Congratulations to all the local school pupils who recently received their SQA results after putting in so much work to achieve the best possible marks.
I know how nerve-racking it can be to wait to find out what grades you've achieved. I remember it well from just a few years ago when my son was expecting his results. I was probably more anxious than he was!
As a parent, I know it's heart-warming to see your children do well after they've worked so hard. There's really no better feeling.
While lots of West Dunbartonshire students and pupils across Scotland did very well, the overall results were not the best for the SNP Government.
Nationally, pass rates fell while the attainment gap between the richest and poorest pupils grew wider.
The figures for the attainment gap are particularly shocking. Recent figures show that the gap between those from the least and most deprived backgrounds who achieve a pass increased to 17 per cent. For A grades, the gap was even bigger, at almost 28 percent.
While not all the information has been published yet for West Dunbartonshire, we do know that locally, the percentage of pupils achieving A grades dropped by 5 per cent at Higher this year.
The SNP will most likely try to claim that any criticism of these results means I am criticising pupils or teachers. That's not the case.
This drop in results is not the fault of pupils or teachers, not at all.
I am actually very impressed that so many pupils and teachers have managed to succeed in spite of the SNP's disastrous handling of the education system.
For many years now, pupils and teachers in Scotland's schools have been badly let down by systemic failures from the top.
As I have repeatedly raised in the Scottish Parliament and in public forums, the SNP have broken promise after promise on Scottish education.
The attainment gap was supposed to be closed by now, that was what Nicola Sturgeon promised way back in 2015. Instead, it's growing.
Teacher numbers were supposed to have increased. They haven't.
Class sizes were supposed to be smaller. They're not.
And on top of all that, the SNP's changes to the curriculum have not helped prepare young people for the future as effectively as possible.
When students leave school, many don't have all the life skills they need to succeed in the world.
That's something I've campaigned to change. Last year I brought forward a Skills for Life plan to ensure everyone gets taught financial literacy and leaves school with an understanding of bills, taxes, mortgages and other crucial elements of adulthood.
It's a real shame that the SNP haven't taken that forward or listened to any of my party's proposals to improve standards and behaviour in Scotland's schools.
Their failure to adequately support generations of young people will go down as one of the SNP's biggest failures in government.
I can only hope that they now act to change things before more children are disadvantaged.
