Receiving GCSE results is a significant milestone in a young person's life, but it's also a tense time for parents and carers. We caught up with some parents who've been through it to talk us through their top tips...
Be present and available
"On results day, if you're able to, it can be really helpful to be available and on hand for your young person. We found that even though our daughter didn't really want to discuss the results with us, just being nearby gave her some reassurance that she had our support and looking back on it a year later she'll now admit that having us around was comforting for her"
Stay positive
"When he got his results, even though his grades were excellent, my son was constantly talking about how his grades measured up against his friends, or against the predicted grades he received from the school. Instead of encouraging or focusing on what can be fairly unhelpful comparisons, try and emphasise your young person's achievements and effort; talk about them, rather than other people".
Listen
"It's really difficult to bite your tongue sometimes, but I found sitting back and letting my son talk about how he felt was really helpful. He went through a full range of emotions on results day including excitement, disappoinment, shock, joy and fear. For me to sit and listen without interrupting or immediately offering solutions helped him. Someties simply being heard can alleviate stress.
Discuss next steps
"Once the dust had settled, I sat down with my daughter to talk about the future. Remember that hundreds of other young people will be in the process of accepting places at school, college or apprenticeship programmes, so you really do need to do this fairly quickly if you can, but obviously every young person will be different and I guess you have to play it by ear a bit as to when you raise things - it might be really important to be patient and give them some time to process what their results mean. If they got what they needed for their next step, celebrate with them and help them do what they need to do to get their place sorted. If not, they might need a bit of help to look at what their options are. Remember that there are some brilliant sources of help, like careers guidance counsellors".
