Results Day - A Teacher's Perspective

There has been a knot in my stomach that has been growing since the end of the exams.

This is not my first results day, but it is the first where the students have been mine from day one. Whatever the student see when they break into their envelope, it will have had everything to do with what I have done and that is big.

This cohort of students has worked against the odds from day one. Theirs is a generation who was educated in building sites as Schools for the Future and the Academies programme ripped down the schools around them. Each time, the shiny new buildings opened as they left. When the school became an Academy they stepped up to the plate and grabbed the new opportunities coming their way and were tolerant of the disruptions that came along with the change. They were encouraged to believe that Higher Education was their right then slapped in the face with the rise in tuition fees. They have weathered quite an educational storm to get this far and now they are on the brink of stepping out into the world as adults.

These students know that success in school means earning a place at university, but not one of them knows anyone in their families who went there. Some of their families think that uni is something that girls should not aspire to. Their academic dreams are something they share with me in guilty asides and my job has been to listen, affirm and tell them that yes, it is possible, yes, it is worth it and yes, you can do it. Gently and persuasively I have been saying yes to this group for two years.

So, the knot is tight and I am having sleepless nights. I do not worry that they did not work hard enough, or that I have not taught them how to succeed. Our classes have been filled with questions and laughter all of the while. These resilient and powerful teenagers have set their sights on a dream and have sought out the materials to achieve it. We have met before and after school, and in my PPA and in their study sessions. We have worked and wrestled with past papers, we have plotted and planned and revised, revised, revised. They are ready, they should succeed. They have taught me so much.

My worry is that this is not going to be enough, that the goal posts will move. A levels are the gold standard. These are the exams that we use to select the best students to move onto the next phase. These are the exams that the government hangs the educational system on to and these are the exams it will use to make a point.

I have been gently saying yes to my students for years. It has taken time, but they have begun to believe that their dreams are achievable in spite of some overwhelming odds. On Thursday we will find out what will happen next.

Wish us luck!

Written by Bookworm

BBC News - Heads call Michael Gove's A-Level changes "high risk"

Guardian News - Poorer students risk losing out to "middle-class bias"