Today we have been celebrating your Level 2 examination results in the form of GCSE or BTEC qualifications.  

I hope you all know how much we appreciate you and what you have brought to The Grange.  As a Year Group you were a delight and deserve the rewards that your hard work and enthusiasm for learning bring.  We are all very proud of your achievements and wish you every success for the future.

You will define your own success, but for me, if you have the self-satisfaction that you achieved the best you could achieve then that to me is success.  I know from talking to the vast majority of you that you have clear plans for the future and for of us here today we hope that the doors have been opened to the next chapter in your education, training or employment.

For many, you will be returning to us in the 6th Form, and we look forward to welcoming you back into the world of study.  You will have had a long, well-deserved break and it is important to get back into good habits.  Others will begin at either college, or an alternative school and we wish you every success and happiness.  Some of you will be entering the world of work, and I have every confidence that you will be great employees.  It will be a completely different setting and you will have the opportunity to be yourself and make the most of the opportunities ahead.

As I wrote to Year 13 last week, there will be those of you who are rightly absolutely thrilled with your achievements, and there will be others who will think that they should or could have achieved more.  In all cases it is a time to reflect and grow, learn from what you did well and what you could do better next time. 

Today is a time to celebrate in both your own achievements and the achievements of others, express thanks and appreciation to those friends, family, and staff members who have helped you on your current journey, and to be grateful for both what you have and for what lies ahead. 

What we know is that your passage through school was disrupted for the best part of two years due to COVID, but you made the best of a difficult time in history. It is very difficult to make comparisons with previous years due to adjustments over the COVID years and there are no definitive measures available as yet, but we believe that as a Year Group you have performed very well.

Today is a time to remember and you will recall in futures years what it was like collecting your first set of results from public examinations.  It is a big event and although it will not define you or determine the rest of your life, it will hopefully ease the way into what you choose to do next. 

On behalf of all the staff here at The Grange we want to congratulate you, thank you, and wish you every success for the future.