This week has had two results days – A-levels, BTECs, CTECs and other vocational quals were on Tuesday, and GCSEs are today. GCSE and A-level results days invoke really mixed feelings and emotions for me – my GCSEs were OK, but not as good as they could have been, and my A-levels reflected my recent discovery of pubs and alcohol, and it hasn’t always been easy going through it all again with my own children, and also with students.

This year has been especially hard (& last year wasn’t easy with the algorithm fiasco) because this year’s Y11s and 13s and BTEC students have spent more time learning from home or isolating than they have actually spent in the classroom. Add to that the ever changing guidelines from the DfE and Ofqual, and both teachers and learners deserve As just for getting to the finish line.

It is so hard, though, regardless of whether this week has brought distinctions, passes, As, Us, 9s or 1s, to have a whole course decided and graded into a number or letter. It doesn’t reflect the last two years or what they have all been through. It doesn’t reflect the determination and resilience to carry on, or the rationing of toilet rolls and bread 14 months ago. It doesn’t show how 4 people working from home trying to use Zoom in a rural location with poor wifi was a challenge (speaking from experience here), or how those who maybe don’t have or can’t afford broadband, laptops or printers did everything they could to support their children even when it felt impossible. Masks, distancing and bubbles came into effect when the students went back to school & college, but isolating bubbles just added to the unknown and the stress.

Then we had the uncertainty about how GCSEs, A-levels and BTECs were going to go ahead – they would go ahead as usual, then with an amended curriculum, then as assessed grades (which kept being changed) which added to teachers’ and lecturers’ workloads. There has been a lack of consistency in schools too, with some schools doing all the assessments at the last minute, others doing months of exams, and others just doing coursework and homework. None of this is the schools’ faults – changing guidelines and isolating students and teachers means that each school’s SLT had to make decisions based on what was happening in their school or college.

The media has been full of ‘higher grades again, blah blah blah’ which is unhelpful to all students. The high grades may feel like they mean less, and the lower grades may feel even lower. Another way to look at it, as expressed by the magnificent Michael Rosen, is that maybe the grades have been better this year because of the variety of assessments that reflects the variety of ways that students learn and so a variety of ways for students to impart their knowledge. Maybe, just maybe, we need a huge overhaul of education so that rather than testing more and more, we assess in different ways so that it’s not all decided in 3 hours at the end of the course. I don’t think replacing exams with all course work is the way to go either, but maybe a combination of both, so that all students have a chance to shine – especially in GCSEs as you could argue that for sixth form there are the options already for A-levels, BTECs or CTECs (although BTECs are currently under threat, which is another blog for another day).

Right now, though, whatever this week has brought you, please, please celebrate. Celebrate getting to the finish line in what has been the most horrendous 18m of education I have even seen in over 20 years of teaching (& that includes 2 years of termly Ofsted inspections). Teachers, lecturers, tutors, SENCos, TAs, admin staff, exams officers, students, parents, grandparents and carers, you have done it. You have got to the end of this horrendous ‘thing’, and you deserve a weekend of celebration. You deserve to breathe and relax. Sleep well tonight, for whatever this week has brought you, you are a winner!