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Secondary education

GCSE results shows DS' effort

15 replies

LolaOnABoat · 25/08/2016 16:09

DS's results show exactly what subjects he put effort into and which ones he chose to to give very little thought to.

A*- Art, Histoy, ICT
A- English literature and language
C- Chemistry, Biology, Physics, Maths and French

A part of me is just thankful that he passed Maths, he was sitting the Foundation paper for it and another part of me is just really annoyed at him, his effort grades for the past 2 years have been piss poor in those subjects he received a C grade for, it's been a battle to get him to revise for them and I know if he actually cared he could have done a lot better.

He's taking Art, ICT and History on to A Levels but he has no idea what he wants to do as a career and I'm not sure he'll cope well under the stress.

OP posts:
RedHelenB · 25/08/2016 16:16

Maybe try to get a B for his maths but nothing to worry about with these results surely?

LolaOnABoat · 25/08/2016 16:20

It's his effort I'm worried about, he got lucky with those C's with the way he was acting they could have just as easily been D's and because he's managed to pass this year, he won't take A levels which are much harder very seriously

OP posts:
RedHelenB · 26/08/2016 17:20

If he tried with the subjects he did well in and is taking those at A level then I really wouldn't worry. Means to an end GCSEs

BertrandRussell · 27/08/2016 07:52

If he was doing foundation, he couldn't have got a B for Maths, however hard he tried.

ShanghaiDiva · 27/08/2016 08:41

He is taking A levels in the subjects he got A* for which is great. From his results it looks like he is not really interested in sciences and mfl and as he doesn't want to take them to the next level his results are fine.
He certainly made an effort to get the A*s and it is much easier to put the effort into a subject you are passionate about.

Anasnake · 27/08/2016 10:04

A C grade is the highest you can get for foundation.

LooseAtTheSeams · 27/08/2016 10:19

His spread of grades is very similar to mine many decades ago! I concentrated on what I was good at for A level and got top grades. You might think it's lack of effort but the grades for maths/science may be as good as they were ever going to be no matter what. And it looks as though he does put he effort in for the subjects he loves.

catslife · 27/08/2016 14:10

As other people have said pupils who do well in a small number of subjects at GCSE often continue to do well in these subjects at A level. (sometimes better than those who were good all-rounders at GCSE).
It isn't just about Effort sadly. It is possible for pupils to have excellent grades for Effort and still obtain Cs.
GCSE results are a mixture of ability, effort, interest and good exam technique for the pupils and also the teaching itself.
I would move on and celebrate the areas where he has been successful.

RalphSteadmansEye · 27/08/2016 14:34

Yeah, don't understand why you're angry about the maths - a C is the highest possible grade he could have got!

RalphSteadmansEye · 27/08/2016 14:38

And effort grades on reports are very subjective: Teachers don't really know how much effort students are putting in or not other than the very obvious bad behaviour - no homework ever or sleeping through a lesson!

Ds gets top effort grade for all subjects except PE (where his teacher is obviously correlating effort with achievement) and one written subject where I know for a fact he spends longer on homework and revision for that subject than any other.

ijustwannadance · 27/08/2016 14:53

You should be super proud of him, not moaning about those results.
He got 3 A*'a and 2 A's ffs.
As others have said, in foundation that is the highest he could get.
He clearly isn't great at maths or maths based subjects like the sciences so why force it?
He clearly put the work in where he knows his strengths and interests lie. Good luck to him.

BertrandRussell · 27/08/2016 15:36

Why should she be super proud of someone who didn't put any effort into 4 subjects and got Cs for them?

LolaOnABoat · 27/08/2016 16:36

It's not the results I'm annoyed at, DS' effort the past 2 years has been pretty poor, in the beginning of year 10 he was due to sit the higher paper for maths because he was capable but his lack of effort, not handing in homework, messing about in his class meant his grades suffered and his teachers didn't feel confident that he'd achieve well in the higher paper. The C grade shows me that he could have done well, he just chose to mess about.

It's been an absolute battle to get him to sit and revise for his science and French exams, he started revising for his French the week before Hmm if he's not interested in something, he just mentally checks out, his English teacher wanted to put him in for the foundation paper but his coursework grades meant that despite his attitude he was capable of the higher tier paper.

I knew he'd do well in Art/History/ICT because he spent months revising and preparing for those exams, he was confident when they finished, I just really wish he'd put the same effort into the other exams.

OP posts:
RalphSteadmansEye · 27/08/2016 17:05

Ok, OP, it's fair enough to be disappointed if you can see lack of effort at home, too. I thought you were basing it on his report cards, which, as I say, for effort, there's a growing feeling among teaching colleagues that they shouldn't have to give out effort grades, but they really don't know how hard a student is trying.

I guess it's important to move forward and hope his effort towards his chosen A level subjects continues and he is capable of achieving good grades in those.

RedHelenB · 27/08/2016 18:15

Don't see why he had to put the effort in though given that he did pass them.He did enough and for his A level subjects more than enough which is looking goos for the start of sixth form.

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