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

Happy birthday to yours too , Shimy ! DS has gone back now. It was a quiet weekend. Just a curry, a bit of telly and a shopping trip for new trainers. His teaching finishes soon, he has a ball to attend, and that's more or less it!

DS got trainers for his bday as well @Piggywaspushed. Sounds like he had a great bday weekend, curry & telly with a spot of shopping. Personally I prefer that to a rowdy party, but DS is so excited about tonight. It will be the first grown up party he's ever had. We will be regaled with tales of what went on for months!

I think Thursday night may have been a party with mates... but he doesn't let me know anything about his social life at uni!

Wow that's amazing by your DS @PhotoDad ! My DS said thanks for St Ives bus tip - he is definitely going to do that

Glad your DS enjoyed his birthday @Piggywaspushed

Looks like I'm back to being estherfrewen permanently now as a user name.

I follow DD’s social life via BeReal 😂 I have to post a boring picture of myself at work every day and in return I get to see dd at various social venues! I now feel I vaguely know some of her friends, although there seem to be multiple blonds who look very similar and she has several friends with the same name too, which is confusing!

@PhotoDad well done to your DS. Looks like you might want to factor sports scholarships into his university search. I think Nottingham gives automatic offers to national level athletes, for Medicine an interview is given without looking at UCAT. UEA gives up to £1.5k plus benefits (free gym, physio, other support). I don't think that top GCSEs are as seen as more valuable than decent GCSEs and a bit of extra curricular excellence. Of course you want him to do his best, but a few slipped grades would be a price worth paying for the chance to compete at the top level. I am sure you know that!

We are very much NOT top level here, DS competing in local power lifting comp in 10 days or so, and hoping his results there will enable him to get the entry level sports scholarship which would give him free gym membership but hopefully also mean that he could ask to avoid placements which don't enable him to maintain his training program due to travel times or access to gyms.

@PhotoDad That is some achievement!

@Monkey2001 That is an excellent point! To be honest I had assumed that scholarship were only for big sports. But I've had a quick look, and around 10 unis have BUCS windsurfing teams. Two of those are also top-10 for his preferred subjects (and one is 20ish which would make a nice insurance). All three of them three offer sporting scholarships to national-level students for any Olympic sport in which they have a team, so that's definitely something to consider.

If he continues post-16 (which he probably will) he will need to get quite a lot of new (or second-hand) to continue along the elite pathway, but I think that's something he will want to pursue. It's a chance not to be missed, right? Thank you for prompting me to look that up, I am so not a sporty type of person myself!

That should say new (or second-hand) kit.

Thanks, @EwwSprouts! We're all pretty chuffed. I have no sporting or artistic ability at all (my DW more so, but she wouldn't mind me saying that it's only at 'hobby' levels) so we're just glad to be able to encourage our two very different DC to follow their paths.

Well done to your ds @PhotoDad , that’s amazing!

Funnily enough @Monkey2001 ds has just come into the kitchen to say that he might start entering power lifting competitions ! He’s just not quite sure his squat and deadlift are good enough, but he’s really good at bench (think that’s the right way round! All I took on board was the 145kg on bench - I think?!)

@crazycrofter I'm the same as you with be real. My pictures are really boring but that way I get a glimpse into the life of a university student living life to the full!

@crazycrofter I think 145 bench is really good for Y12! My DS hoping for 200 squat, 140 bench, 235 deadlift if he has a REALLY good day.

@Monkey2001 he's very proud of his bench as he’s not 17 til August but the other two are lagging behind considerably 😂 When he was taking roaccutane last year he suffered with back ache and it’s still an issue so he struggles with the other two more. 😢

Haha @NCTDN glad it’s not just me posting daily pictures of a laptop 😂

@crazycrofter roaccutane sounds brutal! DS has seen improvements since he started being coached - I think he pays £100/month for on line coaching from the guy who coaches the recent winner of World's Strongest Man, if something your DS would like to look into. He might be impressed if you tell him your Mumsnet friend's DS is coached by Loz! 😂 The expected scores vary a lot by weight of competitor, my DS is in the <105kg class, needs 600kg total to compete at the next level, should be able to compete in BUCS.

Thanks @Monkey2001 I will pass that information on! That’s not a bad price and he’s just got himself a second job so he could pay for it himself 😂

Roaccutane was horrendous for ds, he also had numerous nose bleeds through the day and night. And after all that pain, his acne came back within 2-3 months 😩

Back from holiday. Dh dropped ds1 back to Nottingham at 3am. He had a lecture at 9am, which turned out to be a unknown mock exam, tax, for which he had done no prep. Tbh after a week of church camp, he was home for 1 week, then Portugal, I saw minimal revision at all.

@Oblomov23 Oh wow! That sounds pretty intense for him, fingers crossed and lucky it's a mock. How is your back doing?

I get the impression that whilst you may not have seen much study Oblomov, your boy is able to pull it out the bag with little stress. Fingers crossed he’s done it again.

All done here, last exam was yesterday and she’s now on wind down, packing up ahead of returning next week. But will return for 5 days to play in a music festival early June.

Intense. He's got 5 exams soon. He finishes mid June, later than all of you lot.

No better thanks for all who
Asked. Saw consultant privately. He said he didn't know what was wrong. £780 MRI he wants. 13 week wait to be seen in nhs MSK. I can't stand up straight, can't walk more than 50m, in bed by 5pm most days.

Yes Ealing irritatingly he just manages, calmly.

Ouch oblomov

Oh dear @Oblomov23 , I’m sorry to hear that 😬

Oh @Oblomov23 that's rough.

Chronic pain is just so depressing to live with Oblomov. I really hope you get to the bottom of it some day soon.

@Oblomov23 I hope the waiting list moves more quickly for you, nobody should have to live like that. 💐