How to make it cool to achieve at school

rca779

I'd like to share a good news story with all of you.

Three years ago I started this thread: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3709143

It was about how do I make my son achieve what he was capable of at school.
Well the good news is that he has just got his results and he got 10 x A* and an A in additional maths - a subject the he and three of his friends had to teach themselves in the last 4 months of the term with very little support from the teaching staff.

To say I am a proud Dad is probably the biggest understatement of the year :j:beer::T

So what did we do to help achieve this, well TBH, not a great deal. We spoke to him about how important his exams were, the opportunities he will make for himself with good results and luckily he was sensible enough to realise this and he really knuckled down and worked hard.

Laconic

Fantastic news. Well done your son! May he carry on likewise.

Former_MSE_Andrea

Well done him - and you!

Is he staying on at school/college?

pollypenny

No support for additional maths?

Perhaps the teachers were busy teaching the classes for which they were time-tabled.

I wonder what part they played in the rest of your son's success.

Well done to him, btw.

summerspring

pollypenny wrote: »

No support for additional maths?

Perhaps the teachers were busy teaching the classes for which they were time-tabled.

I wonder what part they played in the rest of your son's success.

Well done to him, btw.

We don't know what sort of a school it was. A lot of state schools aren't that good. Private schools tend to have more time to tutor the pupils to help them achieve their best.


But well done to him, OP :T

Bean83

rca779 wrote: »

So what did we do to help achieve this, well TBH, not a great deal. We spoke to him about how important his exams were, the opportunities he will make for himself with good results and luckily he was sensible enough to realise this and he really knuckled down and worked hard.

Well done to your son, OP, and well done to you too!

I've quoted the last part of your post as I think this is excellent advice. All you had to do was give him the information he needed to make an informed decision on how to behave and then leave him to it, and he clearly made the right decision for himself in the end. Nagging would never have worked!

rca779

pollypenny wrote: »

No support for additional maths?

Perhaps the teachers were busy teaching the classes for which they were time-tabled.

I wonder what part they played in the rest of your son's success.

Well done to him, btw.

Correct the teachers were busy with the rest of the class. Apologies if this read as a slant on the teachers, it really wasn't meant to be. His teachers have been fantastic and should take a lot of credit for his achievements.

My Son and three mates were offered the opportunity to study for additional maths as it was felt they were ready for their maths GCSE. So for the last 3/4 months they were a small group a the back of the classroom studying together for the additional maths GCSE. The group were told what they needed to learn and worked through the syllabus together.

He attended a normal state school.

rca779

MSE_Andrea wrote: »

Well done him - and you!

Is he staying on at school/college?

Yes he is going onto Sixth form where he plans to do Maths, Further Maths, Economics and Spanish A levels. He then plans to go onto university.