If you have an 18-year-old in your life, as I do, or even if you vaguely know of one, please take a moment to think kindly of them and wish them well today.
Today is A level results day and for my son and his peers, taking their A Levels in May and June was their first ever attempt at sitting a formal exam. Can you imagine just how unprepared most of them must have felt?
In March 2020 they had the GCSE rug suddenly and unexpectedly whipped out from under their young feet, just as they were preparing to ramp up for the final push towards exams which never happened. I remember only too vividly the feeling of total freefall and bewilderment that descended following the government announcement that there would be no exams whatsoever for the foreseeable future.
I do wonder how much better he would have fared if schools had remained open, like in Sweden
My son then spent over five whole months – April to September – without any kind of schooling, instruction, focus or even certainty about whether he’d be able to return to sixth form in the autumn.
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