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Teacher nails it with inspiring note to students about exams.

 

 

A former teacher has proven how failure can be the best possible lesson.

Scottish writer Abi Elphinstone failed the 2016 SAT exam and proudly shared her results with her Facebook followers.

Holding a placard that proclaimed her marks of 25 per cent in maths and 40 per cent in English, Elphinstone used the opportunity to reach out to children anxious about their results.

Watch for some handy (and hilarious) tips on how to help your kids with their homework.

“Kids, you don’t need to know what a modal verb or a subordinating conjunctive is to where you want to go in life,” the message read.

“You need ideas and passion – so go on adventures, dream big and don’t worry about your SATs scores.”

The SAT exams are standardized tests used in the United Kingdom that are given at the end of Year nine.

The tests aim to reveal a child’s progress compared to other children of a shared age.

Elphinstone posted the image last week with an accompanying caption that offered a small insight into her own story.

“For all the kids sitting their SATs this week,” she said.

“I used to be an English teacher and I visit schools every week now. I talk to the kids about resilience, determination and grit, not just in regards to exams but in regards to life, too.”

Elphinstone went on to say that despite working for and within the system, she cannot agree with the current English SAT exams.

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“It contains irrelevant and obscure information that does little to enrich a child’s learning,” she said.

Former teacher Abi Elphinstone. (Source: Instagram.)

The post has been liked on Facebook almost 180, 000 times with over 141, 000 shares.

Hundreds of discussions have erupted in the comments section as students, teachers, headmasters and parents weigh in on the message.

One user allowed her 11-year-old daughter to use her Facebook account in order to reply.

"I came home today really upset because I found my maths papers so hard ! I cried at school because I felt that i hadn't done well enough! When I got home my mum showed me your post and it made me much happier and confident about my future! So thank you for the lovely message! I am sure that it helped other children too," she said.

Another user shared their own results and suggested they begin a larger hashtag trend.

"Absolutely! I got 60% on guess work. Only knew one answer for sure. We should start some kind of twitter thing for this with authors holding pictures of their results," she said.

(Source; Facebook.)

Even a head teacher commented on the difficulty of the exam and how it affected her current students.

"As a Headteacher I too am totally appalled by Monday's test particularly as the majority of pupils in my school don't speak English as their first language," she said.

"However, because we place importance on PHSE our pupils just 'got on with it' and did their best. What worries me is that the results will be used to hold schools like my own to account as based on Mondays test we are unlikely to meet the floor target!"

Elphinstone's post is an important reminder to both children and adults who face standardized examination: these tests may compare your ability to perform but what they cannot possibly predict is your future success.