Maximizing chances of GCSE grades at 8/9 is essential

Teaching will check you have GCSE in Eng and maths - but I am lolling (sorry) the idea that you would be rejected for a teaching job bc you had grades below an 8 at GCSE.

There is a middle ground of achieving to your potential but not piling the pressure on.

Aiming for 8's in potential A level subjects (especially if those subjects are maths/sciences) would be optimum and aiming for s many 7's as possible in the other subjects.

Not v common?

Ds's school is very good and most of top set 1 and top set 2 get an 8 or 9, as standard.

The bottom line is in the real world outside of a minority of employers NO ONE CARES! Seriously. No one cares at all about your GCSEs your A Levels or even your degree once you're established in a career. I wish someone had told me that at school

As a very experienced secondary teacher, I beg you, please don't put pressure on your child to get all 8s and 9s and start hiring tutors for them as they go into Year 11. It's not fair, it's not necessary, and it puts far too much pressure on them to the point where they risk burning out and struggling with their mental health. They don't need all top grades to be successful in life, and they have so much to juggle in Year 11 that putting this pressure on them is actually counter-intuitive. I've dealt with so many mental breakdowns of Year 11s over my career, usually caused by over ambitious parents putting unbearable pressure on their children, and it makes me so furious. They are so vulnerable at this age and what they need is lots of encouragement, support and reassurance that no matter what happens, you will love them, be proud of them, and that they will be ok. Please remember that teenagers are not fully mentally developed, they struggle to regulate their emotions and put their experiences into broader contexts. Failing an exam for some is quite literally the end of their world and will cause them to spiral. I can't stress enough to parents how important it is not to send the message that exam results are the be all and end all. You really don't always know what is going on inside your child's head, and you don't know what all of that pressure might lead to them feeling, thinking or doing.

As a guide, it should be a slow and steady build up to the exams in Year 11 - think a marathon, not a sprint. On a week-by-week basis their revision should be consolidating what they've learnt that week, ensuring they fully understand any relevant theoretical underpinning to their new content/knowledge and can apply their new knowledge to enrich and develop what they already know. They should be reading back over classwork and making brief summaries, and highlighting any areas they feel less confident on to revisit and, if necessary, ask their teacher for more support in order to understand.

If they are doing this on a weekly basis, they won't need to be spending hours and hours in the run up to exams revising content they should already know. It'll be just refreshing specific details that can easily be forgotten - for subjects like History and MFL there will be a lot of rote learning they'll need to ensure is fully stuck in their brains - and practising examination techniques.

As I always say to my students - the most important thing is to not waste time revising topics you already know. Lots of kids find it really reassuring and confidence boosting to keep going over subjects they are confident in, churning out practice exam questions and congratulating themselves on how much they know, while avoiding tackling the areas they struggle in or for which they need to memorise a lot of content. They can't allow themselves to indulge in just doing the easy stuff - they have to be strategic and focus on the areas of challenge in order to make the most of their time.

Teachers should be providing revision guides and so on when they get back to school in September, but getting your kids who are going into Year 11 to go over Year 10 stuff as they get to the end of the holidays and make a note of what they feel they need to brush up on or ask for support with, is a good way to get them into the revision mindset as they prepare to go into the final year. I wouldn't stress them out with doing a load of revision over the summer - this is going to be a tough old year and they need to go into Year 11 having had proper rest and relaxation over their summer break.

Ive just realised I misread the op said '8s/9s not v common' ...afaik anywhere that looks at GCSEs does so contextually so in that case 7-9s is more than likely fine anyway.

Not RTFT but here’s my take (and I have three dc who have taken GCSEs with very varied results):

Your dc needs to want to work and revise, or they will not do so. This may mean there are subjects they will focus on and others they will leave. Or it may mean that they will work hard at all of it. Or none of it.

If they appear to be set to do badly, whether through lack of ability or of work, imho it’s ok to support them to do better. Pretty sure I helped ds1 get some of his grade Cs and Ds.

If they are able but have decided not to bother too much with subject x or y, that’s ok. I know this is MN heresy, but dd could have got more than 6 in maths and ds2 ditto in Eng lit; but in neither case were they keen and after offering help if needed, I didn’t see the point in pushing. Pretty sure it has made zero difference (both in early 20s).

So to sum up @Elizo , I would leave it and be happy with grades 7-9. That’s all A and above in old money and genuinely excellent.

Yes you may need all 8/9 to go to Oxford (probs not tho) but if that’s only got through major tutoring, Oxford uni will be an impossible challenge anyway.

I haven't voted as I think the middle way is probably best. There's no doubt that a set of good GCSEs at the top end of the grades gives a young person a very good foundation for future study/employment. However, whether a full set of 9s will make a meaningful difference to most people's lives compared to say a mix of 7s,8s and 9s is debatable. I think it is definitely worth aiming as high as possible in subjects planned to be studied at A level, especially if one of them is Maths. There's* a *big jump from GCSE to A level and starting from the strongest position you can is going to be advantageous.
But balance is important and pushing a teenager too hard can be counter productive I a number of ways. Some extra encouragement and maybe some tutoring in a couple of subjects is one thing but tutors in every subject leaving no time for hobbies, social life etc is another. There's a risk of alienating them, or putting them off study or too much pressure can be damaging to self esteem and well being.
I think it also makes a difference whether the predicted 7s are off the back of really hard work already or whether they're being achieved comparatively easily. If it's the latter and 8/9 could be achieved with fairly modest additional input then it is probably worth putting more in, but trying to push a youngster who is already close to their maximum potential for what is not a massive gain, probably isn't. 7s are not to be sneezed at and will be more than enough to do A levels at most schools.
So I'd say that additional tutoring etc is possibly worthwhile in moderation but I'd be selective about which subjects and make sure that there is still enough down time in your DC's life.

