With retakes and crammer courses, no student’s chances are beyond redemption

Every year — according to Fleet Street legend — the Telegraph prints a lovely photograph on its front page after the A-level results are published. It shows happy, bright young ladies clutching important letters and leaping into the air with glee. These lissom blondes are, of course, the students with straight As. ‘Yessss!’, they have just got into their first-choice university: ‘OMG this is, like, the Best Day Ever!’

What you don’t see is a photograph of the students who fall short of their predicted grades. There will be no leaping, no Daddy buying a bottle of champagne for this lot. They’ll be in hiding, blubbing over the letter or pathetically phoning their director of studies to ask him to perform a miracle.

Not too long ago, I made one of those humiliating calls myself. ‘Um… you know how it says I got a B for French?’ I said anxiously. Yes.

‘Well, please can you double-check just in case it was misread?’ Nope, still a B.