Unbelievably, it is 'that' time of year again for those of us intimately engaged with education, as the A-level and GCSE results are being issued to thousands of youngsters across Wiltshire. The summer heat often heralds the onset of the examination papers in May and now, in August, the heat is with us still as we focus on the outcomes for 18- and 16-year-olds.
Two years and more of toil come to a head in late summer when everything boils down to a few letters on a screen; both dreams and disasters on results days are lived out at home in youngsters' bedrooms in the twenty-first century. Gone are the times when boys and girls trailed into school to collect their results slips, hastily stuffed into envelopes by overstretched school staff.
I remember my predecessor fixing to have breakfast with a straight A-grade candidate for the local radio, and I also recall one local school which used to pin broadsheets of all candidate grades up on a window for everyone to read and find their own! No more. Triumph and disaster, those two imposters, are encountered in private, thank goodness.
That's not to say that our students do not arrive in school on results day. They do, and mostly that is because they want to share their success and support their mates, which is a lovely thing to see and hear. There is a level of irrepressible excitement to accompany the cupcakes and soft drinks outside the Sixth Form Centre as the students and their parents are greeted by the staff - the boys and girls are facing a prospect that is both thrilling and a little intimidating. A new course in a new place, a fresh social milieu with which to engage, and intellectual challenges to come.
I frequently describe Bishop's as a launch pad, and those young people in that school courtyard on results morning are the embodiment of that image. Three individuals stick in the mind from this morning, two of whom are destined to become part of the next generation of medics and the third, a young lady who joined the Sixth Form late, is aiming to become a lawyer after gaining A*A*A. All amazing, all very happy, and all destined for great things.
Summer 2025 really is the finishing line for me personally as far as school is concerned. My temporary extension as Head allowed me to bid farewell to the final set of Geology students that I had taught, and despite my efforts, they appear to have done really well! I knew all of Year 13, and so it has been such a pleasure to see them all through to the close of their school careers.
I am immensely proud of them all.
SDS
