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News of non-dancing children.....

JulieW

By JulieW
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JulieW

JulieW

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Lovely catching up with these updates. Difficult times for our young people whether dancers or not, when it comes to work.

 

My youngest son has his provisional results from uni and he's got an overall mark of 67 giving him a 2:1. There a very slim chance that after the exam board he could get upgraded to a first as good marks have been on a steep upward curve this year, but he's (and we're) delighted with the 2:1. Final results next week and graduation the week after. Now to get a job! He's been applying to lots but he doesn't know what he wants to do (did Language Science & Psychology) - always thought he'd make a good teacher (English secondary/A level) so he's looking into that he also applying for entry admin positions and some retail stuff to just get some more work experience. He has an interview on Monday so keep your fingers crossed. 

 

Daughter happy doing her final year vet placements and feeling like a proper vet at last - but they all have a slightly petrified expression when you mention that they'll be qualified in a year lol.

 

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JulieW

JulieW

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Fantastic  2dancersmum. What a week!

 

My son got the job he was interviewed for this week. Will give him some great experience while he looks to the future. And we had a good discussion today about paying "rent". It's a fine balancing act between him paying his way and covering his costs, and us not sounding like heartless parents by "charging" him to live with us lol. His job is walking distance from home so he won't be moving out anytime soon! Graduation on Friday and our eldest 2 are coming home to celebrate with us.

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2dancersmum

2dancersmum

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well done to your son Julie and enjoy his graduation on Friday, especially with the other 2 coming home as well. I don't know if it is the same with you but it is becoming rarer for me to have all 3 of mine home at the same time these days, even though the youngest is still at school.  Graduation day for us still is 'should be on a Wednesday, probably in September but possibly November'. I would have expected the university to know by now!

 

 

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Lisa O`Brien

Lisa O`Brien

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1 hour ago, meadowblythe said:

 

Lisa, wondering how Sean is getting on?  Has he gone to Uni yet>

Hello Meadowblythe. Thanks for asking. How weird, but just as I was reading you email message, Sean messaged me from upstairs [ do other families do that ? LOL] telling me he has been offered a job as a Customer Service Adviser at Teleperformance. He and about 10 others had an interview only at 9.30 this morning, so they must be desperate, ha !!  He will be working on the e.on contract, handling phone calls, emails and messages online from e.on's electricity and gas customers.  He really wants to start at Uni in the first year at the same time as everyone else, not going into year two, where everyone else will have made friends the year previously. But he only has two years of Higher Education funding left after his HND, so will have to pay for the first year himself. Fortunately, he is entitled to his full maintenance loan from the first year. Also fortunately, tuition fees here are only £4,030 a year. My sister and her husband have said they will be able to give him at least a thousand pounds towards the tuition fees, which is really, really lovely of them. He also has about two and an half thousand in a bank account looked after by his grandmother. His father left this money to him when he died. I'm hoping and assuming the money is still there and his family haven't spent it !!  From what i've heard about Teleperformance it will be an interesting experience, if nothing else. It's 40 hours a week, at £7.05 an hour. Totted up that might sound alright, but my £100 a week Housing Benefit will stop, and out of that money he'll have to pay the landlord . Apparently you're timed how long you take to have a pee, and if you are late you are screamed at in front of everyone. I told him to get his head down, do what he's told and work his hours. Put away as much as he can each month and then when he has around £4K, or maybe less if he can get money from other sources, to bail out and look for something else, or head off to uni either next year or the year after.  

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JulieW

JulieW

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Well, it's now over 5 years since I started this thread, and my daughter's now in her last few months until finals and hopefully qualifying as a vet. She wants to move to the Cambridge area (very longstanding boyfriend works and lives there) so if anyone knows any vets in the area who might want a new graduate, please do let me know!! She's got a placement in the area in the spring and keeps an eye on the job press but it doesn't hurt to ask just in case any of you have any "contacts" 😉

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Fiz

Fiz

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As some of you know, our eldest daughter has ADHD. Despite being very clever, she didn’t fulfill her potential at school where she was badly treated by staff and pupils alike. I didn’t find out just how badly until much later. Consequently she dropped out of university after her first year and was not in a good place at all. She went into a very temporary zero hours contract job for a few years and then moved on to be a receptionist at a private medical clinic. She did much more than that and when she finally left to join the NHS her employer was very upset. Five years after becoming what she describes as a “notes monkey” she has been mentored by several of the medical and clerical staff who have stated that she’s wasted there, she now has a choice of no less than four career pathways opening up to her! I am so happy for her. She deserves it so much. 

