A-Level Results Week and How Tutors Support Students | Qualified Tutor Conversations

How did your students do and what does this mean for you, and what does next year look like, already - how can you set yourself up for success now in preparation? That’s what we discussed this week in QT Conversations.

The whole group agreed that it felt ‘validating to know that their students got what they needed, if not the grades they wanted’.

This got me thinking. Of course, getting grades is what tutors are employed to do, but it might not be the whole picture. Sometimes a totally left-field result is the one that unlocks doors.

My eldest son Michael did exceptionally well in his A Levels this year, but he did not get the grades for his first choice university. That week he made some big decisions. He accepted a deferred place at his second choice uni and joined an international programme in Israel for this academic year. Pausing on the hamster wheel of education to focus on social and emotional learning was the ideal result for Michael, and we are all chuffed.

I don’t believe that validation comes from exam outcomes. I believe it comes from life outcomes. Ask any business leader out there who they’d prefer to employ: the A-Grade student or the Grafter. To most it’s clear that the Grafter is the one with the resilience to really go the distance.

For those of us whose students did not get the grades they need, and those of us whose students do not sit exams, as well as for those who absolutely smashed it, I would like to suggest that part of our role in supporting students is changing the narrative around exams.

Let’s teach them that validation should come from effort rather than attainment. Let’s model that behaviour ourselves. And let’s be so committed from the outset, that we know we can feel proud and at peace no matter the outcome.

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