Son did terribly in GCSE’s

[Kat29]

My 16 year old got his GCSE results yesterday and they were awful. Everything was at least 2 grades below what he was predicted. He only passed 4 although that did include maths and English. All his plans have to do A-levels are in tatters, as is his confidence, and my confidence in my parenting ability. I just don’t know where to go from here. School didn’t care, they were too busy taking photos of their high achievers so no help there.

Hi OP, try not to worry, these things usually have a way of working themselves out! Definitely not a reflection of your parenting either. What was his plan, what did he want to do? I might be able to suggest some alternative courses or apprenticeships to consider

They missed a lot due to COVID, at least he has maths and english and he did the best he could, an exam setting in a hall is stressful
Could he resit through the college, is there another entry way into the A levels he is wanting to do, I would speak to the college and just reassure him it is no where near the end of the world, just because he didn't get the grade he wanted, doesn't mean he doesn't know his stuff

What was he wanting to do in A levels and career wise going forward?

If it helps at all, I left school 2001 with no maths GCSE grade (school didn't let me do it) and a grade D in English due to taking too much time and not understanding the questions. I now understand that was due to my ASD but I was undiagnosed at the time. I retook the English GCSE course in my local college alongside my BTEC animal care course I was doing in the evening, and got my grade C. I ended up getting a job in the civil service despite having no maths grade (I ended up doing a GCSE maths course later on in life and got a grade C) so its not all doom and gloom if you don't get it at age 16.

5 GCSE’s here, not great marks. I now have an access course, diploma, degree and a MSc. He has not limited himself at all. People are only really interested in GCSE maths and English.

This was my DS last year, failed all but 3 so wasn't able to take up his level 3 course at college. He was gutted but decided to take the level 2 course they offered instead.

He was moved up to the Level 3 by Christmas and is flying.

Only fly in the ointment is he's just failed his GCSE English for the 3rd time (however he did managed to pull up from a 2 to a 3 this time so that's an improvement!). He's going to be resitting it again in November much to his disgust!

DS is really happy with the course he's doing and is achieving distinctions in his assignments as he's interested in what he's learning. Totally different child to the one he was at school.

As others have said your DS hasn't failed, he is just going to head down another path instead.

I’m sorry your son hasn’t done as well as he hoped but 4 passes including maths and English is good for doing a college course and you may find that he thrives in a more vocational and less academic setting,

exams are tough and our kids are under so much pressure to perform but most college courses are coursework and practical work so he will probably do much better in them.

My daughter is taking a catering course and is so happy she has no more exams. She has poor memory processing skills following a brain injury so we chose GCSE option subjects that had more coursework and less memory elements and you could see from her results yesterday that made a difference (she did well in the subjects that didn’t require her to remember alot and not in the others).

Get into colleges and I’m sure you will find something that he can do and enjoy. Good luck!

OP try not to get in to full panic mode. Lots of kids don’t do A Levels and do really well in life. There are so many options these days.

My daughter was really disappointed in her
grades last year as they stopped her taking English literature A Level and gave her much more limited options. The start of yr 12 was bumpy for her as she was so unhappy. Fast forward to today and she’s thriving doing one A Level and two L3 Btecs. She recently got her yr 12 btec exam results back and smashed them. The head of 6th form sent me an email which said what a wonderful turn around with an impressive set of results.

I've not read all the posts, just yours, OP.

What marks did he get? These are usually on the results slips.

Check these against the grade boundaries.

If there's no offer of A Level provision at the school, where was he supposed to be sitting his A levels and has he spoken to them?

From what I've gathered, a college is more likely to do re sits. Aren't the first lot of re sits usually Nov or Oct time?

I'd also move this thread to the further education board where the advice yesterday was helpful.

Lastly, please keep any thoughts about how academic all of you are and how you're all shocked by his results and how much he has limited himself to yourself. He doesn't need to hear it.

