Y11 2025-26 Results Day and Next Steps

[UncomfortableSilence]

We can use this thread to continue our discussions for now.

@XelaM I think it probably is not too far from you.. Super-selective North London grammar which makes it even more surprising as 85% of its grades are 7 or above!

Luckily DD had already decided not to do art A level but it was in the mix 6 months ago.

Wow, that is near us! That's terrible and they should definitely address this. Even in our (very crappy) indie Art wasn't downgraded.

Morning all,
I’m quite surprised that so many our YPs weren’t happy with their Eng Lang results!! DD was also disappointed with her Eng Lang result as she'd been doing well throughout... but as she’s planning to do STEM, we didn’t really look into it too much, as we thought her grade would be sufficient for her future subjects. I’m not sure if there’s something wrong with the exam board…...?!

@MoggetsCollar DD is also planning to do an EPQ, but she hasn’t got any idea yet about what topic to choose. Do they need to start preparing for it now??

AQA. Dropped 2-3 grades from no where.
massively impacted future options so DD is going to resit even though strictly she doesn’t need to

Sorry to read the problems with art @Stowickthevast that sounds really stressful. I’ve heard so many negative stories (both on here and IRL) about nightmares with art GCSE - the fact it’s a total time thief and seems quite unpredictable in terms of assessment. DS is at a v academic/selective SW London indie and their results are high (around a third of year groups generally get 9 or more grade 9s, over 95% of all grades at 9-7 etc etc) - but when you dig a little deeper the art grades are far more of a mixed bag….i guess it’s just far more subjective maybe. I’m already working on DS3 to convince him that art GCSE will not be a good idea!

Yes a definite theme emerging too re English @Kindflowe26 (either language or literature). DS and friends all dropped at least one English grade from what they’d been predicted. Different exam boards but similar outcomes!

i hope everyone submitting for mark reviews gets a piositive outcome… I’m keeping fingers crossed for all.

Meanwhile there is not a whiff of any bridging work being done here and far too much gaming, quelle surprise. No bridging work set tbf, but I’ve sent him the maths link posted on noblegiraffe’s thread and he has made all the right noises but done nothing. I think it would really benefit him to at least do a little bit but we’ll see.

They obviously don't need to be preparing for EPQ now- as PP said, most kids won't even be signed up yet. DS is staying at his school, so it's a bit different.

DS did HPQ so he's got the gist of how it goes and the school sent quite a lot of instructions for the preliminary work. We hope to have it done by Easter as DS is doing 2 boards that have AS exams so we don't want EPQ in the way of revising for those. He's looking at a topic that will run into a lot of genetics, so I just hope he's not biting off more than he can chew.

@ifonlytheydlisten So sorry to hear that! Hopefully the resit goes much better for her! DD also took AQA......

Wow that’s a brave decision. Will she be able to do the resit at her current school? Is it worth a remark first?

My DD will be doing OCR English Lit - gothic theme iirc

@makemineadecaf she’s gone all through school as high performer. Didn’t get stellar grades as didn’t work anywhere near hard enough. But always always predicted 6+ in English and never dropped in any mocks. A English grade 4 closes a lot of doors. 6th forms and unis
Yes we’ll get reviewed / remarked too.
I’ll pay for resit if school or new college won’t

Is this language or literature?

Has anyone’s school told them they are busy with Alevels and those who need the GCSEs grades for next steps? School are engaging and say will get teachers to look at inset at scripts but made a big point of saying have more pending priorities - we are a little worried as everyone else on here in similar situations to us seems to have schools that have not made them feel guilty for asking! For context school messed up on one exam can’t say which one as outing as didn’t give extra time so already had SC in place but SC in all honesty wouldn’t have helped with the context of the type of exam. Some schools seem to order in scripts for maths and English as part of the course, surprised by difference in school approaches. We’re not expecting special treatment but it matters to our daughter. Anyway DC full well knows scripts or reviews may not change her marks but wants closure if that makes sense as so off her mocks in some.

Yeah, DD’s school is saying the same. They will look if they have time but they are prioritising the English / Maths papers where the kids need the grades for next steps.

i get it but it’s also a bit frustrating as although she doesn’t ‘need’ 7s for next steps, it would look better on her UCAS if they could find those extra couple of marks.

@makemineadecaf it’s Lang. Her lowest mark of all. Got 5 in lit. It’s totally out of the blue and almost all colleges here need 5+ to do A levels

For context her school had also suggested she considered Eng Lang A level..

