My daughter's a level teacher just threatened

An E is one step above a fail. It's not decent. Is there another subject she's better suited to?

The teacher will have 'threatened' this for one of two reasons:
1- she knows your daughter is capable of far more and isn't trying, hence this is trying to motivate her

2- it's a horrible school (and there are quite a few) that won't enter students into subjects if they're likely to get low grades as they don't want them to affect their stats. This is an awful practice, because an E is a pass, in a really tough, higher level exam, which is a huge success for many people. A Level passes can be used to access universities, further education or work, and that includes D and E grades.

An E is a very poor outcome. It won’t keep the doors open to uni. Is it a state school? The school will get in a lot of water if they are kicking students out at the end of Y12 as a consequence of poor progress or outcomes. There is a selective school who got some very damaging national headlines a couple of years ago as a consequence of this policy when parents went to the press.

An Ofsted inspection of the Sixth Form would definitely scrutinise this sort of selection and performance tables report progression from Y12 to Y13 to stop this sort of gaming and stop schools inflating results by only entering students expected to get the highest grades.

It would be reasonable for the school to make her resit Y12, potentially with another subject though.

[quote WunWun]@rosesformama with all due respect to your son, employers would not care less about that. If he went to an interview speaking about his mental health problems he would sadly be very unlikely to get the job.[/quote]
Wunwun
Actually in the sort of work my DS will go into, his resilience will be respected, as it should.

He isn't looking at joining a city banking firm of anything. He will most likely be working with autistic youths like himself for a charity, and his insight into burn out will be invaluable.

The point I am making is, success is so much more nuanced than a set of A grades and a city job. It takes all sorts and everyone's story has its own value, provided that the path each choses is appropriate. Of course with those grades my DS isn't going to become a doctor or an accountant. But he never was.

Anything below C is a fail.
Also who is marking on letters anymore ? It's all numbers now.

I expect the resilience my DS showed in completing his A level course in the face of dreadful mental health problems would mean a lot to many employers, of the sort that deserve my son working with them

Sadly @RosesforMama ime there isn't really a way to get that information in front of an employer when initial selection is done on results ime

At this stage, it is possible to bump the grade up by 2 boundaries, which would see her pass with a C grade. That's with lots of extra remedial study and then exam prep. You as parent will need to organise and manage this through school and private tutor. The grade could go higher, depending on what the problem is. I'd find out ASAP to have best chance of improving it. I have had students turn E into A but its not as simple as saying that there's time between now and exam.

@LNSL what's the subject? How did she do in GCSEs

[quote Rowenasemolina]@RosesforMamabut that E indicates what she will get in that part of the curriculum when she is examined at the end of the course[/quote]
Well, it indicates what she got when tested on it now, who knows what she would get when tested at some future time? No one.

But you'd hope that the teacher is taking more into account than the raw mark.

Sounds like she’s not working hard enough or not taking the subject seriously.

@rosesformama with all due respect to your son, employers would not care less about that. If he went to an interview speaking about his mental health problems he would sadly be very unlikely to get the job.

@Rowenasemolina

You're taking about application forms, not CVs.

I expect the resilience my DS showed in completing his A level course in the face of dreadful mental health problems would mean a lot to many employers, of the sort that deserve my son working with them.

I think it really depends on the subject. If it's something like history where they learn the content, then do a test but are still learning the exam technique, which will vastly improve over time, then it's fine.
If it's an end of module test, then an E may be more cause for concern. However, it is NOT a shite grade or worthless.
Look at ways you could help her, she doesn't necessarily need to think whether a levels are "right for her" or consider a different course. My dd (also lower 6th) got a low D in her history test in Nov but got an A in her test a couple of weeks ago.

But of course on MN, if your dc aren't getting 5 A*s and going to Oxbridge, they're a failure.

No one in their right mind puts a fucking E on a CV 😆

@WunWun

There would be no point at all in her getting an E on an actual A Level. She could hardly put it on her CV! Or even a D

It will go on his CV as "two A level passes"

What do you mean it can't go on a CV? Are you mad?
Not everyone wants to go to law school or into medicine.

You know I had a kid who was looking at AAB.
These days I am just glad he didn't manage to kill himself, and seeing him smiling or laughing is all I need to know things are ok. I couldn't be prouder of his E grade A level.

Really? You think people put results below a C on their CV?!

An E on a CV would be laughed straight into the bin.

@RosesforMamabut that E indicates what she will get in that part of the curriculum when she is examined at the end of the course

Generally E would not be a good grade. However to an extent it depends on the subject. If that is an entire topic and she lacks basic grasp of understanding or technique it could be an issue. In some subjects progress can be more accumulative as skills and understanding develop during the course ie. essay writing is likely to refine with more practice. Is she studying as much as she should, asking where she does not understand, learn from feedback and errors?

To people saying that the E will translate to a B or a C by the end, there's no reason why it should.

OP we could do with more info - but I imagine it would have been a test based on work done so far (not much point setting a past paper of A level standard after a term) so an E suggests a final grade of D/E max. Yes it's a pass, but it suggests to me that A levels are not for her.

And yes, if she got 4/5 at GCSE then again, maybe A levels are not for her. It's not too late to change and take a different tack if that's better for her. And it might be better than struggling on for 18 months more to achieve DEE or EEU or similar.

Don't be so silly. An 'E' isn't "decent enough". After school, she'll be competing with top grades, for goodness' sake. As mentioned above, there are alternatives such as BTech, which might suit her better?