Thread 47- Covid GCSE Cohort - Summer's running away from us!

[OrangeCinnamonLatte]

...it will be Christmas before we know it.

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). 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 https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/parents_of_adult_children/4792342-thread-46-gcse-covid-cohort-searching-for-summer-solstice

Good luck to the resit bench. Thanks for keeping my seat warm just in case.

DS has been awarded 5 more marks in an exam due to a marking error (that they found, not us). Brought his average up to 39.2% but still has to repeat the year! Tbh resits now would be a disaster as he’s not prepared now.

The other thing is that they have changed the course structure for next year so whlle a lot of content will be similar it is all in different modules with different assessment criteria. Not sure if that is a good or a bad thing.

@crazycrofter https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/studentservices/servicedetails/assessment-and-examinations/examination-timetables-and-key-dates.aspx

Good luck to the re-sitters!
DS and DW report that the campsite is great, and next door to a pizza place/bistro. Training days today/tomorrow with the coaches, racing starts on Monday and continues all week.
Going to have a day of Doing Nothing today, after a fairly heavy night out...

French campsites are a cut above ours for the most part. I was reading that thread about what to buy in French supermarkets and now I want to go. We are about two hours away from the Channel Tunnel so day trips for shopping are feasible if a bit long. We used to do them on the ferry (booze cruise) in the old days when duty free was more of a thing.

@mummyinbeds is your ds able to log in and see the master timetable from that page as dd has tried but it’s not there?

@crazycrofter This page says that the resit Master timetable is not available at present (the link @mummyinbeds posted was to the May/June exams).

Assessment resit information - The University of Nottingham

I suspect nothing is available until 31st July.

@crazycrofter I forgot to add, that on Mummys link if you click on Examination timetable with locations link it takes you to the Master timetable (from May/June) and although it doesn't show it all on view if you download it it shows every exam from May & June) so it may be the same once it's updated for August

Really sorry to hear that @283nouveauxnoms , seems so harsh. At least he can repeat, at Nottingham Uni, repeating a year isn't even an option! Good luck to him next year. I would think the course structure changing may be a good thing.

Good luck @mummyinbeds @crazycrofter & @JustHereWithMyPopcorn with the resits. Hope all goes well and as smoothly as possible.

Looks like DDs house is sorted thankfully. They managed to get a 6 bedroom house, in the Lenton triangle for £134 pw, which includes all bills (cap is £7.2k) so not the £150 pw with £2.2k bills cap they previously had. Also the guarantor agreement is much better, agreeing to pay limited sum of up to £6968, so only guaranteeing our DD rather than everyone else.

Thankfully it's worked out much better, although house isn't as nice but DD is happy enough with the saving.

The very best of luck to all those resitting and more strength to all the parents supporting them.

DS1 has left for Korea today for world scout jamboree - the dynamics always change when one of them is not here so should be an interesting few weeks!

Thanks @heifer! She’s getting so frustrated having to wait but it is what it is.

@handmademitlove do the dynamics change for the better or worse? Ds has just got back from a week on camp and dd can’t leave him alone! Which is funny as she’s the older one and was always the one with hundreds of friends. I remember all the times she used to complain about him coming into her room when she was 12/13!

Great news about the house @Heifer ! It also shows that they didn’t need to rush back in Nov when there are still houses available now.

@crazycrofter definitely better! For some reason they all get along much better. Most of this year dd1 has been at Uni, when she got back the pointless arguing restarted but she is not always involved 🤷It is almost like the balance is thrown out and it takes them a while to find a new rhythm ....

Hi all, sorry because I have a feeling something similar has been asked upthread and not too long ago, but I can’t find it. Would welcome any insight on this question!

A friend of mine’s daughter (UK citizen but not resident) is coming to the UK to do her Master’s. Because of international student rules, her accommodation is requiring she pays the full rent for the year upfront unless she can find a UK-based guarantor. If she has a guarantor, she can pay her rent monthly which is obviously more manageable. So my friend has asked if I would be willing to be this guarantor.