Is it not grade 4 in maths / English with 5 x 5 passes? I thought that was standard.

@ifonlytheydlisten sorry to hear about her having to do a resit.

@makemineadecaf for dd school they need a min of 5 for english and maths just to stay on.

DD has started bridging work now she is signed up to 6th form.

School has confirmed DD can fit her new A level choices in the timetable but need to email to request to be accepted for chemistry with a 6. I've provided her with lots of material to use and now we wait.

The vocational colleges accept a 4
but the colleges offering A levels needs 5 in Lang - all of them with one exception. We are in a city so there are lots of colleges. Some need 6 or 7

As with many here, DS also got 2 grades lower than expected in both English Language and Literature AQA GCSEs. He's got the scripts back, is adamant they are both up to his normal standards and is perplexed. He has forwarded them to his English teacher (who did ask to see them!) so we'll see what he says.

It seems terribly unfair that English is so subjective that you can have such a discrepancy in marking based on the markers opinion. It makes the GCSE pointless in my opinion as how can it reflect the actual ability of the student?

I am feeling quite bitter about it! Not least because of how much it has upset DS.

We also had a strange result in English. DD was consistently getting 8/9 in all mocks since year 10 but got a 6. Just on the boundary as well so 1 mark less would have been a 5. She has her papers back, and she has scored really low for the last question on each paper, but isn't sure why.

I am going to email her English teacher to see if he will look at it, but not sure if he will as school has never mentioned anything about reviewing papers for them

Did she run out of time/steam on the final questions I wonder? It is worth getting English teacher to have a look, but if she’s 1 mark over the boundary of a 6, there is a risk she could go down on a re-mark. Same for my dd with a 7 - she’s one mark above boundary. We’ll only contact the exam board if there’s been an actual mistake with the marking eg numbers entered incorrectly/a page missed out.

I will say that a) I know from experience that the marking process is less subjective than it may seem - it is closely monitored and quality assured (though anomalies and mistakes do happen of course - but it seems unlikely that all of our kids were victims of these!) and b) Only 2 of my top set class got 9s in Lit and they are total crème de la crème, blow-your-mind amazing English brains. The others who got 9s in mocks got 7s and 8s in real thing. It makes me think that the papers were tough for some texts, and/or that the standard at the top end was perhaps extremely high, meaning many high ability students have been left with lower grades and feeling disappointed. Who knows?

I’m an English teacher and unfortunately it’s not uncommon. It seems that hard work does not always pay off in English unfortunately. I currently teach IGCSE which is much easier to get high grades on than AQA, which I have previously taught in the state sector. Mr Salles (the YouTuber) is really interesting on this- when this was investigated by Ofqual, roughly 50% of scripts for AQA English were found to be graded incorrectly. It’s frankly a disgrace. I would advise a review if at all in doubt. My own very capable DD (who also loves English) will be in this position next year, so I feel for you all.

Sounds like we’ve been lucky with DD’s English - she got 6 for both which is what she expected - she’d hoped she might get a 7 but I think it was always unlikely and she sat one of the literature exams while really ill. We put in for a concession but don’t know how much difference it made.

The downgrading of the art marks is awful - DD’s came back the same as what we were told when given the provisional mark, We knew it was on the borderline between 7 and 8 and luckily she got an 8 by one mark. If she’d been downgraded 2 grades she’d have been devastated since it was her highest grade and the thing she’s going on to study. Until she was given the provisional mark though, she had been led to believe by her teacher that she had a chance of a 9 which clearly wasn’t the case. I do think art is an odd subject marks-wise, I really couldn’t get anything concrete out of the teacher at parents evening when I said as far as DD was concerned it was her most important subject and asked what she could do to get into the higher grades. And DD got very inconsistent feedback - when she was starting a piece she was told it was good, then when it was finished (hours of work) she’d get told the idea was wrong and she should have done something different!

Waiting nervously for reviews to come back here. We asked for English lang, History and French to be reviewed as, can you believe it, DS was ONE mark off a 9 in all 3 exams. In English and History he aced one paper and got something like a 5 or 6 in the other, which he can’t understand. I suspect he hasn’t answered the question properly. In French his speaking paper was very low and that dragged his grade down. I wouldn’t mind but I paid someone hundreds of pounds to practice French speaking with him in the weeks leading up to it! 🤦‍♀️ So we shall see if anything changes. School were very supportive thankfully and encouraged the reviews for all three.

Are people getting updated results back quickly?