AIBU to think Bs at GCSE are ok?

[catwalker]

Some issues with DS and GCSEs/6th form. He didn't get the grades he was predicted (As and As) but then I didn't expect him to as he doesn't put much effort into anything apart from his x box. He got mainly Bs, a couple of As, a couple of Cs and a couple of Ds. I was quite happy until I started reading the secondary education forum where people are tearing their hair out because their dc's didn't get straight As and may have blown their oxbridge chances. I get the impression that anything less than an A just isn't worth the paper it's written on. He could have done loads better but Bs are OK aren't they?

I'm still interested in what is considered a "good" career then. Obviously medicine or law but that's a small minority. Teachers/nurses/social workers/OTs etc have been dismissed above but they can easily earn 30k + once they are established.

What careers should I be gearing my children towards that are better than that? (I have 2 degrees, Oxford and first in OU but uneducated parents who were little help in "directing me". Currently married to low wage earner and now just curious as to what other routes are out there (and also what I could pursue ;) )

I think there are very few impoverished housewives around-most women have to work.
I know it isn't about comprehensives but you do seem to think that the moment a bright DC sets foot in one they will be pulled down-not that they are full of bright DCs with aspirations and work ethic.
Of course a comprehensive needs motor vehicles, textiles etc-not every DC is academic-the sad thing is that we need more of the technical and practical and to get to a stage where they are not looked down on.
I really don't know how the country would cope if everyone wanted to be a doctor or a lawyer-not a lot of good when your drains get blocked or you want your home rewired!

I was the person who mentioned teachers/nurses/social workers and I was certainly not dismissing them. I was simply pointing out that there are graduate careers that are open to students who don't have A/A (although clearly many students with A/A also go into teaching etc as I also said).

I was mentioning those careers in the context of asking what happens to the students who have B grades but don't want or aren't suited to teaching, nursing etc, but want a career? What should they be doing next?

... and this started out as quite an interestng thread with some informative posts.

Oh well, FWIW, there are quite a few tatooed doctors, Xenia. Maybe you haven't looked in quite the right places during the last few years...

Seriously, though, Xenia do you think that the scope of ROA '74 is now too wide? I hope I'm not being presumptive, but from what you say about your work, ages of your children, etc., maybe you can comment quite interestingly on it? I'd love to know your thoughts.

Well said exotic fruits nothing wrong with vocational calling, not everybody should be a doctor or solicitor, in today's economical climate hands on careers will prevail, if only for the time being, and I am of belief that not only with those with B's, but those with A's should all consider their future seriously and weigh carefully their calling in life.
As much I would like my own DS to to follow academic route, at the same time I would hate to see him with a good degree under his belt, twiddling his thumbs jobless few years down the line from now.

I'm regretting posting this but now I've typed it all out I may as well post it.

I've been amazed that people are saying Xenia is a troll because she says she would consider the GCSEs of a job applicant and looks at CVs every week with GCSE grades listed. I'm a lawyer and often look at CVs of people applying for training contracts, which lists everything from GCSEs on, including all unit grades at A level and university. All the partners do too so it's not about how high up the pecking order you are.

I was asked about my own GCSE results by two partners when I interviewed here at my firm (and asked to explain one outlier). This was a full seven years after I had taken my GCSEs, and with several very shiny names of educational institutions on my CV. I understand from graduate recruitment that my firm doesn't even accept CVs from anyone that didn't have all As and Bs at A level and mostly As and A*s at GCSE, in traditional subjects (for example I also got questioned on why I did double and not triple science GCSEs - this in a law training contract interview). So these things do matter.

There's no question that a first from APU (or Anglia Ruskin, whatever it's called these days) is not the same as a first from Cambridge in the same subject. It should be, but it isn't. Nothing to do with snobbery. (My subject was applied mathematics so harder to hide behind teaching and marking differences - I know for a fact that most universities just don't do as much maths at BA level as mine did - we knew exactly which ones had parity and which ones didn't).

of course xenia isnt troll.people just no likey and are looking for a catch all put down.

I don't think for a moment that Xenia is a troll, she believes every word she says and she does exactly as she says.I have no doubt that she does rate GCSEs 5 or 6 yrs on.
I imagine that she lives in London-due to her very funny comment about citizenship GCSEs and grafitti artists-that made me laugh. She obviously lives close to an area where you would avoid the state schools, but seems to imagine that a comprehensive in leafy Surrey would be the same.
She would also deem someone a failure if they were working as a librarian in Totnes-despite the fact that the person may love their job and their quality of life.

