Thread 55 - Covid GCSE Cohort - Autumn 25 - Yr 4 Uni and Graduates

[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 54:
Thread 54

Happy New Year all!

We are ski-ing with both DC - who are being very good company.

DD back to Newcastle on Sunday, and then she thinks she’s going to be filmed for 24 hour in Geordie A&E!

Where are you @KingscoteStaff?

Serre Chevalier (spelling?). New resort on us, but excellent!

Hope you’ve lots of snow. Ds is of to Andorra in a few days which looks phenomenal - but freezing!
Happy new year to you all x

@KingscoteStaff enjoy serre chevalier, broke my arm there many years ago! The ski clinic was very good but hopefully you won’t need to know that….

@Piggywaspushed sorry to hear about your mum. Sending you love, it’s particularly difficult if there is little/no family support and there is only so much your DH can do. I get it

Complicated situation with parents here and DMum going through dementia diagnosis after significant deterioration over the last few months and a couple of years of parental denial before that. Ddad has
noone to talk to so I end up getting a lot of calls and request to call mum and re-orient her. Last week she had forgotten DSis had died 😟. But sometimes she’s fairly normal, other times she’s very confused and at times delusional. It’s exhausting waiting for the next phone call/text but I can’t bring myself to leave DDad alone with it. It makes me miss DSis as she would have dealt with it all really well and been another person to talk to. They were here for Xmas and thankfully it went well.

Onto better news, we met DS’s newish gf over the last week. She seems lovely so 🤞.

Happy New Year all, hoping for a calm and peaceful 2026 for all.

Happy New Year everyone. @AnotherNewName460 sorry to hear about your DMim. That must be very difficult and upsetting to cope with.

Nice to hear all the meetings of GF and BF went well. DS has been in London over the New Year with his, GF and is home later today. Can't deny we've enjoyed the peace and quiet! We've only ever met her for half an hour so know nothing about her really. I've been working this week which has been a drag so enjoying coffee now on my NWD.

And the Army are still messing DS about - they now say they want his unredacted GP records - which is what they already had. I think he's about ready to forget all about that as a career. It's just tortuous

Just seen online that the M27 is opening a day earlier than expected so no detour for DD driving back to Uni @EndlessDistraction- yippee.
She handed in last assignment NYE and sore throat was short lived and didn’t progress 🤞 - on vit C drinks in preparation for placement. Hope your cold is nearly gone 🤞

That all sounds very hard @AnotherNewName460and I truly empathise as I sadly have had much experience with family members with dementia including right now. You probably already know this but it’s kinder to never remind them of family death as the loss is then a new shock.
We found sun downing to be very true and from mid/late afternoon it ramped up. Increasing food intake helped - little and often - as their worrying active brains use up a lot of fuel.
Lovely you got to meet the new gf.

Tell us more about this possible filming @KingscoteStaffSounds exciting.

Enjoy the skiing too. Is DS skiing in Andorra too then @NCTDN?

What a pain re the army still mucking your DS about @craggyratSo frustrating for you all.

Good luck on DS’s job hunting @Shimyand great to hear DS’s job is going well @EwwSprouts- does he get to take home some off cuts?

Good luck to DS for his mocks @JustHereWithMyPopcorn

@AnneOfCleavage thanks. I am sorry you are also dealing with this.
No I didn’t remind her of DSis not being here but DDad did take her to the grave a couple of days later when she was more with it.
They live a distance away so I’m not there much hence all the calls from DDad although am trying to visit more often. For various reasons with both of their health this year they have not been able to visit my house since before Easter, so Christmas was the first time in a long time that they had been here. I am trying to visit roughly fortnightly but it’s a juggle with running my own business and home commitments. She also doesn’t eat much but if she doesn’t have an appetite it’s difficult.
I need to find some sort of support for DDad but I think he will be very resistant.

@craggyrat thanks.

Sorry to hear that the army process is such a pain and still ongoing.

