It's important to let you child know you love them regardless of exam success

Avy Joseph, founder of City Minds, reminds parents that it is not the end of the world if their child doesn’t do as well as expected in their exams.

Here are Avy’s top tips for parents who are dealing with their child’s poor exam results:

1) Be disappointed FOR them and their results but not BY them. It is more appropriate to share their disappointment first as they are their exam results.

2) Remember to be solution focused, hopefully you will already have been prepared for that possibility and have some kind of contingency plan. If not get one fast. Nothing is the end of the world unless we think it so, and bad exam results are not the end of the world.

3) Accept they will feel low for a few days but teenagers are also pretty resilient and perk up as soon as the next party invite comes in, so unless you have had other underlying difficulties they will, with the right parental support, bounce back.

4) Allow them to express their emotions, particularly if their close friends have amazing results, they can experience real frustration and disappointment with themselves, especially if they hadn’t worked hard enough in their own opinion. Do your best to let them experience these feelings without adding “I told you to revise more.”

5) ‘Told you so’ dialogues will only reinforce your child’s negative thoughts about themself.

6) It’s important to let you child know you love them regardless of exam success, that they are just as lovable whether they got an “A” or a “D”.

By Lauren King