GCSE Results Day: Options and advice from Catch22

Today is GCSE results day, an occasion that many students of Catch22’s independent schools and academies have been waiting for all Summer. The numerical system, first introduced in 2017, continues this year, as we also revert back to the pre-pandemic form of grading, with pupils awarded grades from one to nine in each subject.

We look at the options that are out there for young people receiving their results today, and ask members of the Catch22 team what they wish they had known when they were 16 and how it has helped them to get to where they are today.

What are my options?

No matter your results, there are lots of options available to students post-16: Catch22 works with young people to help them realise their potential and their passion through apprenticeships, support into work, and post-16 study programmes.

Our Apprenticeship team will help you find an apprenticeship that fits with that you are interested in and enables you to gain qualifications while you earn.
Our Employability team works with employers and individuals to provide sustainable jobs for everyone. Catch22 delivers high quality and responsive employability programmes relevant to the needs and aspirations of learners and job seekers, as well as the needs of employers. Through our local and national partnerships, our services help people who have struggled to find work through conventional routes.
Interested in a study programme? Our Vocational Training team specialise in offering learning and training opportunities for students who, for whatever reason, don’t want to stay in a traditional academic environment. We provide our students with a smaller and highly supportive learning environment where, through tailored programmes that include vocational qualifications and work experience, the focus is on providing learning and training to help you gain the skills, qualifications and experiences you need to achieve your goals in life.

Advice from Catch22 staff

We asked Catch22 colleagues to tell us about their GCSE (or O-Level) memories, their careers since, and advice they wish they had been told.

Chris Stoker-Jones, Director of Vocational Training and Apprenticeships

How did you feel when you found out your GCSE results?

Before I got them, I was scared and panicking that this might ruin the rest of my life. So much pressure had been put on the outcome by my school, saying “With poor grades, we won’t amount to anything, we won’t get into university and that I would have wasted my five years at that school”. There was also the added pressure that I had gone to a fee-paying school, so I didn’t want to waste the money my parents had paid to get me into that school.

What do you wish someone told you after you found out your GCSE results?

The outcome will not affect the rest of your life! Uni isn’t everything: your life will take many different paths and GCSEs will have little bearing on that if you don’t want them to.

What are you most proud of in your career since your GCSEs?

I am more than halfway through a degree (something I never thought I would do), and I am doing very well in it. I don’t feel I am academically gifted so to have got two distinctions, out of three so far, is a great achievement for me.

Any advice you want to share with students finding out their GCSE results today?

The rest of your life does not depend on that slip of paper. You can resit them, you can do an apprenticeship, you can find a brilliant job. Uni isn’t everything and many successful and fulfilled people have never stepped inside a university.

Siobhan May, Catch22 Career Coach

How did you feel when you found out your GCSE results?

Initially, I was extremely nervous as I was never good with exams and always ended up being an emotional wreck, especially as they were important for me at the time to secure my space in sixth form, but also for my future goal of going to university as well. After receiving my grades, I was over the moon as I got what I wanted/needed for my next steps, and realised that I was worrying for no reason.

What do you wish someone told you after you found out your GCSE results?

I wish someone told me not worry what a piece of paper says. No matter what grades you got or the subjects you studied, you can achieve whatever you put your mind to.

What are you most proud of in your career since your GCSEs?

I am proud that I started working as soon as I passed my GCSEs and I did this around my sixth form studying, and I have worked in a few different career areas. I went to University straight after school, but half way through I felt that it wasn’t the right place for me. I am proud that I followed my heart and left university, and started working full time. Now, I don’t think I could be happier with my decision.

Any advice you want to share with students finding out their GCSE results today?

Always be proud of what you do, no two peoples’ paths are the same, but you can achieve your goals if you stay determined. Results Day is just one day in your life, and you have the rest of your life ahead of you, so always look forward and keep your head held high!

David Moran, Executive Principal, Catch22 MAT

How did you feel when you found out your GCSE results?

I felt underwhelmed, to be honest. I got the grades I needed, but I think I was hoping to do better. I wasn’t like the young people you see on the news whooping with excitement.

What do you wish someone told you after you found out your GCSE results?

That there were other options than A Levels and University. Or that there were other routes to Uni apart from A-Levels.

What are you most proud of in your career since your GCSEs?

Tough one! I think it’s either making the decision – 2 weeks into a Sports Science course at South Bank University that there was no point doing the course as I couldn’t see what job the course was preparing me for – to leave University and try different jobs to see what I wanted to do; or, after 3 years of trying lots of jobs, deciding to go back to University to train as a PE Teacher; or leading Ashwood from Special Measures to Good in 2017.

Any advice you want to share with students finding out their GCSE results today?

Learn from the experience. Qualifications give you choices – the choice to decide if you want to pursue an Academic route or a job/vocational route. You may have an idea of your future career so can choose to study subjects that will help you on that path. You may have no idea what career you want, so pick subjects that interest you. If life got in the way of you getting the results you wanted it’s not over – taking an extra year now, doing re-takes, putting yourself in a position where you have more choice is better than letting the barriers you faced in the past limit your future.

Roma Ferreira, Centre Manager, Catch22 College Maidstone

How did you feel when you found out your GCSE results?

A huge wave of relief! I didn’t achieve as highly as I would have liked in some subjects, but I immediately realised, that was okay. Nothing terrible happened as a result.

What do you wish someone told you after you found out your GCSE results?

There is always a path for you to follow, regardless of your results. It may not be the one you had originally planned, or considered, but that doesn’t make it any less worthy and in fact it may turn out to be unexpectedly perfect😊

What are you most proud of in your career since your GCSEs?

Working in education and supporting learners through their academic achievements as well as always developing my own.

Any advice you want to share with students finding out their GCSE results today?

Breathe! Enjoy! Be pragmatic! Make bold decisions! Embrace a new chapter regardless!

Adam Davidson, Head of Talent Acquisition

How did you feel when you found out your GCSE results?

A bit terrified! I didn’t get the grades to stay in sixth form at my school, so I had to leave and enrol in the local college, which I hadn’t prepared for at all.

What do you wish someone told you after you found out your GCSE results?

That college would be great, and a much better environment for me anyway.

What are you most proud of in your career since your GCSEs?

I’m proud of every bit of my career, even the odd jobs that I haven’t enjoyed or performed amazingly in. It’s all been experience and progress, even if it felt slow and painful at the beginning.

Any advice you want to share with students finding out their GCSE results today?

If you got the results you wanted, congrats! If you didn’t, don’t worry! Even if the next step isn’t the one you planned, hard work will pay off eventually.