ONCE again, we are delighted to share the stories of A-levels success from around the region. It would appear that the new exam format has not damaged results, and students and teachers have more than risen to meet the challenge they posed.

Good news is often in short supply, so today’s paper unashamedly celebrates these positive stories.

Too often people knock exam results, stressing they “don’t matter”.

We would not for one minute suggest that a poorer set of results than hoped for would define the rest of a student’s life – we have seen far too many success stories from people who left school or college with few or no qualifications to say that. And we wouldn’t want to downplay the worries of those whose results haven’t gone to plan.

But to state they don’t matter denigrates the hard work and commitment displayed by so many young people to achieve their grades.

Try telling the amazing Yuriy Tumarkin, from Durham his results aren’t important. The 18-year-old Durham Johnston student got five A*s and three As in maths, further maths, German, Russian, history, French, physics and chemistry and is going to study maths at Cambridge.

In a masterful display of understatement, he said: “They’ve all gone well.”

We are proud to report his story, and feature many other talented teenagers from across the North-East and North Yorkshire. We wish them all the best in their future careers.