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

@ScarlettDarling Yes, she got back on Monday night- 10 weeks since I’d last seen her!
Shes got two weeks of paid work and then is off travelling around Greece for two weeks. Then it’s more paid work and a week mooching around Rome.
She too is in need of ‘downtime’ this summer after an incredibly heavy work load in summer term
The open days for NE students sounds fab! I think DD has applied to be a mentor but I haven’t had much chance for a catch up on stuff with her as yet.
I’m sure all will be well with his exams. Is he happy with his second year accommodation?

@ProggyMat how lovely to have her home! Like your dd, my ds has a fair amount of holidaying to look forward to. A week in Spain with uni friends and a week in Portugal with old school friends. And a fortnight in Menorca with us…can’t wait!
He’s doing lifeguarding shifts to fund the social life. I just love having him around!

To you lovely parents of lifeguard people, we hope they will never have to use them but…

DD has finally managed to make contact, she returns late tonight. Teary (and probably in delayed shock) over yesterday’s shenanigans. Involved fishing a girl out of the lake who had dived in, bumped her head on underwater stone and after A&E, stitches etc, has now returned home safely to Glasgow. Transpires she’d had a fair few, DD is apologising to me as she says she warned them not to drink, but wanted to be ‘less Monica’ for once, given these were 11 TCD students who didn’t know her as well as school pals.

I am thankful she is Monica.

And in other news…The National Portrait Gallery is open again!

Well done to your amazing daughter. She must be in shock, it could have ended so differently, but thank goodness she was there and able to help.
You must be very proud.

Well done to your dd.

Well done to your DD! ⭐️@ealingwestmum

She wasn’t the only one with their wits about them, but thank you 😊

@ealingwestmum well done to your DD. This sort of experience is so stressful, but when she has time to reflect it will be great to know that she can do it. Not on the same scale, I remember having to do an emergency brake when a child scooted out between parked cars once, and knowing that I could react in an emergency boosted my confidence after I had got over the horror of "what might have been".

@ealingwestmum Oh my God! just catching up. Your DD should be proud of herself, she saved a life. Drinking and diving!! what were they thinking?

Wow @ealingwestmum Was she there as a lifeguard or just happened to be there?

Well done to your dd @ealingwestmum , I bet that really shook her up though. I was watching a video about the dangers of drinking and swimming only the other day.

@ealingwestmum I suspect the entire group is glad she's Monica. Well done to her.

I was thinking about the whole sleeping thing and how our family really is one of routine. Perfect example today- ds finished his GCSEs yesterday. He's got a long lazy summer ahead of him. This morning he was still up by 7.30am

Well done to your DD @ealingwestmum !

DS finally home last night. He was exhausted as cambridge been so warm and had college ball Tues so barely slept for three days. He did say wake me up by 7.15 though! Got a lifeguard shift at a local swim school this pm

You are all very kind, thank you. We all have so many near misses and tests to our fight flight reflex motions and staying calm in a crisis, there has to be a first for YP too.
She’s fine albeit knackered from group dynamics with some strong willed amongst them.

Hopefully a 10 and 13 years old for 5 weeks will seem like a piece of cake vs irresponsible 19 year olds!

She was on holiday NCTDN, so not on LG ‘duty’ !

Yay I found the active thread. Just read through the previous one and will catch up with this one now.
I hope everyone is coping with all the ups and downs.

DS has had a bit of a crisis and has done a massive swerve, staying at Nottingham but starting Y1 again in September, studying archaeology 🤯
It's been a tricky few weeks but the head of archaeology (or Indiana Jones as we call him) has agreed to let him on the course, which was not at all guaranteed given that DS hasn't been anywhere near a humanity subject since GCSE. Just a bit of admin to do.

DS announced yesterday that he was off to Sweden with some friends and has left this evening. Honestly I feel like I am in some kind of simulation at times.

DD meanwhile has done AS exams and we are in the thick of uni open days. Her choice of course changes like the wind though, and I am in trouble for suggesting that she spends some time over the summer figuring out what she wants to do and doing some reading or a MOOC so that she has something to write about in her PS. She is on HOLIDAY, apparently, and needs to REST. (She broke up 2 weeks ago so has 12 weeks off.)

Lovely to catch up with everyone's news 🙂

Good to hear your news Singing, and well done to your DS for successfully managing his course change for next year.

I am smiling at your DD’s logic. We’ve all been there, keep your nerve, she’ll get her head together when she’s ready ;)

At least that's good news Singing re course starting september.

I have some reservations about the switch but what can you do with a 19 yr old - we have discussed many options and this is what he wants. So I am choosing to trust that he knows what he's doing and isn't just picking the least worst course available that will allow him to stay in Nottingham with his friends next year, having messed up (probably failed) his first year neuroscience due partly to executive function problems linked to undiagnosed ASD. Hmm we will see which is right. He did an online ASQ test the other day which said probably ASD but doesn't want to be assessed properly. He is so like me (also autistic) at that age, I messed up absolutely everything and flitted from one bad decision to another with very little support, at least he has someone who sort of understands.

My doubts are because he has never expressed an interest in archaeology and at the height of the crisis was saying things like, "as long as I'm with my friends I will be ok". But - he did say the only good bit about this year has been writing the odd essay, and he did absolutely love history at school and has always been into ancient history, especially Romans. He didn't do A level history because it was all too modern and the school didn't offer ancient history or classics. So he has signed up for joint hons archaeology with classical civilisation and we have our fingers crossed. At least he can experience a first year having learnt how to live independently etc and he thinks the motivation to work etc will be easier sharing a house with his friends, who are all grafters and doing hard degrees like law and history. I think he was pretty lonely in halls as his flat kept to themselves and had no communal space for socialising. His friends were in another block so he would go and have fun with them and then come back and be on his own a bit too much probably. Anyway we will see. I hope everyone else's DC who have struggled this year can find a new path.

Loving hearing about the summer plans - DS is in Sweden and has another lads trip later to Bulgaria. Plus our family hols to Portugal next week and a long weekend camping in Dorset with family and friends 😎

PS I didn't mean to suggest that other degrees are not hard, just that law and history seem to require a lot of independent study, which is what he finds difficult. Hopefully he can use his friends' study patterns and work ethic as a kind of blueprint for his own.

Glad he hear that he has a plan @singingstones, and that you understand where he is coming from, Good luck to him next year.

@ealingwestmum Scary that your DD had to put her training into action, well done to her.

Welcome back @singingstones ! Good to hear your news. At least doing another first year gives your ds time to get his act together and his grades won’t count. Maybe he’ll even start thinking about getting a diagnosis and/or some help?

Dd has had a fairly chaotic approach to work this year (probably ADHD) and we won’t find out if she’s passed until September as she’s got to take the 5 exams she missed when she was ill. I think psychology has been harder than she expected. She said she’d change to Occupational Therapy if Nottingham did it, but they don’t.