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News of non-dancing children.....


JulieW

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congratulations  to your son on his  Uni offer. 

 

HND is a level 5 QCF  qualification which is equivalent to the second year of a 3 year bachelors ,

 

I do wonder if  the DDMMPPPP  offer might have been for  year 3 / 'top-up' entry  - but  as  i haven't seen the paperwork. 

 

sometimes  massive arguments and  breakups of  friendships / relationships  are just the spur  someone needs. 

 

working in health or social care ( or  the care / front line end of the criminal justice system)  can be massively  rewarding  it can also be a very lonely and bad place  if  circumstances conspire against you. 

 

Thanks, mph. Unfortunately, the HND and Foundation Degrees, while usually equivalent to the second year of undergraduate study, at my son's college they didn't include enough modules. They are only worth the first year of undergraduate study, even though they take two years, and take/ use up two years of your 4 years of funding. Grr.

Edited by Lisa O`Brien
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Thanks, mph. Unfortunately, the HND and Foundation Degrees, while usually equivalent to the second year of undergraduate study, at my son's college they didn't include enough modules. They are only worth the first year of undergraduate study, even though they take two years, and take/ use up two years of your 4 years of funding. Grr.

FDs should be  120 level 4 and 120 level 5  same as a DipHE or the first two years of a Bachelors,  iirc there is something   in the rules around HNDs  that allows the second year of a HND to include Level 4  stuff ...  

 

there;s been all sorts of  funding fun over  the years  including the Ordinary Degree (120 @4, 120 @5, 60/80 @6) labelled as a 'Advanced DipHE'  under the Nursing Bursary system prior to the move to level 6 entry to the Register ... 

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FDs should be  120 level 4 and 120 level 5  same as a DipHE or the first two years of a Bachelors,  iirc there is something   in the rules around HNDs  that allows the second year of a HND to include Level 4  stuff ...  

 

there;s been all sorts of  funding fun over  the years  including the Ordinary Degree (120 @4, 120 @5, 60/80 @6) labelled as a 'Advanced DipHE'  under the Nursing Bursary system prior to the move to level 6 entry to the Register ... 

Yes, my son's HND is 120 at Level 4 and 120 at Level 5, but there are not enough units or modules or something for it to be worth two years of Undergraduate level. 

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Lisa

 

Just checking, will he be able to complete his degree in the two years that he will be funded?  Not sure how it works for the different courses.

 

No rush to accept any places, wait till he hears from all five, one way or another.

 

Manchester has a vibrant student scene, I am sure he will have a great time if he decides to go there.

 

Meadowblythe

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H

 

Lisa

 

Just checking, will he be able to complete his degree in the two years that he will be funded?  Not sure how it works for the different courses.

 

No rush to accept any places, wait till he hears from all five, one way or another.

 

Manchester has a vibrant student scene, I am sure he will have a great time if he decides to go there.

 

Meadowblythe

Hi Meadowblythe, yes, he is eligible for Direct Entry into Year Two. You are given four years of funding so his final two years will be covered. [ He has already used up two years on the HND]. We moved from Manchester when he was two and he has only been back twice in all this time, so he doesn't really know it well. But I think it appeals to him because my sister Sue and her husband live near Eccles. I think it might be reassuring for him, knowing there are relatives not too far away should he need them. I'm sure they'll all get together once a month or something for a few hours. Apart from a week in County Mayo at his other aunties; his late father's sister, every summer, and a few days just after Christmas each year, he has never experienced being away from home before. He has certainly never had to fend for himself. Mind you, his cooking skills have improved over the last few months, and he has been experimenting with how to cook different things. He's very young for his age. I think two years in Manchester or Liverpool [not sure he is too keen on the idea of London, if he is offered London Met] would do him the world of good. Personally, I feel him going away for a couple of years would be more beneficial for him than getting the actual degree.

