A level results day and what a day it is for over 300,000 students in England and Wales.

I can remember the day as if it was yesterday, and it was a long time ago. The results used to be posted up on a wall in the 6th form common room for all to see. I lived out in the county and had to wait for my mother to get home so that I could borrow the car, and drive into school which was situated 5 miles away-there were no buses. Just before she arrived home the phone rang-the land line that is, there were no mobile phones that many decades ago. My best friend forever lived close to the school and had walked in to get the results. She was super excited as she had achieved the results she needed to get into her university of choice. I, on the other hand had not! In fact I had only achieved 3 Es a million miles away from  the 2 As and a B that I was predicted to get. I had to admit becoming very bored with studying for my A levels over the last 6 months, and had sat the exams under threat from my parents.-I cant remember what the consequences of not sitting them were now. When I heard my friend tell me what I had ‘achieved’ I can remember the sense of acute shame and  failure that I felt. I toyed with the idea of resitting them, but knew that that was not a realistic option-I hated the constraints of A levels-regurgitating information fed to you by your teachers. I needed to spread my wings and have my curiosity stirred and satisfied as opposed to constantly being told to write what I was told! I rang up a friend who was studying at the Polytechnic of Central London, who told me who to contact to find out about the new degree they had just launched in Social Science. I caught a train up to London the next morning, had an interview in the afternoon and was enrolled on a BA Social Science degree by 5pm! The rest, as they say is history.

I’ve often wondered what would have happened if I had failed them completely. Would I have travelled, or taken an apprenticeship to become a journalist, got a job in a bank or learnt to be a hairdresser? Who knows, but what I do know is that I have never lost that sense of regret and failure that those A level grades made me feel, but it was what I deserved as a result of my lack of motivation, and couldn’t care less attitude.

I have had a very successful career in Education and motivated many hundreds of students to achieve their full potential. Have I achieved mine? I recently qualified as a mat Pilates instructor and the sense of achievement and satisfaction I felt with that was huge. I worked really hard and deserved to pass. Perhaps that is what I need to reflect upon…