If he was in top sets what were his mock results and predicted grades? Perhaps you need to consider asking the school to get some of the papers remarked if there’s a discrepancy between mocks and predicted grades versus what he got in the actual exams.
As he passed maths and English he could potentially still get onto A Level courses with some colleges. I would only suggest A Level a however if you genuinely believe he has the ability for them and this is something he would also like to pursue.
Good luck.

He can take another route such as the access to learning route or resit.
I certainly wouldn't be pushing a trade right now. There's a recession in the construction industry and the working environment isn't pleasant.

Not to worry, there's always a plan B.
Take him to see a careers advisor at a skills development centre (I'm in Scotland and we have skills development scotland)
Similar happened to my daughter with her higher results, the advisor was excellent and talked her through options. She is now starting an HNC course next week, instead of staying on at school for 6th year. HNC will give her the qualifications she needs for uni entry next year.

I fucked most of my gcses op, I just did level 2 functional. Requirements courses online and that's the equivalent. It hasn't held me back at all although understand it's a shock and a disappointment.

When one of my nephews failed his, SIL sent him to a private crammer for a year. He resat and came out with nothing below a 6.

No idea what it cost though.

We have similar here but a maths failure too which was unexpected. Yesterday was just awful although school was supportive.

We are going to see two local colleges today.....on the phone one mentioned taking 3 years at college instead of 2. There seems to be various options.

It is just awful-I agree. But there will be a way through. At this end my child did not work very hard so I am hoping this will be a lesson well learnt albeit a hard one. x

Please don’t feel this has set the course/path for his life. I didn’t do well in my GCSEs years ago, I only passed 4 - my maths, English and double science. I am now in my 40s, I taught myself maths, and the sciences, got 7s (As) & did an access to HE and am going to university in September to be a Doctor.

this is just a bump in the road, he can overcome this.

Schools don't care. I found out, to my horror, that our private school did not care either, at every stage of the way. I, a product of a state school, thought that if I worked day and night to pay the fees, the school will take care of the academic side, i.e. teach them properly. To my disgust, I found out that they did not care to the degree that they forced children to drop subjects if they suspected they wont' get the school the relevant grades for the league table. Unfortunately, nobody cares. If you realise nobody cares apart from you, you can embark on the process of re-sitting them through your school. And then take it from there. It is not the end.

There are plenty of options and routes into a chosen career path so don’t despair, and there’s some good learning for you all, namely that exams don’t really give him the opportunity to share his knowledge and understanding.

Look for courses where there are fewer or low weighted exams and more focus on coursework. Good grades in relevant BTECs, T-Levels, etc. will get him access to universities in the same way as A levels, but also provide an industry relevant qualification if he wants to go into work. Good luck - this is a blip with good lessons learned, and you’ll no doubt be laughing about it over the Christmas dinner table in 20 years.

I didn’t do well in my exams Op, neither did my DH.

He joined the RAF from 18 and is now a pilot for a big national carrier earning £££. I ended up with a degree, masters and am now a Director and we’re only in our 30s.

Be there for him, remind him hard work will pay off whatever he does next, the very narrow route of a levels straight into degree doesn’t work for some, and honestly I don’t think creates people who excel particularly in the work force.

@AllTheOddDucks The OP’s attitude towards this will have a massive impact on her son’s self esteem and confidence moving forwards.

Everyone fucks up at some point along their academic/career journey. He’s just done it a little earlier than some. It’s absolutely not the end of the world, it’s just time to reflect and make a new plan for now. It sounds like the school let him down by not offering the right support if it’s come as a surprise.

Right OP, yes your Son did awful.

But

You're the parent. This is not the time to fall apart. Can I give you some real life experience of my bad results...sorry this is so long!

I did fine in GCSE's but terrible in my A'levels CCD (not predicted AAB). I had worked though. It wasn't for lack of effort. Coming out the school gate - it didn't occur to me that my Mum would be upset only that I needed help. It was the moment of seeing my result, feeling like my whole world just spun out of control and needing/wanting my Mum immediately. First thing that happened - hugs, while I cried in the school car park.

