In the middle of the summer, just when we have achieved that hard-earned state of relaxation and switched off from thinking about school, the storm of results day hits us hard. It’s a day that ravages through schools and colleges every year and leaves many students unsure about their future.

Some teachers will be looking up at the gathering clouds excited for the sunny days to follow. Others are preoccupied with the reign of new students beginning in September, barely stopping to enjoy the many successes of this year’s hard work. For all teachers, soon the internal landscape will change from holiday relaxation, to thinking about designing a better revision program for next year.

In the next few weeks, students will be timidly opening up their browsers and emails to discover the culmination of their hard-fought studies. College students will be discovering if they’ve achieved the scores they need to pass their conditional offers from universities. Education leaders will be looking into the numbers to see if a statistical trend stares back.

There will be swathes of smiling faces across the country, a feeling that leaves every dedicated teacher filled with pride. However, we can’t ignore the portion of students out there that will be left with less than ideal results. Students with reading difficulties often expect to receive poor attainment, sliding into a near panic as the results day comes around. Intelligent and hard-working students find themselves worried about what the future holds for someone with a learning difficulty like them. It can be overwhelming having to read and re-read the results that seemed to keep sliding around the page, over and over again.

It can be challenging for someone with a learning difficulty to see and celebrate their hard-earned successes when they become overshadowed by fear of failing. It’s important to remember that we all have other amazing, tenacious, and vibrant skills that shouldn’t go ignored. To remember that, even if intended goals aren’t reached, there is still support available everywhere. Adapting the way we learn can unlock the potential we know is there.

How we talk about results to students is really important. How it is shared between family and friends, and by the voice of authority. As the results come in, be sure to remind anyone disheartened by their outcomes that their score doesn’t reflect their expansive qualities.

To wrap it up, a big thank you to all the teachers that have worked hard to help your students reach their goals and a good luck to the students taking their next step in their lives.