'Results are one thing...'

Overall in the UK, 73.2% of GCSEs were marked at grades 4 and above this year, down from 77.1% in 2021, when grades were based on teachers’ assessments.

It is still significantly higher than in 2019, the last year exams were sat before Covid, at 67.3%.

In Guernsey 74% of students secured five 9-4 grades across all subjects, down on the past two years of teacher-assessed grades, but up on the last year of formal examinations in 2019.

Is that good enough? Should we expect better – demand better? Education and standards are unlikely to stop being a political issue any time soon, and many will read success or failure into the figures.

Two-thirds of island pupils secured their five GCSEs, including English and maths, the basic ‘passport’ to move on to A-level equivalent studies – the next rung of the ladder.

Yesterday it was possible to get swallowed up by results fever.

But Daniele Harford-Fox, principal of The Ladies’ College, took a wider view.

‘Results are one thing, but this isn’t an exam factory, and I’m more proud of the students and their independence as their education has been reinvented due to the pandemic,’ she said.

‘They were just 13 when the first wave of Covid hit and they have managed to develop their independence and continue their learning through the disruption and uncertainty, and for that I couldn’t be more proud.’

We wish all our students well, whatever their next destination.