We are done. GCSE exams that aren’t exams but are exams are all over for us – the most stressful academic year I have ever experienced is done (and that includes my first teaching year when the college I worked at went into special measures and had termly Ofsted inspections), and I feel…..erm….empty? I have a teen in Y11, I tutor some Y11s but I am self employed, so if I feel like this, I can only imagine how my friends and ex-colleagues working in schools, colleges and training companies must feel. My husband keeps looking at me and asking if I’m ok. My honest answer is that I will be.

The teen however, seems to be OK. He has had a remarkably calm few weeks of assessments. I was prepared for camping in the lounge, midnight migraines, 2 am conversations and anything and everything else that anxiety and stress can bring, but he’s been ok. The headaches have been there in the background, and we’ve let him do his own thing when he hasn’t been revising, and we haven’t put any pressure on him to revise, and this seems to have worked. Because of how OK he’s been, I was expecting a big release, let down or meltdown this weekend, but, again, he’s been fine. He is at a fab school with amazing teachers, and most of them get him, so that has been a big help. Has their handling of this year been perfect? No, of course not, but I don’t know any school that has. The changing Government, Ofqual and JCQ advice and instructions have been ridiculous, and there hasn’t been a perfect way to handle this, as this has been the opposite of a perfect year, but here we are, at the end of it, just about.

I’m showing my age, but my cohort were the first to take GCSEs in 1988, and I remember our maths teacher complaining about what we were being taught and how it wasn’t going to prepare us for A-levels (but I wasn’t taking A-level maths, so it didn’t bother me). Now, I can imagine how stressful that must have been, pre email, digital downloads and the internet. My teachers must have had any changes arrive by letter, and queries about guidance must have been either as a phone call and hastily written notes, or by post.

But, enough about me, back to the year of 2021. When I think about them and the impact that the pandemic has had on them and their education, I get very emotional. When they should have been out being teens they were stuck in with us. When they should have been at school laughing, joking, playing sports and moaning about parents they were stuck behind a screen with no face to face human interaction – and even the children of key workers or vulnerable children had a very odd experience. I do understand that it’s been difficult for them all, but for the current Y11s, 12s and 13s, it’s been, well, I don’t think I can express how bad it’s been, and no one can predict the long term impact this will have had.

I am also immensely proud of each and every one of them. They’ve done it. They’ve got to the end of their academic year, and as long as lockdown keeps lifting, they can have a relatively normal summer. I think results should mean less this year than in normal years – yes, it’s important that they get the grades they need for the future, but that’s it. I don’t mind if they get 9s or 5s or 3s, just so long as they can do what they want to do next, that’s all that matters. August 12th is etched in my brain and in my diary (& my phone) and we have rearranged a holiday as the results date changed, but whatever that paper says, they are all winners, they are all successes. They have got through the last 14 months, and they have got to the end. Grades may be higher, they may be lower, they may not be anywhere near where they would have been if Covid hadn’t happened, but the sun will still rise, the Earth will still turn, and they will still be the ones who did it, who got through ‘this’.

Class of 2021, you are amazing, you are incredible, and the future is whatever you want it to be.