinkered, and I cant clap from the sidelines when I think that. Psychologist says I need to listen really deeply, I thought I had that ability, but apparently not.
There are some positives. She is still applying for jobs, she’s taking a ballet class and seeing more of her friends. She and I went to see the filmed version of Good with David Tennant as a liberal academic turned SS officer, her suggestion. It was Brechtian and rather harrowing, but she loved it. I dont know why, when she clearly loves History, she wants to turn her back on it. Guess I need to ask and do some really deep listening.
@PhotoDad , so impressed by your dds resilience in a tricky situation. Im sure she will get the job, can’t imagine anyone more talented and hard working on the shortlist.
@Delphigirl lovely that you get to see your travelling boys. They both sound so industrious.
@Oblomov23 sorry about your back. I don’t know your issue, but I had steroid injections into the spine and it worked well. I have a date now for hip replacement and that is a relief. It’s been a very hard couple of years and my life has really shrunk.

Catching up here too. Amazing experience for DS @Delphigirl . So pleased you’ve finally got the date for hip replacement @Zebracat .

I am starting to panic about DD (y12). She is doing really well at college (predicted As or thereabouts) but it is becoming increasingly apparent that she needs to be assessed for ADHD as there is no way she will cope at uni without mentoring of the sort DS has. Having said that she is not making any effort to research unis or degrees. She says she wants to read biomedical science but is making no effort to get work experience or do any extra reading around the subject (she can do some work experience at DH’s place, or possibly even mine but that requires no effort on her part). One open day planned because her friend is going to that one. I am tearing my hair out. Vague suggestions of wanting a campus uni within 4 hours of home but not London, which only narrows it down to about 50. Grrrr.

I am a bit behind with the thread.

@Shimy ds2 wanted to learn auto. But firstly he was able to have ds1's old car and secondly I thought he might end up in a job with a company car or need to use a vehicle for work and it might be manual. Ds1 did the same summer job that ds2 will be doing and he was asked on several occasions to go and collect or deliver stuff in a manual van. So I thought manual would be best.

Ds1 has a fiesta, currently not used as he's travelling. Ds2 has ds1's old Corsa. It's brown, so both boys hated it. It's 1.1 and very slow. But only 18,000 on the clock at 10 years old.

Talking of auto cars. Ds1 is still in NZ. He has been good friends with an American lad, also travelling. He said the lad had a temporary job on a building site. This lads boss had given him a truck to drive and told him to go pick up some things, he phoned Ds and said he'd been given a "stick shift" to drive and he'd only ever driven an auto. He asked Ds how to drive it over the phone. I never did find out what happened. But I'm sure he wouldn't be safe driving it. Apparently in America most cars are auto.

I had to add that story about the lad in NZ because it made me laugh at the thought of a phone call asking how to drive a stick shift.

@Delphigirl What an adventure for him! I can imagine him regaling you all with his tales for a long time to come. Such a wonderful experience.

@Monkey2001 Congrats to your ds.

@icanbewhatiwant Just this afternoon Dh was telling me when he was contemplating changing to an auto car (nearly 15 yrs ago) most people in the U.S had forgotten they existed!

EEEK help! Dd decides to message me on first day of holiday. Now she wants to change to Sociology and start again. Probably somewhere nearer because of aforementioned boyfriend. I've no idea where to help her start with this...UCAS /references etc. Accommodation will undoubtedly be an issue at this stage. I don't even think she has rewritten her personal statement yet 😕.

I've made her promise she is not making the decision to drop music based on her boyfriend. She enjoyed the history bit...not the theory. Didn't really give it a chance tbh. Makes me worry about how she will cope with stats and the boring bits of a Sociology degree.

If she was nearer perhaps she'll see how little effort boyfriend makes .
"Grasps at straws"

I've told her to ring old college.

This is not relaxing at all.

That's amazing timing !

Gosh orange, she certainly puts you through the mill. If this is what she wants to do I think she has to deal with it/do the research etc.

You're right.

She is an adult now making her own choices and decisions.

Oof.

Oh @OrangeCinnamonLatte that sounds stressful, did she do Sociology A Level? I thought it was only Psychology that has stats, not Sociology but I might be wrong?!

How much nearer does she want to be/has she identified courses/unis she’s interested in? I think you do have to let her do the research and get her place. It does happen a lot I think and it’s not necessarily disastrous. My dh did two years of a dentistry degree then moved to a new uni to do history! And someone was just telling me yesterday that their granddaughter is changing from Psychology at one Uni to Paramedic Science at a new uni.

Yes @crazycrofter she got an A in Sociology. She did love the subject. She also loved Music but since her C grade and various things to do with lockdown/not making music performing fell out of love with it somewhere along the line 😞. Her final grades were ACC (Sociology, Music, English Lit).

Ok, so it’s not a completely crazy decision!

Yes that's true @crazycrofter . She is 90% sure she wants to be a special needs teacher but doesn't want to go the BA Ed QTS route as doesn't want to restrict her options in life with a vocational degree (I disagree here but can see her point about it not looking as transferable on paper at least). To give her , her due she has worked hard most Fridays over the last year as a TA in a variety of settings. I think she is getting enough experience to know she wants to go into teaching. I guess she is worried about putting her eggs all in one basket and about teaching conditions.

It was always Music teaching but I guess that has changed recently.

You will always be there to provide support and a safety blanket if it goes wrong but as you say, she is an adult now. My dd doesn't always make what I consider to be the best decisions (eg we think she should do a degree top up) but I have to let her get on with it.

@OrangeCinnamonLatte I don't know the latest, but just check that she could go on to do a PGCE with a Sociology degree. I thought you needed a national curriculum subject, but thinking about it, that must just be for primary teaching? Would she do a secondary PGCE?

I know our own children are always frustrating, but she's shown maturity in sticking with the TA role -that's really impressive. And she does have a plan... Hopefully the boyfriend situation will resolve in time, or maybe he'll mature and prove to be a better prospect in a few years than he appears to be now?!

Live in hope @crazycrofter ! Yes PGCE primary as opposed to original plan of PGCE Music.

Goodness, Orange, I hope that it all works out! I agree that you can only advise from the sidelines here.

Two things...

pretty sure you can do a primary PGCE with a sociology degree. There is a degree in Education (not a BEd, a traditional degree) which is like a corner of sociology and pretty sure the pretty much only career path from that is primary teaching.

Secondly, lots of data and stats wrangling in most sociology degrees. There is a bias towards quants in research funding so to increase employability and useful skills a lot of sociology degrees are building in modules on research methods. It's vvvvv dry. The rest of it is interesting but it's worth knowing.

@OrangeCinnamonLatte Crikey that's a curve ball. If it's grounded in her enjoyment of the work experience maybe it's a good idea.

@OrangeCinnamonLatte would it be worth suggesting a gap year as a TA, living at home, so that she can think carefully about what she actually wants rather than rush into something. They are entitled to one "free" year of funding, so can change now, but any more changes would mean self funding a year. I think it is brave to change. Music is a degree which most students throw themselves into, getting involved in lots of extracurricular activities and if she was going home a lot and working in a school she may have felt a bit of an outsider.

Other tip is to complete the year so that SLC does not expect her to repay any of the maintenance loan!

Hope she finds the right thing.

Sorry to hear that Orange. Is she sure, as said Sociology can be very dry.

Delph, glad ds is home from his seriously impressive adventure.

I would have thought a gap year at this point might be better than a rushed switch too @OrangeCinnamonLatte , especially as she has missed the main application deadline for this year now so choices might be more limited. Sympathy, it sounds like a very difficult situation.