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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Thanks @mummyinbeds , fingers crossed for our dc then! I get the impression dd didn’t do a huge amount of revision - yesterday she was saying that because the furniture in her student house was unmatching, scruffy and dirty she couldn’t focus on study 😩 We have dutifully bought her a new chair and encouraged her to ask the landlord if she can paint the desk white (he said yes!) .. but she really needs to learn to get down to studying. She’s obsessing about getting an ADHD diagnosis as the answer to her problems, but it won’t fix anything!

Did your ds get on ok? Has he moved into his new house?

@crazycrofter he thinks he did better than the first time so fingers crossed.
I'm feeling the horror of non matching furniture 😱
DS hasn't even seen his house. The contract started on Sunday but he's not going up there until the 19th (subject to resit results) I'm worried about his furniture now.

Haha @mummyinbeds if he's paying more than dd (£80 week) he might be ok! I think part of her disgruntlement was visiting some friends in a much nicer house, with modern matching furniture - but they're paying a lot more than her! Her house is absolutely fine, by my standards, but there's woodchip on the walls and the furniture is old and random. She didn't like the 'scary' huge dark wardrobe either, but she's ordered some things to decorate it with. To be fair she was staying there on her own, without much of her own stuff, whilst doing exams, so it wasn't going to be a fun experience.

@mummyinbeds what do you mean by they get a chance to resit next summer after a year out? Do you mean they can't go back in September but can try and resit next summer and then start yr two next Sept?

I have had to replace the chair provided by DS's new landlord as it's wooden and uncomfortable for playing on the x-box. Not uncomfortable for working at his desk you understand but prioritising the x-box.

Hmm, that gif was meant to be under my last sentence. 😂

@285NeuerNamen my dd (who didn't sit her re-sit as didn't read the email saying she had one😣😮) found out she had "failed re-sit" whilst 3 days into new tenancy at Broadgate!
Luckily, she was able to switch course and is now safely out in the real world with a degree. It was a very stressful episode though for several weeks.

Whose DC forgot to leave their phone in their bag - was that you @crazycrofter, is everything ok with that now? 🤞

Oh dear @Takeittotheboss I can totally see how that could happen!

@singingstones yes that was my dd - I don't think she's heard anything (although I should remind her to check!)

@Takeittotheboss Oh blimey! What a shock that must have been!!

DS was like that with emails for most of the year but is now on top of them all at least. Perhaps if he had been like that earlier this year, he wouldn't have missed the email telling him he had handed in coursework in the wrong format. Or the one about another piece of coursework due in that he had no idea about...

New beginnings await :-)

@285NeuerNamen I think it's a youngster thing.....not reading emails (especially if they get many many irrelevant ones from the same source).🤔
We thought we'd drummed that checking email was vital behaviour into both of ours after that, but now see DS doing exact same thing. He almost didn't confirm he was going to start his course this year, as he was just reading headlines of emails to avoid the university spam. 😣🤐
Think it will be a constant worry again until he's through his course.

@Takeittotheboss Crikey the stress must have been eye-watering. Pleased all has come good.

@EwwSprouts there was certainly a lot of tears on all sides for a time😥
Never was a girl more thankful for a mother who reads boring contractual data for fun...aka degree regulations.😂

@JustHereWithMyPopcorn yes, they have to wait to the next exam sitting (so May) and can only progress if they pass that one. They have access to Moodle and online lectures but not tutorials. I'm hoping my extra reading of the rules won't come into play!

@crazycrofter DS is paying £100 a week, I'll let you know about the furniture when he's seen it. We might have the same Xbox chair issue as @JustHereWithMyPopcorn

Dd worked out the exact mark she’d need in each exam to pass that module (given she’d already done the May exams and coursework) and made sure she didn’t waste any precious time on revision unnecessarily! I did comment that perhaps it would be good to get her head round some of the stats stuff as year 2 would build on it, but to no avail.. @JustHereWithMyPopcorn I can relate to your ds’ priorities, my ds would be just the same!

