Well done students!

Yesterday was the day that thousands of young folk received their GCSE results. There were those that amazingly achieved 13 A* grades and those that struggled to achieve five passes – no matter what the grade. It is one of those days when there is published a measure of one’s intelligence for everyone to see. It’s great for the top performers, for their parents and their grandparents who all bask in the glory of their very bright offspring. And I wouldn’t want to dismiss the remarkable achievements of these young people who have obviously worked hard and done brilliantly. Well done to all of them.

But for the ones who have not had such exceptional results, yesterday was a tough day. Parents probably won’t say too much to them and the child may feel that they have let everybody down. And that’s a tragedy. Some children are more academically inclined than others and some children find taking exams really tough. My hope is that every parent will be proud of their child’s achievement – whatever their grades - because no child takes any exam hoping to fail or do badly. It is in our nature to want to do well and the people we want to impress most of all, and make feel proud of us, are our parents. I so hope that those students will move on from their disappointment and will realise that life isn’t only about passing exams.

I didn’t take my GCE’s, (as they were called then), because I left school a week before my 15th birthday so I have no idea how I would have done. But that didn’t matter to me, as it happened. By the time I was 24 I had found my niche in life and was running my own slimming business, so I have no regrets. Not going to University nor having any ‘O’ or ‘A’ levels did not hold me back. So for anyone who had a disastrous results day yesterday, don’t give up. Just find something you have a passion for, follow your dream and go for it.