Thread 48- Covid GCSE Cohort - Summer before Year 2 Uni

[Oblomov23]

Summer ending. Year 2 for many at Uni about to start.

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.
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He is phoning RAC. It's infuriating as it was checked at a garage yesterday but I think they said it would be OK and, therefore, didn't check under the car.

Oh dear , Piggy, that’s awful. I hope they are safely behind a barrier in the rain. @crazycrofter , she seems ok, flatmate also went home for the weekend but hasn’t appeared yet. I think flatmate had 3 things to do last week, and didn’t get to any, so not sure she will last long. Mouse has been professionally addressed and classes have begun. She had a 3 hour workshop that she found very boring, because it was stuff she knew. I said nothing.
Honestly if I’d been fitted with a mute button when I became a mother it would have served me so well. Still, I have it now.

It's just DH. DS is in Birmingham with no stuff....

@mummyinbeds - glad to hear your DS is through

@Piggywaspushed - sounds stressful. Hope he gets 'rescued' soon

Dd is through too, joining @mummyinbeds and @JustHereWithMyPopcorn ds - all passed, not amazing marks but little revision was done so she’s happy!

@Zebracat yes to the mute button! At least if she knows stuff she doesn’t need to worry too much academically- might help her settle in? Glad the mouse was sorted!

@Piggywaspushed hope the car gets fixed quickly.

@Alsoplayspiccolo that house doesn’t sound amazing 😬

Great news @crazycrofter

Just discovered we can't actually drive out of our cul-de-sac today. My neighbour had to park in the street behind when he tried to get back home. They're resurfacing the excuse for the main road through our village (more potholes than road) and its going to be closed for 5 days. This could make two university drop offs this week a little difficult 🤔 I'm sure they can't really trap us in here without any notification.

That's great news @crazycrofter @mummyinbeds and @JustHereWithMyPopcorn you can finally breath out and relax!

@crazycrofter it really doesn't matter about the marks, she passed and that is all that counts this year. I felt the same with DD originally (didn't say anything to her) but it worried me and then realised just how far she had come to even sit the exams the way she was feeling, and like your DD hadn't put the necessary work/revision in. Just think what they can do this year when they really try :-)

@Alsoplayspiccolo sorry to hear house isn't great, but it's likely your DS won't even notice the things you notice. They can always get another one for Yr 3.

DD seems to have landed on her feet with the group of 3 other girls she is sharing with, they are lovely and really organised. They lived at Broadgate in a flat together self catered last year and have got the house sorted really. DD just needed to take a floor lamp for the lounge and a couple of small things for the kitchen.

As they have 2 spare bedrooms, they have sensibly left the downstairs one and turned it into a laundry room with their airers, ironing board set up etc. And then there are 2 girls on each floor up, so only 2 to a bathroom.

The bedrooms aren't massive but plenty big enough. All have double beds.

DD has her own cupboard in the kitchen and they even have a fridge between 2

DD was shown how to use the coffee machine (we haven't got one at home) and they even have a tumble drier in the basement, so they aren't roughing it at all.

Seems losing the expensive house at £150pw + bills (only £10 each per week capped) was the best thing that could happen. Now paying £134pw and includes all bills (very large cap) :-) I'm assuming they will need to get another house for 3rd year though as I doubt landlord will want them renting with 2 spare rooms. They can enjoy it whilst they can though.

Fab news @crazycrofter !

Fantastic news @crazycrofter ! Agree on not worrying about the grade at this point only that they're through. Hopefully they will all take this year as a big learning curve and next year won't have us all on tenterhooks!!

@Heifer the new house sounds perfect!

Glad to hear about all the students getting through their resits, is that everyone now?

Love hearing about the houses too, DS has gone back into halls so we haven't done this yet.

Update on Eng Lit, I did manage to catch DD at a good moment late last night after all (its very much a case of getting the right moment if I want to have any sort of meaningful conversation) and felt more reassured, also the teacher has replied to me and explained things better. At this point I think, to borrow one of DS's favourite expressions, "you need to trust the process Mum". At this age I have to let DD make her own choices and support her with them, its not up to me any more.

I think that's right @EversoDetermined - if it goes wrong, what's the worst that can happen? Maybe she won't get the grade she's capable of, but hopefully she'll have a more enjoyable year and do better than she would have in Chemistry.

Very relieved all our re-sitters are through, well done to your DC Mummy, Crazy and JustHere

That is very bad luck Piggy, hope your DH gets sorted quickly.

