Today A Level results have come out. My A2 student texted me from LA to tell me she had got the grades she needed to go to NYU. I am delighted that she did so well in English and that she is going to the university she had set her heart on. I am a teacher, now specifically an online tutor, and I am working in order to provide support, encouragement and the skills required so that those of my students aiming for certain grades or schools can achieve what they need. We all know

We all have stories told within our families that seem too unlikely to be true. The story of our maternal grandfather is one. A career soldier, he was badly wounded in the Somme and spent time being looked after by a wonderfully generous French woman. My brother has designed a beautiful and fitting tribute to our grandfather which I post above. As the centenary of Britain's entry into what became known as the First World War approaches, we are all thinking about how war has c