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JulieW

JulieW

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A poignant day for me. Five years ago today Zoë received her offer for RVC (she chose Nottingham in the end) but it's also the day my mum died. She would been so proud of Zoë (as she was of all her grandchildren) and excited to follow her progress. I wonder what she'd've made of her playing rugby - she loved watching her dance!

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2dancersmum

2dancersmum

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only just caught up with this, well done to your daughter Julie - that graduation day will be here before you know it! Though not too fast I hope as I get my daughter home for a mere 4 weeks between contracts and I want to make the most of every single minute!

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Pups_mum

Pups_mum

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I'm super proud of my elder son today. Yesterday he competed at our local musical festival, entering 3 piano classes. He won two and was second in the other, plus he won another trophy for the highest piano mark. Which was exciting enough as it is, and a huge achievement for him as he is terribly shy. Once he gets playing he is OK, but getting onto the stage and announcing his piece is a huge thing for him, so we are always super proud of him for having a go, no matter what the outcome.

Anyway, we've had a message from his teacher saying that last night at the end of the festival he was awarded another trophy for the best young musician of the festival, and has been chosen as the festival's representative at the regional final. Obviously we're very proud, though a little anxious given the shyness issues. I think these regional finals are a newish thing from the British Federation of Festivals - apparently it includes dance, music and speech and drama. Has anyone been to a regional final before and can fill me in a bit on what it was like?

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Lisa O`Brien

Lisa O`Brien

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Sean, my 21 year old son, starts his third job today. Third time lucky, and all that. The previous two were disasters. The first at Teleperformance, the equipment was really poor quality. He could barely hear what people were saying to him so felt unable to help, and therefore do the job properly. He stuck it out a few weeks but on the second day knew it wasn't for him. He got another job at Friar Tuck's, which is a local fast food place here. Did all the training and enjoyed it. But then noticed the younger ones were getting a lot more shifts than he was. He asked the manager about it but was never really given a satisfactory answer. He thinks or suspects that they mostly employ the 16 and 17 year olds, ( and some are still only 15 working evenings and weekends) so they don't have to pay them much. For his last two weeks there, the phone didn't ring once asking him to go in. Not for the entire fortnight. So, he saw a job at a local supermarket. For any of you who know Ireland , North or South, you will know that a big supermarket chain is Dunnes Stores. Well he was offered a job with the Hill Street branch in Newry. It's only 16 hours a week though, so he isn't going to be earning a huge amount. But he had to sign a contract, he gets sick pay, holiday pay, a pension, etc. So it's all above board and will definitely be working the 16 hours every week, which is something. Still wants to go to University one day. But he will have to find the £4,100 first year of tuition fees himself. He'll need to be putting £50 a week away, every week, for about 19 months to get enough saved up, so he'll have to be really disciplined with himself. If THIS job doesn't work out, then I will start to suspect it's HIM who is the problem , not the work. ( Really hope i'm wrong on that one).

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JulieW

JulieW

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On 13/05/2018 at 12:09, Pups_mum said:

I'm super proud of my elder son today. Yesterday he competed at our local musical festival, entering 3 piano classes. He won two and was second in the other, plus he won another trophy for the highest piano mark. Which was exciting enough as it is, and a huge achievement for him as he is terribly shy. Once he gets playing he is OK, but getting onto the stage and announcing his piece is a huge thing for him, so we are always super proud of him for having a go, no matter what the outcome.

Anyway, we've had a message from his teacher saying that last night at the end of the festival he was awarded another trophy for the best young musician of the festival, and has been chosen as the festival's representative at the regional final. Obviously we're very proud, though a little anxious given the shyness issues. I think these regional finals are a newish thing from the British Federation of Festivals - apparently it includes dance, music and speech and drama. Has anyone been to a regional final before and can fill me in a bit on what it was like?

What lovely news. Sorry I can't help with any advice but the regional final probably won't feel different to him than the festival, so I hope he enjoys it.

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