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' exams are grinding with no news. We already know he cant pass this year though so just waiting for them to be over and for him to come home. No summer job lined up because of festivals and retakes in August.

It feels crazy that some DCs are about to enter their final year at uni

I agree @BlueMarigold ! I'm quite glad that DD is only finishing Y1 to be honest. Just waiting for my DSs final set of marks to be released to find out his degree classification - I'm not sure I could take another dissertation/finals year straightaway!

Anyone here have any Loughborough Uni experience? I might have asked before 😳 Ds 2 is frightened by the sportiness of it. He thinks he might put Sheffield first.

@Cantonet Never been to Loughborough but it was one of DS's choices so from my research back then, Loughborough is a uni for both the sporty and completely unsporty. He can play sport as much or as little as he wants, everyone finds their groove. Pls tell him not to be put off by the sporty reputation, he should go ad see it first.

@seelineI was in your position last year and it was nail biting the wait, coupled with the strikes last yr which meant lots of unis weren't even marking, thankfully his was marked and results came out early July. Good luck and all the best to
your DS.

I don't know whether it's just because I'm more tuned into it now, but ds is keen for Nottingham in a years time. The pastoral side is concerning me but am I reading more into it than I should ?

I’m really sorry to hear of the stress that kids at Notts law and psych are going through. 24hr exam would be my idea of hell. 3 hr exam fine, coursework/thesis fine, 24 hr exam - are you meant to work at it for the whole 24 hrs? Polishing and polishing and losing sight of what is required? No thank you. Like torture. I couldn’t agree more with the need to look at assessment methods when choosing courses, but how does one know what is really going on? If you look at psych at notts it is all happy lovely mixture of coursework, group work, labs, assessed exams… nothing about 24hr exams. Hmmmm.

DD has 50% extra time for exams so that means 4.5 hours of sitting in an exam hall... Usually being the only one left at the end! And they said because she has so much extra time she couldn't have rest breaks as well. She really struggles to sit in those chairs for so long without getting up and moving around!

@Cantonet No experience of Loughborough but Ds1 is at Bath which has a similar sporty reputation & it has been absolutely fine for a very unsporty person.

@handmademitlove are these Uni exams with different rules? I'm a lead invigilator in a school and I would most definitely allow rest breaks for a student who was entitled to them despite me then having to then be in an exam room for 5+ hours invigilating. Can you fight for her rights?

@Seeline and @BlueMarigold hopefully they'll be enough of us with DC doing 4 year courses, foundation years and gap years to carry on this wonderful group til the end.

@blinkbonny I think that's a great idea re your DS getting a connection at his Uni so if he does need help he's known. DD has been very fortunate to have such caring and helpful lecturers, course leaders and academic tutors at Chichester Uni. It does help that she sought them out in her first term for advice and made herself known to them I suppose snd is now a student rep and paid ambassador for the uni. I think her experience is quite unusual then but it could be because her uni is a lot smaller perhaps. Her flatmates have not had the same experience as they keep themselves to themselves and just ask DD for help as they say they can't be bothered to access the help themselves or they're not brave enough.

We have 3 weeks left and DD is limping towards the finish line. She's been on reading week this week catching up on rest and finishing assignments as her placement started 16th May til 21st June. She's caught a dreadful cold and cough and lost her voice and isn't 100% now and has her observation on Tuesday for her first teaching lesson in a class of over 30 children of differing abilities.

She's also been allocated (names in a ballot) the smallest darkest back of the house room for 2nd year houseshare so she's a bit low - she found the house and was lead student on it - but the bigger voices in her house share sorted the ballot (man I hope it was fairly done ) and they both got the biggest sea view sunny bay windowed rooms with double beds. In the beginning DD suggested making the rent more for the huge rooms but those two girls shot her down and look how it's worked out in their favour. Oh well what's done is done and we'll make her room as cosy as possible.

Does anyone in this group have any experience with either Lincoln or Keele uni? I saw both have been in the news recently for having financial issues but they also both have good student experience and won awards for student experience etc. Have the issues affected the students at all? Both unis are on our list for DD2.

