To think a lot of students won’t be really pushed to achieve the best grades

At some point the kids and parents have to start taking responsibility.

Who, do you think, should do the pushing?
What, do you think, should that pushing look like?

The most important input is from parents at primary so by the time they get to GCSEs it's just what they do. Schools aren't magical places and teachers aren't magical beings. I have parents who won't even read with their child for 5 mins a day 3 days a week. There's not lot secondary school cam dpif the parents just can't he arsed.

I know my daughter's school put on extra sessions for GCSE and on Saturday mornings for A Level. She went to every single one that was offered. Some kids didn't go to any. Schools can't do it for them.

If the pupils want 6/7 grades instead of 4/5 grades, they need to be proactive.

This ovviouslyndosnt apply the same to children with additional needs for whom additional support systems should already he in place of necessary.

Completely. I ran revision lessons every week of this year and had about 13 regulars from 150 odd students. Now am getting emails from parents saying what could have been done to improve their kid’s results.

Outside of the world of mumsnet where anything under a seven is seen as a fail GCSE,s are just a stepping stone grade 4/5,s are acceptable and get kids on level three courses

Schools are measured on students' progress from KS2 SATS. So I don't agree that students won't be pushed as long as they pass.

The motivation needs to come from the students by GCSE.

I'm a secondary teacher and I really agree with this. So much apathy from students who missed out on grades of 7 or 4 because they just couldn't be bothered.

Well we have to be realistic as to what teachers can achieve and do within the resources and class sizes they have. But I have found if the parents/pupils are proactive, teachers respond well to that. My DS (Y8) struggled with science last year, teachers didn't raise any concerns as he was passing but he wasn't meeting his aspirational grades (his school set target and aspirational grades), and as he is aiming for a STEM career it's an important subject for him. So I raised at parents' evening (collaboratively), DS went to the science teacher outside of classes, got given extra work (teacher really went above beyond in offering to mark said work as well which we appreciated but didn't expect) and he ended up getting the highest mark in his class for his summer term assessment. We've had a similar experience with English.

At that age, it’s not down to teachers (or parents) ‘pushing’. Either the kids themselves bust a gut or don’t. And some of that will come down to what the stakes are.

I worked desperately hard because I knew education was my route out of poverty. The stakes were huge. My DS is too young for this yet, but I see friends, now prosperous but also from very poor backgrounds, feeling frustrated their children are less self-motivated. Because the stakes are lower. The next generation didn’t grow up literally hungry, knowing their way out was via exam success and scholarships. And obviously we’re thrilled they’re not motivated by attempting to get out of poverty.

Unfortunately a lot of people are very lazy and won’t take opportunities offered.
I’m a teacher and examiner and specialise in gcse. I told my class this year that I would mark any extra papers they did at home (this is a service that would cost you £20 a time) I also ran some free masterclasses. 3 children out of 30 took me up on my offers.

I work with young people in a healthcare capacity & some are very bright & will achieve well, some are physically & mentally unwell thinking they can't achieve a pass at all, at exam time. I tell them all the same thing, you try your best & that's enough. If you fail your life isn't over, you try again. It depends on the abilities but also mental state of the child on whether pushing them is good or not.

I think by the time GCSEs come around, then the die is kind of set for the amount of effort a child is going put in, and their age means they need to be pretty self sufficient wet revision by that age. Also effort is relative: if you don't normally do your homework: reading your notes through once feels like you've made a lot of effort!

The ability to push your kids and influence them ideally happens much earlier, ideally from parents and teachers, so that by the time GCSEs come around they want to work hard. Not saying it's as easy as that though..! Personality type also has a massive part to play, as does maturity

Absolutely, it is all sounding a bit Michael Gove-ish and everyone needing to do better than average.

Remember not everyone can get the higher grades. The board use all the grades

I do agree with you, i think there is a real lack of ambition amongst some people. Ive noticed lots of posters on hear saying that basically as long as your child passes you should be happy with their results, despitethem being capable of much higher grades with a bit of effort. However, most schools near me also publish how many students are achieving grades 7-9 & 8-9 and any 'pushy parent' will be looking at these scores and how they compare to other schools.

I think there still are some schools though that resource to get as many passing as possible rather than pushing on the brightest. I was looking at our local school’s progress 8 and it is positive (just) for middle attainers and negative for lower and higher. Other schools have quite a different profile. I’m keen to see if the stats look the same once they’re released this year as the data seems to be backing up what I’m hearing anecdotally about the school (which I don’t love).

Two points:

My school, like many, do "Aiming for 6" sessions, so they do try and push pupils over that gap

Secondly, foundation papers have a highest grade of 5. It is better for many, including my ds, to get a 5 on foundation then take the higher paper and potentially get a 3/4 in the hope of a 6.

Surely the parents/guardians also have to push and encourage? Cannot be all down to the school

I think as well at that age children must be self motivated.

Schools want children to do their best - league tables get published, better grades will encourage more applicants

That’s a different point to it being cynically data led though - of course big classes present more challenges when trying to get students to achieve. This isn’t to say schools are happy with students only achieving a 4/5 pass regardless of ability - they very much need students to achieve levels of progress rather than a certain grade: the new grading system was brought in to stop the cynical data driven attitude of everyone needs a C

Who are you talking about doing the pushing? If you are talking about schools, they are measured on their progress so they very much need the students capable of 6/7s to achieve them. Students and parents are a different matter I suppose