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It’s been a quiet few weeks on the education front, with staff and pupils enjoying a well-earned holiday after another very busy, and very difficult, year.

But we’ve now reached August, which means that attention starts to turn to the new academic year, whether that means buying new uniforms or planning out lessons.

And, of course, it means exam results day is fast approaching.

Obviously, we don’t know what is going to happen with the results themselves until they are released on Tuesday next week.

Will pass rates have gone up or fallen? Will the gap between rich and poor have been narrowed or widened? We’ll have to wait for the answers to those sorts of questions.

But we do know of a few things.

One of them is that this is the first year in which full course assessments have been reintroduced since the pandemic. The SQA made the decision to do this despite significant opposition and argues that doing so is for the benefit of pupils. We’ll presumably find out on Tuesday if that is correct.

We also know that, as some young people celebrate results that meet or even exceed their expectations, others will be faced with a set of National 5, Higher or Advanced Higher grades that fall short of what they hoped for – and what their teachers had predicted.

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