Thread 49 - Covid GCSE Cohort - The nights are drawing in...

[OrangeSpicedBun]

Autumn 🍂 well and truly underway, has been chilly this week !

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 :

www.mumsnet.com/talk/parents_of_adult_children/4880640-thread-48-covid-gcse-cohort-summer-before-year-2-uni?latest=1

Glad your treatment is over Craggyrat and I am wishing you all the best for a speedy recovery.

Aargh!

Ds has potentially been offered an amazing opportunity but it clashes with another commitment. It also clashes with the last week of the Christmas term but I can't see the conservatoire worrying about it.

Would it potentially open doors for him @Comefromaway ? What will happen if he ditches the existing commitment?

Potentially yes, it’s big.

the other commitment if they can’t replace him (and they already lost one person to an even more amazing professional opportunity) then they couod be up the creek

I've posted on the other thread, Comefromaway.
Just to add, could your DS suggest a replacement to the amateur organisation? Is there someone on his course of who he knows from somewhere else that he could put forward to replace him?

He’s hoping something can be worked out.

@Comefromaway Fingers crossed!

@craggyrat We walked down Lensfield Road on the way to the Fitzwilliam and I saw those houses! Very nice. OK journey home (caught the edge of the storm). DD very happy that her room is now mould-free and has agreed to use the laundrette which is (bizarrely) in the art-school building (!)

Ds1 is home, we are off to fireworks on a minute. He isn't here to see me, he's here to talk to Dh about being guarantor for year 3 house, (silly early!). He hasn't even been in his Lenton year 2 house barely, (because he's in London till Xmas), but he's going to move in with a different group, his church friends, rather than his course mates, to Beeston.

Away for the weekend with DS and I managed to combine three types of photography in one day; landscape, wildlife, and sports. Nice way to round off my half-term break.

@MedicalNov23 I had to sign as DS’s guarantor for next years house last week. Absolutely ridiculous.

Nice weekend photos @PhotoDad

I can’t believe you Notts people are signing for houses already! I’d have liked dd to stay in her current house as it’s cheap, but there’s one, possibly two extras wanting to share with them next year. One of them is waiting to hear if she’s got a placement back home next year, so they can’t look yet anyway.

DD has signed her contract for next year. Some of the friends she made last year were asked by their LL if they wanted to renew on their current house but one is doing a year abroad so they asked if DD wanted to take the room. She's really pleased.

Ah that’s great @Seeline , it sounds like things are working out well for her this year.

@crazycrofter DS is staying in the same house, the landlord wants to put it up for rent again and they had to sign it before he did that and have someone potentially take it. I hate the whole process, particularly as DS is looking to do a year abroad next year and is waiting to see if he gets an interview for that (and subsequently if gets an offer for that) so will have to find a replacement if he does go.

DS is staying put next year, and miracle of miracles, the rent is going down 🤯

DS has a year abroad next year. I'm not sure what happens with housing if for some reason he doesn't go. But, he didn't sort this year's house until Easter (and didn't sign or pay anything until late August) so I'm sure he'll wing it. DD is busy looking in Aberystwyth. She could stay on campus but wants to live in town as apparently being able to stumble home after a night out is more important than being able to roll out of bed to get to lectures. Rent is cheap, property is grotty but is within a stones throw of the beach.

@Seeline lovely that she is being included by old friends.
@stoneysongs how odd!
@PhotoDad great pictures (as ever)

We have decided to buy a house in Norwich as DS will be there for 5 years and we still have money from sale of in-laws' house. Unfortunately the person at the top of his list for sharing may also be buying a house, so he probably won't be in the house share. This friend has no kidneys and has dialysis twice a week so his parents want him to be very close to the hospital, so makes sense.

DS says he and a group of friends are starting to look for a house together next year (they are first years but the same age or older than him), he is in halls again this year. So I will be picking your collective brains as this is all new to us (since I did it decades ago).

It's like a jinx! Dd messaged me only yesterday to say she was looking at a flat with a friend. Not many two beds around her area.

She starts work at an amazing special school tomorrow as a TA, 30 mins walk from her halls. She was placed by an agency but would really like to be on their own bank.

Do any school bods know if agencies still charge finders fees etc, if say after a year she wants to join their own staff bank?

It would be really good to stick with the school (if it works out) as they will be doing salaried postgrad teaching apprenticeships.

So I realised that the reason the thread has been so quiet is because it's a new one 
I need to go through and read the whole thing, so when I've got a couple of spare hours I'll be back to update!
But re schools, supply agencies charge extortionate finders fees (by me anyway).
We've not seen DD since September so going down this weekend. As we've got the car, we're going to venture further out for a day, making the most of taking DD to where she can't get the bus or train! So if my memory serves me correct (which it probably won't due to my menopausal muddled brain)( @Monkey2001 are you the Bristol resident? I'm after suggestions of places within an hours drive of Bristol for a day out.

Sounds like dd is doing brilliantly @OrangeSpicedBun . It’s so good to see a change of course turn out so well!

@NCTDN if you are looking for something outdoors to do I recommend Westonbirt Arboretum which is I think about half an hour away from Bristol (it’s also half an hour away from DS in the other direction). The trees should be at peak colour now, but you’d have to book and it will be busy if the weather is nice. Maybe followed by a potter around Cirencester, although that takes you further away, it is so pretty with lots of lovely cafes and shops. Tetbury is smaller but nearer.

@NCTDN yes, I am in Bristol. It depends on what you want! Westonbirt is indeed lovely, there are NT places around if you like that sort of thing/are a member,(Tyntesfield, Dyrham Park or Stourhead if you want to go a bit further). Tintern Abbey/Wye Valley is a lovely day out from Bristol, good walks and pubs. Bath lovely, but can do that by train. Sadly a bit early for the Bath Christmas market (23/11).

Yes I was hoping the Christmas markets would have started in Bath.
Bristol ones have so I'll make do with them!
I'm off to Google that arboretum.

And only 5 months after exams DS finally gets first year results! He's v happy with them and very relieved to get them. History were the last ones to mark following all the strikes. And his novice boat came 4th in first ergs rowing competition last weekend and he has his first actual on the river competition this weekend so a good week so far.

@PhotoDad - fab photos. I was walking through Yorkshire Showground yesterday- daily recovery walk, its nice as just next to our house, and had 14 red kites circling overhead - I felt a bit prey-like...

@craggyrat Well done your DS! Love red kites, remember seeing something about the random stuff they like to add to nests. Buzzards always seem more malevolent.

@PhotoDad That beach shot is so atmospheric! We should appreciate beaches in winter more.