Thread 56 – Covid GCSE Cohort – Spring 26 – Yr 4 Uni and Graduates

[crazycrofter]

The old thread has filled up and no one noticed - I think we're missing @oblomov26 sharp eyes!

I've tried to tag in everyone I can think of, but apologies to anyone I've missed!
@shimy @endlessdistraction @justherewithmypopcorn @mummyinbeds @aslockton @oubliettebravo @craggyrat @anothernewname460 @ealingwestmum @ewwsprouts @seeline @piggywaspushed @nctdn @icanbewhatiwant @comefromaway @heifer @kingscotestaff @delphigirl @zebracat @cantonet @socks1107 @blinkbonny @anneofcleavage

This is so lovely to hear.

That’s fab @mummyinbeds- you should be very proud of both of them!

Now I’m not looking forward to the mechanical and boring ceremony on Wednesday! 😂 Thankfully dd has a yellow dress not white, but she’s insistent she needs a large bouquet of flowers! She was earlier wondering whether ds might get her flowers too - I told her she must be joking, it will be a win if he gets up and out on time! DD’s is at 10.30 - how early did you get there for ds’? I understand she needs to get there to get the gown and maybe do the formal photo too?

@crazycrofter maybe psychology won't be as boring as law 🤞 Bouquets were on sale in the photo marquee and were indeed large and pretty. We arrived at about 10.30 for DS's 1.30 ceremony. No queues for robes or photos at that time but after the first ceremony the queues were massive. Definitely try and do the official photo beforehand. We had time to take photos around campus (Trent Building, Millennium Gardens, stepping stones) and had a picnic by the lake before joining the queue to get in. DS went for a pint in the conference centre rather than queue and sit for ages - waiting is not his thing.

Ugh we are not morning people and that’s an understatement! We will have to leave the house at 7 even to get there by 8.30 and honestly, it’s more likely we’ll get there at 9. Do you think that’s too late? I guess she might have to queue for a photo after 😩 Apparently all her church friends are coming along for the vibe /photos and then going on to someone else’s graduation at Trent after?!

How early did you start queuing to go in?

Also, what was the parking situation like @mummyinbeds ?

@crazycrofter we had pre paid parking via Ringo using the graduation code and parked in the field by the west entrance. Plenty of space and very well organised.

@crazycrofter 9am should be fine for robes and photos I would think. We started queuing to get in to the ceremony at 12.30 I think - the queue was long!! We joined it just outside Rutland 😁 However, we were advised by a security guy to go right over to the left and we got brilliant seats three rows back.

We all had allocated seats for Bristol graduation so no queuing needed, though no chance of getting an extra ticket.

Check if she wants you there
early as I didn’t last year and had
no idea she was expecting us to be… didnt help that we actually got stuck in traffic and for the first time in her life we were late! Thankfully it started late and her bf saved us some seats and had our wrist bands but it was very stressful for all of us. Years of always being on time (early) and on the most important day (at the time) we were almost too late to go in!!

@crazycrofter hope you all have a lovely day today 👨‍🎓🍾

Enjoy DD’s graduation today @crazycrofter- beautiful day for it.

Thanks @heifer- she came with us from home so we had to be there early! Thankfully all went off smoothly and it was a lovely day 😊

Glad everything went well @crazycrofter Did DD get her large bouquet of flowers from her brother?

Haha @mummyinbeds of course not! He liked the idea but hadn’t worked out that he would need to buy them yesterday 🤣 But we managed to find a lovely bouquet which included sunflowers in the local supermarket, so she was happy! And she was able to share them with her friend for photo purposes which got her friend’s mum out of trouble 🤣

Glad you all had a lovely time @crazycrofter. congratulations to your DD.

Anyone else have a graduation soon?

@crazycrofter Delighted you had a lovely day. It rounds off the university years nicely.

Oh wow, what a treat to see this thread on the “active” list, I was on one of the original threads when they all left college etc! under a diff name back then, but can I remember which one?!

Well mine has done alright! Graduated last week, had the loveliest day. No job as yet, how soul destroying is job hunting as a graduate?! Fortunately he has worked in the same pub for 5 years, and they’ve just given him a bit of a promotion which is something, but not what he really wants

So glad that you had a great day yesterday at your DD's graduation @crazycrofter .

Welcome back @soscared2026 . What did your DS study? Have you had chance to read what all the YP are doing now at the end of p21. You will see that quite a few of the graduates are job hunting. It is a tough job market for YP.

Have any of you caught the BBC Your Voices special report on the BBC news this week. It made interesting watching. This the the article that is on the BBC website. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy8mnvk4r48o

Glad you had a good day @crazycrofter

Welcome back @soscared2026 !

Not much to report here. DS in London today doing presentation for his business idea. Very Apprentice! He is still tutoring and keeping fit for medical - hopefully!

Lovely to hear from you @soscared2026and good luck to your ds with the job hunting - what sort of work is he looking for?

Good luck to ds @craggyratwith all the irons in the fire!!

DD has signed a contract for a year's au-pair work, having stayed with the host family for a few days! Now she just needs the relevant visa; she has an appointment in a fortnight at the embassy in London. (She could travel over and do all the paperwork from that end, but apparently the wait is longer and she couldn't start work or be paid until all the permits are issued.)

Ds had his graduation last week. Not in a nice old building and a bit of a concrete jungle outside so very different to his brother's graduation in the cathedral of a historic city!

We had a very nice day however. The only issue is that they didn't announce the subjects for each group of graduates. We could see where ds was sitting so knew when he was going up but for those watching online or on screens nearby it was impossible to tell when the person they were looking out for would appear.

Looking at the programme for the week afterwards (only the graduates got a copy on the day) it was interesting to see the class sizes for the subjects. Older ds had put Sheffield as his insurance and the number graduating in his subject was surprisingly small in comparison to the uni he went to. That sort of info on class sizes can be hard to glean when you are applying.

Maybe we need to start a spreadsheet!

It should have been ds's graduation today. I think he could have gone anyway to get his lesser diploma but he has chosen not to. He was working last night until late. We are visiting him this weekend.

Was this Sheffield @Decorhate ? At Nottingham, there was no programme with people's names in (unless they get it later?) but all the courses and names came up on the screen at the start of the ceremony. Too quickly for me to count though! The first was a diploma graduate @Comefromaway . I think they get sent a video clip of their walk across the stage at some point - although dd's friends were watching on the screen and recorded it for her so she has it already.

Having walked past the Great Hall at Birmingham Uni many times during graduations, I was a bit disappointed that Nottingham do theirs in the sports centre and not the Trent building, but it didn't really matter in the end. I'd have liked photos by the lake or the Trent building, but feet were too sore and gowns too heavy/hot in the end for dd and her friend to want to walk over there!

@Decorhate no one had a program for DDs. We just knew which order the different schools were going in. Each school was then done with graduates in alphabetical order - not even within their own courses. So a school could include dozens of courses, but they were all muddled up together. It was very confusing!
I know that all unis are trying to be sustainable these days, but I do think it's a shame that the souvenir program has been sacrificed. I found mine from 40years ago the other day - great to see all my course mates names again.