Should I drop out of 6th form?

So I’ve almost finished my first year of 6th form but I put absolutely no work in due and am failing my subjects, I’ve got mocks this week that I know I won’t pass but I don’t really care anymore, I’ve been struggling with my mental health for years and school has always been a major factor in that. I don’t see the point in continuing my second year - if they let me - because I don’t know any of the content and I know that I won’t put in the work to be able to catch up or pass my alevels, it will just be extra stress for nothing.

I’ve been looking at different college courses or possibly apprenticeships instead, I used to aspire to go to Uni but it just seems like a bad financial decision now, especially if my mental health continues to decline as that will likely take a toll on my work ethic and grades. I just don’t want to regret it later if I end up struggling to pay rent as I’ve grown up in poverty and my only real goal is to have a comfortable living for myself.

Should I drop out? I personally don’t even see the point of me taking the end of year AS mocks if I’m not even going to return in September. I’m taking Maths, English Lit and Criminology if that makes any difference.

What do you really want to do with your life?

I don’t actually know, I’ve been looking at computer science courses as I took computing for a GCSE, I originally wanted to go into science and then I wanted to do something with English, I’ve considered so many different routes and careers but I’ve never had a clear idea of what I want.

So I’ve almost finished my first year of 6th form but I put absolutely no work in due and am failing my subjects, I’ve got mocks this week that I know I won’t pass but I don’t really care anymore, I’ve been struggling with my mental health for years and school has always been a major factor in that. I don’t see the point in continuing my second year - if they let me - because I don’t know any of the content and I know that I won’t put in the work to be able to catch up or pass my alevels, it will just be extra stress for nothing.

I’ve been looking at different college courses or possibly apprenticeships instead, I used to aspire to go to Uni but it just seems like a bad financial decision now, especially if my mental health continues to decline as that will likely take a toll on my work ethic and grades. I just don’t want to regret it later if I end up struggling to pay rent as I’ve grown up in poverty and my only real goal is to have a comfortable living for myself.

Should I drop out? I personally don’t even see the point of me taking the end of year AS mocks if I’m not even going to return in September. I’m taking Maths, English Lit and Criminology if that makes any difference.

I would say get your A levels done, you'll definitely thank yourself later and have a gap year afterwards. I went to university at 20 and to be honest, I was still too young to figure out what I wanted to do.

Omg, we are in exactly the same boat rn but I’m gonna try in my mocks just because I need to get away from my family ASAP lol.
The most important thing tho is sorting out your mental health, if it continues to decline then your life kinda starts to feel like it’s not your life that your living and you’re just existing and we don’t want that because once you get there you get too close to using a permanent solution for a temporary problem... But I feel you about not wanting to regret it later, but even if you do start to regret it’s not a big deal because you could easily just do a levels as an independent candidate, you’d have to pay out of pocket though, unless you find a college or sixth form that would take you.
I understand you 10000% about living in poverty, it sucks bro but me personally I take refuge in the fact that there’s so many paths to financial freedom (these days everyone blows upon social media , social média marketing, stocks, you could even become the next pablo Escobar 😂😂 ) if the whole school thing doesn’t work out you knowww, we actually have our whole lives ahead of us what ever happens now it’s not that deep we should just enjoy life bc we could actually die tomorrow. We just don’t know lol
Also a tip for helping your mental health that have worked for me is saying positive affirmations in the mirror until you believe them and/or getting a notebook for you where you just write about everything, your hopes n dreams, accomplishments, things that suck,literally anything - it is so freeing...Only after a while tho at first you kinda feel silly and only write somewhat important things or things you wouldn’t normally tell other people and then it becomes a habit n lowkey the only thing you trust ahahahah jk

N remember the key to a good life is being positive, no bs or nothing when you’re positive you attract more positivity and good thingS into your life - law of attraction, look into it if you’re open minded I guess lol and good luck I wish you all the best
Tough times never last

I’m just worried that I won’t be able to learn the content quick enough for decent grades, I’m pretty sure my 6th form will kick me out anyway due to my grades and attendance this year but I feel like there’s no way I can learn 2 years of content in time for the exams - especially maths and if I’m not going to uni then I don’t see why alevels would really matter to me. I’m also pretty sure my school won’t let me retake year 12, several of the teachers and staff have already suggested I should consider other options

This is exactly it, I was talking to my friend earlier about it all and I described it as if I was living someone else’s life because most of the choices I’ve made were to please other people or to live up to expectations because I’m supposed to be the ‘smart one’ of my family. I honestly feel like I’d be happy with just a small flat and a simple job, just as long as I get away from everything. Another reason I was considering college was because there’s one about an hour away so it’d feel like a fresh start and I just feel like a need to be in a new space to be able to start working on myself

Another thing to note, if you are unable to retake the year, some sixth forms allow you to transfer to another sixth form and redo a year or two from what I have seen in my sixth form years. Learning two years of content is difficult and I am assuming summer cram school is not an option?

A-levels matter not only for university, but they also matter in job applications and other things as one of the main things they look at other than experience is qualifications. It is best to try and talk it over with your current school although that may be difficult (I am not entirely sure) as their staff may be on leave over summer by now. E-mailing them is still a valid option however in most cases if you cannot contact them directly.

As a side note my attendance was pretty poor in second year of sixth form for no real reason but my school still decided to keep me so it is worth putting a lot of effort into studying if you can do it and trying to push for at least passable grades. Do you have any friends in your subjects who would be willing to either help or tutor you over summer also?

9-5 jobs or jobs where you control what you do, if you don’t mind me asking :-)

I am assuming you are referring to the portion about what jobs look for? And in the case of qualifications mattering, most of the time it would matter is at 9-5 jobs or in other such work environments where you are on a fairly ok wage or higher, and are contracted hours - whether it is monthly or yearly. The qualifications don't matter so much for part-time work (at least that I am aware of) for a fair few businesses but some still like to see decent qualifications.

In terms of self employment, it is a bit more grey than black and white as obviously you are your own manager/business owner (or in a shared business partnership depending on if it is a joint venture or not). Qualifications tend to matter less in this kind of environment - for example if you make t-shirts or bags at home for a living. But let's say as an example if you plan on making your own independent tech company - if you work with other firms they may choose to go for a more educated partner for standard reasons.

In the sense of job applications, most employers would go for a higher educated individual who would be on the same rate of pay as the lesser educated individual (if all other things such as experience etc was kept the same between them).

That's not to say you cannot make a good living for yourself without higher level education and qualifications but it makes the whole process of job applications, etc more tedious and with a higher chance of rejection.

Hope that answers your question

Yeah you did, really well too thank youu😊

So I’ve almost finished my first year of 6th form but I put absolutely no work in due and am failing my subjects, I’ve got mocks this week that I know I won’t pass but I don’t really care anymore, I’ve been struggling with my mental health for years and school has always been a major factor in that. I don’t see the point in continuing my second year - if they let me - because I don’t know any of the content and I know that I won’t put in the work to be able to catch up or pass my alevels, it will just be extra stress for nothing.

I’ve been looking at different college courses or possibly apprenticeships instead, I used to aspire to go to Uni but it just seems like a bad financial decision now, especially if my mental health continues to decline as that will likely take a toll on my work ethic and grades. I just don’t want to regret it later if I end up struggling to pay rent as I’ve grown up in poverty and my only real goal is to have a comfortable living for myself.

Should I drop out? I personally don’t even see the point of me taking the end of year AS mocks if I’m not even going to return in September. I’m taking Maths, English Lit and Criminology if that makes any difference.