Glasgow Gaelic School pupils celebrate exam results

Fortunately, the school and its pupils did their Mrs Campbell-Thow's inaugural year proud.

"I haven't been that sick since I was pregnant because it's that whole thing that you just want them to do well," she said.

"In particular, your first set of exams as a head teacher is hard.

"But I couldn't be prouder than if I was their mum. The kids did really well, but we've been fielding phone calls all day from parents. There's still a bit of confusion around appeals this year and what comes next."

High achiever Muireann Dalton is about to go into fifth year with an impressive CV secured already: the 16-year-old today earned straight As in a mixture of National 5s, a Higher and an Advanced Higher.

Muireann inexplicably managed to juggle her impressive academic achievements with 15 hours of gymnastics practice a week and keeps up an array of musical instruments.

She was one of five S4 pupils across Glasgow to take an Advanced Higher - hers was in music - and one of 70 to sit a Higher - this one in French - early.

"For this year I winged it quite a bit as it was quite hard juggling it all and doing the extracurricular stuff but next year I will have to knuckle down and work harder... although I'll only have the five subjects," she said.

"I was really nervous yesterday about geography and physics because I didn't think the exams went that well but I got As."

Text messages with results arrived on teenagers' mobile phones from 8am this morning and Muireann signed up to the text service after a long wait last year for the postman.

She said: "I actually woke up to the bing on my phone. I thought the text was going to come through at midnight so I waited til 1am before I Googled it and realised I was wrong.

"I was in bed when I got the text but the first person I phoned was my granny and she was delighted, she used to be a teacher.

"Then I phoned my brother who is 24 and basically a genius. He's doing physics at uni and all my family are involved in physics in some way so if I did badly in that I would never have lived it down."

Muireann, who plans to celebrate her results by "sitting and feeling relieved", hopes to go on to study engineering or astrophysics but is passionate about music too.

She added: "Music is a really big part of my life so I'd like to keep that up more as a hobby. Now I've done the Advanced Higher I'll have to use my own initiative to keep that up."

Fellow new S5 Anna Morrison also sat an Advanced Higher in her fourth year, along with her National 5s, and also achieved all As.

The 16-year-old said: "It was a bit tough, especially coming up to exams, but I just tried to manage things as well as I could and it worked out.

"I play the fiddle so in S2 I was approached to do Nat 5 music, which was really exciting, and I did that along with tuned percussion.

"It was really nice and to get that out of the way gives me more choices for fifth and sixth year."

Anna will study five Highers next year with the hope of going on to train at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and become a professional musician.

In fact, she has to wrap up her interview with The Herald promptly as she's performing at a UCI World Championships event in the Merchant City before going to a library to teach early years children about traditional music.

Anna said: "Exams were a bit daunting at first but by the time of the last exams I had got into the swing of things a little bit.

"Our year group has had a lot to cope with after covid.

"The first few days back was tough going from a home environment and then returning to school but I do notice more that it has had an effect on the younger year groups."

Mrs Campbell-Thow said the S4 group had had a particular eye kept on them as they were in S1 when the covid lockdown hit but they have, for the most part, thrived.

She added: "Early presentations in languages is something our school has always had because we have a lot of native speakers.

"There's real mixed opinion on early presentation. We see it in particular subjects where there are real strengths, whether that's particular to our school community where there are music and languages, which are a big part of the school identity.

"If the children are ready for it then it's good for them. If they're ready for that then we shouldn't be putting a ceiling on it.

"With a smaller school you can't offer that width of curriculum and in the medium of Gaelic you want to keep the subjects in Gaelic so you can't offer that breadth of subjects but you can offer the depth and do it that way."

Francesca McNeill was also celebrating with her classmates having achieved As and Bs in her National 5s - "a lot better than I had expected".

"It was really, really scary to get my result by text message. My mum was telling me, 'Don't open it until I'm ready,' but I really wanted to open it.

"I was planning to wake up before the text but I forgot to set my alarm so when I woke up the text message was already there and I was in a state of panic, it was really scary, but I really wanted to open it.

My mum was really, really happy - she did not expect what I got either."

Francesca now hopes to go on and be a teacher herself, working in a Gaelic school. She added: "I really like working with kids and having a good teacher can make such of a difference."

Councillor Christina Cannon, City Convener for Education and Early Years in Glasgow, said: “We must remember that we are still experiencing the after effects of the pandemic and especially the impact that this had on our young people.

“But our results today reflect how resilient and impressive our children are.

“Despite the challenges, they have shown a strength and willpower that illustrates that they can find the strength to continue and do their best.

“I am very humbled by this attitude, but not surprised and I continue to be amazed by their tenacity."