Yep, it's a little frustrating because I don't go to the parent/teacher nights. I feel a little like that's overstepping the step-parenting boundaries - like I'm checking up on her, if that makes sense. So DP goes on his own. The teachers basically tell him that she's capable of good work but is easily distracted. Basically when she hands homework in, she does good/very good and when she doesn't, she does poorly. Not rocket science!!!

As I said, I've got a few things up my sleeve for encouraging/supporting her with the schoolwork side of things but I think she really needs a simple explanation of how she's going and I don't think the school is giving that to her. I've tried explaining the ENTER thing with a gymnastics analogy (she does gymnastics) - if you choose to do a vault with a triple pike and double somersault then that's a hard vault and even if you don't get it quite right you'll get a higher score than someone who attempts an easy-peasy vault but does it perfectly. Anyhow, I'm getting off-track - what I'm saying is that I think she's confuddled about the ENTER thing and I don't think she has any idea about what sort of ENTER score she's likely to get if she carries on with mediocre grades.

D'you think it would be accurate to say to her that if she gets Ds in all subjects, like she's currently doing in Biology, that she will find it very tough to get into any uni course? And that to be safe and to be able to keep her options open, she really needs to be aiming to lift her grades to more like a B for a 70 - 75ish ENTER?

I don't trust the school to be able to convey this to her simply in language she will understand which is why I'm trying to do it myself!