Everyone remembers results day – the nervous anticipation and then opening the envelope to see the letters on the page. My own results day is longer ago than I’d like to admit, but it’s still a clear memory. Yesterday – on my first results day at the helm of The Access Project – I had the same nervousness multiplied by 315 as our Year 13 students got their grades!

Like many of the team, I spent the day in one of our partner schools supporting students. For some, this was congratulating them on their success, for others, consoling and helping them find a place through clearing. At Chelsea Academy, two of our students made their Cambridge offers – an amazing achievement for any young person. A couple of other students hadn’t met their grades, but through the expert support of our team were able to find places at top universities. On this stressful day, you could really see the trusted relationships our staff had built up over the years bearing fruit. Students listened to their calm advice, or came back into school having gone AWOL, and rather than panicking, stayed positive. Our students also paid tribute to their volunteer tutors, who were crucial in helping them get their results. ‘He’ll never believe I got an A, I can’t wait to tell him!’ said one student.

 
As the day wore on, stories appeared on the staff WhatsApp group of student successes, tips on where people had managed to place students who missed their grades, and excellent bits of advice. Seeing the elation and relief of our students really brought home what we’re all working towards, and why our mission is so vital.
 
 
Students featured in the image (from left): Mohamed Abdo (Royal Holloway to study Biomedical sciences), Elif Karanis (Cambridge to study modern and medieval languages),  Milena Gomes (Warwick to study psychology), Adam Rehman (Imperial College to study Electronic and Information Engineering), Blerim Gashi (Queen Mary to study maths). 

Click here to see more of our results day successes on Twitter.