16 Year Old and School

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Any ideas of how to get a 16 year old girl to realise she has to actually put some work in for her A-Levels. She is reasonably bright but sees no reason to put any effort in. School is so she can go and be with her friends all day.
Its so difficult to talk to her about it without it turning into an argument.
Any suggestions would be great.

No ideas really. You could pop over to the Secondary board (under Education) there are loads of people there with kids in 6th form.

What does she want to do next? Go to university? Have you looked together at what grades she will need for that? Is school giving her predicted grades?
Is she one of those who sauntered through GCSEs and hasn't clicked she needs to step up yet?
Is she actually interested in her courses?

She has no idea what she wants to do but I think looking at Uni's may at least give her an idea of what is expected.
Predicted grades are D's.
She didn't do very well at her GCSE's so I thought it might shock her into realising that she has to put some work in but even the school saying she doesn't really meet their criteria for staying on didn't have any effect. Though they did then say she could stay on so I guess in a way in her eyes everything worked out okay.

Sympathy as I've got a DD who does very little work. But I am surprised school have let your DD do A levels. Surely she should be doing something else if she's predicted D's?

She is predicted Ds, and didn't meet the school's criteria for staying on.

Bluntly, are you sure she should be doing A levels at all?
Maybe you should be looking at a Plan B in case she bombs out at the end of year 12?
BTECs can be good for kids not suited to A levels. My DD is in the second year of a BTEC. It hasn't been an easy ride but she wouldn't have been able to do A levels.
Or an apprenticeship.
You can 'restart' y12 if the first year goes poorly and change courses. There is funding for 3 years of 6th form.

Thanks That's good to know about three years funding. I think Btech would be better for DD but after we looked at local college she decided she wanted to stay where she was.
I think the school let her stay on because she is capable of doing them just not willing to put effort in.