I know it's easier said than done but I would tell your daughter not to worry too much. Sometimes teachers say things thinking it will drive you to better things, when all you need to do is do what you do if that makes sense. Your daughter sounds like a wonderful hard working person, and as long as she is doing her best then that is good enough.

I had a very similar experience with an English teacher. After being demoted to her class for not handing in a homework essay she decided I couldn't possible achieve an O level. She informed my parents I'd be lucky to scrape a grade 3 CSE. Mum paid for me to "duel enter" & I managed an O level grade B. The same teacher scored my class work a grade 4 CSE. My girlfriend at the time was a straight A student & for a laugh we wrote each others essays one evening. I still got a bad grade, hers only dropped from an A to a B+.
I went to see my younger sister in the school play just after the results came out. The English teacher stood in front of a packed hall and loudly informed me that whoever marked my O level Essay must have been blind. My mum informed everyone in an even louder voice that maybe it was because it wasn't marked by by a bitter over made up old hag. She got a standing ovation for that one.
If you've given it your best that's all anyone can ask

We had a great experience recently at swim meet at my daughters school I would like to share.

I young girl was really struggling but managed to finish her race (freestyle) when I say struggle she was a pool length behind in a 50 metre race.

She got the 2nd biggest cheer when she completed.

The biggest cheer was when during the award ceremony the 1st and 2nd place holders grabbed her from the front row and hugged her to share in the moment.

such is life not necessarily about winning but playing

At my daughter's big comp, we had a multi class swimmer with cerebral palsy. She swam 50 free, but it took her over 2 mins and we thought she wasn't going to make it. However the whole crowd got behind her, and chanted her name and gave a huge cheer when she finally finished. The rivals even helped her out of the water as she hadn't the strength to get out herself. Wonderful.

Fantastic

It really is a tough one. Seems to me it's a balance between removing the misery that so many teenagers face from terrible acne versus managing the risks of side effects from what looks like a very effective treatment. Maybe you should seek second and even third opinion medical advice on the matter? And if you do go down the route of using Roaccutane, adopt a mechanism where you closely monitor and discuss with your daughter about how she is feeling with plans to help her cope. It's so true that a problem shared is a problem halved.


Absolutely!

This is very interesting:

DD didn't sleep last night. Exams next week, the French is worrying her, and she is still not 100%, but insists on going to school. She has double maths this afternoon, then wants to go to remedial maths after school, and then has over an hour tonight with her maths tutor. I think her brain will implode!

I'd rather she got better and could cope than be faced with classes/exams when she is tired, will get dispirited if she doesn't understand and then we will have another crisis. But she is 17 and has to make her own decisions, and feels she will get too far behind if she misses another day- missed Friday due to swimming, half of Monday and all Tuesday and Wednesday due to tonsilitis.

Can you not persuade her to compromise a little - maybe school and the tutor, but leave the remedial maths class until she is stronger. A break in between would be good as it would allow her to absorb what she learnt, and figure out what she needs to know before seeing the tutor - she wont learn more by getting overtired. Worth a try anyway

I did try, but she started getting agitated. The maths exam is on Monday. I'm just waiting for the phone call from school later in the day to come and pick her up. Her throat is still sore, but she says it is more prickly than raw. I think she will run out of energy by lunchtime.

Oh dear - hopefully she wont make herself worse by pushing so hard. As you say, she makes her own decisions so all you can do is be ready to catch - hard work being Mum sometimes

Well, DD didn't go to the remedial maths class- came home and tried to revise, though unsuccessfully, and didn't really do well with the tutor. She had Friday off too, as another infection has reared its ugly head, so I had to take her to the doctors. I cancelled the tutor for this morning.

Sometimes, a mother knows best......but a teen will never acknowledge it.

So true