Then my Mum saying- right pull yourself together - what do you need? What do want to do? We had a conversation about options. I wanted to try clearing. So we raced home. By the time we'd gotten home, I was thinking straight, motivated and my Mum was behind me 100%.

Not sure how I would have coped without my Mum that morning but it set me up for life deploying the same matter of fact attitude, I need to stay calm and I can figure this out - when I hit a set back. Fast forward 20yrs - I work for an international FTSE 100 in London. I have 2 degrees, a 2:1 and a Masters with distinction. I spent a year abroad at Uni. Basically my consequence of bad A'levels was needing that Masters degree so that I didn't need to write my A'level results on my CV. My GCSE results I've never needed to write.

My life didn't fall apart because I flunked some exams. My attitude, my families attitude carried me through a set back.

Now my sister - she failed everything. Absolutely everything. Not CCD - but F's and U's. University not a possibility. But it was the same thing. First it was dealing with her upset. Not theirs, hers.

She had to make some decisions about exactly what she wanted to do in life. My sister had been a right handful over those years. For my parents in a weird way, they were a bit glad she'd got her arse handed to her in the form of her results while still under their protection. A sort of - well better she got this wake up call now.

She could either get a job, do an apprentice, or resit. She wanted to resit. Fine but it came with conditions. She wasn't allowed to go out mid-week, things to do with her phone etc.

A college was found. She resat- 4 A's, off to Oxford - 1st degree. She's now doing a PhD. So my extremely academic sister - still had a set of terrible results. They were a natural consequence to a terrible attitude and served as a life course correction.

So what you do here matter. Do you want your son to feel helpless or empowered when he hits a set back?

He hasn't ruined his life - he's got bad results. It's a life lesson but he's still just a kid and how you handle this teaches him how to handle set backs, interview rejections etc etc

This morning he needs a cup of tea and a cuddle. He needs literally his hands holding, and his Mum to look at him, see him and say - what do you want to do love? We can figure this out together but you need a plan. And remind him that in the grand scheme of things this doesn't matter - it's a set back - but what he does next- absolutely matters.

Good luck OP.

OP tell him to dust off and think hard about what he really wants to do. 16 is so young and he has time to sort himself out. My oldest didn't do as well as he should at GCSE, but well enough for A levels. He did OK in his A levels but not brilliantly and went on to do History at uni. Dropped out after a year as he realised the degree wasn't what he hoped for, and did a science based apprenticeship. Now at 26 he is earning a ridiculous amount of money - in a family of high earners he is at the top and still rising. This is not a brag - my 22yr old is still finding himself! Your son has lots of options, just be supportive and don't let him think he's a failure.

My son only got three GCSEs which included Maths and English. He is currently at the end of his first year in Swansea with Firsts and 2.1 marks under his belt and an email from his Head of Department congratulating him on his performance.
it’s a blip, OP. It’s not worse than that. Good luck. He’ll find his path.

It's nothing to do with your "parenting" ability OP. He did the exams himself, it wasn't you failing them (or getting lower results).

He has Maths and English which are the most important.

I echo that it is useful to check if any results were close to boundaries - if he gets 5 GCSES grade 4 and above, that makes a difference to what he can get. When my son did his GCSEs he was close to the next grade up in English so we decided to risk a remark ("risk" because marks can go down as well as up) and he got the higher grade.

If that doesn't work, then you just look for courses you can do with four GCSEs. Once he's passed that, he may well be able to move on to A levels or BTECs, or as others have suggested. an apprenticeship or some sort of useful vocational course.

Nobody is a failure at 16 and there are plenty of things he can do with his life!

Honestly op, he hasn't limited himself. I know 2 kids who had bad results at gcse then went the btec route and are now in good universities, one at a Russell group.
I know one who re-sat some GCSEs (they included maths and English) and is now studying at a London university and really enjoying her course.
Please be positive and reassuring for him and help him to decide what to do next.