GCSE students flood social media with memes as they nervously await their results for sixth form and colleges
- Teenagers have been poking fun of their own nervousness as they patiently wait
Nervous GCSE students have been flooding social media with memes as they await their results this morning.
Hundreds of thousands of teenagers across England, Wales and Northern Ireland are today waking up to their results which will help them progress to sixth form, college or training.
Similar to the pattern with A-level results last week, it is expected that top GCSE grades will drop on last year as part of a plan to bring grades down to pre-pandemic levels in England this year.
And as pupils patiently wait to open their envelopes, many have been sharing their anticipation on Twitter and making fun of their own nervousness.
‘This GCSE s*** got me sweating,’ one said, while another said: ‘Literally feel sick’.
A parent even joined in on the jokes, sharing a meme of a child wearing boxing gloves with the caption ‘me waiting at home for my son after he collects his GCSE results.’
GCSE students have been sharing memes as they await their GCSE results
Many teenagers shared images of famous faces looking uncertain or anxious to reflect how they are feeling this morning.
Others have been counting down from eight hours to one hour to go.
One waiting for their results this morning wrote: ‘AAAAAA STRESSSS!’
Another said he was ‘actually shaking’ as the deadline gets closer.
Read more: Students wake up to their GCSE results as fall in top grades and more resits expected with 325,000 fewer passes than last year as examiners get tough on grading after Covid
It comes as Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said it was ‘likely’ that sixth forms and colleges could lower their entry requirements for this year’s cohort of students.
‘You’re not going to expect the same standard of youngsters coming in when you know that nationally the bar has been moved back to where it was in 2019,’ he said.
‘It’s not a straightforward thing because what you don’t want is a youngster who’s got a grade 6 going on to a physics course and not coping with it because they’ll drop out.’
When asked whether there could be more drop-outs from A-level courses, Mr Barton said: ‘I think what it will mean is that the way in which teaching starts in September will be the main focus.
‘There will be more emphasis on induction skills to make sure those youngsters very quickly feel confident.
‘My guess is that what we will see is a generosity of spirit not just in who is brought into a sixth form, but also the individual attention they get from their teachers to make sure they cope as best they can.’
Schools minister Nick Gibb today said it was important to get GCSE grading ‘back to normal’.
Speaking on GB News, he offered his congratulations to students and thanks to teachers, saying: ‘We are returning 2019 grading. It’s important to get back to normal, away from the three years when we had higher grades because of teacher assessed grades and then the transition last year from teacher assessed grades back to 2019 levels.
READ MORE Pupils face a record rise in GCSE retakes when results are released today as tougher grading is expected to see 75,000 pupils failing English and Maths
‘We’ve seen a big increase based on provisional numbers in computer science, in languages, and so these I hope will be a good set of results when they come out at 9:30am.’
Mr Gibb also said differences in GCSE grading across the UK should not disadvantage pupils.
Asked if some pupils were being disadvantaged through a lack of continuity across all four nations of the UK when it comes to grading, he told GB News: ‘No they won’t be because the sixth form or wherever they are going to go next in the next phase of their education, they take that into account, they know there is a difference approach to grading.
‘And we saw that last week with A Levels, that universities are aware of the different approaches to these qualifications in different parts of the United Kingdom. And the same applies to GCSEs. Most young people will transition to an institution local to them.’
On Times Radio this morning, Mr Gibb said ‘it is fair to have the grading back to 2019 levels’.
He said: ‘We want to return to 2019 grading standards. We want to get back to normal so we make sure that we retain the value and credibility of GCSEs and A-levels.’
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