Edited by Lisa O`Brien
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Congratulations to your son Lisa on his uni offer. I would suggest that he just sits on it until he gets his other offers through. There may well be variance between unis on what they offer him and normally you would wait til you have your choices and then accept one as a firm choice and a second one as the backup (usually therefore a lower offer). The individual university websites should give an idea what the typical offer is for year one or later entry onto a course but the key word is 'typical' as they can offer higher or lower, depending on how much they like him or how full the course is etc. My son, for example , applied with A levels for 3 unis that stated typical offer as BBB but the conditional offers he received were ABB, BBB and BEE. His favourite place was the BBB which meant it left him with the much lower offer as his back up.

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I will look out for him if he should want London down the line!!

 

This is all good news Lisa am so pleased for both you and your son

 

I too think that unless there's a good reason to not to rush into anything and see what else he might get offered so he can weigh it all up.

He also might like to keep one eye on where he might be able to get work down the line so that way may not need another big upheaval in two years time.

Linda xx

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Thanks Linda. Yes. I did say to him a few years ago now that in the future it may come to it that he may need to move to England to find work. There's not really much around here. Yes, both Belfast and Dublin are only an hour away from us either side, but even so there are not the same opportunities here. A lot of people from Ireland move to England to work for a number of years to establish themselves. They often move back to Ireland once they want to settle down and start a family though. His own cousin did this. Gave up a fantastic job working in management at Jaguar Land Rover. He travelled all over Europe testing cars in wind turbines, among other things. When they wanted to start a family though they moved back to Ireland. It's just generally thought to be safer. Plus the standard of the education is fantastic and doesn't depend on where you live and is the same across the board. He enrolled on a Graduate training course and is now a Trader on the Dublin Stock Exchange. It's generally speaking, a much safer place to bring up children. If he were to move to England for work, and if it seemed to be a more long term thing I would probably move back to Manchester, even if he found work and lived in say, Birmingham. Can't see myself living here  with no family or ties whatsoever. What would be the point of me living here on my own? But that's all a very long way away.

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Ireland is basically too small and too provincial to keep all its population and is, in a lot of ways, still closely related to the UK, London especially. Lots of shared culture and media. 

 

I'm not sure what "safer" means, and my teacher acquaintances would laugh hollowly at your description of the education system, but I know my parents moved us back from London when I was 8 so "we would be able to marry nice Irish catholic girls" when we grew up. Honestly. (They managed about 1/3 on that, as it turned out. )

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Ireland is basically too small and too provincial to keep all its population and is, in a lot of ways, still closely related to the UK, London especially. Lots of shared culture and media. 

 

I'm not sure what "safer" means, and my teacher acquaintances would laugh hollowly at your description of the education system, but I know my parents moved us back from London when I was 8 so "we would be able to marry nice Irish catholic girls" when we grew up. Honestly. (They managed about 1/3 on that, as it turned out. )

God, I think Ireland is definately safer than the UK, unless you live somewhere like Limerick or Dublin. Luckily we live in a village where nothing much happens and my son's relatives, who are mostly in Ballina in County Mayo, would say the same. If we were back in England I don't think there would be any way we would be able to afford to live in a village. Oh and as for the education, i've been consistently told that the Leaving Cert is of an extremely high standard compared to GCSE's. I know my son's aunty in Ballina who is a primary school teacher, wanted my son to go to school down south for this reason. [OK, she wanted him to go to boarding school in Dublin, which woulod have been of an even higher standard]. 

Edited by Lisa O`Brien
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You get used to dodging the bullets in Dublin, it's not that bad.

 

I'm unable to keep up with the complicated and changing UK standards, but Leaving Cert should fall at a level between GCSEs and A Levels (or whatever!), since it's the last secondary level qualification. Leaving vs GCSE's isn't a fair comparison.

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You get used to dodging the bullets in Dublin, it's not that bad.

