Exam results come out today

and I am expecting to get some news. It will come from both students I have worked with this year and their parents.

It's been a tough year. Last year was a tough year too. These students have gone through the last two years of their school life without what we all considered to be the normal support networks and social interactions. 

I have been thinking about this and wondering what school is really about for most teenagers. I rather doubt it is actually about learning. It seems more likely that it is about social interaction with others. 

Of course learning is an important part of all this. The subject choices they made in year ten will almost certainly influence what they do for the rest of their lives. Some of them will have discussed career choices with their friends. Others will have said very little, if anything at all. 

Only one of the students I have given some extra help to has gone off to "schoolies" - the end of year event for year twelves. It is a much lower key affair this year. Some of the others have had part-time jobs which are now full time in the lead up to Christmas. Others have short term Christmas jobs. 

I am thinking of all of them this morning. I am very glad I am not the one who has to look up my results on line. At least they don't have to search the state's newspaper for their results the way we did. Nor do they have to endure the rugby like scrum that we endured when our results were posted on the wall at university.  

But, it still matters. It is all very well for the rest of us to tell them it isn't the end of the world if they have not done as well as they wished it still matters to them. 

That is why my phone is fully charged this morning. It is why I will stop pedalling if I am on my way to see the Senior Cat. It is why I won't have my phone on "silent" in today's meeting. I want to be ready to congratulate or commiserate. 

And I want them to know that school's out - and their lives are still ahead of them.