A level results day 2026

@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!

@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

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.

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

@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.

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. 🤣🤣🤣

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.

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?

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).

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.

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?

@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 💐

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.

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.

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

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!

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

Thanks for your reply. 🙏 The predictions were always thought to be optimistic, but she fully expected AAA, as she hadn’t scored below that in 2 years, so it was a massive shock.
Fortunately, she went through clearing and found a course she’s excited about, so she’s no longer as upset about the change of venue, just the grades. We’re trying to focus her more on what she has to look forward to, but she just has to go through this period of shock/loss/disappointment & we have to hold her until she does. ❤️

Thank you so much for your reply. 🙏 That actually is really helpful and I’ll pass it on to her. They are told for 2 yrs that these grades will define them/shape their futures…it’s hard to now tell them the opposite, but I’m trying to convince her that this is a blip in her bright future, rather than the end of it. She’s slowly, slowly coming round.

You don’t know how much this has reassured me! My DD is waiting for GCSE results, at grammar school so clever kid and terrible mocks. Diagnosis and medication February the absolutely worked non stop. She deserves great grades but due to no time to get evidence for extra time didn’t finish some essay papers. I so hope she gets what she deserves!

thread here for any parents of incoming Durham freshers

www.mumsnet.com/talk/higher_education/5566801-parents-of-durham-freshers-2026?utm_campaign=thread&utm_medium=share

I have already retired (having been through the process of a level results twice). I would side with your daughter. I went to an elitist school, but chose the wrong a level. An essay subject would have suited me better than maths. I ended up with only 2 a levels.

I think this is why I went on to get Spanish A level, a masters and a PhD. My career progression did not change one iota but I ended up putting to bed my self doubt. I only realized why I had gone through so much to get my PhD when I put on my red gown at graduation.

So rather than using that overused “things happen for a reason” I would rather stress that “today’s results do not define you”.

Warn her that she may well still be asked about her grades during Freshers. I think it is a bit of a conversation starter. After that no one will be interested.

Give her an extra hug from me.

@manywanderings
He thinks he can go with "just a few clothes" - and won't need much with him.

Ds was very cross with me last year when I bought a second pair of trainers. How could I be so silly to think he might actually benefit from having another pair of shoes at uni. It was laughable that he might need it. So he took three pairs of shoes to uni: trainers he wore, trainers he swore he would never use and were a waste of space, and steel toe capped boots required by the course.

Dd otoh took I think it was 17 pairs in her first year. Tbf 4 of the pairs were different dance shoes she needed for her course.

I think these sort of platitudes, along with Einstein/me cousin/I failed my A-levels and still did very well are totally unhelpful at this moment. Just because it worked out for some people doesn't mean it will for them, and there's a long wait to see if it does.

They may be helpful in a few months' time when she feels more settled and has started uni.

Let her lick her wounds. Let her know you love her for who she is, and be upset with her without making it about you. Pretending that exam results don't matter is unfair because she knows they do. Maybe if she can get her papers back and a teacher go through them with her, if a teacher will do that, will give her some closure.

Then plan something for next week she can look forward to. Day out, weekend away etc. And have time to talk. Talk about what she is doing, her options, if that's where she wants to go, or avoid it if she isn't there yet.

Just let her know that you are there for her, and will do what is in your power to help. Anything that lots of people say, thinking they're comforting, is very rarely a comfort.