I have to admire Xenia-I have no doubt she is very successful, under her own criteria. She is always polite, always consistent but has a very narrow view of 'success' and money is all important. She loves her stereotypes and I should just leave her to them.

Scottishmummy, you made your "no likey" comment already. I believe it was in the context of calling other posters juvenile.

and shall i count antifemist up
whats your point?

Not really. I have said a good few times on the thread that half the children at good universities come from state schools and as most of us know who recruit GCSE results and other exams believe or not are relevant to recruitment. Amazing isn't it but it still remains the case.. laughing as I type.

I have very recent experience of 3 older graduate children who have and are applying for jobs. I don't make this up. Other people have similarly commented above. Indeed one has come home tonight talking about where she started working today.

However as to what is a "good" job I haven't said. it's for people to decide. You may want to be a priest or pilot or all kinds of things. I want my children to have work which enthuses them, which they can hardly wait to get out of bed to get on with every day and which is intellectually satisfying and they can continue to do into their 70s if they wish. I want them to have control over their lives and ideally pick a career where there is the option to work for themselves too. I also want them to know that X career means you can buy a house and Y you cannot, Z means you could afford school fees and A that you can't but I don't need them to be able to do those things. I just want them to know.

For lots of people earning £30k is an absolute fortune as instead they are on £13500 minimum wage or £20k average wage.

Success for me is that I am so far virtually never ill and am happy and have a nice family and good relationships. I am sure most people also have those things as important.

Ah the Anglia one. I had someone last year who everywhere including his linked in profile put Cambridge University. (He had been to Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge). It was very material that he had lied for other reasons but it does illustrate that someone even into their 30s thought it helpful to con others that he'd been to Cambridge University when he had not gone there at all. If employers thought them the same he wouldn't have bothered to lie presumably.

Please stop using the expression "no likey". It's unbearably awful, making my stomach turn.

scottishmummy - antifeminist? Count away.

Tchootnika understood what I was saying.

gosh what a delicate disposition to no likey such an innocuous phrase.maybe carry a pomander when your stomach heaves to distract yourself

My husband recruits and they would never look at GCSE's - they are not included in their application procedure. I have been involved in recruitment and selection and we would never look at GCSE's - they are not included in our application procedure. It appears that for some bizarre reason, they are considered important in legal and some other fields, but this is not true of all positions.

It's actually very hard to predict what jobs will be the major earners of the future. Engineering and academia were once highly respected professions, handsomely renumerated: now the wages they command are average at best. Without engineers, we wouldn't have roads, bridges (Golden Gate, London, Brooklyn, Clifden etc), tunnels, rail, clean water, options for renewable energy (among many other things). It's hugely important but no, these days it won't pay school fees.

I think it's not very good to look people up and post things about them. She got a 2/1 and As and A* at GCSEs but I don't think it needs to be personalised to that extent. I got the best A levels in my year at school whch was AAB and not too bad from that school in 79 and a scholarship to university and was top of my year but I don't mention that stuff. However if people want to know I've no problem in saying those things and the prizes I won in particular subjects and stuff like that. Perhaps my greatest achievement is I graduated at 20 (I was a year young too) a teetotal virgin but I took that off linkedin because I don't think everyone shares my sense of humour.

As I said many many times above it does not matter once you get on what you originally got, as your work and business success and other characteristics however unfair like do you look like the back end of a bus or will no one work with you because you're awful or you smell. However it matters a lot when you're applying for some types of jobs as has been said above.

Recruiters do not just want the degree result but they want the marks in every module in every year of your course too for some jobs and at the moment they are looking at reasons not to hire people because they have such vast numbers who are very good. It will change. Markets go up and down but it's pretty difficult for a lot of people at the moment.

Of course I understand, working.

I've got a lovely Dyptique candle going, thanks, scottishmummy, though a pomander might be rather sweet, too .

Xenia, I really would like to know what you think of ROA, as I know several doctors and lawyers who have very strong opinions about it. I'd really like to know a little of what you think about it.

Could you give me the link to Xenias website ?

Creepy, that's a bit off.

what a creepy thing to do.i reported it
have a gripe with xenia by all means,but searching her daughter is creepy

I dont think it is creepy at all. I have tried to find out who xenia is many times but can't.

So if anyone can pm me any info thanks.

over personalising mn to extent you want rl knowledge of poster is v creepy.speaks volumes about you