£100 a week is low for Nottingham @mummyinbeds so he may have unmatched furniture too 🤣 Argos Clearance Bargains are a good bet for furniture if you have one near. We picked up a comfy desk chair and full length mirror yesterday for £20 each.

@mummyinbeds thanks for the info. 👍🏻 Also praying we won’t need it. 🙏🏻

@crazycrofter you did better than me I got mugged for an £80 chair.

Ds is being typical Ds really. I suggested taking him back to Brighton weekend of 23rd sept. He said no, he wants to carrying on working until 29th. I said they won't need you that last week. Work Will be finished. But he was adamant he wanted to go back the weekend of 30th sept. So, I booked either side of that weekend off work, as I always visit my mum for a few nights after drop off. I have to give 4 weeks notice at work. Ds texts me from work yesterday, about booking him a haircut before he goes back on 23rd. I'm off work the week after now 😤

Ds did exactly the same at either Easter or Christmas. Wouldn't do it the weekend I suggested until I booked time off the weekend he says, then he changes to my original plan.

He will either go on the train with minimal stuff and I'll go as planned with the rest. Or I'll take him if I can change my holiday from work.

That's annoying @icanbewhatiwant , I wouldn't change your annual leave at this point. Dd wants to go back on a Thursday, due to various social events that are happening. It's a bit of a pain, but as we're only an hour and a bit away it's doable in an evening. It will have to be the evening as we're both out of annual leave.

@JustHereWithMyPopcorn we bought the items while she's in Portugal, so she can't object to them or ask for more expensive ones! She also needs a load of double bedding and all the kitchen stuff that we didn't have to buy last year so I'm trying to keep costs down!

DD gets back from a mission trip next Friday and we head off on a 600 mile round trip to drop her back on the Saturday, ready for start of term on the Monday... Will be a very long day, tag teaming the driving....

Annoying icanbe.
Reading with interest re double duvets and kitchen pans crazy. I have similar going on with ds. He is finished in Notts and wants to come home. But he's so blasé about me picking him up whenever he wants.

But I can't, my back aches, I'm working, picking him up at midnight funnily enough doesn't work for me. I love /adore driving, but he forgets the cost and mental effort of a return journey in one day. Driving up for 3+ hours (on my last trip which was the worst) and then immediately 3+ hours back doesn't appeal, at 3am. When he can take the train. For £30!

Which he told Dh he couldn't because of pots and pans and double duvets. In the end Dh sharply told him he would be! I said he could leave his new double duvet there in Notts, and I'd give him our caravan double duvet for his 2 months in PwC London. (Which I still have no idea which area of London I'm even dropping him off at, Sunday 24th at 4pm. Apparently we get notified 5 days before.)

Ds2 starts Yr 10 tomorrow.

@Oblomov23 do you really love driving? Obviously not at the moment with your bad back. I don't like driving long journeys at all. I hate the motorway especially the M25 I find myself clutching my steering wheel like my life depends on it...I guess my life does depend on it! I don't go on motorways very often.

I did say I'd insure Ds on my car for 24 hours so he can drive it to Brighton. He's never driven on a motorway. But I find that thought scary now. His car is super slow. I think he will like my fast, automatic car a little too much.

DS has driven down with some of his stuff today. He is really pleased with his large room but says the house smells of damp 😬. I guess we can assess it ourselves when we go down with him properly next weekend. Fingers crossed it's not too bad☝ .

As for @Oblomov23 we hate doing the journey there and back in a day. Even if you like driving and don't have a bad back 7-8 hours driving in a day is knackering. We have a travelodge booked for next weekend when it's a cheap day for the main journey but thankfully some stuff has gone with him today.

DS went round the M25 and M4 today, he went on a motorway on his first proper lesson! But we do live right by a dual carriageway that we have to use to go almost anywhere so there is little choice.

Really not a fan here of there-and-back in a day! I tolerate driving rather than actively liking or disliking it. Will be stopping over when I take DD's stuff down (DD is going ahead with a few bags on the train).