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

Great to hear your news @Alsoplayspiccolo . I've ventured onto campus today after working at home most of the summer so far - I can probably see your dd's new house from here! Hope things go ok with the group they don't get on with.

Dd can get her keys next week when she goes up for exams, but she probably won't need to stay there till the next week when she has exams three days in a row. She has just bought a car jointly with ds (well, ds has yet to pay me his half!) so she can drive up.

Once exams are over, she's got Leeds festival and Portugal to look forward to. Plus a bit more work as all her earnings have gone on the car so far...

I’ve got used to it now Delphi, there are always those that come to just have a mooch around people’s houses. DH says he could sell a certain light fitting 100 times over and I did find a random asleep in a chair upstairs once when I thought it was empty 😱 But the flip is it’s lovely to get direct feedback, and it builds a pipe line for my year too. I lead a very simple life :)

Your family sound very buzzy and so up for anything presented to them; lovely to read. We go through bouts of experimental food when it’s just the two of us. Very bit and miss though!

Well that’s a good point @ealing - we should be splashing out on Kobe beef and caviar stuffed quails eggs instead of the usual chicken or fish cakes 🤣

Pleased to report that DD has had an email asking her to confirm her return to study on her new course, so it looks like regardless of spending cuts her course is going ahead. So relieved. So much so DH and I have booked a holiday for the week after she goes back - will be our first 'couple break' (excluding a couple of UK based long weekends) since 2000!! We haven't had a non UK holiday since before covid either so really looking forward to it.

Probably more important is that DD seems to be really excited about her return to uni.

That must be such a relief Seeline, she can enjoy the rest of her holidays without further stress. Your break with your DH is long overdue…enjoy.

Hello all and lovely reading everyone's updates. Seeline what a relief for you all and enjoy your well deserved holiday. We too are off on holiday next week. @Alsoplayspiccolo Glad to hear your ds is settling well into boarding life. MN is full of the horrors of boarding but ds also boarded and loved it so it's good to hear positive news.

This may sound weird and eye rolly BUT..Am I the only one feeling sad about the upcoming results day? if your last dc did A'Levels last yr do you feel a bit of nostalgia for all the checking in on MN for what's going, asking about Clearing, which Unis seem to be 'dropping their grades', etc then the staying up late on the eve of results day or waking up really early to check MN culminating in 8am watching the news with a cup of tea whilst nervously clutching your PLAN B, C & D list. The first results posted on MN before all of them come pouring in Not to talk of the rituals at home; Screams of excitement, dc meeting up with friends, visiting Nandos and just a happy vibe throughout the day OR not! I just feel sad, and I know it is SAD i feel this way, I just feel we've done it all now and not part of the excitement anymore. Both dc done, God-child done, friends dc all done or at least the ones I'm close to. There's no one left to go through the motions or celebrate with .

@Shimy definitely not - just really relieved that there are no more public exams! We didn't really get a chance to establish rituals at home. DS A levels were 2020 and a complete shit show (DDs fab GCSEs were rather overlooked in the chaos). So nothing between DSs GCSEs in 2018 and DDs A levels last year.

Mind you DS will have finals next year.....

Good to catch up with news (hello again, @Alsoplayspiccolo)!

I get all the thrills and spills of results day every year, as a teacher. Yay...

Definitely not missing A level results day!!

in good news DS had a great Teams appointment with student support a few days ago. Don’t know the ins and outs but he came away very positive and has a contact to speak to when he gets his timetable.

In less good news we all have covid again. DH and I have spent the last few days in bed but gradually starting to feel a bit better. DS is a couple of days behind us and starting to feel rough. Fingers crossed he is ok to start work next Tuesday…

It seems I'm alone in this woe. Okay, time to stop mooning. Of course I am delighted DC are on with the next stage just feeling a bit forlorn perhaps brought on by the fact I have spasmic pain in the chest and can't swallow without pain. I imagine it must be a stressful and very frantic time of the year for @PhotoDad.

I know what you mean, shimy.

I do sort of get this on repeat every year of course! Minus Nandos...

We have DD awaiting AS results here so I am in a similar mode to last year, not quite as much at stake but it doesn't feel that way to her.

If she does well, all systems go with the courses she wants to apply for, if not, back to the bloody drawing board AGAIN. (It has been a tortuous road so far 😬)

Please feel free to join in our anxious wait @Shimy! I know what you mean and I'm sure I'll miss it. Such a significant moment in their lives and maybe one of the last where we as parents are right there in the thick of it with them.

Lovely to hear your news @Alsoplayspiccolo

@Piggywaspushed It's always "the end of the holiday" for me... a few days of trying to sort out Clearing etc for my little bunch, and then time to do the prep for next term I've avoided so far! So, yeah.

Good to catch up with everyone, we are off on holiday next week too (all four of us).

