The young people of today, including myself, sometimes feel the utmost pressure to equate our future to a few A level choices. The help provided by schools in terms of career guidance and discussing a student’s next step in 16+ in my opinion is very poor. I can’t even count the amount of times I have had a guided discussion with a pastoral member of staff about my future after GCSE’s because lo and behold I have had none. The calibre of A-level choices out there are vast and wide, yet we are specifically told to tailor these choices to a university degree, a career, a certain type of life that we haven’t completely decided if we even want to pursue yet. If we are made to choose this huge decision by ourselves without any support, then why can’t we vote? Both choices affect our future, yet A-levels are the choices that will affect us on a much deeper and personal level. These choices are what schools emphasise to students’ time and time again to choose wisely, yet we are told as teenagers time and time again that we are too young, too stupid, too unwise, to decide who leads our country. Wisely is how we should contemplate about our A level choices however are schools, like mine, really being “wise” to provide no support in times like these. I’m simply stating that students across the country should be made to sit down and discuss future opportunities, goals and aspirations they may have so at least they have a plan that can work to help them attain what they want when they go on to pursue post 16 studies.

Rida Butt, The Sydney Russell School