A level results day 2026

DS is not a big communicator remotely, he's great for a f2f chat, but one word electronically usually. He will be in regular communication about football and F1 so at least I'll know he's alive

I think A Levels and, GCSES are a very prescriptive way of learning, and I suppose as they are externally assessed they have to be for fairness, whereas once you get away from that and find something you love and are really interested in, you can just go mad!

I’m a Professor who got pretty grim A levels. Didn’t hit my stride until late 20s.

Agree with this. I know a very eminent professor in his field (at a prestigious university) who really screwed up his A Levels (two Es, I believe!) and re-took them a little later. He is the most academic person I have ever met, and essentially invented his field within the discipline.

Reading in anticipation for next year. Congratulations and commiserations as appropriate.

DC1 has just finished year 2 and we communicate through the medium of sharing our Wordle score daily. If he doesn't msg for a couple of days I ask if he is still alive. Apart from that he's happy to be left to get on with things.

@BreezyHare, so sorry your DD is still so upset. A disappointment like is this is horrible to go through. Perhaps this could help - I am an academic. Several of my colleagues - internationally known and respected Professors - have done badly in their A levels. And by badly I mean much worse than your DD. They are some of most academic people I know. Her grades, though worse than she expected, are great and plenty academic enough. They won’t stop her dreams or being who she is. Sending hugs your way 💐

That is so hard. She had been given expectations and it must have been a huge shock and knocked her confidence. Despite the fact they are very good grades! Assume she didn't get her first choice as a result, but does she have a place elsewhere now? Maybe it would help to say that exam papers can be much harder some years in some subjects and nothing is really predictable. But she is just as clever despite these quirks.

Son actually semi hit his predicted grades but none of us expected it because we had seen his actual grades previously which were lower. So while he did get the predicted AAB - the B was in the subject predicted as an A. And one A was in a subject predicted as a B! Just wondering if there is an appropriate film to watch that might give her perspective. How about Forest Gump?

You’ve just described how I feel at 2.29am when I should be sleeping. 😢
Also, my daughter said that if one more person tells her “everything happens for a reason”, she will “crash out”!
Hope things get better for you both.

Thanks. 🙏 I needed to hear this. DD still inconsolable about her grades 2 days on - cries whenever someone congratulates her. She got an ABB, but was a predicted A*AA for 2 yrs and it has challenged her whole identity of being academic (no matter what we say to comfort her).

Thanks. 🙏 I needed to hear this. DD still inconsolable about her grades 2 days on - cries whenever someone congratulates her. She got an ABB, but was a predicted A*AA for 2 yrs and it has challenged her whole identity of being academic (no matter what we say to comfort her).

DS has already coughed up and extra £30 for a uni provided pillow and duvet despite there being loads of both at home, so I'm not holding out much hope with regards to not just spending without thinking. He's my most communication active and is good at keeping in touch. DS2- I have said he's staying attached to Family Link until he's 30 because he will go off without even thinking of telling me where he is and won't text me that he's got to places?

Ours is definitely a combination of 2 and 3. Considers going to University as "leaving home". I say well you'll be home for holidays and still have your room here. Look of confusion but sees it as leaving home and independence. However I do think he will get homesick at some point but not straight away probably. He thinks he can go with "just a few clothes" - and won't need much with him. I reminded him about mattress protector, sheets, duvet, etc. Suspect we will get messages asking for £10 here and there to buy something, in addition to weekly funding. Anyway we shall see! His best friend is going too so he won't feel that homesick.

You do sort of get used to it.

With #1 I started by trying to send a text every day with a little catch up. Didn't work. They were badly homesick, which I hadn't foreseen at all, and firstly it reminded of home and made them feel worse, and they saw as me fussing rather than, as I'd intended a loving reminder that they hadn't just dropped out of family life.
#2 went off saying that they were now independent, and probably wouldn't even return for holidays... we had more face to face contact over the first term than either of the other two as they kept thinking of more things they wanted - and discovered the pleasure of having food cooked for them too 😅
#3 went off without seemingly having any idea of what the course consisted of, so a lot of the early messages were asking if they needed anything more. "yes" "no" "idk" were the responses. Mostly the last one. They survived. 🤣🤣🤣

@MargaretThursday pretty sure dd3 will be a #3. When I was at university over 40 years ago I used to queue up in the Student Union, with my pennies, once a week waiting to use the public phone box.

I suspect ours would be a combination between #2 and #3 ha ha

Depends on your child!

For us:
#1 contacted at a regular time for an hour call, and rarely contacted at other times
#2 not hearing was good. Hearing was either needing money or something gone wrong
#3 reliably sends one word responses to questions, but generally doesn't initiate contact unless it's letting know what time the train they're arriving home is.

@PeonyBulb thanks, very reassuring words. And I agree that once he’s where he’s going he’ll forget about where he thought he was going. Bristol is fantastic and I know he’ll love it, he just needs to get his head around it so we can start celebrating his excellent results

@NurseRunner we did visit there in April and we got lucky with the weather. Her insurance was Imperial which actually required higher marks than St Andrews- dd3 has adhd and is also on the spectrum. Her room at St Andrews overlooks the beach and is right next to where her lectures are and the sports centre (she is very athletic). The main thing she loved was the music school though.
Good luck for next year - dd1 and dd2 were one school year apart!

My DD had an offer from St Andrews, but it was the only 1 of the 5 that she hadn’t visited so it was the 1st to get discounted when she was narrowing things down!
I have a friend who lives up there, it’s a beautiful area.
I’ll be doing it all again next year with my younger daughter!

It is beautiful but I don't think I'll be able to visit as the train is expensive. Its also cold and from experience the buses cost an arm and a leg (free for dd3). Currently seeing if my 85 year old df will be able to drive her there (he's just had an eye operation). Oh well it'll all come out in the wash!

Dd3 is a lousy communicator at the best of times so she'll probably drop off the planet all term!

But St Andrews is such an amazing location! I'm sure she will love it there as well.

@NurseRunner @pinkdelight so glad that 16 years after my first A level results day (dd1) I will never have to go through the stress again!

I'm sure she'll love it there. Durham was dd2's insurance. I just wish dd3 hadn't chosen the furthest away university when I don't drive and also she wants to do year 1 though she could do year 2 entry. I want to move nearer dd1 and ds but they are a 100 miles further south. And she starts the beginning of September!

I'm starting to think now I will miss the regular text messages telling me where he is and what he's doing and whether he'll be back for dinner. I expect we will rarely get a text when he gets there! I mean that's normal isn't it? They are busy and with friends and don't want to keep phoning home - maybe?