to want a little celebration for the lower achievers at GCSE?

[FunnysInLaJardin]

DS1 got three 6's and three 4's at GCSE. He failed history and biology.

He could have done better, but amidst the nine 9's I feel like saying a small well done to the other kids who did well - even if they didn't blow the roof off!

GCSE's are a stepping stone and as long as your DC are happy, any grades are cause for celebration.

DS1 can now move on to college and start the next stage in his life, and for that I am very thankful.

Teacher here - spent lots of time punching the air in pleasure at loads of 4s yesterday because they could quite easily have been 2/3! Nothing like seeing my kids do extremely well and exceed expectation, even if they follow it up with ‘and I don’t ever have to do <this subject> again!’

What??

Why would you say that?!

Bloody hell, that's the sort of crap teachers told me all my life.

If your student wants to do the A level bloody well encourage them!!

Aw that made me a bit tearful as the parent of a non academic boy whose about to go into year 11 and trys his best I'm hoping and praying he gets some fours .

@Girliefriendlikespuppies For A level (especially maths and science), you will struggle to achieve an E at A level if you have scraped a 5 at GCSE. The most common A level maths grade awarded to students who got a GCSE grade 5 is a U. As teachers it would be unfair to set students up to fail.

Not reading the full thread but very good point OP and well done to everyone! Even those without stellar grades have got through a tough and stressful exam period and can move on to do whatever they want in life.

It’s unfortunate that some PP are missing the point of this thread. Some spectacularly so and can FOTTFSOFO. I’m not even appreciating what feels like the stealth boasting, but thank you @FunnysInLaJardin for starting the thread. And well done to every child celebrating their achievements, whatever they are for them, in this messed up educational system and for persevering during unprecedented hard times both personal and national.

Well done!

And teachers telling students to not study their preferred subject at A Level because they’re not capable might reflect on Sir John Gurdon whose teacher called his ambition to devote himself to science ‘ridiculous’ because he was last out of the 250 boys in his year group at biology, and was in the bottom set in every other science subject. Fortunately he ignored this teacher, went on to study science and was ultimately awarded a Nobel Prize for his pioneering work on cloning.

@FunnyNC

You are utterly wrong to presume you get out what you put in.

There are kids like my dd who have multiple sen diagnoses/EHCP who could not put more effort in if they tried. She is a model pupil, has extra tuition several times a week, revises every night and barely socialises but will struggle to get a 4 in Maths next year.

If I broke your leg then asked why you hadnt won the 100m whilst praising the one you did hopefully you would understand how ridiculous you sounded.

This thread just makes me feel sorry for the children of the posters on here claiming things like ‘if you are prepared you don’t bottle it in exams’, ‘if you don’t get a 9 you haven’t worked as hard as others’, etc, etc.

Imagine being those children and feeling that pressure from your own parents!

Does it matter? My dd loves history, it's her favourite subject and she has talked about wanting to be a History teacher or archeologist one day. She got a 5 in her exam Ystd which she was delighted with.

If she wanted to do History A level I would 100% support her.

I had teachers telling me at school that I'd fail my science GCSE (I didn't, I passed despite getting crap teaching) and not to do English A level as I wouldn't cope (I did do the A level and coped just fine....)

I also now have a degree and have done a lot of further post grad studying.

You can tell a student to think about it and that it will take a lot of work but if that's what they really want to do then go for it.

I can not believe you have posted this.
Very shitty and entitled attitude-so much so that I hope you are not real-

Not everyone is capable of 8s and 9s and some ppl can get them with little or no work my DS but lots of students work very very hard to achieve their 4s and 5s and they should be equally proud.

You don't know students circumstances-their homelife, health etc or what is going on behind the scenes.

This is exactly why I hate when ppl post their DC results.
It is so insensitive and unnecessary.

Congrats/so proud etc. that's it.
And I also hate when other parents ask for results.
Why do you need to know? to compare?
Can't we just celebrate together?????

That's nonsense. My dc has a language disorder which means they struggle with figures/scientific vocabulary. Her mocks were 8 in most subjects and 3 in Maths.

My DS(twins) are not academic and spent the past year in constant after school lessons to try and get their passes. They worked REALLY hard.

They both got 8 passes, 4 or higher, one twin got a fail but only in history, and he made up for it by getting an 8 in English! Last year he was unlikely to even pass so I nearly fell off my chair 😂

We are just delighted they don’t need to do any resits!

@Girliefriendlikespuppies I think it does matter. Students only get one shot at free level 3 schooling so it would be prudent to make the most of it.