 

I'm unable to keep up with the complicated and changing UK standards, but Leaving Cert should fall at a level between GCSEs and A Levels (or whatever!), since it's the last secondary level qualification. Leaving vs GCSE's isn't a fair comparison.

I've not been to Dublin for a few years now. One of my son's uncles, one of his late father's brothers lives in Swords. They never mention any problems where they live. Maybe it's just the city centre, I don't know.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Musical DD is playing at Symphony Hall on Sunday, with CBSO Youth Orchestra.  I was somewhat taken aback when she announced that "that's one off the bucket list."  She's 16!  Surely too young for a bucket list?

 

Am rashly assuming she knows what a bucket list is?  Still recovering from the inappropriate use of the morning greeting from The Inbetweeners she had been watching, age 10, with her brothers who had been left to babysit.  

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Well the bucket list concert was very emotional - Vaughn Williams London Symphony was magnificent, other pieces showed, shall we say, the challenge to the participants.

 

Next stop - Royal College of Music open day today.  Which meant staying with her Godfather in London last night.  Which is why I nearly had a heart attack when I got her little snapchat video of her (solo) jaunt round Trafalgar Square at 10pm.  Part of me was horrified, the other part remembers I sent my son to Denmark on his own at the same age.  Do we have different standards for daughters as opposed to sons?

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Attended an Information Event yesterday with my son at Ulster University Jordanstown Campus. [ulster has four campuses; Jordanstown, Belfast, Magee in Derry/Londonderry and Coleraine]. Anyway, Jordanstown is about 7 miles outside Belfast. It's in a village called Newtownabbey that makes our own village look like a city ! Very pretty scenery driving in a taxi along the Shore Road with Belfast Lough on the right of us and the Stena Line passing on the way to or from Larne. The staff and students who were on hand to help were lovely. Very friendly people. Because it was Saturday all the facilities were shut. The very vast majority of students,because they are all mostly from Northern Ireland all go home on Friday night for the weekend. After the subject talk we went for a bit of a walk around on our own, and got lost in the process !! It's a huge place. Anyway we found the library and had a peep inside the windows through the locked doors. Yes, it was closed, even though it was early Saturday afternoon. The same with the coffee bar, and sandwich shop. I don't know if everything closes because 98 per cent [or whatever number it is. Only the international students seem to stay.] of students go home so it's not economically viable for them to open things. Maybe if more students stayed at the weekends they would provide more amenities that were open I don't know. Had a good look travelling back in the taxi on the way to the train station in Belfast and on the main Shore Road there didn't look to be much there either. There was a Spar supermarket and a pizza place I think. And a pub. I asked the taxi driver who was based in Belfast but comes up that direction often. He said there is practically nothing for students to do in the immediate area. He said when they need to do their supermarket shopping they have to travel to the nearby town of Carrickfergus. He said for entertainment most go to Belfast. The taxi to Belfast cost £13, so it wasn't too bad. The Ulster entry requirements for Sean are stricter than Manchester Metropolitan University. He needs an overall Merit profile to include at least 45 credits at Distinction in his HND. For Manchester they will accept a Pass. It's his call and he might not choose to go anywhere still. The name Ulster University is far more prestigious than Manchester Met. He hasn't yet seen Man Met or got an impression of it. But I know even without seeing it , that the facilities alone will be far better than Jordanstown. For one thing Man Met's library is open 24/7; even during Easter and Christmas. If you want to go and study at four in the morning you can do. I'm not saying Sean ever would. But surely if you are paying thousands for a service you should be able to access those services whenever you like. The Jordanstown campus is closing permanently. Initially students were moving to Belfast in 2018, but it has been put back, first to the following year and yesterday we were told the new Belfast campus won't be up and running until September 2020. It is going to be built or added on to the Belfast campus that is already there. I really don't think it would be wise for Sean to wait and wait to go to uni, for this new campus to be built. But now he really needs to get a good look at the Manchester and two Liverpool ones to compare, I think. 

