DS wants to repeat Year 13

OP I have seen lots of students with similar grades to your ds come out with similar AS grades whether they worked or not. You have no idea what he would have got if he had worked, only that he probably would have done a bit better. 70% attendance isn't totally awful. He obviously went to some lessons and did some work. I'd say he got a grade that is about 70% of what he can do. He would not be aiming for A grades.

Your posts are defensive and full of statements about how clever he is. He clearly isn't that intelligent based on his actions and grades.

but I don't see anything wrong with Bs and Cs.

Aargh OP you are so frustrating! No one says there is anything wrong with Bs and Cs!!!!!!! Just that Bs and Cs are very unlikely to lead to decent A level results.

Phone/gym question?

Plenty of people get Bs and Cs in their GCSE's and go on to do a levels and university.

Actually no they don't. Some do, but they're the exception not the norm.

I think you're still got the blinkers on. His GCSE results don't suggest he was even going to be a natural A level candidate. You're saying he did badly because he missed lots of school. It's likely that he missed lots of school because he found A levels too hard, and got demoralised and demotivated. It's very common, particularly with boys, when something it too difficult, it's easier to truant, snapchat, anything but work hard. They then tell themselves that the reason they did badly was due to them not working - it saves face, and saves admitting they weren't perhaps as bright as they thought.

Four As is perfectly acceptable, his results are fine no one says otherwise. But honestly they indicate a BTEC route rather than an A level route. You and he seem keen to repeat this mistake.

And keep the gym and ditch the phone!!!

Very few people get A grades at A Level “easily”.

From all the really great suggestions you are still defending him when the reality is it has to come from him. He is 18.

And I honestly don't get why some people on this are giving the impression that his gcse grades wouldn't be enough for him to be successful in his a levels

Because they are teachers and see pupils achieve these grades and go on to find A Levels more challenging. Your son achieved slightly above average grades, however the Bs and Cs indicate that A Levels will be more of a challenge to him than students who got straight A*s.

I also agree with @titchy 7 GCSEs isn't that great. Most bright students leave with 10/11. My DS left with 9 GCSEs, a short course GCSE, and two BTECs which apparently are equivalent to two GCSEs each. He took one of those GCSEs two years early. He got above C/passed all of them, mainly As and Bs. He is bright but has lots of challenges with focus and planning and social skills due the have aspergers and adhd. The really bright students at his school left with 11/12 A and A star grades GCSEs plus other qualifications. My son's results were good but not exceptional. It's A and A star students that go on to get the A grades at A level (if they work hard).

A levels are a massive jump up from GCSEs and you have to work extremely hard even if you are the brightest. You can't coast A levels. IMO they are the hardest exams you will ever do.

It sounds like your son may have coasted his GCSEs. Why only 7 and why did he drop one in the 10? And perhaps thought he could do the same at A level.

With those GCSEs I would expect that he would find A levels a challenge and would need to work very hard to get decent mid level grades.

I'm not saying this to be horrible. Just trying to inject some realism. You need 6 GCSEs to be even allowed to do A levels at most colleges so your son only achieved just over that. Scraped in really so more reason that he would need to work especially hard to succeed.

Just my 2p worth but he sounds so like my brother and I still think if he hadn’t opted for FE and had repeated at school he would have achieved more.
FE college was too relaxed and validated his didn’t matter attitude whereas teachers at his school knew his potential. I think the bottom line is how much does he want it and what will he do differently.

The problem isn't repeating one year having not taken exams, there'd be funded for that. The school wont get any funding for him now and would be teaching him for no money. And tbh it's likely he'll be in the same position in a year or twos time, just older, still with only GCSEs.

Work, the FE college is a much better option. Or an apprenticeship. But get his gym membership back - exercise is invaluable for mental health. Maybe he could get a job at the gym? Train to be a personal trainer?

I agree with those saying his GCSE results are decent but not exceptional. They are also the grades of a student who would need to work hard to be successful at A Level.

He may find an alternative FE course better for him.

I know what I am going to say won't help now but if you saw that he was fannying about on Snapchat and the like why didn't you do anything? I would have cut off his internet access if he wasn't studying.

I know he is an older child and must learn to take responsibility but he might need to be taught that rather than left to his own devices (as my son did). My son really didn't understand what was required to pass exams, or how to plan to do so. For his GCSEs I literally (and I mean in the true sense of the word) sat with him everyday while he revised otherwise he wouldn't have revised. For his A levels he had learnt and needed less intervention but I had to keep him on track and motivated all the way through, did his revision plan for him, printed and marked past papers etc etc. He's now doing a degree and he's pretty much done it all himself (having learnt from the GCSEs and A levels) but have still had to motivate over the phone a number of times and had to help him with a last minute dissertation plan the other day.

I have explained that achieving stuff in life is hard and can be boring and a slog. To get anywhere you need to keep focussed during those times.

These things do not always come naturally and if they don't they need to be taught, just as much as teaching your child to eat, sleep, walk and read for example. I don't understand why parents think children stop needing to be taught just because they are older?

To reinforce this my line has always been that I am happy to support you financially and with my time while you are studying but you need to be actually studying and working hard. I will intervene if not and ultimately if you aren't studying then you can go and get a job and pay your way and/or move out. I am not going to support you doing f all!

As you've identified this time is important and will set him up, or not, for life. I see it as my job to make sure my son achieved his potential) and I have always told him that I would back off when he had his degree and my job was done!

He is now finished as of last week!

Maybe you can say to your son that if he wants to remain at home and do another year of school or college that there will be some rule changes and you will be directly intervening in making sure he is motivated and is studying. Otherwise you aren't prepared to continue supporting him financially?

Be aware though that this approach does take up a large amount of time and grit. You also need to be fully committed and focussed. If you aren't on it and consistent it won't work. You will need to same focus and resilience (including ability to ignore the tears and yelling while remaining calm, loving and supportive!) as you need when sleep training!

Yeah I have to be honest, 7 is a low number to take - most schools expect 10 or 11. 4 As is quite good, but you say he worked hard for those. If he was very bright I'd expect straight A's and A stars given the low number taken. By way of example, and not showing off, but dd did 12, 10 of which were As or A stars. She's quite bright, but not brilliantly so, still had to work hard at A level.

I suspect you might have over-egged his ability making him think A levels would be a walk in the park, and I also suspect it's a poor performing school where 4 As was seen as extremely good.

Repeating A levels is not likely to produce a different result to be honest, and I'd strongly suggest a different route - hopefully school will agree.

Re phone and gym - you've removed the one healthy thing he was doing that got him out of the house, but let him keep the one thing that has effectively destroyed his life for the last two years - why?

I suspect you wouldn't be so disparaging of As if your DS had got them. The fact is that, whilst your DS's grades are* very good, they aren't top grade. DS2 finally discovered at A level that he actually needed to do some work whereas he had coasted his way through until then.

I'd remove his phone and give him a cheap, basic PAYG and tell him he can have his phone back once he's earning money.
He should have been given a massive kick up the backside when it first became apparent he was failing big time at school, not now it's far too late to do anything at school - and asking the school to take a clearly disinterested and lazy pupil for a repeat year is really taking the proverbial. Why on earth should they waste any more valuable resources on your waster of a son?