Proud mother time...
.
Middle son got his GCSE results yesterday - about half a dozen A*s and As, one C (in RS), and the rest Bs, eleven passes altogether iirc. To get into Sixth Form he needed six A* - C, including Bs in English and Maths and Bs in all his A-level subjects. The B in English was the only one we had any concerns about, and he definitely was a bit nervous when I drove him in yesterday.
When he came out he was beaming. He did confess to slight envy of his friend who got all A*s and As, but volunteered the information that this might have been down to the fact that the friend actually did some revision...
I've never been one to try to force them to work, only to reason with them, because I personally would find it impossible to do "what I should be doing" with someone standing over me with a stopwatch. With the oldest, I tried to explain the concept of revision in Year 7; when he totally neglected to do any I kind of hoped he would do really badly in his exams so he would understand and work harder in the future, but he got very good marks, thus setting a pattern. He actually did do a couple of practice papers for his A levels, but that's as far as it's ever gone. (His friends complain that he just remembers every single thing he's ever taught.)
Middle son is much the same, but hopefully his friend's results will stand as a beacon for what can be achieved if you do a bit of work!
Anyway, all's well (and he did better than his first cousin who's also in Year 11 and goes to one of the best-performing state schools in the country) and now we just have to go shopping for the second suit, some shirts and ties, and a new bag more suited to a Sixth-former's dignity than his current backpack.
Middle son got his GCSE results yesterday - about half a dozen A*s and As, one C (in RS), and the rest Bs, eleven passes altogether iirc. To get into Sixth Form he needed six A* - C, including Bs in English and Maths and Bs in all his A-level subjects. The B in English was the only one we had any concerns about, and he definitely was a bit nervous when I drove him in yesterday.
When he came out he was beaming. He did confess to slight envy of his friend who got all A*s and As, but volunteered the information that this might have been down to the fact that the friend actually did some revision...
I've never been one to try to force them to work, only to reason with them, because I personally would find it impossible to do "what I should be doing" with someone standing over me with a stopwatch. With the oldest, I tried to explain the concept of revision in Year 7; when he totally neglected to do any I kind of hoped he would do really badly in his exams so he would understand and work harder in the future, but he got very good marks, thus setting a pattern. He actually did do a couple of practice papers for his A levels, but that's as far as it's ever gone. (His friends complain that he just remembers every single thing he's ever taught.)
Middle son is much the same, but hopefully his friend's results will stand as a beacon for what can be achieved if you do a bit of work!
Anyway, all's well (and he did better than his first cousin who's also in Year 11 and goes to one of the best-performing state schools in the country) and now we just have to go shopping for the second suit, some shirts and ties, and a new bag more suited to a Sixth-former's dignity than his current backpack.