@Craggyrat The military do not make it easy for prospective personnel. The medical stuff always holds things up. We have a friend's DS who was waiting to hear from the RAF. He has since got a surveying job and now the RAF has given him a start date. He has decided to defer the RAF.

We had a busy New Years Day meeting DD's new chap (not 'official' yet... I do not understand all this new lingo- but they have gone abroad together for 4 days???) and DS's housemate who he is hoping will be his lodger. Both are lovely.

House news: DS has to provide evidence of his address for his mortgage eg a utility bill, a council tax bill etc in his name. He is in a house share and all the bills are included in his rent so are in the landlord's name. This must be a problem for young people living at home or young people in the military. Luckily, DS has a credit card (which counts but not a bank statement), so he just needs to change it over to the house share address rather than our address. He has had a CC since his gap year to build his credit rating.

Jury Service news: DS has now been called for jury service at his house share address town. Hopefully is does not clash with a move date.

@Aslockton I don't understand all this new dating lingo either. It seemed much easier in the 80s...you were either going out with someone or you weren't!

Good new re house moving forward and I hope jury service doesn't clash. That's interesting re RAF. DS is thinking of reapplying as a year is almost up since his rejection so why not really.

I've got telephone appointment today with spinal surgeon for my slipped disc so am hoping I'm moving up the list.

That’s so frustrating re the army process @craggyrat - you’d think they didn’t need new recruits!

Fingers crossed you move up that waiting list! 🤞

Great news about house progress @Aslockton . Ds is on the ball with these things and he’s had a credit card for a while, but he’s good with money. At the moment I’m not sure it would be wise for dd to have one! I think she’s had bills in her name in house shares though 🤔

Also good news re new partner @Aslockton . I also don’t understand the new complexities around relationships. Ds was seeing his now girlfriend multiple times a week for weeks, before they eventually agonised over it and ‘put a label of dating’ on it. Then they talked about becoming boyfriend and girlfriend just before Christmas, but he had to do it ‘officially’, almost like an engagement! It’s all very odd and overly complicated! 🤣

@AnotherNewName460 - I can empathise with your situation. My mother received a formal diagnosis of dementia in December. I have no idea how my father copes with her day in, day out. Fortunately all my siblings live close by, so they’re being quite supportive. Especially my little brother.

DS went back to Newcastle yesterday, and I already miss him! He has an exam on Wednesday, and a lab report due in on Friday, so he’s where he needs to be. His lectures don’t actually start until 26 January, so he’s wondering if he might come back home for another couple of weeks next weekend. Looking at getting a coach to MK as it is much cheaper than doing the journey by train. One of his friends might be doing the same journey, so he’d likely have company.

DD started back on Friday having had a week off for Christmas. It’s quite funny hearing her moan about emails and meetings and all the day-to-day bits of having a job! She got a (pro rata) Christmas bonus with her December paycheck which she was very happy about!

How is everyone doing? How many dc are still at home?

Mine are both here as they don't have exams/only have an online exam. I think they're going back for the start of lectures on 26th.

Ds is applying for a semester abroad next year. The deadline is at 3pm. He was still deciding which unis/countries to apply to at about 9pm last night after many about turns.... He's now getting the personal statement done; he read out his first couple of paragraphs to check I thought they were ok - obviously I'm not going to make any changes at this point!

I think he's putting a politics-specialist university in Aix-en-Provence first, followed by Uni of Melbourne and then Hong Kong, so an eclectic mix! I've no idea how much weight they give to the statement; his grades have all been really good, so I'm thinking he's got a good chance of being accepted at one of his three, but we'll see...

Belated happy new year everyone, a busy period for us, lots of elders management too complex to go through but most of you here in same predicament.

Mine still ‘home’ @crazycrofter, we’re just on a train to Rome airport after a lovely few days away. Just need to see if our flight is going to fly 🤞 DD returns next weekend, final music tour to Copenhagen for her before final semester starts sometime in week 3 Jan. I love your boy’s mix of YA options, I am sure he will get an offer/s back. Great to hear him doing so well.