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Well, it all depends on whether Sean wants the 'whole student experience' of living away from home among thousands of other (mostly) young people. Manchester in particular has a huge student population; there are around 26,000 students at the University of Manchester alone. Jordanstown Campus seems to operate a bit like a school or FE college with everything closing at the weekend. However, it might be livelier during the week when the students are on campus and all the facilities are open. I'm not clear whether most of the students live on campus or in local houses or flats during the week and return home at the weekends or whether they live at home during term time.

 

It's perhaps worth pointing out that university campuses can seem rather dead at weekends anyway. My friend and her son went to an offer-holders open day at my son's university one Saturday a few weeks ago and reported that it was a bit of a ghost town. All the facilities were open but there were very few students around. When I mentioned this to my son he pointed out that about two thirds of the students live off campus anyway and that those who were living on campus would still be in bed or mooching about their flats until a late hour on Saturdays and Sundays after a night out. Traditionally, students go to the library on Sunday afternoons but these days so many resources are online that you can work in your bedroom.

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The accommodation was very close. We could see it but didn't have time to venture further. Most first years stay in the University accommodation. The vast majority of second and third years who don't go home live in the notorious Holylands area of Belfast in privately rented flats, along with Queen's University students. Hopefully it has improved. The area has been on the news a few times over the years due to serious anti social behaviour among students. Think for his first year away he would almost certainly need to go into Uni owned accommodation until he finds his feet and confidence.

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Just looked on Wikipedia. Uni of Manchester had 39,700 students in total in 2015-16; 27,635 Undergraduates and 12,065 Postgraduates. Man Met had 32,485 students; 26,835 Undergraduates and 5,650 Postgraduates. Ulster had 19,865 Undergraduates and 5,290 Postgraduates, but that number was across all four sites. Can't find the figures for just the Jordanstown campus. I don't know if he knows himself if he wants the whole student experience or not. I think it would do him good and broaden his horizons to go across the water for two years. [ That's what we call going over to England]. We live in such a small place. The Unis in Manchester and Liverpool would be very multicultural and I think that experience, if nothing else, would do him good. While we were waiting for our taxi on the foot of the steps there was a Hindu couple. I think she was a Hindu because of what she was wearing. Obviously the international students don't go home. Then when we were in Belfast at the Central Train Station there were a couple of Hijabis [girls who wear the Hijab]. Where we are, we just don't ever see people like this. Everyone is Irish, with the exception of a few Chinese people. I was fortunate enough to live and work with French, Japanese, Filipino, Australian, Canadian people over the years in different places I worked. It gives you an education in itself, quite different to any books. If Sean were to simply come home here every Friday night, where he has few friends as well, I wonder how much he will develop and mature, I guess. 

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Is it really so sheltered up there still? Sounds like you're frozen in the Ireland of thirty years ago!

LOL. Yes, we are in semi rural South Armagh. Edit. I put Newry as my location as more people may have heard of it.

Edited by Lisa O`Brien
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  • 2 weeks later...

Eeek, I've just had an exciting, if slightly terrifying email. Youngest son was picked for the county hockey squad at the beginning of this season, but as he is only 11 and the age group is under 13, we were told not to expect him to actually play for the county team this year as generally the youngest in the squad don't get picked. So imagine my surprise when I opened the email starting "your son has been selected..." I'm thrilled for him of course though terrified that the opposition are going to be huge and my baby will get pulverised....

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My son has been offered a place for the second year at London Met Uni. So three down two to go. They're certainly taking their time. We're hoping now that his last two offers or rejections, from Liverpool John Moores and Liverpool Hope, actually arrive later. This is because if he hears from all five unis by this Friday, [31] then he has to decide and reply by 4th May at the latest. However if he doesn't hear from what is now the last two until 5th May then you don't have to make your decision until 8th June, which will give him a bit more time to decide what he's going to do. Although he has recently said he is sick of studying Health and Social Care after four years, so I don't think he will want to do it for a further two years at Uni. In any event he will absolutely not want to go to London anyway and never has as he knows it will be far too expensive and far too big a place. He just put it down to fill up his fifth place on his UCAS form. Still, he said he was all the same, pleased to have been offered a place there.

