GCSE results, school in special measures

[Peclet]

DD did very well, but not amazing and not tracking their minimum wage expected grades.

Joined school in Lockdown in Y7, then school went into special measures and head walked out. It’s has slowly come back to form but it’s been hard. Fights daily. Poor behaviour policy follow through. DD kept her head down and worked hard but it has had an impact.

She is driven and wants an oxbridge place but perhaps not within her grasp? Specifically she has had 3 different teachers for history and no subject specialist for physics.

maths 9
Further maths 8
statistics 8
chem 7
physics 7
biology 6
English lang 7
English lit 6
history 7- possible remark -/ very close to an 8
pe 7
philosophy 7
geog 7

she wants to do economics/maths at oxbridge?? Is it worth ploughing on for it?

a levels are
maths, further maths, history and economics

Those are great grades, it's not out of reach at all. Is she staying there for sixth form, as it doesn't sound like she'd get much support.

Poor kid (and poor you) - sounds like a rough experience.

One answer is that of course it's worth ploughing on and trying to achieve her absolute best. Oxbridge aside, there are quite a few universities in the UK with excellent reputations for maths and economics. She'll need very good A Level predictions to get into any of them.

It's understandable if she's having a slight slump because she'd hoped for different grades, but don't let her fall into the trap of thinking that nothing else is worth working for. There will be people out there who got worse results than your DD and who won't allow it to affect their momentum at all. One of the differences between high achievers and less high achievers is that high achievers tend not to be easily dissuaded!

Does she have a sense of where her results come within her year at her school? It sounds like she might be one of the top achievers. If so, there's no reason to rule out Oxbridge, because both contextualise GCSE results. The physics grade isn't ideal (it being a very mathsy subject) but it sounds as though there's a good reason for that. A couple of terms of A Level maths (and Further Maths? She should take that if she can, esp if she wants to do maths) will tell her whether she's in the running. Until then, she should try to feel good about what she's achieved in very difficult circumstances, and assume that everything is still up for grabs.

Agree that she should aim to do sixth form somewhere with a better studying environment, if that's an option.

She should investigate UNIQ. It's a support programme for young people from state schools who would like to apply to Oxford.

She meets the criteria for applying, as the majority of her GCSEs are at gradeb7 and above.

You will find a lot of nonsense quoted as fact on MN Oxbridge threads, many from people whose neighbour's dog walker's best friend's stepson got in but he had 14 grade 9s, had built a school in Africa after his GCSEs and got 6 A stars for his predicted grades. Ignore them! Lots of normal people from normal or underperforming state schools also get offers.

She has excellent results, especially considering the issues faced. Agree contextualised offers may come into play.

She did 12 GCSEs which is a lot – is that bc she did some as twilight/extras or is this standard for the school? Anyway her grades are great; I would agree with @PacificState that what she should do is try to continue to do her very best and see where it takes her. I imagine she could well be a very strong Oxford candidate with her attitude.

What she needs to do to prep is work hard at her A levels and also work on her super-curricular, doing all she can to extend her knowledge on her subject whether that be reading, online courses, external competitions in maths.

Yes is she going to a new school for sixth form? Find out what support there is for possible Oxford and Cambridge candidates.

Never say die OP. While they're not stellar they're respectable results and presumably good in the context of what looks to be a poorly performing school. Will DDs 6th form college be high achieving with help with Oxbridge applications? Would recommend you look at Caius Tiktok. Their admissions tutor is superb. Lots of tips and tricks for PS and supra curriculars with reassurance that Cambridge Is looking for academic potential. Also to note kindly that Maths at both Oxford and Cambridge is brutal. The Step for Cambridge is unforgiving and a friend of DDs missed his place even after 10 x 9s at GCSE and 4 x Astar at level. DD got a Comp Sci place with ever so slightly less but acknowledges that he was the incredible at Maths in comparison.

Yes she should keep going.

i got in from a shit comp and had some dodgy GCSEs.

they’re less bothered about GCSEs than about how good you are at the subject you want to do.

plenty of people when I was there who eg were shit hot at maths but had not great humanities GCSEs.

Thank you for your positive comments. She is feeling discouraged and feels she’s let herself down as well as the school. She is definitely one of her top achievers in the cohort.

oft to a different 6th with a great reputation, where she will be given better instruction and thrive. We hope. Will investigate the suggestions made on here. Tha n you all.

Her gcses will be looked at within the context of the school, if they are looked at at all. And she did well in a poor place. The new one sounds much better, good luck to her.

Do they look at GCSEs and predicted A levels in context of school you were at when you did GCSEs? Or in context of new school since that's where you will take A levels? Do they somehow separate them out? How does that work?

