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

@singingstones I think it was a combination of issues for DD - she was ill for nearly the whole term, she didn't gel with her (12!) flatmates, she was only just 18 and hadn't had much 'life' due to covid, and yes, the course was an issue although she loves the uni. I hadn't realised but it was only the second year of running the course, and they just didn't seem to be particularly organised. They only had 2hrs a week (I think) when the lib arts students were together and all other modules were each with totally different groups of students so she found making friends really difficult. The lecturers weren't particularly helpful with the setting of coursework and offering advice, unlike lecturers on the other modules. I think there just wasn't the monitoring if the cohort that seemed to be happening at eg Nottingham or Birmingham (although no experience of that, just what was said at open days).

@Shimy Without annoying myself by going over it all again, last year ds2 turned down an office job which was walking distance from our house & would have looked good on his cv. The think he is regretting that now that he is running out of funds as they would possibly had him back again this summer.

The online internships sound good. I’m trying to get Ds to start preparing to apply for some next summer.

@Seeline He should definitely try and start before graduating, driving is so liberating plus I think the whole driving instructor sector is getting back to normal now and you can book lessons more easily.

Oh no! @Decorhate that would really annoy me too. What was his reason? well, at least now he knows when he's offered a good thing and hopefully won't make that mistake again. They are honestly are so naive sometimes, only a few weeks ago ds2 was arguing that £30K is the least he would expect any graduate to get in their first job!

Thanks Seeline, that's useful to know.

@Shimy Teenage contrariness/arrogance I think. At the last minute (ie the day he was due to start) he decided his social life would be affected by working 5 days a week for minimum wage. We were on holidays otherwise I would have dragged him out of bed. I’m still cross about it.

Years ago Dd had a summer job offer rescinded (school uniform shop) as she kept adding dates she couldn’t work. But she did ar least go and find something else (further away & harder work).

@Decorhate Trivia BUT I like that you used the word, 'Cross', I haven't seen it used in so long. Usually it's 'Angry' or 'I'm fuming!' Mners like the latter most. 'Cross' conjures up the image of a non nonsense mother lovingly annoyed at her feckless young adult dc , which is what it is.

Tbh I am being more relaxed about him now. The tragedies in Nottingham & Ios have made me count my blessings. Plus I remember how hard it was to get a job when I was a teen.

Aww, look at that list! DS is back home and without a job as yet ... I suspect he may struggle at this stage but he does still seem to be a getting a few possibilities coming along, just nothing quite coming good. DD is first year sixth form so we are back in looking at uni mode: god, it's exhausting! In fact, any recommendations? She is looking for Eng lit and lang type courses - lots of linguistics but prob not a linguistics only course. Ideally campus uni. Predicted grades A, A,A may hit a second A

`g'ah, forgot the stars don't work - A star, A,A with another possible A star

Lovely seeing that list resurface!
DS has found a summer job working in a restaurant, it is a chain but they don’t have a branch in Leicester unfortunately but they have said he can come back to work there whenever he is home which is nice.
DS2 is starting to think about uni, he is year 12. He has now decided to take a gap
year and doesn’t want to apply until next year for 2025 entry. Is it better he applies
for 2024 and then defers?

@Isthisjustnormal
Linguistics is one of several subjects that has been and gone from DD's (also Y12) radar so I have some info..

Try Birmingham, Warwick, York, Southampton and Lancaster.

I think York and Lancaster have particularly good reputations in this field. (Also Edinburgh has a very good reputation but that's non campus I think.)

Nowhere needs super high grades - those five were all AAB when I last looked (Edinburgh AAA).

Oh drat @Isthisjustnormal I have just noticed your DD wants Lang + Lit as well - all those are Lang + Linguistics 🤦‍♀️

DS still lifeguarding but also got job in new cafe opening in a week and had an interview at M&S which is the one he really wants. He was a bit shocked at age 19 minimum wage for the cafe after lifeguarding pay but Marks is 10.90 so that's better

Hello chaps - lovely to see that list again!

