What are you doing to support your lacking-in-direction, lackadaisical 15/16 year old for post GSCE choices?

What are his plans Roller girl? Mine can't seem to imagine himself doing anything and apparently he doesn't have a favourite subject. He hasn't really revised for his mocks this time so hoping his results don't knock him and actually motivate him to do better!

Well DS has his 2nd lot of mocks after half term. He has been told by his science teacher that if he doesn’t get a 5 in the next set of papers they will only enter him for Foundation. He was not happy about this but still hasn’t spurred him on to up his revision. And at the parents evening a few weeks ago his History teacher said he could get a 3 and he could get a 7; that DS has the ability but is just astonishingly lazy.

Judging by the grades he got in his November mocks he won’t have enough to stay on at his school sixth form. He really wants to stay on as all his friends are but yet again it doesn’t seem to be the kick up the backside he needs to get him moving!

I'm doubting it will work tbf SirC. I can't make that boy driven, he's practically horizontal as it is! Back to the drawing board for us too!

Good luck with the reverse psychology @Oblomov23, keeping everything crossed for you! We’ve tried that with DS but no joy sadly, so back to the drawing board for us.

It might depend on the industry and college but my daughter's college sorted out the placements for them, she was allowed to request or give preferences but they did all the admin. They definitely needed 5 in maths/Eng to get on a T-level course here. If they had a 4 they had to do a level 2 course before the T-level (ie three years of sixth form)

If you can find a T-level that might interest him that might be good. My daughter is doing one and it's 2 days in college and 2 days work placement so very hands-on and focussed on skills.

Where we are 4s and 5 are fine for T Levels, but need 5s in the relevant ones, so for engineering/construction DC needs 5s in maths and a science, 4s in everything else. Not sure if allowed in if failed English.
The issue I've been told about T levels is the work experience needed. Sounds great on the college website but as far as I am aware DC would need to find it himself. That's quite a lot of stress for (let's face it ..) me.

I do think the replacement of BTECs with T-Levels has left a small but significant gap in what is available for teens at the 4/5 level.

I would consider doing the appropriate level 2 course first and aim for a 3 year college experience. That will build up knowledge of the subject, bed into college, and learn how to do assessments etc.

Then after a year college would have a much better idea whether he can cope with the T-level, or he could look for an apprenticeship. Possibly better than starting at the T-Level if unsure whether he can cope, and dropping out with no further plans.

From what I have seen, grades for T-Levels can be a teensy bit higher than BTECs, eg maybe asking for 5s not 4s, not letting someone on with 1 GCSE to resit if they were a bit more flexible before.

Back here again, ds2 waiting for results of exams/tests/mocks he took last week, Jan 24. I say this every time, but it just doesn't work. ie that once I have him mock exam grades it'll give me the evidence to sit him down and say : this isn't good enough, pull your socks up, no x box/ a punishment until this gets better. The only trouble is, he always does 'ok', not great but ok, so I don't have much leverage.

He still had no idea what he wants to do. I'm with @SirChenjins whose ds, who also plays football seems to think he's going to walk into a job as a physio at some big club : Man city/Chelsea/man u/Arsenal/spurs/Real Madrid! I've also repeatedly told him that's not going to happen and every 15 year old he plays football against each week wants that too.

I inadvertently/accidentally played a corker on him this week btw. Ds1 phoned from uni, so I mentioned to him that ' as he didn't want to go to Uni', as we'd already talked about he'd never get into somewhere Uber sporty like Loughborough..... well, he took absolute umbrage at this and insisted he might want to go.

So I told him that he won't get in without decent grades and something that makes him stand out from the crowd. Reminding him that he hadn't done anything about his football refereeing qualification. He hadn't done anything outside of the ordinary to put on his personal statement. He hadn't arranged any work experience for next year. He hadn't done anything to show that he had any interest to prove himself worthy any more than any of the other 1000's of applicants.

He didn't like this one bit. So, I'm hoping that the reverse psychology might help?

@Totallybannanas not really. The Higher prelim results are in and DS has done atrociously. We have been called to a parents’ night with others in the same boat and will meet with his teachers to discuss next steps. We’ve never been in this position before, the elder two passed with no problems, so I’m not sure what to expect. Something needs to change though, so hopefully they’ll be able to give us some guidance on where we go from here.

Hi, has anyone got any further with their teen? 😬 I've just found out our local college are stopping Btecs due to government funding which has really messed up our plans! Does anyone what sort.of GCSE graded do you need for T levels? My D's is predicted 4/5's if he pulls his finger out!