Some look at gcses, so would consider that, most don't, it will be on predicted a levels. It depends on individual universities so you can check that. It sounds like she'll have more support for her a levels which is great. I think, for example, Oxford looks at GCSEs more than Cambridge does.

The GCSEs are looked at in the context of the school where you did GCSEs and the A levels in the context of the current school.

OP - I would get her to ask the teacher who writes the UCAS reference to mention the disruption to her learning and the teaching gaps as that is useful information for an admissions tutor in assessing the GCSEs too.

I think that for maths Cambridge won't care much about GCSEs past the maths, fm, and stats grades. What will be important is STEP scores.

@foxglovetree ,thank you. DS is in a similar position. He got the highest grades in his school but is moving to a competitive sixth form due to his school not offering his favourite subject, where everyone does very well!

Well done your DC for battling through!

Hopefully the new school will have a supportive Oxbridge programme.

A summer school between lower and upper 6th may boost her confidence.

eg Sutton Trust (free)
Institute of Economic affairs (free internship but v competitive)
https://iea.org.uk/students/future-thought-leaders-programme-sixth-form/
Or Debate Chamber (£, but not the most expensive out there, if you are near London)

Lots of maths resources out there. Look at your local uni for outreach programmes - these can be helpful to get top grades and looking round the subject eg Imperial run this one which is open to students all over UK. There’s eligibility criteria but even if you don’t explicitly meet these, she can mention the school experience in the PS which is part of the application and/or email the outreach team to explain https://www.imperial.ac.uk/be-inspired/schools-outreach/secondary-schools/mentoring-and-tutoring/maths-online-programme/

Girls are massively underrepresented in Maths and so places can open up for girls on some programmes which wouldn’t necessarily be open to boys.

Good luck!

Edited to add: I mean girls are underrepresented in Maths at Uni, I don’t know about A level

It won’t allow my edit, but I mean girls are underrepresented in Maths at Uni, I don’t know about A level.

Both Maths courses and Economics courses have entrance exams at Oxford so the results of this will be far more relevant than the GCSEs. There are past / specimen papers on the Oxford Uni website.

Considering the school your DD was at she has done incredibly well and unis will look at those in context of the school and where she landed in her cohort. The same for her A levels. Her grades should not put her off applying. Once it all calms down with this year's cohort taking residence she can contact admissions at any uni she is thinking of applying to and ask them directly about her grades considering her school.

STEP is notoriously hard and a lot of offer holders for Cambridge meet the entry grades for maths but fail the high mark required for STEP. If she can sit a different entrance exam ie MAT for Oxford it would probably be better. My DC sat TMUA for Cambridge for a maths heavy course.

There are a lot of Oxbridge threads on this board and Further Education board (16-19 A levels/BTECs etc) have a read of those because it really helps knowing about summer schools like UNIQ and Sutton Trust plus all the supercurriculars, online course, basically doing extra things outside of A levels that she can use to show her enthusiasm for her course. If she can't choose at the moment, cover both courses, books, podcasts, guest lectures on Youtube etc. This doesn't just apply to Oxbridge but something she could write about for any uni application.

My brother did Computer Science at Cambridge and his grades were definitely worse than your daughters at GCSEs. Definitely worth carrying on!

This is the point of the whole contextual offers thing that people like to complain about... shes got those grades despite everything. She should be proud . Thats 10As and 2 Bs in old grades.

Now she's just to continue with her work and get the a levels she's capable of.

So many fantastic resources to look at later together. Thank you!

I did it go through the UK education system so feel on the back foot as it is so this thread has been immensely helpful.

thanks all.

@Peclet Kings Maths have opened their extension programme for applications - female students are one of the priority groups.

I think in your DD's situation, I might bin the history A Level and use the time to engage in lots of super-curricular in maths and/or economics. I think Oxbridge will want to see that- they are after subject specialists these days- and she might not have time with 4 A Levels. Does her new sixth form offer EPQ?

She can only apply for one of Oxford or Cambridge in an application cycle so as long as she has other choices on the list she should definitely give it a go. Even if she didn't get an offer she has potentially four other universities she could get an offer for. Different subject but my YP got a Cambridge offer with similar GCSE grades.

She doesn't have to decide for 18 months. See how A levels go. The workload is quite a step up, and there's a chance she might find it very hard having possibly not been pushed much and maybe having gaps. If she copes fine with that, definitely go for it! Maths is a bit complicated with gap years, but if she changes her mind for physics or engineering, a structured planned gap year and applying with grades in hand might also be a good option

I would carry on trying. Its better to get higher grades in 3 A levels than weaker grades in 4 A levels so she may be better dropping one. Its worth looking at the admissions tests in time and seeing how she does in those. I would also find other universities that she is keen on as offer rates are very low. The results will be taken in the context of the school. You get 5 choices and you only need 1 to work out.