My daughter's a level teacher just threatened

[quote Rowenasemolina]@RosesforMama. Yes, it is likely that the E will remain an E, if that’s an end of unit test. Once a unit is finished, it is finished. And if that’s her grade, that is very concerning. She is half way through the year. But I think the OP knows that. in reality, this is a very poor result. It bodes very badly for either exams, or school assessments[/quote]
What? A levels are based on exam results at the end of the course, not on course work units. It's not a btech.

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

The teacher is going to want to teach someone one who learns,@AllThatFancyPaintsAsFair. The E does not indicate any learning. Presumably there was an entrance requirement for this course?

My son was told unequivocally that A levels were not the right choice for him. He and I agreed completely. He did a Btec instead and got into his first choice for University following that.

I'm not saying that at E at A level means you're consigned to the rubbish heap, only that it is objectively a very poor grade. A learner with these grades might be better suited to a different program of study. Teachers tend to know this.

@RosesforMama. Yes, it is likely that the E will remain an E, if that’s an end of unit test. Once a unit is finished, it is finished. And if that’s her grade, that is very concerning. She is half way through the year. But I think the OP knows that. in reality, this is a very poor result. It bodes very badly for either exams, or school assessments

An E is not a decent grade. Wake up.

I would actually think a teacher would be keener to teach someone who genuinely enjoyed the subject, rather than someone who just wanted to do well in an exam.

Very naive. This is A levels, not a learn how to paint with watercolours class in your local community centre. Teachers are working to get exam results.

Tbh not many teenagers are studying at A level for pure love of the subject and don't need or want the grades for future work or education.

A levels are a lot of work and often very stressful for the student. If they are doing it purely for enjoyment there may be better ways to obtain knowledge of that subject. If they are doing it as a route to HE/ employment/ to put on a CV an E is not particularly helpful.

Oh fuck off.

Nice.

We don’t even know why the teacher has threatened not to enter her. It could be the E, it could be because she flips everyone the bird on all their zoom classes and told the teacher to fall off a cliff, or it could be because she just isn’t doing enough. OP needs to clarify.

No teacher worth their salt would ever think that teaching someone who is finding it harder than they first thought they might is a waste of their valuable time. If ANY teacher has got that bloody cynical they need to get the hell out of the job.

Why would you expect her to be allowed to continue with grades like that? Most schools wouldn’t let her enter that subject

Jesus Christ, this thread.

Your daughter has done ONE TERM of A level study. An E now is a pass and might translate into a C or even a B by the end of the course. Naturally every fucker on Mumsnet has teens getting 6 A* at A level and having Oxbridge begging them to come in, but the real world isn't like that. Only you, she and her teacher can say, based on her prior results, whether she has a technique problem, a revision problem, has been very disrupted with covid etc, or whether she is doing ok.

My son has got 2 Us so far in one of his subjects. He hasn't quite got his head round the way he needs to present information in order to score, it's a new technique. I am not extrapolating from that that he will get a U in his final A level exam, although I accept it's also unlikely he'll get an A. He has learned that he has to put more work in to revision (of course he didn't take his GCSE exams, which hasn't helped) and will get the technique eventually.

My older son had a nervous breakdown during his sixth form, had to drop one A level completely and got CE for the other two. You know what, he still had two A levels and the fact that he had those two A levels is a far greater testament to his resilience and determination than if he had sauntered through 4 A* with ease.

Sometimes the people on here seem to live on a different, problem free planet, I swear.

What happened to enjoying learning for learning's sake? Maybe OP's DD enjoys the subject and has no aspirations beyond a D/E grade?

Maybe so, but her teacher doesn’t have waste her valuable time teaching someone who doesn’t want to do well in the exams.

I think it's awful that schools don't enter pupils unless they are expected to get top grades.
Never mind what is best for child, or importance of learning.
It's harsh and hopefully means she thinks she can do better and is trying to motivate her this way!?

I agree with @RedskyBynight.

[quote Changechangychange]@RedskyBynight nobody is saying her daughter is stupid for getting an E. we are saying that if that is a massive achievement for her, as OP seems to be saying, then wasting two years on A-levels, or this specific A-level, may not be the best use of her time, in terms of future career.

There are other things she can do which she is more likely to succeed in, and which are likely to open more doors for her than one or two Es at A-level.

If OP was saying her daughter had done far worse than expected due to covid, then yes the teacher would be unreasonable to threaten to kick her off the course. But it sounds like an E was far better than expected, which suggests OP’s DD is really struggling. That is likely to get worse, not better in A2.[/quote]
An E at this stage will surely translate to a D (or higher) in actual A Levels?
And this year have had to come into Y12 after 6 months of no study. They'll have spent a lot of last term just getting back into the swing of things.
As I said upthread, not everyone aspires to get an A* at A Level. What happened to enjoying learning for learning's sake? Maybe OP's DD enjoys the subject and has no aspirations beyond a D/E grade? I feel there's been a huge pile on in this thread of "E is a shite grade, she should do something else" without knowing the first thing about OP's DD and her circumstances or interests.

I agree with previous posters that an E is nowhere near a decent grade, unless there are some serious extenuating circumstances, @LNSL. If your dd has missed a lot of work due to illness, but has the capability and the work ethic to make up the work, then her teacher’s remark is not fair.

But your OP makes no mention of any extenuating circumstances - apart from COVID - and her classmates will have had the same issues there - so an E suggests that she has either not done the work, not done the revision, or is really struggling with the subject.

If she hasn’t done the work or the revision, then maybe her teacher’s comment will get her to pull her finger out and improve her performance. If she really can’t do the subject, then she may be better off dropping it, and focusing her efforts on her other subjects.

In the old O Levels anything below a C was a fail. A Levels have always been a pass right down to an E. I took mine in 1984. Three subjects and I got BBE. I still have three A Levels.

Thanks I didn’t know this!