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Well it's that day again. Good luck all the recipients and teachers get your excuses sorted.
In Scotland, but not the rest of the UK for a couple of weeks yet I believe. But good luck to the Scots students anyway!
Scotland today, English A levels next Thursday (14th) and GCSEs the week after.
Not sure what happens with Wales and NI?
Yes baited breath for Aug 14 here too.........
Well pleased with my leavers. I had 29. 22 applied to Uni. 20 got first choice, 1 got insurance offer, 1 withdrew to play pro sport. The remaining 7 are all off to various other suitable and well-matched destinations. I will not get another bunch like this lot in the remainder of my career.
I had one AH pupil who managed to do heehaw and got an A. But she's a bright cookie.
A once in a decade pupil.
Well pleased with my leavers. I had 29. 22 applied to Uni. 20 got first choice, 1 got insurance offer, 1 withdrew to play pro sport. The remaining 7 are all off to various other suitable and well-matched destinations. I will not get another bunch like this lot in the remainder of my career.
Well done to you, and all those kids
Another one waiting to hear – two girls that have just done their GCSEs in England, so another 15 days to wait. One to see if she has done well enough to squeeze into 6th form and do her chosen subjects, some of which need a certain grade (we think she will manage it), and the other to see if she has a high enough average to do the four A-Levels she wants to do (the school expects a Grade 8 average to allow a student to do four). Whatever happens, I am so proud of them both for all their work and, above all, their consistent *attitude* to school and the respect they have for (and have earned from) their teachers.
Highers for daughter and Nat 5's for son yesterday.
Daughter got x2 C's which was lower than she expected and lower than she needed for her first choice Uni offer, but Uni still came good and emailed her confirmed place without any need to go through clearing, so daughter is thrilled. So she is off to Edinburgh Napier for International Festival and Event Management (deferred to 2026)
Lad got x3 A's, x2 C's. Frustratingly though, he got a D in Maths so will need to repeat next year and we will need to carry on paying for Maths tuition as maths delivery at school is so poor.
@franksinatra where are you based. Friend's daughter's tutor help her turn a maths N/A into an A.
Which is some sort of witchcraft.
@franksinatra where are you based. Friend's daughter's tutor help her turn a maths N/A into an A.
Which is some sort of witchcraft.
Melrose, Scottish Borders
Oh that's handy. I'm in hawick. I could get contact of the tutor she used if you wish. Might be worth a pop.
I know that maths depts are struggling, science at hhs are taking period of s1 and s2 to do numeracy.
Due to a DVT and a hospital stay just before exams my daughter didn't get what she wanted but she did get what she needed. C in human biology is annoying her as she was predicted an A and she's quite feisty so she's going to appeal due to her circumstances.
@stevenmenmuir appeal means nothing and is a paper exercise recount. She'll need medical proof and go for exceptional circumstances. I'd get the ball rolling from your side re medics and inform school, guidance and SLT with sqa in remit. You only get a very short time to get these in so quicker the better.
I had one AH pupil who managed to do heehaw and got an A. But she's a bright cookie.
What do you teach? In geography, the AH is a weird beast and the marking a mystery to me. A couple of years back I had a bunch of lazy kids that basically checked out when they got unconditional offers. One of them handed in a piece of course work that wasn't even finished, it literally stopped half way through a sentence. They all got As and Bs.
@Spin chemistry. The pupil in question is going on to do chem/physics at Edinburgh with a view to astrophysics.
AH chem projects are also mystery. I marked them this year and I know know to go boring and tick the boxes. Also blatantly obvious which kids had markers as teachers as they all picked up the technical marks.
Some hopefully positive news, although I guess it depends if academic standards are being undermined.
BBC News - More teens to get their choice of uni even if they miss their grades, says Ucas - BBC News
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy85edr2xlpo
I know know to go boring and tick the boxes.
It saddens me, but this really is the most straightforward path to a good grade. There are very few pupils (or teachers advising them) who could score well on a left field topic. I wouldn't put a pupil off doing an unusual topic but it can hamper their chances.
The kids aren't daft either, when you show them samples that have scored well they just model them. I'm sick of studies comparing a river to the Bradshaw model but it ticks all the boxes.
LittleMissJP is going to York which was her first choice but she is having a year off first
Lancaster have emailed her to say she's got an additional grant for good grades, but college still haven't sent her results through!
Youngest has done good A and B well chuffed for her.
Mine's off to York (her first choice) to do Social Psychology (whatever that entails?!?!), very pleased for her.
I questioned my youngest going for Geography at Bristol Uni as it required 3 As in some quite hard subjects (geography obvs + maths and philosophy/ethics) and her predicted grades were more like Bs. Very relieved to say I was wrong. I would have gone for the easier option myself, clearly I don't posess the nerves of steel my daughter has.
BF jnr is off to Manchester Met to study Marketing (her first choice). Phew!!!!
after some rather spectacular expectation management little misschrispy managed A* A* A
she managed to beat the boys results last year which were A* A* B (which I think is all she cared about)
The mystery of exactly whos children I'm raising deepens 😀
Those are great results @mrchrispy - she (and you) should be very proud!
We've got a week to go here (GCSE results for our twin daughters). I think am I more nervous than they are LOL (one is hoping for mainly 8s and 9s so she gets the grade 8 average she needs to be allowed to do four A levels).
Don't know about anyone else but I've been quite astonished at the amount of work and commitment my kids - and their mates - put into GCSEs/A-levels over the last few years. There's a reason I get very animated when I hear idiots talking about lazy GenZ-ers and the 'entitled' generation. The world might be going to shit but there is cause for some optimism.
Don't know about anyone else but I've been quite astonished at the amount of work and commitment my kids - and their mates - put into GCSEs/A-levels over the last few years.
100% – both of my daughters put way more effort in than I ever did and did regular after-school revision sessions at school. One of them also spent full days at the local library with her friends and they just sat and revised all day every time!
Don't know about anyone else but I've been quite astonished at the amount of work and commitment my kids - and their mates - put into GCSEs/A-levels over the last few years. There's a reason I get very animated when I hear idiots talking about lazy GenZ-ers and the 'entitled' generation. The world might be going to shit but there is cause for some optimism.
Absolutely this. I guess it may be self selecting as if your kids are hardworking their friends are likely to be as well, but there's far more "good" kids, academic or not, than bad.
In a slightly related tangent, two of my daughters friends who she's known since primary school are also heading to Lancaster, one as first choice and the other through clearing - she was 1 grade short of her offer for Durham.
As for self-confidence, LittleMissMC had already booked a couple of gigs in Liverpool next year thinking it would be easy from Lancaster.
Well, the results are in - one daughter passed all her GCSEs with the grades she needed to do her first choice A Levels, the other got six Grade 9s and five Grade 8s and is over the moon as she can now do her four first choices. So proud of them both 🥳
My nephew had Cardiff as his first choice uni. He is now obsessed with climbing/mountaineering since I took him out for the first time 7 months ago, so I was looking forward to having a climbing partner. He didn't get the grades, which is a shame for me, but he has got into Bangor which is the best possible result for him!