Thread 51 - Covid GCSE Cohort - Summer 24 - End of Uni Yr 2

[Oblomov24]

2024 Summer, end of year 2 for those at Uni.

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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DS has been out with girls but has never had a proper girlfriend I've actually met! He made it back to Cambridge by 7 without incident. Interview went well and he is through to the next stage... judge's houses?? Well online serious Interview

@mummyinbeds hope you're feeling better soon and the French goes well

@EasilyDefined @mummyinbeds dd has been referred to Psychiatry UK too, how long did you have to wait? Thankfully that sort of admin is something dd could and would do herself whereas ds would bury his head in the sand! However ds seems to have turned a corner with general life organisation/getting up in the morning and getting down to revision (unlike dd 😩). @mummyinbeds I know your ds has the sleep issues - ds’ new routine involves eye mask, rubber ear plugs and a caffeine hit first thing! It will be interesting to see if he keeps it up or if it only works because of the urgency of exams!

@mummyinbeds good luck to ds re the French test and hope dd gets to Ghana safely.

🤞 crossed for him Craggy. Another one here with a DC not so lucky in love, it seems to be a thing with much of our group here!

Best of luck to all those trying to obtain meds and treatment with all the hoop jumping.

Hope the turnaround and pre departure prep goes well for your DD Mummy, and that y out r DS nails his language exam ahead of his year abroad,

@crazycrofter I think DD's referral probably went in around the end of Feb, can't remember exactly, she has done it herself by and large. However for the assessment they can't do it all by themself, there is a form for them to complete and one for someone who has known them all their life, so that may well come your way. It has about 10 questions about them and any you say yes to you need to provide examples. I am used to all this because of having gone through it all with DS, so I have for the last couple of years been keeping notes of anything that makes her stand out from her peers in an ADHD/autism sort of way, e.g. complaining about the noise levels in class in her small private school and the teachers saying to me that they are actually very quiet classes.

@craggyrat fingers crossed for him. My DS has got another interview for a summer job on Saturday.

@mummyinbeds hope you feel better soon

hmmm I've already filled in something like that @EasilyDefined - I guess that must have been for Psychiatry UK? So maybe she's further ahead than your dd in the queue.

All the best to your ds @craggyrat with his next interview

Ah, maybe that's it @crazycrofter , I have no idea what happens next or how long it will take. The form will take me a while though as I have a very long list and always end up being a bit perfectionist about it all (and seeing myself in it too, I don't think I am diagnosable but I definitely share some of the traits).

I too am really struggling with loads of different forms, etc, including filling 6 things in for ds2 to do football referee course at 3am today for the 6am deadline last minute because they hadn't recorded an email address for him!
Ds1 is climbing Ben Nevis, shocked me with photo because I wasn't expecting snow.

Snow doesn't surprise me @Oblomov24 given how cold this June has been!

Ds has finished his A Levels and I'm done with school forever! What a relief 😂He's thrown everything at us - crying every day in nursery/reception, bullied in years 3 and 4 such that we had to home ed him for 2 years, lots of behaviour issues in secondary and the ADHD diagnosis, lots of disorganisation/losing and forgetting things, leaving all the studying until Feb-May of year 11 and year 13, constant lateness! But hopefully he'll be fine out in the real world.... he's gone straight into 9 hour days at tesco but he does have a holiday to Morocco booked for the week after next.

Woohoo Crazy, and to everyone else’s DC nearing/finished their exams 👏

(trying to rid Alice Cooper from my head)

Yay @crazycrofter what a relief! DD doesn't finish hers till next Weds then has her third one next year but its fair to say her journey has been a bit easier than that of your DS.

It has occurred to me that despite the two year age gap mine are conspiring to make major stage of life changes at the same time - both left school together because DS stayed in 6th form and DD went to college. Next year DS will be graduating as DD leaves college. So the busy-ness will ramp up for both again.

Nearly there @EasilyDefined ! Mine did big changes two years ago as dd went to uni and ds started a new sixth form. We also relocated/moved house so it was all go and very stressful!

I think ds will be coming back from his gap year and deciding what to do with his life next summer, at the same time as dd graduates and tries to decide what to do next too! We'll probably be advising (or not!) on job applications for both... I think I'll do my best to enjoy the peace from Jan to June when they're both away 😂

DS2 finishes tomorrow with Geography in the morning and Physics in the afternoon. I'm exhausted so he must be off the scale tired.

