'I find it all quite emotional': a teacher's reflection on exam results days

A-level and GCSE results days are an emotional experience for students, but also for their teachers. RGS modern foreign languages teacher LEE LYONS, pictured above, reflects on the highs and lows

I'M always nervous about results days. It starts the day before and stays with me until I check the results, logging on at 7am when the online system opens up. I can't wait until I get into school.

I find it all, particularly A-level results day, quite emotional. I feel pride in my students' achievements, disappointment for some, excitement for those who have overachieved and/or are going on to do amazing things and happiness in seeing students again after a long break, tinged with sadness that this part of our journey together has come to an end.

After eleven years at RGS, including two years without formal public exams, that is just getting harder. As well as teaching A-level, I am deputy head of Sixth Form so am doubly invested. As at GCSE, we will have taught our groups for two years (if not longer).

In my head they are 'my' students. I have invested in them and, particularly at A-level where we have smaller groups, I have got to know them well - their strengths and weaknesses, their aims and who they are as people.

I want my students to achieve what I believe them to be capable of, to obtain a result that allows them to go on to do what want to do next, to feel like they have achieved something and to be proud of themselves.

The A* grades are always special, particularly in languages where they are hard come by and always extremely well deserved. But there is nothing that makes me prouder than seeing a dedicated student get the grade they have worked so hard for, especially if they thought the exam hadn't gone their way.

The student who, disappointed by her setting in Year 9, worked tirelessly all the way through to do well at A-level and is now studying French at university. The one who did badly at AS, but then redid her AS year French alongside her A2 studies to get a well-deserved B grade. The one who thought he'd failed his speaking exam but refused to give up and gained an A. I'm proud of them all.

As part of the Sixth Form team, it's wonderful to see the students who have overcome immense personal difficulties to achieve their grades, or the ones who have turned things around to achieve what would have seemed impossible at the start of their A-levels.

I love it when a student comes over to say thank you or give me a hug and the hug in the photo has to be one of the loveliest moments in my decade of results days, but there are always proud and happy moments.

I joke that I am in teaching as a result of an early mid-life crisis. After seven years in marketing, I was no longer satisfied with what I was doing, and the idea of teaching (something that I was never, ever going to do or so I thought aged 18), suddenly took hold.

Two years later, I made the leap to study for my post-graduate certificate in education (PGCE) and I've never looked back. Like any profession, there are days where it feels like a bit of a slog, but I genuinely love what I do.

Sharing my love of languages and making a difference is the best job ever. Celebrating students' achievements is fantastic, but nothing compares to the heartfelt thanks of a student who recognises that you've tried to do your best for them and stood in their corner.

Those are the moments, the notes and the cards, that I treasure, especially on the hard days.