Dd crying upstairs - poor predicted grades at A level

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I feel so sad for her and cross with myself. We moved her from a small private school to a large state 6th form for year 12. She wanted to go (she was bullied and numbers were tiny). She loved her new school at first but has now admitted she's really struggling with the subjects History Biology and RS. She seems to be doing OK in rs predicted a high C. But the other two are a struggle. She isn't particularly interested in the topics for history and she is finding it very very difficult. She says she's been working very hard and she certainly seems to be, but she's not getting the results. She has just had an outburst saying she's desperate to be clever and she hates being stupid. Her essays are garbled and badly structured and despite some advice from the school they don't seem to be improving. I now think we made a mistake moving her. She said her tutor today was dismissive and just told her to work harder. She's been assessed by the learning support and given extra time in exams but I dint have anything in writing about this and her teachers seem unaware of it. I don't know what to do. I really really wish I'd pushed for her to drop biology and do photography but she really didn't want to, she felt so confident and now she's in bits. I've emailed the school to see if I can go in and chat but any online advice welcome.

I agree with lots of the other - push to talk to the school and find out more about how she's assessed. If she's only in first year of A-levels, there's time to get a lot in place for her. If they're any good, the school will want to know how she feels about it all and to help. I wouldn't worry about having moved her - her old school sounds pretty grim.

My dd2 left 6th form at Christmas in Y12.She worked full time in the coffee shop where she had her Saturday job.She then started in college doing different A levels.She's had offers from all 5 of her chosen universities.She had feed back on her personal statement from two of them who said they recognised she had taken time out and realised what she really wanted to do.

She sounds a little like my DD who struggled initially with the step up to A Levels from GCSEs and also moved from small private to large 6th form college. She has slow processing speed and had extra time which made a big difference to her.

What we did was:
Found tutors to do an hour a week with her on her weakest subject.
She also used this website www.khanacademy.org/ which has some excellent self learning help. (DD was doing sciences).
She did a week's Easter Revision Course - both in Year 12 and in Year 13 here:
www.oxfordtutorialcollege.com/easter-revision-courses/about-easter-revision-courses

Not cheap, but very good, and had the benefit as counting as the residential week for her Gold Duke of Edinburgh award.

It worked out fine, she got A*AA and is loving her course at university. It sounds like she needs a little extra focused support to help her gain confidence. Good luck.

My girls did the easter revision courses or something similar mentioned above.
Some of my sons' friends moved to state schools for 6th form. It can work out fine for some.
Mine stayed and in fact although A level is a big jump mine have preferred just doing 4 (and in upper 6 3) subjects as they could ditch subjects they did not lie a GCSE like French.
Is it worth your daughter skipping rest of year and returning to a small private school for sixth form and starting A levels again if she isn't doing too well where she is?

I have found Carol Dweck's work on Growth Mindset really helpful. If she is saying that she's stupid then it would be worth getting her to look at some of her videos on YouTube.

It may sound silly, but it would be worth encouraging her to do some meditation or mindfulness practice. It is the best way to deal with Automatic Negative Thoughts (ANTs - I like the acronym ). It might also help with her focus. A lot of young people struggle with focusing because they've grown up with the internet and instant access to distractions. If you can't focus then you struggle to learn.

If learning support has assessed her as needing extra time in exams, then you need to make sure that course tutors are aware and that this is given in class assessments - extra time needs to be established as a "normal way of working".
Are there any practical support activities within the college that could help e.g. essay writing workshops or similar?
It's a bit difficult to tell if it's the subjects that aren't a great match or the sixth form itself. It may be possible that there may be History topics that she would prefer later in the course so check out what she will be covering later on. Would there by opportunities to swap subjects at the end of Y12 or even swap now. dds sixth form college offers both BTEC level 3 and A level biology for example and students do seem to swap over later in the year.