Letter from the editor: That scary envelope

Has that scary envelope been opened in your household yet? If not, the best of British to you.

If it has, may we soothe your worries a little if you didn’t get the results you wanted – probably because that damn dog kept on eating your homework and you got hay fever on the big day.

There was much talk in the i office about when we all did our GCSEs. Correction, when some of us did our GCSEs, because there are a few greybeards about who did O-levels. And for those of us who grew up north of the border, O-grades and “highers”.

It was a pretty mixed set of results if we are being honest. Charlotte, the feisty Geordie designer, led the way – in quantity terms anyway, by landing an extraordinary 13 of them (all A*-C, since you ask). I didn’t even know you could take that many, or that you could get one in “statistics”.

Mind you, everytime she tells us exactly which ones she got, it adds up to14, so maybe her “statistics” need a brush up. To think, we mostly only natter about font sizes, the crops on photographs and colour palettes – oh, and stotties. We could be discussing Macbeth or magnesium reactions.

Not everyone here did that well – no names, no pack-drill (where does that fine expression comes from?). I’ll leave you to judge whether or not you think a job at The Independent/ i constitutes making the most of a bad academic start, but judging by the number of you who write in wanting work experience here, you might. As the father of a daughter about to begin year 10 and another starting year 9, I have all this stress ahead of me – never mind them! Based on my experience of chatting to 16-year-olds and their parents this past week, there isn’t one who hasn’t worked hard for today’s results, and not one who isn’t sweating on the outcome.

Good luck to you all. And feel free to share any good stories with us.