This article appears as part of the Lessons to Learn newsletter.

To all the parents, pupils, teachers, lecturers, support staff, and education journalists – we made it! As I type these words, the academic year is over, and I’m just a few hours away from finding out how many pastel de nata are appropriate in a single sitting.

So before I go, let’s have a look back over the past year and a tentative glimpse towards the next one.

First of all, a recap of some of our biggest stories.

Almost as soon as the exam results came out in August, a scandal began to emerge.

History teachers got in touch with The Herald to accuse the SQA, the country’s perennially crisis-hit exam board, of “moving the goalposts” when it came to the marking of Higher History exams.

SQA officials insisted there was nothing to the reports, and then quietly launched an investigation that turned out to be run by a member of SQA staff, and which subsequently exonerated other SQA staff of any wrongdoing. Everyone was, as you can imagine, shocked by the entirely unforeseeable outcome.

The matter was raised in parliament, sparked some incredible education committee sessions, and ultimately rumbled on for months with no real resolution ever achieved. The students involved will probably never know........

© Herald Scotland