We’ve just had A-level and GCSE results days here in the UK, and I am struck by just how much of the public conversation on both the dates revolved around adults telling their stories about how they didn’t get the grades they had wanted originally, and how that has affected them in a positive way. There are countless tales of people choosing to do something very different as a result, and those who found a way around the disappointing results to get back on track for the future they wanted. This is the conversation I hear repeated every single year at this time.

The one thing we don’t hear people in public telling the 16 and 18-year-olds at the time of results day is that this was the biggest moment in their lives and that if they got disappointing results, they’ve essentially ruined their future.

Because it’s not true. The truth is, there are many ways to get to do what you want to do, and if you’re not sure what it is you want to do (and who can blame a 16 or 18-year-old for not knowing??!) then there is plenty of time to find out what you’re good at, and where your passions lie. Life does not need to be laid out for you while you’re still an adolescent!

And yet, right from the moment they start working towards them, the children are told a story of how everything in their future hinges on their GCSEs/A-Levels. It isn’t fair on them. It puts undue pressure on their developing minds and bodies. It certainly does not help with the supposed task of “getting them ready for the real world” which our education system purports to do.

So why, I wonder, is this the story they hear? To whose benefit is the telling of this story?

In my opinion, we really need to have a good hard look at the education system, in its totality, and work out what it’s really for, and how best to achieve that aim. Because, as things stand, it is failing on so many levels.

In the meantime, here is “Après le Bac,” a large lino print of a group of teenagers after the French exams, for sale in our Etsy shop.