GCSE 2019 support thread 6

What is everyone doing today to keep their DC or themselves busy? Time is dragging! Work for most P obviously but what about others??? 😣

Well done onaroll to your ds. Ds's school are of the same ilk and managed to make him feel like a failure before he'd even sat the bloody exams . He is thrilled to have two other 6th form offers and to not even be bothering about staying on at a place that doesn't value him.

Having said that...nerves abound here. I feel sick every time I think about tomorrow morning. I'm dropping him off at 8.30am and waiting in the car. I would prefer he opened the results out of school, for the reasons above, but he says he wants to talk to a couple of the teachers he liked, which is fair enough.

I am absolutely dreading it. Can't feel optimistic, even though I want to for his sake. At least it will be over this time tomorrow.

New here.

Thanks to onaroll for her post. Good on your DS.

Mildly dreading tomorrow as think it'll reinforce what we expect (minimal passes) and I can't help feeling some guilt about that.

Hopefully college (and we'll know tomorrow if it'll be a level 2 or 3 BTEC) will be the new start DS needs.

Son2 still asleep. He’s averaging 12 hours a day here as he’s grown 3 inches since May!

He doesn’t want to get his results so I’ll be driving in tomorrow to get them (12 miles away).

He’s not been in a mainstream school since year 4. Autism, anxiety, mild learning difficulties.

He needs 4 at level 3 to do the college course he wants. It would be great if he could get maths and English, to save retaking them at college.

My predictions are:
RE - U
History - 2 or 3
Science - 2 or 3
Eng Lang - 4 would be nice!
Maths - hopefully a 4
Eng Lit - an unknown quantity as he’s not good at it but put hours of revision in
BTEc Catering - pass or merit
BTEC Sports - pass

DeRigueurMortis thanks for the new thread. Do we need to try to fill the other one up so we don't lose anyone??
Dd was up in the night with a panic attack Can't wait for tomorrow to be over with. She has gone off to a theme park today to scare herself witless in another way!
Results from 10am tomorrow, college enrolment next week so no rush for is.
Am about the PP waiting for a possible phonecall from school - that's all kinds of wrong... hopefully you won't hear anything 🤞

Onaroll - well done to your son and shame on the school. Awful way to treat kids. I’ve told dd results aren’t the be all and end all but she’s in a state especially about art as it’s been moderated and she knows grades can go up or down.

Thanks for making new thread.
Results day - so near but so far.
I really, really hope everyone gets what makes them happy.

But if they don’t - it’s not the end of the world.

My Ds ‘bombed’ GCSE results in the eyes of his school and was told he didn’t have the grades for the 6th form.
(He got a wealth a GCSE passes but none with top grade, he didn’t bomb in our eyes).
He was made to feel a failure by the school - I wasn’t with him as he wanted to be with his friends. Another parent became involved and told them they were being too harsh.
My Ds ‘burnt his bridges’ ; reacted by telling them to stick their 6th form and he would find somewhere that would value him more and not label him as a failure than they did for his further education. ( I admit his language was far more colourful).

What they did that day was give him a personal fight. He made it his mission to prove them wrong.
He has - he went on to acheive top grades with his further education. He is now half way through his Degree Apprenticeship and is sought after to go and give motivational talks to school age kids to tell his story.

He now feels his not so brilliant GCSE results were the making of him.

I will be going with Dd tomorrow but staying in car to wait and see if I get called in....

Again, fingers crossed for everybody tomorrow.

Hello all, was on the thread before but under diff username. Very very anxious here and dd is getting a brace fitted this afternoon which she is not looking forward too either. She’s got two offers for sixth form and can’t decide which one to choose! Good luck to all tomorrow

Sounds like there's a spectrum of ways DC receive their results here. DS has to go in to school but only from 10am; other local schools get emails from 8am or can go in earlier from 8.30am. He's very nervous today. Trying to think of something to do to distract him.....and me!
Needs at least 7s in the subjects he wants to do for A level (8 in maths to do FM but has decided not to do that anyway). Only 24 hours to go.....