Happy New Year everyone. DD is still here but goes back on Sunday. She has just lined up a volunteer role in a museum which is accessible by public transport from both home and uni so that's good (she's had no luck finding paid work of any description at uni and neither have her friends). DS here indefinitely. Parent issues ongoing, I have had a bit of a break over the festive season but have now got a huge backlog of admin to deal with.

Fingers crossed for your flight @ealingwestmum and for your DS @crazycrofter that's an exciting mix of options.

Mine are still home @crazycrofter DD should have gone back yesterday but her coach was cancelled about 15 minutes before I was due to drop her at the coach station. Today's is also cancelled, as are trains. She's booked on tomorrow's National Express (fingers crossed) She doesn't have lectures until 26th but has an essay to write and her notes are all in Aberystywth.
DS has an in person exam on 23rd so needs to be back by then. He's busy essay writing here in the meantime, as usual sailing close to the deadlines.

Sorry to hear of the ongoing elders/parents issues @ealingwestmum @EndlessDistraction . We are slightly 'fortunate' to both be one of 5 siblings, some of whom live very locally to our parents (we're an hour away from one and nearly two hours from the others). None of them need care as such yet, although dh's mum is very forgetful, but when they do I think we'll be the back up/relief carers rather than carrying the main burden. Not that we've planned it that way, obviously!

That's great for dd's CV @EndlessDistraction even if it's a bit frustrating that she won't be paid.

I love Rome @ealingwestmum !

Ds submitted his study abroad application 5 minutes before the deadline @mummyinbeds ! 😂 Hong Kong was bumped up to second place at the last minute!

@crazycrofter phew! Glad he submitted on time. It's a good job DS didn't have to actually apply for his year abroad or he'd never have gone. He didn't do his French proficiency exam on time for the French uni which led to a very anxious few months. He had to take a gamble on passing and apply for his visa, accommodation etc without a guarantee of a place. I'll laugh about it one day but omg, the stress.

@mummyinbeds 😂the stress is crazy isn't it! Ds wouldn't even have known the deadline was today if I hadn't have done the research for him! It makes me wonder how on earth he's managed to submit essays on time at uni and do so well... it's a mystery.

I'm a bit worried about France as I feel it might be quite an unforgiving environment academically? And I assume there wouldn't be extra time in exams?

DS is back in Newcastle and staying there until term starts. He says his exam went well. I hope he handed in his lab report today.

I’m not sure any of his flatmates are around at the moment, so it might be a lonely couple of weeks. But it’s his choice.

I went out running with a group at work on Tuesday. (In the snow. Knowing there was no heating/hot water in the changing rooms). One of my colleagues mentioned that his DD is at Newcastle and also staying up there between exams and the start of term. I wonder if I should try engineer a meeting between her and DS? She’s 1st year geography, so I doubt he knows her (he’s 2nd year chemistry).

DD had her 2m probation review this week (they’re monthly for 6m). It all sounds really positive. She says she’s finally reached the point where her job is starting to make sense.

@crazycrofter DS thought the academic level in France was easier and exams were variable - 20 mins oral exam, multi choice or essays, depending on the tutor. It wasn't even the same across the same modules. Hours were hideous for a DS who can't do mornings - 8am lectures and a 30 minute Metro to get there. I was having to set my alarm for 5.30 UK time to wake him up. Some days finished at 9pm. Nothing was recorded either. DS could have asked for consideration of his Nottingham Support Plan but didn't get round to it. His friend had some allowances in exams so it was possible.

Thanks @mummyinbeds 😬 Ds only managed to attend about 50% last term (but caught up with the rest online). He takes it in better online anyway, so he’ll find that hard if he ends up in France.

Well done to your Dd @OublietteBravo ! I’m not sure about your Ds but my kids would probably not appreciate me trying to introduce them to someone remotely 🤣🤣

DD said the same about Austria. She said academically the course content and assignments were significantly easier than for English universities. Friends in other European countries said the same.