Edited by Lisa O`Brien
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  • 2 months later...

Sean has Firmed his offer from Man Met tonight, and applied for Student Finance. Next thing is to apply for accommodation and pay the £200 deposit. Today was the deadline for applying for funding. This is despite the most valiant of efforts on the part of my sister who lives in Manchester these last five or so months from trying her damndest to put him off from studying in Manchester for her own selfish reasons. Didn't work; and just wait until I tell her !!  

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mph

 

Sorry not been on this thread for a very long time.

 

Non-DD has been lucky and works full-time in retail and has done so for some years.   She's worked in a call centre, Tesco's filling the trolleys for home delivery, Greggs making sandwiches etc. On one of her days off a week she volunteers at a local historic property as she is hoping this may lead to a more fulfilling occupation.  Retail is not a place where I would like to be working at the moment.  Her shifts are awful.  Last night she worked until 10:00pm, got home 10:30 went to be and had to be in for 08:00 this morning to open up.  The latest trend is for customers to complain about a member of staff and they get sent a discount voucher for their next visit.  The staff are constantly being treated in an appalling manner by the customers and it is very frustrating as Head Office always take the side of the customer.  I can't wait for her to find something more worthwhile.  On a positive note it's made me far more aware of how I speak to sales staff - I've always been that way but I make even more of an effort now.

 

She would love to work in a library or be involved in curatorship at a museum or stately home - but unfortunately you need to have taken the appropriate degree.  Had she done a joint/split degree in English & History she might have more chance but straight English is not helping her at the moment.  It's the gripe I have with education at the moment, not only does it seem everyone needs a degree but it must be the correct degree.

 

On the positive side she has a job and is earning.

 

 

 

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Non-DD interviewed for a new job within the County Council library service on Monday. Pleased to say she's been offered the position. No more late shifts and no more entitled nasty customers - hurrah and more money!!  Downside is she now has to start paying back her student loan