We are doing bacon and brie sandwiches at home once we get back congratulations or commiserations. Ds didn't sleep at all last night so he has gone up for a couple of hours now then we have friends round so that should kill some time.
I'm not sure what we are going to do in the evening will play by ear. It is kind of tempered by the fact that dd didn't want a big fuss so anything we do for ds feels unfair and that this being the arse end of the summer holidays and uniform still to buy money is a bit tight

Just reading this has made me feel better. Son in complete denial and wont discuss tomorrow at all. Need to tackle that tonight. Being realistic he is unlikely to get in to his 1st choice but fingers crossed for second. I'm not sleeping worrying about how to support him if he doesn't get the results he wants after all his very hard work. He has 3 very good options to choose from sp even if he fails English he has something to go to. Grandparents also an issue here! Here's hoping they all do.ok and I can sleep again.

I love the purple hair photo bomb idea.

Dd won't want her picture taken either, I'll wait and see what time she wants to go in.

She may want to leave a bit later to avoid the rush but she needs to go with her results to her new 6 form and register by 1300 . The only possible problem is that her 6 form may be oversubscribed and they allocate by distance.

It has just had an amazing set of A level results despite not being particularly selective. She needs 6 s for her chosen A-level subjects.

I've booked for a restaurant for the evening to celebrate hopefully !

marmiteloversunite - That sounds like a fab idea .

Monty - I suppose the school is trying to give families more flexibility for thinking about sixth form options but that "call to say you've done less well than hoped but we won't tell you what actually happened until tomorrow" seems perversely cruel. Without grades one can't assess the feasibility of other options, so what is the point?

The old head of lower school at DS1's told em that when he was calling a boy in for a bollocking, he always told them them might before for a morning meeting because he felt that the worry over night meant they softened up before hand - this seems a similar refinement.

But perhaps I am just feeling curmudgeonly in the countdown.....

Michaelahpurple Yep - You have pretty much nailed it.

Arthur DD has purple hair at the moment. We were joking that she could photobombed all of the leaping promotional photos tomorrow. She is leaving school for college and can't wait!

Arthur - that is naughty of the school. I can't imagine how they organise these things. Is there a thick skinned person going around saying - right, you are pretty with long hair and look happy so come over here and flick it around - right we need an ethnic minority child - stop looking miserable you - if you can't cheer up then please stop spoiling the photo - right, everyone jump! I can't think why schools do it.

DD gone off to cattery to scoop poop and tickle cats . Keeps her mind off things.

So, the school suddenly realised that by sending all their results by email, they wouldn't have any opportunities to take photo's of happy girls jumping and leaping, and therefore were missing a valuable media opportunity. They therefore send round last minute request for anyone around to come in. So, DD now going in, with a small group of non-Reading attending students, to pretend they are happy with their results. I see lots of issues. DD hates having her photo taken, is likely to be very emotional, whether she does well or not, and originally wanted to be on her own, in the quiet, to open her results. This is not going to go well. (I will park around the corner and lurk).

@DeRigueurMortis Thanks for the new thread. DS still asleep (I think). He has gone into grumpy cave man mode, on the computer constantly, and went to bed very late. Just not getting involved at the moment. Think that is the best.

Checking in. God tome has flown by! Ds is fine and completely not bothered but did say yesterday that as the a level results were down this year he's expecting the gcse results to follow suit! So it definitely is on his mind. Good luck to all for tomorrow. So much rides on the results for those wanting to get into school sixth form or chosen colleges.

monty that sounds really naughty of the school- and another level of stress for students!

The Exams Officer at my dc school has a child in year 11 so getting results tomorrow so I guess will see their results today which feels kind of wrong.

From what I understand they won’t give us the actual results but will call us if they are not going to let him back in. I guess it really is a case of no news IS good news! 😳

Checking back in. Feeling very nervous now. A good friend of mine is assstant head and does all the data correlation at DS' school so she will know his results before us. Has made it clear she can give no indications. DS was at a party last night, he doesn't seem too stressed.

Joining the new thread. Some v tough sixth form requirements around on here. DS1's school just requires 6 7s and advises not to do a subject they got less than that for (I imagine FM is stricter) but I suspect that the rule is bent for star crickets etc. Perhaps being a tad cynical....

Dd hasn’t been letting on that she’s stressed but emerged from her room 10 minutes ago with her having been a zombie before 10am the rest of the holiday