Teachers: What grades did you get in your own A Levels/GCSEs?

[trinketz]

As a school governor at a 'Good' secondary comprehensive school (with well above average results) I'm sometimes involved in interview panels. Most applicants seem to have got very average grades in the subjects they teach and/or lower second class degrees. I guess I find that surprising, and wonder how it impacts their ability to stretch the brightest. If you're a secondary school teacher, did you shine in your subject of choice when you were at school/uni? If not, does it matter? Does it perhaps even make you a better teacher?

Straight A's.

I have two undergraduate degrees, one from Cambridge. I did a second degree in the subject I teach and got a first.

I live near Cambridge and a lot of the teachers near me have Cambridge degrees.

Straight A*s at GCSEs.
Straight As at A level.
2:1 but I did joint hons and transcript shows the subject I teach I achieved a First.
Distinction at Masters.
Very similar to my colleagues. A normal state comp.

14 gcse at grade A (not A* in my day), 5 A levels at A level, first degree 1st class second degree masters with distinction 3 rd degree phd from Cambridge university. PGCE from another top university. I worked in state for over 20 years in very very challenging schools recently moved to a top indie school (within the last 5 years). Most teacher I know in my current school have 1st class degrees or at least a 2.1 - same in state.

??

I got all As and A*s in my GCSEs but only Cs at Alevel due to a range of personal circumstances. Then a 1st in my degree, and merits in a masters and PGCE.

I am very good at subject knowledge but I really really struggle to cope with poor behaviour - I was never misbehaved at school and it drains me so much having to deal with it, so much so that I am desperately trying to leave teaching for good.

Public school educated students teach too. Otherwise, where would Eton get it's staff!?

Someone I know teaches at Rugby and went to their local comp for their own education. Public schools aren’t fully staffed by ex public school students.

There's some interesting studies done on other species that show intelligence and the ability to teach or pass on culture are completely different skill sets. Some very intelligent species don't teach at all but other much less intelligent species are very good at passing on information or 'culture'. Humans are both intelligent and cultural but an individual who is a good teacher may or may not be intelligent.

Not fully, no , but mainly, and they are keen to employ Oxbridge alumni.

Some of the best teachers I've known have been the ones with the least impressive qualifications. I've also known plenty of highly academic teachers who were very bad at teaching.

"Those who can't, teach" is probably true of many Oxbridge grads. It's the career of last resort for those without connections or a fashionable degree subject. That doesn't mean we're all crap at teaching, of course, just that it tends to seem like the sole remaining avenue of opportunity once you've been laughed out of graduate job interviews for the unfashionable degree subject and laughed out of non-graduate job interviews for being overqualified.

You may be right about that. Thinking about it, the only people I knew at Oxford who became teachers (apart from me) were public schoolboys who tried other things first, and then went straight into teaching at a public school. Whereas I was a grammar school girl who decided age 12 that I wanted to be a teacher!

Well it depends - there are some state schools in London at least with high Oxbridge offer numbers and of course having Oxbridge grads on staff helps with preparation. Independents also like to recruit these people.

Teachers need a range of skills.

Our eldest is on SLT at a high school and he got A*, A and B at A Level and a first class degree( comp sci ) . He always wanted to teach from about 13 .

you are not really comparing like with like, are you, there has been massive grade inflation since I took my exams, ( no not GCSEs 😂) you need to add at least two grades to A level grades from 25 years ago to get them to the equivalent of todays. GCSE - Olevel equivalency is closer, but really, testing very very different things.

I failed my O level in the subject I am best at teaching. I understand all the problems and confusions students have. Many of my students get 9s, so no difficulty stretching them

Cheers for that. Straight out of uni I was offered a job (30 years ago) for a well known STEM company at 25 offered then £50 K a year. I could have done and I chose teaching instead because I thought I had a good skill set to be one, great subject knowledge, empathy, a drive to want others to love my subject etc
I had connections I had a great subject and could be a millionaire - I chose a different life and I’m not sorry I did. I’m sorry that others think -those that can’t do - teach. Teaching is not an easy job and I challenge most parents to do mine for a day let alone a week. I’ve been spat at, hit, swore at daily, called sexist names, had no life outside of school and yet most parents think they can teach better than me etc in my experience those that can’t - go into anything unrelated to their degree - they do not teach.

those that can’t do it themselves say ‘those that can’t teach’ or even better ‘those that can’t criticise teachers’

What l? GCSEs are totally different to a level. Level 9 for my subject less than 10% same for A at a level. When I did my a levels 3 A could have got me into any uni I wanted pretty much. My daughter needs 4A to do the same and extra curricula eg D of E uni not so interested but doing a course related extension course much better. University was miles easier to get into 30 years ago - not so much now for the good degrees at sought after universities.

