Thread 54 - Summer 25 - Graduations after Uni Year 3

[Oblomov25]

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 53:
Thread53

Fantastic for both @ExtensivelyDecorating and @PhotoDad - well done!

Congratulations @ExtensivelyDecorating and @PhotoDad !

Wonderful news, congratulations on those fabulous results. We don’t find out until Thursday.

Wonderful news, ExtensivelyDecorating and PhotoDad!
What a talented bunch of offspring the class of 25/26 is!

Well done to your ds @ExtensivelyDecorating - brilliant news! And well done to you too for all the support over the years, I know it's been a long haul for you but so worth it!

Congratulations @PhotoDad & @ExtensivelyDecorating onwards and upwards!

Coming back to the driving test cancellation apps, there were two we'd heard of, Testi and Testshift. DS and I decided to download one each with different test centres chosen (they each limit how many you can receive alerts for) but we both listed the centre he wanted most. Lo and behold, he has had two alerts on Testi for that centre and I have had none on Testshift (which was also more expensive). He grabbed the second one (the first was in December same week as he was originally booked for) and is now booked in at the end of July. @blinkbonny on that basis I'd recommend Testi, @crazycrofter tagging you too as your DD is in the same boat.

Good news @ExtensivelyDecorating ! Testi is the one I recommended 😄 Dd has a date at the end of August; she's hoping to get one sooner but she's not really around until the first week of August anyway...

Massive congratulations to the newest graduates @ExtensivelyDecorating and @PhotoDad 👏 👏

We had great success on the Testi app @ExtensivelyDecorating and only had that one but some weeks nothing came up and other weeks it was daily or several times daily that we'd get notifications. Took DD 3 times so we had lots of practice with it. She's now the proud owner of a car and insurance wasn't too bad as she's now 21 so I have my car back 100% now. Just another 6 months to stay points free then her two years will be up. On her first day driving her new car this week she had to enter a bus lane early as a van had broken down in her lane so all the cars were having to change to the bus lane. She's hoping nothing will come of that as any capture would show a broken down vehicle. I was driving behind her and I had to do the same so I'm crossing everything too 🤞

And we are now officially graduated!

I don't think I saw always...

@Piggywaspushed Hurrah! Hope it was an all round lovely day.

@ExtensivelyDecorating Congratulations to your DS.

Yippee 🙌 @Piggywaspushed Hope it wasn’t too unbearably hot inside the building. Poor students having to wear gowns and caps in this heat. Congrats to miniPiglet x

It was a wonderful day, wasn’t it?
We loved every minute and it was so wonderful to see DD so happy and proud of herself.

Very impressed by how slick the ceremony was. We particularly loved the brass ensemble and the chancellor’s speech, and we’re lucky enough to have Carlos Acosta as speaker - I took DD to see him dance with the National Ballet of Cuba when she was quite young, so it feels like a bit of a full circle moment.

Hope you had a fabulous day too, piggy.

That’s interesting about the Testi app, I had three different ones looking I got nothing from Testi or the other one (could have been Testshift but I’ve deleted it now) and Test Ultimate. The only one to send me stuff was Test Ultimate. Maybe it depends on area.

Hope you both had lovely days Piggy and Always.

Yes, DS's bandmates were in the brass band. They were fab. The campus looked glorious.

Carlos Acosta! Wow. We just had the Chancellor!

He was awarded an honorary doctorate and gave a wonderfully inspiring speech about his life, from the streets of Havana as one of 11 children.
We also spotted Mel Giedroyc in the audience - DD bumped into her in the loos before realising she’s the mum of one of her friends!

Congratulations to @PhotoDad@ExtensivelyDecorating and all with graduation news!

Hi all,

I hope you can guess my OP username. Unfortunately circumstances meant it wasn't safe for me to continue posting. Dd got herself into a terrible relationship Dec 23 police got involved i dont want to say too much but you can prob guess the rest.

Out the other side now but PTSD has (possibly) led to Functional Neurological Disorder for her. She has continued working in her school TA job and doing Ed Studies. The school has turned out to be a bit toxic but studies going well ...going into her final year and still wants to do SEN teaching.

UoR has been amazing and supportive and I have posters on this thread to thank for that. It really was the best place for her. She has just moved into her first student house with pals and has a few friends on the course. Im going to go back through and read all the updates now. Sorry for being absent for so long it was just that circumstances prevailed.

Oh, hi, and big hugs to you.

Just to clarify OrangeCinnamonette switched from Music at Cardiff to Ed Studies at Reading ...going into her final year.
Everyone has done so very very well ...I can't believe when I started an anxious thread asking for GCSE support that we are here now with grown up children...amazing! They HAVE been through so much and are all stars.

Hi @FruitedSpicybun and welcome back! So so sorry to hear about the relationship issues but well done to your Dd for persevering- another of our amazing dc on this thread!

We were in Cardiff for Unibrass and I did actually think of you then!

Hi @FruitedSpicybun thank you for coming back to update, I remember your concerns about that relationship and that your DD changed track, she never really wanted to go to Cardiff in the first place did she. I'm glad things are working out for her on the education side I think good SEN teachers are going to be more and more in demand. Big hugs to you all.