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.

Previous thread 50:

50

Never too early Cantonet 😂 Enjoy!

Belated congratulations to @Delphigirl DS!

Tortuous there and back journey yesterday to get DS but now home and our house is overflowing with all his stuff.... He's got some work at the Great Yorkshire Show for a week early July so that's good. It's literally at the end of our road so v handy. Monday he is back seeing RAF for various ID checks and then hopefully another interview. Time to put 3rd load of washing on....

We have been looking at uni open days for DD2. I am worried the ones she likes best are over 4 hours away. What is a reasonable distance to travel to uni. How often do they come home if they are so far away? DD1 came home a lot but she was about an hour and half hours away and could also get home by train.

I think a lot depends on public transport options, we are looking for DD too (although she still hasn't got a clue what she wants to study). She has said no more than abut 4 hours drive away, but that is a long way for a return journey, so trains have to be a reasonable option too. It seems to me that even being fairly close to home doesn't necessarily mean they'll come back a lot though, I only went 10 miles but never really went home in term time (I always did for the holidays).

BlueMarigold : Agree with ED, I guess aside from good connectivity, do you think she’ll want to come home frequently or is she pretty independent; and do you want to see her more or are you ok with less is more if she’s keeping busy?

I also think the returning home more frequently reasons will depend on whether she’s missing home cooking/events/family or unhappy and not managed to integrate into uni life…only you can judge her character.

Mine returned only a handful of times in between semester breaks (she doesn’t get an Easter break aside from bank hols) and was equally happy to be back home, yet itching to get back after a visit so I saw that as healthy balance, but the connectivity to return if needed was key (and didn’t think 4 hours was too arduous door to door).

Anecdotally, those in DD’s cohort (in UK) that lived closer to home, did return frequently, it seems to be the norm these days. But I do think picking choices they can see themselves thriving in is key vs locality alone.

Good luck to you both on the selection process!

I think my concern would be that some unis do seem to empty out a bit at weekends (DS's certainly does and some of those that stay have weekend jobs) and time hangs a bit heavy for him sometimes. DS is a 90 min drive from us but 4 hours each way on public transport and not possible at all on Sundays, however there were so many other reasons for choosing it that we were prepared to overlook that. It's a bit different for him with his SENs though. In second year DS started doing parkrun on Saturdays and that has made a difference to how he feels about being there when it's quiet, he also explores the local area by himself.

So ds has officially finished Year 1. He just admitted that he only got 45% for his essay (because) he got the submission day wrong and was penalised for submitting a day late (sigh). Still awaiting some marks. He got a brilliant mark for his recital (80) which he was very pleased about but his technical assessment brought the overall module mark down to 74. A disappointing ensemble mark of 50 but one member of the group let the others down badly and this was reflected in the feedback. Always the problem with group work.

He was supposed to be playing for the conservatoire show this week but at the weekend was offered a professional contract for the opening of a national tour. Not playing in the band but being on site during the end of the rehearsal period/1st preview to make any required changes in the keyboard programming. Basically the area he wants to specialise in.

He didn't want to let the conservatoire show down but the lecturer in charge said it was too good an opportunity to turn down so they have sorted a replacement for him there.

So he travelled there today and arrived safely despite an incident affecting the trains, honestly that child and trains are jinxed.

@BlueMarigold DD is 5 ish hours away by car, 5-6 hours by train (quite often a rail replacement bus). She hasn't been home at all during term time and used the train at Christmas and Easter. That was the deal when she chose to be so far away. Luckily she's independent and very happy at uni. I've visited once in term time as I wangled a work trip not too far away 😁
DS on the other hand is 90 minutes away and I'm backwards and forwards like a yo yo. He often uses the train too which seems to take about the same time. I'm not sure how his year in France will go.

@BlueMarigold DS was 3.5hours away by train or road. He came home once a term maybe. We thought that distance would be absolutely fine but in retrospect it would have been a lot easier to support him through the difficult times if he was near enough that we could pop down for lunch or similar. A 7 hour round trip made that very difficult.

if you have any concerns at all about them settling (we didn’t have any concerns at first) then carefully consider distance.

Thank you. We have one more uni to visit and then we will have seen them all

@comefromaway that sounds like an amazing opportunity for him!!

@Comefromaway Wow! Must be good if the lecturer said go ahead. Hope he has a brilliant experience.

He’s living his best life so far. Theatre digs can be variable but they’ve put him up in a lovely aparthotel.

Just heard that DS has been awarded a First class degree! So proud - he had to do a foundation year after the COVID chaos of results day meant he lost his place, and coped all through that COVID year. Despite submitting his dissertation 20 mins before the deadline, he's pulled it off. Perhaps he'll start job hunting now 🙄

That's brilliant news @seeline ! You must be thrilled

Fabulous Seeline, enjoy celebrating!

Brilliant news @Seeline Well done to your DS 🧑‍🎓

Congratulations to @Seeline DS!!

Congratulations Seeline ds! 🏆

Congratulations @seeline to your clever DS! Such an achievement particularly after that rocky start. Hope you have some family celebrations tonight🎉🎉

Thanks all - celebrations on hold as both DS and DH are out tonight.

Excellent update @Seeline Congratulations to your DS!

Well done to your ds @Seeline !

Congrats @Seeline