I am not entirely sure I understand your post, but obviously uni is far easier to get into now, there are about 4 times as many places! DofE does not help you get in though. By grade inflation I mean that when applying for a masters now, applying as a student with grade from 30+ years ago, a B at A level from then is worth far far more than a B at A level from now, ( depending on the course, it counts as up to A or A*) etc

For the subject I teach - A at GCSE, A at A level and 2:1 from a RG uni. But this was quite a long time ago. The learning experience is very different now to when I did my GCSEs etc. I left for study leave at Easter with my exercise books and was told to learn the information and turn up and do an exam. Pupils today have many more resources available to them and the exams are different so it’s not a like comparison.

I’m now a head of department and I’ve had loads of trainees over the years. Some of the very worst ones have been those with amazing grades. They look good on paper, but it definitely doesn’t always follow that they’ll be good in the classroom.

Top grades at GCSE and A Level, Oxbridge degree and masters. Came across excellent fellow teachers with lower grades at school and at university (not that I asked them!) whom I learned a huge amount from and who had much more of a natural gift for teaching than I did. . Many of them were lifelong learners and very creative and innovative people whose true potential had not been captured by the system. Some had had undiagnosed learning difficulties like dyslexia and dyspraxia and/or personal difficulties during their studies. Pupils across the ability spectrum valued them highly and reached their potential.

I got an A, B, and 2 Cs - this was in 1973 before A* existed. My degree was only a 2.2 though. I did feel a bit miffed that other people who got lower grade A levels and went elsewhere to study the same subject degree came out with higher level degrees. Still - all water under the bridge now - I taught secondary French up to GCSE and I don't think I could even tell you what grades any of my colleagues had.

@trinketz OP seems to have disappeared. Was this actually fodder for a newspaper article?

What a stupid question.

Any governor worth their salt would want a good teacher that fits the school.
The absolute best teacher that I know is unqualified. Mainly due the fact that the LA doesn't recognise her qualifications and the school won't pay for her to get recognised.

Personally I have two degrees and due to being treated poorly, I have now gone back into industry.

Just FYI OP I couldn't be replaced and the school has had to cancel the course that I taught. But teachers are so easily replaced.

Degrees go much deeper than even A level, so having even a 2:2 will be mean much more knowledge and experience than even a bright A Level student. Being a teacher is not only about knowing the course inside out, although of course that's important, but ability to impart information in an interesting and effective way and to motivate.

(Not a teacher but I do have a 2:1 and a PhD - many of my fellow PhD students were awful at explaining things to undergrads etc, but apparently I was decent).

I wonder if those with extremely good grades from good universities (especially STEM) get into teaching rather than say finance as they are particularly vocationally orientated and want to 'give back'. I am thinking on the same lines as Oxbridge grads joining the clergy in years gone by where the money wasn't great but there was a sense of a higher altruistic purpose?

The very well educated in the public sector I find have made a considered decision in their career choice and have made peace that maybe a 100K job may not be feasible with their career. IME it is sometimes the children of the very wealthy that enter careers like teaching because in a way they have 'done' the rich lifestyle in childhood and do not have a sense of FOMO about adult renumeration

I got an A and BB at A level and 2 undergraduate degrees both at 2:1. I would add when I got my first degree from Warwick less than 3 percent got a First Class with Honour, now you can multiply that by 5. It doesn't mean a person getting a FCD with H now is necessarily smarter. When I got my A grade A level there were only 3 others who got an A grade in my year at a good grammar school. The majority got B, C or D. Now about 33 percent get A grades.

GCSEs A*s to A

A level AAAA

First class degree.

Been a teacher for 17 years.

We get a lot of people with lower qualifications now. There is a recruitment crisis and the calibre of people entering the profession is lower than I remember. But qualifications aren't everything. I have interviewed very academically able people who have no rapport whatsoever with students.

I understand because there was no A star when I sat my A levels either. I also feel downgraded despite getting 97 percent in my exams and having to do 5 pieces of coursework too.