This has been a stressful time waiting on these. Not that my son has seemed stressed in any way shape or form. He has had full confidence in himself which is a good thing. But as a parent we know the pitfalls, we have been in that position ourselves and we generally want our kids to do better than we did.

Our son just wanted to get back into his schools 6th form ( I think it is totally ridiculous that they don’t automatically get a place- but that could be my age showing). That meant he needed an average of B’s across the board on a points system. There is so much pressure on the kids at school today not just from school but in a lot of cases from parents as well.

We have had several chats with my son along the way and said whatever he gets and whatever the outcome there will always be a solution. My actual words were ‘ If you don’t get the points and grades you need for 6th form it really isn’t worth throwing yourself on  a train track over it’. Ok may sound a little harsh but you do hear of the stories of the students who feel they are failures just because they didn’t get A*’s in every subject.

For us the aim was for my son to do the best he could and get the grades he required to get back into his chosen 6th form. Today that is exactly what he did!

In fact he got:

1x A* Maths

3x A’s Chemistry, Physics and Geography

6x B’s History, English Lit, RS, Biology, PE and Music

1x C English language

1x D  French

So he wasn’t impressed with his D, but lets face it it’s not in any of his major subjects, and his B in History as when he got the breakdown all his papers were A’s but his coursework was a B so that brought his mark down and he was disappointed with that.

For us we were and are incredibly proud of him, to get mainly A’s and B’s across most of his subjects is just amazing and better than anything I or my OH ever did. This means he automatically got his place in the 6th form at his school where most of his friends are continuing to go as well.

I am so proud, emotional, jittery and happy I cannot explain it properly. He has done amazingly well and we hope he continues to do so in 6th form with his A levels. However I do know of parents who would look at those results and raise an eyebrow and see him as a failure for not getting all A*’s. To them I say ‘Up Yours’ with the appropriate signal, my son is not stressed and hasn’t been throughout like some of the kids, he is very happy with his results and chuffed that we are incredibly proud of him. For me that will go much further in his personal development and self worth than any number of A*’s.

Anyone else been under the GCSE pressure?