@Shimy I've still got A level results day next year with DD, to be honest I'm not looking forward to it. She won't want to celebrate much (if at all, knowing her) and is resolutely not involving us in her thoughts about uni, personal statement etc. She did very little for GCSEs results day last year, just went to school, picked them up, only stayed for 15 mins and home again, that was that, she was a little disappointed with one of them, even though they were very good. DS's uni offer last year wasn't unconditional but was low and safe because of his provisional BTEC results so no tension on the day, we didn't have to plan for clearing, there was nothing to check or do. We were delighted with his final grades when they came in and he went to school later but again very low key, as some of his friends hadn't got the grades they were hoping for. I do know what you mean about the nostalgia though, when parents of younger DCs at work talk about school I do miss it all a bit and I also miss taking them to all their old activities, football, swimming etc and the parents I used to see there.

I definitely wouldn't want to be a teacher on Results day! that amount of anxiety I can do without. Hats off to all the teachers on here and a thank you for putting on a calm front, smiles plastered on every single year for our dc.

I imagine it wouldn't have been fun during the COVID yrs but ds1 was 2019 and ds2 2022 except for ds2's GCSEs in 2020 but even that was joyful because we all felt his grades were in line with all the work he had put in so no disappointments except that he didn't get to sit his own exams. @EversoDetermined Everyone is different aren't they? ds1 was like that, just went straight back to bed, but I carried on singing round the house and we all went out for a meal later in the evening.

Felt the same way about end of primary as each last day we would go for ice creams and sometimes with their friends so a big group of us. Ho hum.
Looking forward to the holiday.

I know what you mean, Shimy. This past year really has driven home to me that my job of bringing up children is over, pretty much, and I really miss those parenting landmarks - results day, proms, first day of a new school year etc.
DS will almost certainly get his A level results by email next summer, so we won’t have the same excitement even then.

Yes, DS loves boarding and it’s been a really positive step for him; he says himself that it’s stretched him as a person in a way that staying at his previous school wouldn’t have done, and he’s had to grow in independence and self-motivation (the latter a work in progress, I feel…)

Of course, it’s hard for us/me to feel him growing away from us, but it’s natural and healthy.

@Shimy i still have one to go but I feel sad that everything is ending. My DC are growing up and not needing me. I had such a hard time when they gave up swimming, I spent my life by the pool. So I understand.

I am very torn on this growing up thing, DS is getting more independent which is great/sad at the same time, but its always tinged with worry that he's not as independent as his peers because of his SNs and is likely to need support from us indefinitely.

Goodness it's busy on here today! <waves @Alsoplayspiccolo > some nice news to read.

I have DS2 starting yr11 in September so I've still got a few years left of public exams but I really don't think I'll miss them when they're done! I will miss the boys when they fly the nest particularly as DS2 is my cuddle monster.

In other news, DS1 has gone to his festival today despite trying to have rational discussions about what kind of state he'll be by Monday morning when he has to sit an exam that he MUST pass. I wish I had a switch off button for my stress, I'm having all of the anxiety dreams at the moment.

@shimy I felt a bit wistful the other day when I walked past the uniform section in Tesco. Ds still has A Level results next year (if he doesn’t get kicked out for doing no work before then 😬) but he doesn’t want to go to uni so there’s no open days to do. He’s also very independent and has friends who can drive so I don’t even get to pick him up from the station now (which was when he used to talk to me!)

Ha, I walked past the uniform section in Tesco the other day and automatically thought, must remember to get school trousers 😂

Our house is only a couple of hundred metres from the DCs old primary school and if I'm at home on school days you can hear them all yelling in the playground, it does make me feel nostalgic for those days.

Hello, JustHereWithMyPopcorn <waves>

How’s your DS doing these days, crazycrofter? I’m sure he drives you mad but he always sounds very engaging - I like kids who have a bit of “character”. 😀
Re her new house, DD is living in Hubert/Hulbert(?) Road/Street.
I haven’t seen it yet but DH moved her in and said it actually seems pretty nice.
She loved living on campus this year, specifically that it feels like a whole community of its own, with lots of green space, so I hope she doesn’t get too much of a culture shock living out next term.

That’s a really good location @Alsoplayspiccolo - it’s pretty much all students round there so I think there will still be a community. Nice and close to Selly Oak station and the Aldi too (and all the takeaways!).

Ds still drives us mad! We had a crisis meeting at the end of term because he’s got so behind (and hadn’t been to form period since Jan!), but all the teachers said ‘we love ds, he’s a very interesting young man … but..’ 🤣😱 He’s really struggling to fit school around his gym sessions (at least 12 hours a week), 19 hours of paid work, constant socialising and obsessive piano playing! School work is a lower priority than all of these things…

@Shimy you can share my DD's A level results day. She's been exploring clearing today. I don't feel quite as nervous as last year as her offer is lower than her predictions but her panic has started to set in. She's very invested in going to her uni town of choice. This is the fourth year in a row for us, the joys of children a year apart. Neither 'sat' GCSE's so they were strange results days. DS was pissed off , DD was happy. DS actually sat 4 subjects in the Autumn of 2020 and picked up his results during the school day. I got a happy text message and a rather rude 'told you so' to the school. I don't think I'll be missing this stress next year but you never know. Of course, I do have the joy of DS's uni resit result to look forward to 😭