Last week, thousands of young people across Scotland - my youngest daughter included - received their SQA results. You could say, therefore, I’ve had a ringside seat to watch firsthand the pressure of the past academic year.

Whether you’re a traditionalist and waited for the postie with bated breath, or you got the text that set hearts pounding throughout the nation, let me start by saying this to any school leavers who may be reading: congratulations.

Congratulations not just on a letter or number on a certificate but for overcoming the unique pressures of being educated in a post-pandemic world. Congratulations for knuckling down when the going got tough and still showing up. Congratulations for doing your best, whatever that looked like and whatever the result.

For those who didn’t get the results they hoped for, that ‘congratulations’ is just as applicable. Having watched both my daughters go through their educational journey in Glasgow secondary schools, but have very different journeys, experiences and outcomes, it strikes me that the old saying that ‘school’s not for everyone’ has never been truer.

So please hear this: your future is not defined by a single exam or qualification.

I certainly didn’t leave school clutching a handful of Highers that presented a golden ticket to university. Instead, I entered the workforce fulltime at the age of 17 and you’d be amazed by the number........

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