What to Expect on GCSE Results Day 2025 Tips for Students and Parents

For thousands of young people a journey that started in Covid Lockdowns ends today with GCSE Results.  For many there will be joy, for others despair. But every young person has options - further education at a school based  Sixth Form Form, College, Vocational Training, Employment or Re-sits. 

Take the time to properly consider the best path for your child; there is a huge support network out there to help you make the right decisions. Often a good starting point is your child’s school, they will know your child well having taken them through the past five years.  Be wary of Sixth Form Forms or Colleges that are often quick to offer your child alternative courses to those they intended to follow; often this is about schools / colleges filling up vacant places on their course to make them viable. Your child is not a make weight to fill up their timetable! 

Careers Advisors and Learning Mentors may be able to offer advice on employment, apprenticeships, vocational courses and the like; although we have a working knowledge of these routes we are not experts.  So talk first to the people who are.

We can however help you appeal for a place in the VI Form of your choice.  If your child met the minimum requirements but still didn't get offered a place you will need to persuade an Independent Panel that your child would not prejudice efficient education at the Sixth Form and there are particular reasons which make that Sixth Form / Course uniquely right for them. 

If your child did not reach the specified entry requirements the Panel must decide whether the admission authority’s decision that the child was not of the required standard was reasonable in light of the information available to it.