It is five to nine, and pupils are lingering in the doorway. Every so often, one crosses the threshold, only to be chased back by a member of staff: A-level results’ collection does not begin for another five minutes.
“The whoopers will be first in the queue,” says careers adviser Kerry Chester. “The high achievers - the ones who know they’ve got into university, and are fairly confident. The others creep in about midday. And the ones who think they’ve really ballsed up won’t turn up at all.”
This is the post-16 centre at Cotham School, in Bristol. Overall, the school has done well this year: 99 per cent A* to E grades, 27 per cent A* to A grades and 8 per cent A*. But overall statistics are little comfort to individual students.
“I was really worried last night,” says 18-year-old Sophie Harper. “Really, really worried. I couldn’t sleep. I was checking Twitter, and all the other people who’d got below what they’d expected and still got into university. So I was: ‘It’ll be fine; it’ll be fine.’”
She opens her envelope. It is indeed fine, and there is much bouncing and hugging between Sophie and her friends.
‘Feeling of powerlessness’
Even those pupils who might have been expected to sleep more easily last night are nervous. “My teachers predicted me five A*s, yes,” says Carlos Rodriguez, 18, who has just matched his teachers’ expectations, and secured a place at Cambridge to study music. “But I did ask them to predict me high grades so I’d get an interview at Cambridge.”
He pauses. “My offer was A*, A, A, and I was quite scared that maybe I wasn’t going to get it - I’d get maybe three As or something. I was very, very stressed just after the exams, and I couldn’t sleep last night. You’ve always got those anxieties going through your mind - you get this feeling of powerlessness, when there’s nothing you can do.”
And, says Cotham headteacher Jo Butler, it is not only the pupils who feel like that at times. “With all the exam reforms - it’s been huge,” she says. “So much pressure.
“Teaching’s a stressful job, anyway, but the amount of external reform over the last few years - and GCSE reforms at the same time as A levels - it’s been huge.
“Completely different schemes of work, completely different curriculums. Adapting your teaching to a linear curriculum. It’s a huge amount of pressure, alongside the daily pressure of coming in and teaching. There’s nothing harder. Nothing.”
Nonetheless, assistant headteacher Aimi Potter insists that she is not stressed today. “I’d never put this down as a stressful day,” she says. “Generally speaking, it’s a really, really positive day.”
Tears of happiness
She points towards Suleekha Ali (pictured), who is wandering around the hall, clutching an open envelope and looking slightly dazed. The 18-year-old was expecting to achieve B, B, C; her offer from Cardiff University was B, B, B.
“I consistently got Ds in psychology through the year,” Suleekha says. “I got one C in my mock.
“So I tried really hard to switch my D up. Every Saturday, I’d go to the library and revise. When I had free periods, I would always stay in school, in the library. I had my B, B, B up on the wall. I was, ‘I will reach that; I will reach that.’”
In fact, Suleekha exceeded her own expectations, achieving A, B, B. The A grade was in psychology. “It was shocking,” she says. “I was shocked when I opened the envelope. I was so happy - I teared up. In May, I still had a D in psychology.
“Now it’s showed me that hard work reflects on your grades.”
Ms Potter says that it is seeing the successes of pupils like Suleekha that makes the day pleasurable for her.
“I think that people like to know how many kids get into Oxbridge, and how many A*s we got,” she says. “But that isn’t all the story. Some of our biggest successes are C grades, because those are the kids who’ve really grafted.”
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