ED, I hope you feel better post feedback from college, motivation alone can make up a lot of ground and whilst I am sure she will have challenging periods of self doubt, why did I do this etc, remind her that her teacher had the confidence to support her, and that the pain of Y13 is high but over quickly :)

Very well done to the Notts crew getting results today, lovely news, what a relief! 👏👏😅

ED how does it work doing an A level in a year, will she go to both Y12 and Y13 classes from now, or will they teach her eg Y12 this term and Y13 next term? Both mine briefly flirted with doing an A level in a year but we never got to finding out how it worked.

@crazycrofter @mummyinbeds @JustHereWithMyPopcorn
Fantastic news, well done to all of your lot!!

Onwards and upwards!

Thanks all. @singingstones it turns out that because the college and class size is so small they teach both years in one class with differentiation. There are a couple of other students who switched in last term too. Plus they have some extra support sessions. It has worked for others in the past apparently. She was crashing in chemistry so this can only be better, and as she isn't set on any particular uni or course (and is taking a gap year) there will be plenty of options once she gets her results.

I think you have done all you can to satisfy yourself that she's making the right decision for her @EversoDetermined , if she's happier doing this then hopefully it will bring more positive results rather than trudging on with something she hates.

Oh that sounds like a great way of doing it, good luck to her. It's good that there are others in the same boat. Even if it's hard work at times, at least it's not chemistry! DS did about 3 weeks of chemistry A level, couldn't drop it fast enough. He said he didn't understand a word of it 🤦‍♀️

DH and I both have chemistry degrees so we are a bit mixed feeling about it all, I was proud of her for choosing it when she knew it was going to be hard (she had originally been going to do psychology) but it has been a little galling hearing her saying what an awful subject it is. We can't all like the same things but we are a little sad that anyone can hate our favourite subject.

Yay, crazycrofter - excellent news and a huge relief, I’m sure.

How’s year 13 kicked off for DS? (Dare I ask…?🤣)

That house sounds great, Heifer, and a decent price.
DD will definitely not be staying in the same house next year, not least because there’s been a 4/3 split in friendship groups since they agreed to share, way back in November, with tension between the 2 groups, but also because of her group will be on an international year.
I’ve told her that there is absolutely no need to panic and sign up to another house until at least January.

That's sensible @Alsoplayspiccolo . Whenever I drive through Selly Oak, the 'for let' signs are everywhere - in the summer too - so I can't believe there's a shortage.

Ds has had a mixed start to year 13! He's very reluctant to waste his time going to form period, so I've already had two emails about that. He says he's going to work hard, but I'm not sure that's started yet... On the plus side he's taking so many extra shifts at Tesco that he has less time for shenanigans in Oxford! He's also decided he wants to get a Jaguar Land Rover apprenticeship after his gap year, which requires at least three Bs, so he'll need to put some work in. How is your ds doing @Alsoplayspiccolo ? How often does he come home?

Congratulations to the Nottingham re-sitters - phew!

@Piggywaspushed sorry to hear about the car trouble, is the stuff coming back home or will it get to Brum?

Well done to all the re-sitters - onwards and upwards!

DH had coil plugs replaced by RAC but then came home. He'll go back tomorrow but now regrets not going today. This is a very DH story. He went to golf instead today.

@mummyinbeds @JustHereWithMyPopcorn n @crazycrofter great news for the resitters!

@craggyrat hope today went OK 🌸

In her street alone, virtually every other house had a “To Let” sign on at the weekend, *crazycrofter” - DD looked a bit sheepish when I pointed them out!

Its fab that your DS now has a plan for the future, and it sounds like a good one - great motivator for him to get the grades! The fact that he already has a job is great too (more than either of mine have ever had…!) He sounds almost like he’s grown out of school, re form time, which is fair enough, really, even if the school don’t like that.

My DS seems to have settled into year 13 ok, thanks. He’s pushing to get his UCAS conservatoires application in by the beginning of next month, having not started his PS until last week (school didn’t mention it until term started, as far as we can tell).
He’s very laid back about it all - tells me not to stress, it’s all under control etc, etc. I know he’ll pull it off, in his own time, in his own way, but it doesn’t stop me fretting!

He has predicted grades of A*AB, but only needs 2 passes for conservatoire, so I’m anticipating that he won’t aim for higher - he enjoys his downtime too much!