Yes now it is very different for Oxbridge

There's no such place. Cambridge doesn't asses things the same way as Oxford.

I’d want to know why 8s and 9s are not common in the school. Is it the cohort they get or do teachers not know what the exam boards are looking for to get the top grades? I think the key message to tell your child is to maximise their potential and work as hard as possible. Don’t start putting the pressure on by discussing top universities etc. They may not even want to go down that route.

Think about technology 2000 -2020
2020 - 2040 is going to be mind blowing. The jobs our kids will do have ‘t even been dreamed up yet.

Max on all subjects and keep options as wide as possible. You don’t want to have regrets when you get an opportunity and your high school subject choice and grades of all things hold you back.

My DD got into Cambridge for 23/24 intake for computer science.
They didn’t care about her GCSEs. It was:
A levels- need that A* in maths or further maths
Entry exam score
Interview

Ah fair enough then. But back in the 2000s they really did used to almost pride themselves on not looking at GCSEs too much.

I went to Cambridge in the early 2000s and they said explicitly at my interview that they weren't particularly bothered about GCSEs, within reason. Mostly As and Bs in old money would have been fine, as long as the predicted A Levels were AAA-ish. Having established that, most of the focus would then be on everything else: 80%* how sharp-witted and clever you were at dealing with the interview questions, turning questions upside down, critical reasoning, and 20% interesting extra-curriculars, like being a grade 8 violin and champion rower etc.

*I'm making these percentages up! But this was the consensus at the time.

Yes now it is very different for Oxbridge

Personally i think anything over a 7 is wasted effort unless it comes very naturally.

My DD gets her GCSE results in 2 weeks and it'll be a mixed bag of 5's, 6's, 7's and 8's. The 3 highest predicted grade subjects are her A Level choices (where I would agree that high grades are v. important)

Maybe worth noting that getting a place in lots of very good unis is getting easier again at the moment.

www.thetimes.com/article/98a6845f-1d5a-4596-ad54-109a710a8c54?shareToken=cf598b90cfb655b07baaffd3a18bb119

Stress kills. I’m always on the side of ‘minimise the stress if you can’t cope’.

We paid for DS to have a tutor for GCSE English since the start of year 11. He defo needed one as English was a weak subject as his year 11 mocks were a 5 in Language and a 6 in Literature. In the real thing he got an 8 and a 7 respectively.

YABU
Any DC on track to get an A or higher in GCSEs (7-9) is doing fantastic.
Even the most selective state sixth forms with students going on to Oxbridge only require a 6 to study at A level.

Time to encourage the child by telling them they are doing really well and keep it up.
Not time to pile on pressure and say 7s aren’t good enough.

For teaching, yes.

Isn't that more to check that the required grades have been achieved for certain subjects rather than caring about whether/how much they were above that or the grades of other subjects?

Depends what Uni your child wants.

GCSE's are not ignored for some and will be part of the decision making process for some courses.

All dependant on what DC wants to do.

I would focus on what the kid wants to do at university, both academically and socially, rather than whether their university is a 'top' university. With that in mind, GCSEs at grade 7 in the subjects most relevant to the student's preferred degree choice are fine, because that's what will help to determine their A-level choices and subsequently what they end up studying at university (if they choose to go).

I completely understand why parents get hung up on 'top' universities and the Russell Group and all that, but it actually matters very little to the vast majority of employers where a candidate went to university.

I often interview people for jobs in what is a relatively competitive field for new graduates. The information I see about the candidates doesn't include the name of their university. I know what subject they studied and what class of honours they were awarded, but not where their degree is from. We simply don't care, because the calibre of the university doesn't have any bearing on how suitable the candidate is (and in my personal experience of interviewing and working with people over the past 20 years, it is also not a reliable indicator of how innately bright someone is) and redacting it is a good way to reduce unconscious bias. Lots of other organisations also do this, and it will become increasingly common.

7's are absolutely fine, BUT, ideally they should be getting 8s and 9s for subjects (especially Maths and Sciences) that they wish to do at A level. The leap to A level is huge in a lot of subjects, so the more they learn and understand at GCSE will massively benefit them and help stop them falling behind in the A level years and help them to get better A level grades.

Uni's are more interested in A levels, but some are started to take more notice of relevant GCSE grades too.

At the end of the day, I'd say that if someone is working to grade 7 standard without too much stress and extra hours, then they're capable of 8 or 9 with a little extra effort, and it'll be worth it in one way or another. However, if they're working at grade 5 and they "may" hit a 7 with extra work/effort, then pushing them even more to 8 or 9 is probably too much of an ask and would cause more harm than good!

@Sunshineonararainydayyy my DD’s school expected 3 hours every night from February onwards. Dd did 2-3 with one weekend day off completely for well-being. Her grades in mocks showed she wasn’t where she needed to be so needed to put the work in.

She should be getting 7s and 8s but they were very sketchy in the mocks… got a 9 in English for one then got a 4 in English in the next one a few months later 🤷🏻‍♀️ as a parent I didn’t know what to do with that kind of inconsistency.