DD has finished first year at Newcastle in good form. Pressure at end of year, as if Medics fail any exam, they can’t continue! A couple of her friends are currently revising for August retakes - very different from DS, whose 1st year exams (as far as I remember) didn’t count for anything!

She is working as a sports coach to refill the coffers.

Best of luck to those DC re-starting in the Autumn - it takes real strength of personality to realise that a course/Uni is wrong and walk away.

https://www.york.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/courses/ba-english-linguistics/

York does do that combo and is indeed highly regarded.

It is a bit niche to do both.

Another good one

https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/courses/english-language-and-literature-ba-hons-q302/2024/

@craggyrat it seems unusual for any jobs (except apprenticeships) to pay less than adult min wage now. Ds (still 16) gets paid £10.42 at his Sat job and £11 at Tesco and Dd (19) gets £10.42 as well. I feel it sets their expectations quite high! Some apprenticeships pay the age-related min wage and I think that will put ds off applying when the time comes.

I’m not on the list <puts self outside like unwanted chair>

@Isthisjustnormal the courses Piggy has linked above are QQ31 and Q302 and are a good start. Q302 is basically my degree from Liverpool many years ago. The thing to look for there is the options for years 2 and 3 - I took every language module I could and my degree is about 50/50 language and literature. I couldn’t get more language-focussed than that (I could have been far more literature-focussed) and didn’t have a great deal of choice in language modules.

DD is 3.5 weeks into her 8 in Vermont and having a great time. Night 1 was a wobble as she’d travelled for over 20 hours from leaving home to arriving at camp, and had to set herself up in the rain and the dark, just to go to bed. Not all abed of roses since but going well. After living in a wood by a lake all this time she has two mozzie bites and no ticks (yet) while I’ve been eaten alive sitting in our garden.

As she totally failed to clear out her copious A level notes (I say notes - half-completed workbooks and untouched past papers featured heavily) from under our spare bed, I’ve done that now. Satisfied to have done it, but made me quite cross remembering her lack of effort over 80% of her time in sixth form, and school’s failure to communicate. All in the past now!

Does anyone know anything about Liverpool University? From what we can see it's a campus but in the centre of Liverpool - does it feel city centre-ish or is it a little oasis like Birmingham / Nottingham? (I appreciate these two are away from their city centres.)

Its pretty much in the centre and not really a campus. It's a campus like people might call Leeds or Lincoln campuses and then start fighting on WIWIKAU

A-levels feel a very long time ago, don't they?

Having had the end of his school year after GCSEs, DS had the end of his musical year today with a lovely service at the cathedral featuring all five of its choirs, followed by a very nice lunch. This coming week will be the first one for literally months with nothing in his schedule... but then next weekend we're all off down to London to meet some American friends who are visiting. DD is filling her days with her own art projects; we're pretty much fine if she doesn't get another job for the rest of the summer as her internship was intense and has topped up her bank account sufficiently.

@PhotoDad - yes. But at the same time no (DS has just finished lower sixth, so we’ve got A-levels v2 next summer).

Hi everyone, I seem to have fallen off @Oblomov23's list but I am still here, still reading and sometimes posting! My DS (Nottingham, Sociology) is spending a month working at an EFL summer camp in Devon, hard work but pays OK and I think it will do wonders for his confidence to have to shepherd a group of teenage students safely around various activities! Then he has a house sitting job lined up so hopefully will be going back to uni with a bit more than the zero in his bank account he came home with. However, there is a girlfriend on the scene now so the £ may not last!

@singingstones Liverpool uni is very city centre with accommodation shared our over the city and into the suburbs. What course are you looking at?

Well this weekend we have moved dd out of halls into her flat. As kirstie and Phil would day, it's all about location location location! There is a definite compromise on space but overall it's a lovely flat and a far cry from some places I lived as a student!!