I trust my friend and her daughter, but I also feel slightly uncomfortable about it because I’m nervous of any money commitments! Would it make sense for me to have some kind of agreement with my friend that outlines that if I was required to pay the rent (in the event that the daughter defaulted), that she would pay me it back? Is an informal commitment like this (ie in writing but not done by a lawyer) worth the paper it’s written on?

I feel like it would be sensible to have something in place that gives me some standing if everything went wrong, and I’m sure my friend would not be averse to this. But what else should I be thinking about to make sure I can help out my friend but limit my liability just in case?

Also, I’m already guarantor to my DS. Can one be guarantor to multiple people?

Any thoughts welcome. Thank you all!

@blinkbonny can she look at guarantor insurance? I am about to take this out for DS as his contract is one with a liability for all in the house.

@Heifer great news about the house but you’ve just terrified me as I did not know that you can’t retake a year at Notts!! 😱

@blinkbonny There's also "Housing Hand" which acts as a guarantor for overseas students and charges them a monthly fee (a bit like insurance, but aimed at the student rather than parents/friends). That might strain your friendship a little less?

@JustHereWithMyPopcorn with regard to repeating a year at Notts, my DD failed one of her 1st year modules as she didn't read an email telling her she had to resit so missed the summer resit. Notts said only option was to resit that particular module's exam the following summer term, but without any attendance over the year. Not possible to resit the whole year as it would mean doing modules that she'd already passed. She chose to switch to an adjacent course for a repeat 1st year, pass that then switch back to 2nd year of original course.An expensive option, but she was desperate to stay at uni with her friends. It was all moot from that angle later due to Covid-19, as she spent final year working from her bedroom at home! Overall, a steep learning curve (if only to encourage her to keep an eye on emails since), but now out in wide world in graduate job doing well.

Thanks for input thus far on my guarantor dilemma! Any further input still welcome!

@JustHereWithMyPopcorn - do you have any info on guarantor insurance? I can Google but if you have already researched, any tips welcome

@PhotoDad sounds interesting, off to research that now too!

Thanks all - really appreciate this group!

@Takeittotheboss thank you for that, I’m praying he passes but I like to know what options there are.

@blinkbonny I have used https://www.guarantorinsure.co.uk/ as they seem to have reasonable reviews and are affordable.
https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/guarantorinsure.co.uk it cost £106 .

Some of you might be able to assist this poster re music :

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/higher_education/4861067-friendly-feel-campus-universities?reply=128049536

I had replied on the other group. Lots of my recommendations for music would be non campus though.

There are two types of Guarantor Insurance.

One is where a company such as Housing Hand, charge a fee to be the Guarantor for either an overseas student or one whose parent fails the credit checks. The parent still has to sign to be liable but with Housing Hand, rather than the landlord.

Guarantor Insure and Only My Share provide insurance cover in shared houses where there is joint and several liability. SO if the other housemates fail to pay their rent, these companies insure you against that situation (the way they do it differs so read the small print to decide which is best for you).

@Comefromaway that's interesting. So it's insurance in the event that the house sharers default. I'm also interested to know about insurance if my own guaranteed person defaults - if I can set up any agreement with them that if they don't pay their landlord (so that I have to), how I can then recoup from them. Though presumably if they don't pay the landlord, they won't be able to pay me!

I have no reason to think they are a bad risk, but any legal agreement makes me a little nervous. I would like to have a side commitment from them that in the unlikely event that I am required to fulfil my role as guarantor (ie pay their rent) that they will pay me it back. But I don't know how to go about setting this up.

I don't think that there is any insurance you can take out that guarantees you against your own person defaulting. If you did get a legal agreement drawn up then you wold have to pursue the non paying person through the courts.

@Comefromaway yes, I think you are right. I think I will just have to do it or not do it and accept the risk if I do.