To want 9s not 7s for my child in their GCSEs?

Your child is a "model student" obviously working hard towards very reasonable grades in exams that will in all likelihood be considerably more difficult and cover a great depth of material than the ones you took years ago. I very much hope that they are unaware of your dissatisfaction with their projected grades as they really need support rather than extra pressure and having their confidence undermined during this time.

I think grades at GCSE are certainly a reflection of effort to a large extent. Thanks to Gove, they are largely a memory test.

Skills like critical thinking and analysis come into it more at A level, but success at GCSE is largely about regurgitation.

There are also so many resources available now for those who want to do better. There are hundreds of videos on YouTube alone from students who have achieved a 9 in specific subjects with tips and advice.

They should be encouraged, supported and mentored by their parents to do the best of their ability.

For some kids tops marks will never be possible regardless of how much "striving" they do.

Just hope that they're happy in life , 9's mean bugger all otherwise.

Only about 5% get 9 each year.

Unless child is entirely focussed on medicine or dentistry at uni I wouldn't encourage that extra stress on themselves.
Main thing is they're happy and can progress to A levels or whatever they want to do next. Pushing for a string of top grades for the sake of it is miserable stress and pointless

If he’s a model student, surely that means he’s working and worked very hard to achieve those 7s. That kind of attitude is going to be very helpful when dealing with the big jump to A-level.

9s are not easy to come by, and not easily predictable - a small wobble on the day can be very costly when you're not playing with many marks. As a teacher, I very rarely predict 9s unless I have concrete, exam-conditions grade 9 evidence.

That said, plenty of state school kids are getting 8s (and 9s). But if your child is already working diligently both in class and at home, then your expectations might be unfair/unjustified.

It's worth spending some time at home really watching what they're doing. Are they wasting time on "busy work" that doesn't have much impact? Can you support them with working more effectively/efficiently?

It's wonderful that your DC is such a model student, would they all were, but the grade achieved is sadly not a reward for industriousness or effort.

A 9 is for exceptional achievement. Not all children are capable of a string of 9s, or even any at all. My DC2 got one for English Lang, the rest were 8s and 7s. They worked their absolute backside off for everything - except for that 9 which came naturally. All children are different and have different talents. If a strong of 7s is the maximum of what your child can achieve with hard work, good behaviour and good attendance then you should be deeply proud of their achievement.

Mine went to state school and got 9’s but there was no pressure from us.

I just wanted my dses to do their best. I did my best and scraped 5 C’s back in the day! My parents probably wanted me to get A’s like my brother but it was never achievable for me!

The OP hasn't said any of this. They said child was a model pupil who works hard and no issues with attendance and behaviour. What more does she want? They may not be a grade 9 student. They haven't mentioned what their target grades are and whether they are under achieving.

I'd be more than happy with the 'model student ' part of this regardless of grades. If she's trying hard and is happy you are really lucky.

Wow! In my experience applying that level of expectation won't help, encouraging them to do the best they can, providing a suitable, calm place to study, helping with revision planning and tasks, checking in and encouraging breaks is the key to getting the best. Very few students get 9s, it's best to focus on improving grades in the subjects they need for their next step, rather than across all subjects

What a ridiculous thing to say. Medicine has always attracted top grades. Most of the population aren't doctors though?!

Nope. Courses like medicine are ultra-competitive and top GCSEs are expected.

Someone can also still be ‘well-rounded’ and get grade 9s. Ime many students who get top grades are usually more driven in other areas like sports than those who get poor grades and sit on their Xbox all night.

Your poor child! Yabu

My arse you work in a state school with an ignorant comment like that.

GCSEs are a stepping stone. Even the top universities look for well rounded people who have other interests and not just 9s in their GCSEs.

He’s wrong to say only students at private schools get them or that there is such a thing as an extended paper. I’ve taught in both and a very clever student would get a grade 9 regardless of which school type they attended.

However, it’s unreasonable to expect them unless your child is actually capable of them. They not equivalent to As as fewer students get them (grades 7-9 cover A-A)

Also, you don’t say what their 6s and 7s are: current grades; predicted grades; target grades? This makes a big difference.

Certainly not true if they are set on a competitive uni course.

In any event, if they are capable of 9s, that is what they should be aiming for to keep their future options as open as possible. I don’t think we should be encouraging DC to narrow future opportunities at age 15 due to laziness.

I agree with your last sentence. However, a 6 or 7 would be a disappointment if a child is capable of better.

I have always had the expectation that DCs work as hard as possible in everything they do. For academics, that means they should be striving for the best grades possible for them (whether that is all 9s or all 5s).

Yabu, there's more to life than getting 9s instead of 7s at GCSE and it's unlikely to have any effect whatsoever on their future.

If this is real then poor kid being thought of as a disappointment if they don’t get straight 9’s

Can you imagine on results day what OP will be like if there is anything else on the report card. No kid needs that kind of pressure, especially from parents. If they have tried their best and got whatever their best result is then that’s what should be celebrated

GCSEs are bell curved so the number who gets 9 is fairly fixed

that said OP stop you are massively putting pressure on your child 7 is amazing at mocks and frankly this is exactly why the numbering system is so demoralising
A 4 is a C which when we took GCSEs seemed good now a 4 doesn’t

your child isn’t you