Why your exam results are not the end – they are just the beginning

Opening my results live on telly? Not a chance! Doing those strange star jumps so beloved of photogs? Aye right …

No such media circus existed back when I left school, and neither did the support now offered to pupils. One is essential, the other is, well, just froth; a chance for schools to showcase their most articulate and successful pupils.

Not everyone emerges from exam results day dancing with joy, and that, I guess, must be pretty rubbish when you see the shiny kids with near perfect results getting the spotlight no-one even thought about pointing your way. The 16-year old me would have hated the hoopla. The 60-year old can at least say none of it actually matters.

My old high school, Wester Hailes Education Centre in Edinburgh, finished bottom of those wretched league tables both academically and alphabetically year in, year out, but, had I not gone there, I doubt I’d have gone on to a career in journalism.

Schools are about so much more than As and Bs. They are places to nurture young minds, to encourage and mould the next generation, and give them a fighting chance to make their mark. WHEC did that for me thanks to some genuinely inspirational teachers - Pauline Ward, my English teacher, Pete Clark in modern studies and the remarkable Jean Alison in music to name but three.

The school let me write a magazine called Radges’ Gazette with the strapline “by radges, for radges” without batting an eyelid. It was probably terrible, but we had a blast doing it.

It gave me a kick up the backside when it was needed and got me to focus on exams when my attention wandered to scrutinising the lyrics on album covers rather than text books.

Come exam day, the dreaded brown envelope landed at the door while I was still in my bed, and we all gathered in the fifth year common room to see how everyone had got on. It must have been a big deal, but I don’t recall much at all of the day. Maybe we were all too cool for school and it was everyone else who mithered about uni, college and resits.

I failed maths O-grade twice - blame trigonometry (what’s the cosine of 42? who cares) - flunked my economics higher, was useless at French and German, and scraped a C in arithmetic. My measly two Highers wouldn’t get me into any journalism course now - I remain the least academically qualified person in any newsroom I’ve ever worked in - but they got my foot in the door.

I get that exams are important, but the opportunity to study and gain more, and very different qualifications is greater than ever - certainly more so than when I left school - and career paths are much, much more varied.

The ‘job for life’ ended with my generation. Long service seems to consist of three years rather than 30. I’m not sure it is even valued any more.

Every generation should strive for better things, do things differently, and embrace the opportunities that simply didn’t exist when I was leaving WHEC.

So, if your results were what you hoped for, then the exam hoopla is something to enjoy. If they weren’t, don’t panic. It isn’t the end of the world. In fact, it’s just the beginning.

Create your own future and do your own star jumps to celebrate your successes.

Oh, and say thanks to the teachers who started you on your journey …