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Susan Aitken: 'There is genuinely never just one road to success'

Susan Aitken: 'There is genuinely never just one road to success'

Yahooa day ago
It's been a long and anxious summer for the thousands of Glaswegian young folk anticipating their exam results.
With the wait now over, my warmest congratulations go to all of our young people, relieved that they've secured the results they'd hoped for.
A huge well done, and it's great to see all that hard work pay off.
READ MORE: Glasgow pupil heading for top art school after exam success
For those young Glaswegians who may be disappointed with their results, please remember there's no wrong path to achieving your goals.
That's difficult advice to take on board if you've just received news you didn't want.
But there is genuinely never just one road to success.
For those in this situation, help is at hand.
Experts at Skills Development Scotland are offering telephone and face-to-face advice on everything from staying on at school to moving into training, apprenticeships and employment, as well as college and university vacancies.
At the time of writing, colleagues within the Council's Education Department are crunching the data and working out what this year's set of results means for pupils.
At this early stage, all the indications are that Glasgow's young people have once again delivered a solid set of results.
There are advances in a number of areas, especially within our Advanced Higher results and at S4, with improved National 5 results.
Crucially, the long-term trend in the city is also one of progress, with this year showing significant rises in the number of S5 and S6 pupils securing five or more Highers since 2019.
These are remarkable achievements for everyone in our school communities.
During our time as Glasgow's democratic leadership, the SNP City Administration has shared the same goal as our teachers, school staff and our partners: to put in place the right conditions to give our students the best possible chances to give them the foundations they need to create good lives and solid economic futures for themselves and their families.
Over recent years, the achievements of our young people have been a real modern success story for Glasgow.
READ MORE: Political row breaks out over closing the exam results attainment gap
All the signs from these latest results are that Glasgow's schools and education staff are continuing to deliver for our young people.
As the clean-up after Storm Floris continues across Scotland, here in Glasgow, the impact of the unseasonably strong winds has thankfully been minimal.
The city wasn't entirely unscathed.
In my own Langside ward, for example, emergency services were called to King's Park Station after a fire broke out when overhead lines were damaged by the storm.
And in Toryglen, a number of homes were hit by a power cut early in the evening.
Elsewhere, some vehicles were overturned, and commuters will have been hit by the disruption to public transport and the temporary closure of the westbound M8.
And, of course, some householders across the city will be in contact with their insurers over storm damage to their properties.
But I was relieved that the knock-on from Floris to council services was not as severe as it could have been.
We managed to keep all Council-run nurseries open, home carers were able to go about their daily visits, and although an early decision was taken to suspend household waste and recycling services, these were back underway by mid-afternoon.
Gully cleaning resumed after a short suspension, and parks teams are dealing with some damage to trees, but nothing compared to Storm Eowyn in January.
Nonetheless, my huge thanks go to all Council staff who went that extra mile to keep the city running throughout the storm.
READ MORE: How Glasgow pupils performed in 2025 SQA exams
There will, though, be some backlog to work through, particularly for our refuse teams, and a little patience may be required as our staff work through that.
There's no doubt that unseasonal and extreme weather events are something which are increasingly more common and will require us to adapt to.
That's why the Council's contingency planning continues to evolve, so that when called upon to respond, we can do so as effectively and efficiently as we can.
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