@BlueMarigold if it helps here is a list of all redundancies/restructures: https://qmucu.org/qmul-transformation/uk-he-shrinking/

@Cantonet DH went to Loughborough and LOVED it. He was moderately sporty (athletics) but it wasn’t his whole life. He has very good friends from there still.

@BlueMarigold no but my DD (applying for next year) is very keen on Lincoln, we are planning to go to the open day in July. Keele seems like her sort of place too. I am also a bit concerned re cuts, especially as she is dyslexic possible ADHD/ASD and may need more support than some. There is someone on here with an older DC at Lincoln (or been there), it might have been Piggywaspushed but I can’t tag her as she hasn’t posted on this thread.

To be honest I doubt many unis are immune to financial issues in the current climate.

@AnneOfCleavage universities set their own guidance on exams as they are effectively all internal exams, unlike school where the rules are set by the exam board. It has been interesting to see the differences - schools are very good at some things, but very inflexible at others. I guess depending on whether it is delegated by the exam board. The university has been really good with most things as I suppose they can do as they like really. But then they seem much less willing to change things just for one person!
I think DD is okay with it - she treats the 25-50% extra time as either extra time or break and takes a "toilet break" if needed...

@PuddingtonPuddington that’s really interesting thank you!

@EasilyDefined we liked both Lincoln and Keele. Keele’s campus was prettier but Lincoln’s location practically in the city centre was very convenient.

God that’s a depressing read Puddington, I’m sure it’s just the tip of iceberg to come.

I try to avoid mentioning TCD as it’s such an isolating situation, not all perfect but on balance, absolutely the right call for DD. So far, she’s been shielded from strikes, lack of marking and support, feedback and has good contact hours. She could have done with more hours on the Arabic which leaves her exposed to next year vs other incoming international students, and Spanish weirdly placed all beginners and advanced into same lectures for Y2; resulting in a lose lose for both, though less so for her as she had decent skills to not need the teaching, supplementing it from other means.

However the pluses have far outweighed, and she’s reflected constructively having finished early May. She knows she’s been very lucky to have been funded by her parents, though the 4 years will come way under the costs had she been studying in UK, and she’s managed to live on our £300 per month contribution from us, remainder funded by her working (tutoring).

The standard of students on her course have been high, they all seem to be a driven cohort who have secured wide ranging opportunities in both work and research; I think the mix of both Irish domestic and international have been quite grounding vs the London bubble she left behind.

We have a couple of challenges to overcome; health and weight related, which are difficult to broach when lifestyle remains so busy, but she’s less in denial and open to help, which is a major step forward. Being in a semi-dry country for 4 months from 24 Aug may help 🤞

Hoping you can get all of your YP over the line, end of year fatigue is hard work, so here’s to them relaxing a little over the summer!

Currently in Cambridge on a day visit to see DS and collect some stuff so last day isn't as bad! Had a lovely time - walked miles along the river, lunch at The Eagle and whistle stop tour of Fitzwilliam to see paintings. I even drove the first two hours which for me is a big challenge as I really dislike motorway driving. He's home briefly next weekend as has initial RAF interview at Leeds. Nice to hear all the updates.

Fingers 🤞 for him next week Craggy!

Back from Norwich with DD having finished her first year. We went for the weekend as she needed help packing everything before we could get it in the car. Her room was so tiny she just couldn't keep boxes etc to pack.
Managed to get everything home and our living room is now full! Hopefully once everything is sorted and washed, we can make use of granny's garage - we don't one. She certainly seems to have enjoyed first year mark 2!

I'm here! Just haven't had anything to say!

Yes DS1 went to Lincoln. Think me and blue have chatted about it before maybe?

@BlueMarigold I loved my time at Keele back in the early 90's. DD had it as her insurance so we did the open day and offer holders day last year. Although she absolutely loved the campus, she wasn't so keen on Stoke on Trent. The uni seems to have invested heavily in medicine and the vet school - DD was looking at IR, based in my old department. There didn't seem to have been much investment there although the staff we met were passionate about the course and their research.

Oh that’s a dire read about all the cuts. Some of DD’s lecturers have been muttering about ‘everyone being sacked’ which is hopefully a huge overstatement and definitely unprofessional.

She’s been home for two weeks but we’re currently on holiday - she has deigned to come with us. A week in Suffolk and then three days in Cambridge.