Best wishes to all A Level students and their families today. The confusion and contingencies of a pandemic are not, and can never be, the final word on your hard work or your potential. In fact, no one ever gets to make that judgement definitively except you.

Qualifications are one milestone and there are other chances. There are people ready to offer those chances. There are many paths forward from today and sometimes the unexpected path leads somewhere wonderful.

Thank you to teachers, leaders and university staff working hard today and in the days to come to make the best of it. That sense that you focus on the person within (and above) the system always fills me with hope.