English and History are slightly different as the content has still been covered at G5 or G9. Students scraping a 5 in GCSE Maths won't have covered enough high level content to access the A level.

The jump from GCSE to A Level is HUGE though. I got A*, A & A in my GCSEs for my chosen A Levels and I still found the jump in work to be immense and very difficult in one subject (foreign language). I fully understand why students with a 5 wouldn’t be likely to do well at a level.

DD wanted to do maths last year but she “only” got a 6 - school required a 7 or above to continue to A Level. She picked something else. She is a naturally bright kid, but the first year of sixth form has been a huge wake up and she has really struggled to keep up. I’m glad they didn’t let her continue with maths because I’m 90% sure she would have dropped it/refused to continue and it would have been a wasted year!

@DisneyDisneyDisney

Shes amazing 💖 well done to her.

Whilst I do agree with you to an extent, sixth forms and colleges have a criteria that needs to be met, just like Unis do.
For maths and sciences these are usually set higher than other subjects at 8s and 7s as they are not likely to do well or even fail at A level if they haven’t achieved higher grades at GCSE level.

So if a child really wanted to study a certain subject at the next level, then first they’ll need to resit previous exams to try to get themselves on to the course - so yes, if they want it badly enough, they should go for it!

@FunnysInLaJardin my daughter got an 8 in history BUT she is more proud of the 5 in Spanish (bitch of a teacher said she would be lucky to get a 3 as she didn't work hard- so untrue and unfair)

She's also more proud of the 6 in maths too as she has always struggled, extra tuition really did pay off.

I'm a teacher and like others on here I feel more proud of those who have tried and achieved than those students who could breeze through everything (although of course I'm pleased with those too just differently)

My dc got 4s in the results in 2020. They now have ABB in a BTEC. I think when they find their subject it's easier

For the high achievers, success, and the options it affords is its own reward. I think its a bit much to expect less academic students who already know their achievements are less valued generally, no matter how hard won, to sit around applauding the high achievers with no recognition themselves. Hard work and effort should be recognised over outcome.

Well done to your DD. I was so happy after my GCSEs when I realised that I’d never have to do maths again!

I would agree that taking A levels, particularly in maths and science if you've not gained high grades at GCSE is probably not a good idea unless there is some reason as to why the GCSE grade was lower than the teachers feel the pupil was capable of.
My elder DS got a 7 at GCSE for maths and did A level, finishing with a C. But it was really hard. People talk about the jump from GCSE to A level but I don't think he'd realised quite how big it was, tbough of course covid played it's part too.
Younger DS has just also got a 7 - slap bang in the middle of a 7 on the grade boundaries - and is doing A level so I have booked a tutor right from the beginning. For the degree he wants to do, he is going to need at least a B in maths and he knows that is going to be a challenge. He really wants it and is prepared to work (he was studying yesterday before we went out for his GCSE celebrations) but, as has been discussed on this thread already, hard work, on it's own, isn't always enough. It's conceivable that DS2 won't have the capability to achieve what he wants, but there's a reasonable possibility that he can, and he's likely to find his other two A levels a bit less challenging so it's worth him aiming for his dream. But if he had got a 5 I would have been saying "Look, you have other talents. There's different things you can do that you are more likely to succeed in and that will probably make you happier long term."
It's true you don't want to write youngsters off, and sometimes people do change later, but as a general rule I think it's wrong to let pupils embark on A levels where they are very likely to fail. The whole Disneyesque "you can be anything you want to be" ethos is damaging because, for most of us, it's just not true. And the double whammy is that it can lead to those who don't reach their dream feeling it's their own fault as they mustn't have tried hard enough, when that's usually not true either.
We need to value people for who they are, celebrate more diverse achievements than merely the academic, but don't shove square pegs into round holes - or indeed let those square pegs damage themselves by trying to make themselves round.

DD got some really good grades but the one she is most proud of was the lowest one being a 5 in maths. She could not have put more effort in to achieving that and spent hours seeking out support and studying to get it. It's sad to read that for some anything less than an 8 or 9 creates an assumption that she was down the park or pissing about. She wasn't!! I could not be happier or prouder of her for getting "only" a 5.

Just caught up with the thread and a huge well done to all of the DC on their achievements.

To answer a poster way upthread, DS1 is going to do a BTEC in Digital Game Development which should really suit his artistic and techy abilities.

He was going to do a' levels but decided not and and TBH I am relieved as although he is bright, academic study is really not for him.

Things have changed so much since I sat my O'Levels - many years ago!. Most people got B's and C's with an A grade being quite out of the ordinary. Now I have the sense that anything less than straight 9's is somehow failing, which of course it isn't at all!