@HappySonHappyMum fantastic post! Mine has matured since GCSE but having mild ASD, is obsessed with a particular subject and enjoys volunteering in half term there but always struggles writing, revising and low focus academically. Doing BTEC level 2 at present and enjoying. However, will still need grades to progress to Level 3!! So we are thinking of apprentice. Good luck @Totallybannanas.

I had one of those OP. Average results at GCSE really unsure of what he wanted to do. I knew he wasn't capable of achieving brilliant A level results so I looked at BTECs for him and based on his likes and dislikes I chose a few that I thought would fit his personality. I just took control, we went to lots of open days and spoke to lots of people. He ended up doing an Engineering BTEC at Sixth Form which he excelled at (not surprising both his Grandads and Dad are engineers) and I helped him find and apply for some Engineering apprenticeships. He's just completed a three year apprenticeship, has professional qualifications and letters after his name! Yours will get there but you might find you have to take control. Mine just wasn't mature enough to deal with all of the decisions he had to make and was happy for me to support him. The other thing I insisted on was getting himself a Saturday job while he was at Sixth Form, the financial independence helped him with managing money and dealing with people in a work environment focused his mind and helped him learn what he didn't want IFSWIM! Good luck to him.

Welcome! Not somewhere we want to be obviously, but it’s reassuring to know there are others in the same boat.

Oh gosh can I join this thread. I have a massive headache trying to get him to do his homework and revision as it is now I have to get him to apply for courses and attend open evenings in top when he has no idea what he wants to do!

This could be my ds - currently at sixth form doing b tech. Against university as no intention of getting into debt, said it would be boring and a waste of time. He thinks sixth form is boring enough. He is academicly bright but refuses to do more than bare minimum. Lovely lad, Saturday job, cadet. Learns languages in secret. Follows politics in secret. So great at the dinner table. Nit so much at parents evenings.

No idea what he wants to do, doesn't want to talk about it, hoping he is just keeping it secret from us as part of growing up and not liking to be told what to do. Ie refused to do languages at school. Prefers to do it himself.

It's a nightmare, for us. He is uber chilled and cheerful.

I feel for you, it really is tough.
Similar here except that as I mentioned above, he did squeak through GCSEs with 4s and 5s so in a decent position going forward - if he had any idea what he wanted to do!
He's going through the motions of sixth form but I think we will try to see if college is a better fit for him next September.
Are school any help at all? Ours wasn't/isn't, they seem to only help the ones who already have direction and plans.

Really getting worried now. DS has prelims in a few weeks - he's had a couple of pre prelim tests and has failed each one. We can't have a conversation with him about it as he just storms off or refuses to discuss it - tells us he's only 16 (17 in 4 months) and how can he be expected to know what he wants to do. Plus "it'll be fine" apparently. If he came to us and said 'school is not for me, I'm thinking of joining the forces/doing an apprenticeship/going to college/whatever' I'd be much happier and we could start to move forward, but as it is he's just coasting with little hope of passing his exams and no direction whatsoever.

@OwlBeGone that sounds just like my DS! There’s nothing he really ‘loves’ to focus on for a career (he is also working his way through classic tv series, but not interested in doing media).

We’re currently looking at BTEC science as an option. I am not sure he’ll get the grade for A Levels.

Dragged him round 2 open days so far, very reluctantly.

Says he wants to go to 6th Form but is not willing to put in any revision time (he does attend the school organised study sessions to be fair, but does nothing at home).

I also thought about some sort of environmental science type course as he likes nature, but there is nothing near to us (we are city based).

I also think he is very ‘head in the sand’ about it all. He says he can’t imagine not being at secondary school and doesn’t like talking about it. Very different to my DD.

Ok. I don't think YWT has the same sort of citizen science programmes as ours does, but they do have a voluntary traineeship for conservation jobs if he does like it. Looks like they are 3 days per week so could probably do alongside a qualification of some sort - Volunteer| YWT

Tricky.... the volunteering is a good idea, but ensure the time of year doesn't put him off/is properly dressed for it. Standing around in a nature reserve in 2'C and pouring rain is seeing the job at its worst. Where in the country do you live, if you don't mind me asking?

Glad you came back.

You've spoken about what he doesn't like/isn't interested in/isn't good at, but what does he love? That may spark some ideas from someone on here.

And this.
I get together with friends we've known since kids were babies and all the talk is how ridiculously successful and well adjusted they all are.
"I've told her it's ok if she doesn't get all 9s" "I've told him it's ok to take a break from revision now and then" "I've told him he can't do county level football, swimming and cello while doing 14 GCSEs subjects, but will he listen?"
Anyway, they all did great in their GCSEs and I am pleased for them but occasionally it's good to know that there are kids like DS out there (and they usually turn out ok in the end).