Advice on hand as stressful time for pupils approaches

Testing time for Moray school pupils.
Testing time for Moray school pupils.

THE CLOCK IS running down on the often stressful wait for school examinations results which this year are due to be published on August 9.

Pupils from around Moray will receive certificates by first class post – while those who have signed up to the online MySQA service will receive an email or text from 8am on that day notifying them of their results.

Moray Council have acknowledge that this can be a stressful time for pupils, a spokesman saying: “Exam results time can be an anxious one for young people who have conditional offers to go on to study at university or college as they wait to see if their grades will allow them into their chosen course of study.

“All applications for places at UK universities and colleges are processed by UCAS, the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service. They have additional staff available to deal with the expected flood of inquiries at this time.”

Students who are concerned about their results are being told their first point of contact is their school, where senior staff and guidance teachers will be available. There is also help available online through the SQA website, while the SQA will also operate a Candidate Advice Line to support candidates with their queries around the time of results day.

The line gives general information to candidates about how their results certificate is laid out, although operators will not have access to candidates’ results.

The line runs from Tuesday, August 9 to Friday, August 12 and is accessible either by phone on 0345 279 1000 or by completing the candidate enquiry form on the SQA website.

UCAS can be contacted by telephone on 0371 468 0468, by e-mail at enquiries@ucas.ac.uk or via their website www.ucas.com.

For youngsters looking for careers and employment advice, Skills Development Scotland staff will be on hand at the local office in Elgin where face-to-face advice is available.

Skills Development Scotland also has a telephone helpline offering expert careers advice, on university and college vacancies and next step career options for students.

The helpline will be available from 8am to 8pm on Tuesday, August 9 and Wednesday, August 10 by dialling 0808 100 8000. This service will then continue to run on successive days between 9 am and 5 pm until August 17.

Alternatively you can access information via Facebook.