DS1 finally comes home on Saturday.

Well done to your ds & you for surviving this exam season. It must be such a relief. How does he think they went?
Ds finishes his the end of next week.
@Oblomov .. eek snow 😮
It's freezing here. The dog & I are currently either side of the heater. I had to make some chicken noodle soup with loads of crispy chilli sauce & ginger in for lunch to warm myself up.

@cantonet DS was feeling confident but the doubts are already creeping in. How does your DS feel they have gone?

It’s freezing here too, I have put the heating on again. 🥶

Hooping all the A levels and GCSEs have gone well.

No heating on here but big blanket keeping me warm. Snowy Ben Nevis image makes me shiver.

DS finally got to see his tutor. One interesting comment was that the Prof doesn't think it is a good thing exams barely feature in year2. Said to make sure chose some modules that are assessed by assignment to have marks in the bag before starting end of year 3 exams. Thinks not done students a favour by removing the 'dry run'. Might be one to discuss with your soon to be final year DC ?

Way too many exams for dd so far @EwwSprouts , but they’ve all been quite short ones and combined with lots of short coursework assignments too. She’s happier that next year will just be 4 chunkier exams and a few much longer essays. I think she’s felt she spent inordinate amounts of time on coursework worth only 15/20% and ran out of time to revise. She feels less is more I think!

Glad ds thought they went ok at the time @JustHereWithMyPopcorn - tell him not to overthink now! It worries me that ds is hopeful he’ll get Bs, but his lack of practice and the fact he taught himself a lot of it, plus not finishing exams, makes me think he might get Cs. He’ll be so disappointed! How is ds finding them @Cantonet ? And @EasilyDefined dd?

DD keeps saying they are fine and she seems pretty chilled. Only having two this year has taken the pressure off as in English which she is first year for they are ahead and the teacher hasn't minded her missing a few classes to revise (probably helps that's she's got an impeccable attendance record). But of course those classes carry on til the end of term at the end of June so it's not all over when the exams finish for her.

Freezing here too, our heating clicked on last night (thermostat was set
to 19°).

Our thermostat is 15 and clicked on yesterday! Now set at 10....

Good luck to all the final day A levels and well done to those who are finished.

DS been coxing in the bumps races Wednesday to Saturday this werk and had/is having a fab time

Joining in a bit late on the height conversation. We have the opposite experience to some of you in that we have one daughter average-ish height (about 5'6" I think), one son a little on the low side for men (about 5'10" - not short but not tall) and one daughter a whisker over six foot, which she is very upset about. Like the small-stature boys, she hasn't had a partner yet at age of 23 and she says men invariably comment on her height. It really affects her posture and confidence which is such a shame as she is lovely looking (bias, but she is). But there is no getting away from the fact that she is very tall. I have told her to accept it and glory in it, but being quite tall myself I know how embarrassing it can feel when other girls just automatically seem more delicate and feminine just because they are smaller (ridiculous I know). But it makes her look unconfident and apologetic if she tries to hunch over. Which breaks my heart.

Our heating keeps coming on too! Just as well as both DCs have brought tons of washing home with them, and we are trying to get loads done as needed for our holiday - leave on Wednesday. It's impossible hanging stuff on the line, and no tumble dryer. We can hardly move at the moment for airers draped with lump washing!

I've turned our thermostat down to 18 (its on a timer so 18/19 in the morning and evening, 13 the rest of the time). It is completely unheard of for it to come on in June. Sympathy re laundry @Seeline we are managing to get ours done on the line by very careful forecast-watching and DS being at home some days to put it in and out. We have got a tumble but no space anywhere for airers (smallish terrace house).

@blinkbonny I had a friend at school who was 6' by age 15 and developed very poor posture through hunching. She hated it but did meet a lovely chap of similar height and had had a long and happy marriage. I am part of a group of 6 female friends all of fairly average height (approx 5'3 to 5'7) and two of us are noticeably taller than our DH, two about the same, two taller. I don't think it's as unusual as it used to be for the woman to be taller than the man - I am several inches taller than DH and I don't think anyone has ever commented.

Heating has been on here for the past two days (again) it is obscenely cold and just feels like winter. We don't have a foreign holiday booked so can't even look forward to a bit of holiday sun this year.