Hi- After all the A'level drama this summer, how is everyone's DC's settling in at Uni?
DS has moved to Manchester but is feeling pretty underwhelmed. He still hasn't got a timetable and it still seems up in the air whether the tutorials will be face to face or everything will be remote. At least he hasn't been locked down- yet!

DD had her timetable a week before she went. It’s now mostly on line. Seems to have settled in well with her fellow flatmates and they’re mostly on the same course.

Lectures start tomorrow and I think after 6 months since suddenly stopping school she is looking forward to it.

DD is getting on well with 3 out of her 5 housemates - the other 2 just stay in their rooms and don't talk to anyone! They have a flat with a door to the outside so don't have to mix with anyone in the flats around hers - so hopefully that will be a bit safer Covid wise. She has really been enjoying movie evenings with the others in her flat - she has hardly seen anyone her own age since March, so although socially things are a bit restricted she is actually happier there than she would be at home.

Although she was told just before she went that they planned to have tutorials and maybe seminars/workshops face-to -face they have now been told they will all be on-line. Labs will now only be once a fortnight instead of every week and will not be with a partner, which might be an issue for her as she wears green glasses to read, but will be in safety goggles and a face shield and won't be able to take them off to put her green glasses on, and won't have a partner to read the instructions to her. I'm going to send her some green paper to print them on to, so hopefully that will help.

She has had a pretty poor service from the suppliers of her computer (from DSA) and so she hasn't yet had all the training for the different programs, and trying to sort out that and all the other disability support, on top of sorting out all the moving to uni stuff, meant she was pretty overwhelmed and anxious at the beginning of the week, but she seems to be more on top of it now - she likes her personal tutor so I think she has been emailing him.

She also has to choose optional modules - she wanted to do one outside of her department but had to check whether it would fit into her timetable - but it is for next semester and the timetables haven't been published yet! Her tutor was looking into it for her, and officially she has until next weekend to decide, but the module she would choose instead starts this week so basically she has had to give up on the other one and go with this one, as she can't access the lecture unless she is booked onto the module - so that all seems a bit of a mess really. It's left her with a rather lopsided timetable - much more work this semester than next.

She is looking forward to studying again, but a bit worried she has forgotten everything. I'm sure it will all come back to her once she makes a start.

DD is still receiving multiple email updates a day - she moves in on Friday. She is having F2F with the director of studies and also her tutor, practicals will be in person where at all possible as will animal handling and the traditional lectures will be video with notes in advance in pdf form.
She has an ensuite room but shares a little kitchen area with another 6 people - they really don't expect them to cook much but we'll see how that goes. No one in her household is on her course although one is a medic so they will share some lectures. They will be having weekly covid tests at the household level. The college bar is first years only for the first week but they still have allocated slots/seating to keep up the distancing.

All DD's lectures will be online till after Christmas so she and her friend have decided to move to their London accomodation in January. She has joined societies and WhatsApp groups and they've had zoom meetings so she's made friends and most are moving in in January so she feels it's a good decision. We had booked her ensuite room through Unite so they have agreed to move her date to January.
She's enjoying working from home, getting to know her lecturers and chatting with new friends. As such she's always been a self learner so this arrangement is actually suiting her although we are keen to move her out soon.