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Secondary education

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Year 11 - how to boost confidence

5 replies

pigsinmud · 07/09/2013 09:31

Ds1 has just started year 11. He did well in years 7-9, but perhaps coasted a little in year 10. They did core science gcse in June. His target was an A. He was hoping for a B, as he didn't do well in his ISA. He thought he'd got a C in that, but turns out it was a D. Anyway, he got a C overall. He is devastated. Most of his targets are A and now he thinks he will never achieve any of them.
I tried to tell him that he got 2 Bs and 1 C on the written papers, so that is a positive. He doesn't know what went wrong. Friends that were in lower groups got higher grades. He did a fair amount of revision. He has usually done well in exams - doesn't panic and not particularly nervous about them, unlike ds2!

I have never seen him so miserable and I can't work out how to make him feel more confident. I've tried to tell him that it's done now and the main thing is he passed, but it's not helping. What do I need to say? He was keen for term to start and now says there's no point Sad

OP posts:
pigsinmud · 07/09/2013 13:25

Anyone?

OP posts:
lainiekazan · 07/09/2013 15:44

Are you ds and me?!

Ds did some GCSEs in year 10 and did not do as well as predicted. He has always done very well at school and this came as a shock. He went to bed for a day.

He is now quite down and feels he's blown his chances. I don't want to spend the next year nagging/reassuring...

pigsinmud · 07/09/2013 17:37

Hope your ds picks up soon. It's hard isn't it? Whatever I say is wrong. We have parents evening in a couple of weeks, so hopefully his teachers will help me to gee him up. It is just the wrong time to think there's no point.

OP posts:
lainiekazan · 07/09/2013 20:14

Yes. The papers are full of grinning kids with a clean sweep of A*s and now ds is going to have to come to terms with achieving a mixed bag of results. He was only 15 last week and already he's going to struggle to get into a decent university based on exams he took when he was 14.

HisMum4now · 08/09/2013 17:59

Sorry I don't have any advice, just bumping for you, as I am in the same boat. DS goes blank in exams because of lack of confidence. He just shuts down. So I would be interested to hear some advice or experiences.

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