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Me and my son were over in Manchester on Wednesday for the Manchester Metropolitan Uni Open Day. Initially we had planned to scoot over to Liverpool as well but realised we wouldn't have had the time. As it was, we hardly had the time to see everything that was needed to be seen at the Uni. Our 10.25 flight got into M/CR at 11.25am. We couldn't get the earlier, 8.20 am one as there would have been no way of getting to the airport in time, having to be there two hours early. The first bus from Newry to Belfast doesn't start running till 6am, and the earliest train isn't until 7am. This is on weekdays. Our flight home was at 7.30 pm, but again we had to be at the airport for 5.30. The bus on Oxford Road in Manchester to the airport took over an hour. We should have taken the Metrolink but were trying to save money. So we had to leave the Uni when the day ended at 4pm, and waited ages for the bus. But it was only £3.40 each and would have cost a lot more on the tram , and £15 in a taxi, which we took when we arrived to save time. Sean loved everything about the university. It was very impressive, I must say. State of the art facilities in the Birley Campus in Hulme. No expense spared,really. Amazing looking computers all over. A lovely relaxing area outside,with nice tables and chairs and  gorgeous trees, and over the road the students were also relaxing in a lovely park. There was a strong smell of Weed wafting over from there, so someone was relaxing a bit too much, LOL ! Inside the main campus building there were little sleep pods dotted around the place with your own private little booth where students can just chill. A good few we saw were stretched out in their own individual ones, fast asleep. Fantastic lecture halls. The members of staff and students we spoke to were all very friendly and positive. We attended the Social Care talk and I thought it was great. A lovely man, who was clearly passionate and very committed to his subject. Then we noticed half an hour later in the same building there was a Primary Teaching information session so we went to that as well. Again, in a different lecture hall, but with great facilities and a lecturer who was very passionate about her subject. We decided to see the rest of the uni over in the main campus on Oxford Road. There's a great walkway they have built which links the Birley Campus on Stretford Road to the main campus on Oxford Road in the city centre. So we looked around a few of the other buildings too, including the Student Union. Again, impressive and lovely, helpful people. Felt a twinge of sadness to be leaving my home city when I was sitting on the plane to be honest. It's a good few years since I was last there; 8 or 9 I think. It would have been nice to be able to have spent a few days there. But we didn't have the money and we had to get back that evening for the cats, who we had left indoors with plenty of food, water and the cold water tap running in the bath, as Pumpkin likes drinking out of it. Got back home at about 11pm. Both cats were fast asleep and content enough, thank God. IF anything had happened and for some unexpected reason we had found ourselves having to stay overnight we had put a spare key in the front garden hidden from view. Sean would have phoned his friend who would have come down and let the cats out for us. But as it was they probably slept for most of the day indoors. It was the hottest day of the year and I wouldn't have felt happy about them being outside from 5.30 am until 11pm in that heat. As it was, we deliberately kept them out all night the night before, and called them it at 4 am. We knew from previous experience if they had been out all night they wouldn't have had much sleep and therefore would have slept for most of the day, oblivious to us not being there.  Sean found the Social Care talk boring. I told him it is pointless wasting his last precious two years of HE funding on a course he has no interest in. So he is thinking of asking them if he can defer for a year. There's a company called Teleperformance near us who are always looking for new people, no experience needed, for their call centre. They are recruiting for their Vodafone contract at the moment. He's seriously thinking of uploading his CV to them and giving it a try for a few months at least. His friend did it and hated it, ditto someone I know. They start off being very nice and then after a few weeks really start to pile on the pressure and expect more and more of you, including timing your toilet break etc. But the money's not bad and "Customer Service Adviser" would be another string to his bow, even if only for a few months. It's entirely up to him.

Edited by Lisa O`Brien
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My niece was forced onto a couple of call centre courses several years ago.  The reason they keep having these courses is because (especially if it is a cold-calling type centre) no-one can match the increasingly difficult targets after a couple of months.

 

 

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46 minutes ago, Jan McNulty said:

My niece was forced onto a couple of call centre courses several years ago.  The reason they keep having these courses is because (especially if it is a cold-calling type centre) no-one can match the increasingly difficult targets after a couple of months.

 

 

 I know for this Company there is a two week training period. People ring them from all over. They think they are speaking to a customer service person from Vodaphone or whoever, but it's actually Teleperformance. Vodaphone customers ring up with a query of some sort and you have to type it into a computer screen and hopefully the answer to the customer's problem comes up. Think they have contracts with a few large companies. My ex boyfriend's ex, and mother of his two sons, worked for them for about 7 months. She told him the pay was good and you can work as many shifts as you want,up until about eleven o'clock at night if you wanted to, so the money is nice. But she said with the ones who have been there a few years and the management, there is a real clique between them all. But they always have an information stand in the Quays shopping centre, trying to interest people to work for them. They don't sound especially picky who they hire. I said if he goes for it to just keep an open mind and not to expect it to be some sort of dream job. I told him if he gets a few months experience and money out of it [ they are paid weekly, which is handy] there will be no harm to it.

Edited by Lisa O`Brien
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Hasn't Sean been doing a social care course and correct me if wrong but wouldn't start with first year at university? Most of these talks and lectures at open days are based around first year level. He should bear that in mind if found it a bit boring. Also has he looked closely at what is taught in each term and what options he has? We found the information on the course pages. Gives a good insight of what to expect. Also if they have a recommended reading list worth asking your local library to get the books so he can see what the level is. 

 

My cats make it obvious that slept heavily if left at home alone for long periods, can hardly open eyes to greet you. 

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