It’s that time of year again. We are just about to start the third week of August, which means that Scottish Highers were out last week, A-level results are out on Thursday, so GCSEs will be out next week. All around the country, teens will be opening an envelope or email that, right now, feels like it contains their future. Everything depends on those letters and numbers. The future depends on those marks on a page.

Except, actually, it doesn’t. They mean everything right now, but in a month, a year or a decade, they will mean very little. As seems to be in keeping with my August blogs, let me tell you a story….

One August, not that long ago, a severely dyslexic teen went to get his GCSE results after a particular turbulent summer. The results weren’t very good. Two were above C (because it was pre 1-9 days), and the rest below. The college of choice now looked unlikely, but sports skills and a charismatic personality meant that he could go, but not on the first choice of course. Fast forward to a year later, and the resits were no better. After getting Functional Skills level 2 in maths and English he tried AS levels, but the following August brought more disappointment.

A year of voluntary work, and then a year of sports coaching meant that he enrolled into uni, but the course was wrong, the support wasn’t there, and after a year of struggling depression hit, and he had to leave. More work, an apprenticeship, more work and things were ok, but not fantastic. His mental health was still fragile, and OCD was the next hurdle to manage.

OCD was under control, and things were going reasonably well, and, er, COVID! Covid meant that work dried up, and a combination of furlough and forced isolation allowed time for reflection and refocusing, and time to really go for what he wanted.

He enrolled on a degree course during Covid. He worked hard, but with a combination of Covid restrictions and lots of online lessons, it was sometimes hard to work hard, but he did, and he persevered.

Fast forward to August 2022.

Another August, another results day.

August 2022 has broken the mould. August 2022 has brought a 2:1, job interviews and all sorts of opportunities. To quote his FB post:

“If you’d have said to me 10 years ago I would have a degree at this point I would have 100% laughed at you & thought you were joking but here I am with a FdA & a 2:1“

I didn’t do particularly well in my A-levels, and in 2 months I start a doctorate, and no one in the interview asked me why I only got Ds and Es, instead they were interested in my life experience and what I’ve done since then.

That’s not to say we need to underestimate how important this month is. When our teens get their results this month, they mean everything, they will change trajectories, and we need to be there to support them. But in the long term, in 5 or 10 years, this will just be a distant memory and a story to tell.