School and Life

Just a blog to help with school problems and life problems connected to eachother. Mainly focused on the Welsh/British education system but I'm always happy to help in anyway I can :)

[schoolandlife]

These are the pictures to accompany my latest blog post at http://schoolandlife01.wordpress.com/ 

This blog post is out lining what is normally in my school bag so here's a list of where I bought these main items;

My actual school bag from Paperchase

My lunch box from Asda (Sistema brand)

My A4 notebook from Asda (NU brand)

My pencil case from WHSmiths

My clip purse from Peacocks

My purse from Cath Kidston

My small diary from WHSmiths

My A5 notebook bought at the Doctor Who Experience in Cardiff.

[schoolandlife]

New Blog Post!

A little account of a student's life.

A new blog post on what is in my school bag! :) Photos to follow.

[schoolandlife]

New stationary themed blog post :) Had to post this one as a link because it includes lots of pictures :)

[schoolandlife]

An Actual Upload Schedule

Hello :)

I'm so sorry that the blog posts have been pretty scarce but between it being summer, the summer homework and the tough personal time life's been a bit hectic and there haven't been many school themed updates to write a blog post about. However I have good news, I start school next week and that's when I'll have more material to to write blog posts about so I was thinking its about time I set myself an actual day to upload a blog post on, and this day will most likely be Sunday or Monday. Obviously this depends on the amount of homework, what I'm doing on the weekend, or even just the amount I have to write about but I will write if there isn't going to be a blog post on Sunday on Twitter (username will be bellow) and then whether the post will be uploaded another day or if there's going to be one at all but I will always try my hardest to make it happen on the Sunday :)

So main point is, new blog posts will be up on Sundays :)

Hope you all like this :) 

From Vicky :)

E-mail -  [email protected]

Twitter - @SchoolandLife01

[schoolandlife]

A break up...

Hello guys, I'm warning you now this is going to be a personal one about a really tough situation i'm in right now and I don't really know what to say about it and I don't really have any advice for it but I hope that you can at least take something out of my story. I've been dating this guy for a year and five months and right for day one he was amazing and it was a really romantic relationship but then things started going down hill and it was so noticeable because of how great it was in the beginning, I'm not going to go into detail but basically he broke up with me saying he wasn't happy and hadn't been for months. so I was just left on the side broken hearted while he went off got two new girlfriends in the space of a week. I'm not going to lie that the hardest thing about this has been that the way he's been acting now just feels like he doesn't care about how I'm feeling or about what we had and after a long relationship that really hurts. I have meet him since with his new girlfriend and it was not a nice experience at all, all I could really compare it to was the bullies I faced in school and it was like he was a completely different person. But that's what I'm taking away from that, that while it's harsh, he probably doesn't care as much as he should but as long as you take the moral high ground and just say to yourself "While he is off being harsh and not caring, you're going to show him you can be better than that and show him you can heal yourself with out him." He did break up with me on an anniversary (1 Year and 5 Months), just before his birthday when we were going to go on a mini holiday and then in September celebrate our 1 Year and 6 Month anniversary and I know that until after the date that our 1 Year and ^ month anniversary would of been it's going to be stupidly hard but on the bright side this gives me a date to look to and think, after that one really hard day everything's going to get better and you'll have both your school work and your friends in school and it'll get better in time. I know compared to what some people go through this looks like nothing but each relationship and person is different and he was my first boyfriend and I never saw him breaking up with me after a year and five moths coming but I know that in school I have a lot to look forward to like being a prefect, learning the guitar, and even working hard (I know it makes me seem sad) but this has given me something to think to myself when it's hard. That I'm going to use Year 13 to show both him and myself that I can remain my normal nerdy hard working self but I can also show him what he's missing in the fact of I want to be a good prefect, I want to learn the guitar and I want to go to university, but I also know that when I get past this hard month with all the milestones I would of spent with him, that I can focus on doing the best that I can with this academic year and get into University with the support of my friends and parents and show him that I can remain myself after this break up and even improve myself. This is also the first post I'm sharing on my personal Facebook and Tumblr so if any of my friends who know me personally are reading this I just want to say thank you guys so much you've really helped and I know with you guys around me both in school and out of school I know I'll get through this and I love you guys. And also a massive thank you to my parents and my dad said something to me that made me realize how much I need to turn this bad situation into a learning experience to help me improve myself and that was "I haven't had my little girl for a while but now I've got my little girl back." and that's shown me that I need the people who have always been there for me in order to show me I can be my own person and improve myself and keep the moral high ground and if I can get through this month then I know everything will be looking up. And finally if he is reading this, and he knows who he is, I'm just going to say that I'm happy to still be friends with you but you have a hell of a lot of bridges to build back up. Thank you for reading this ranty and kinda sad blog post but I appreciate it :) From Vicky :) E-mail - [email protected]

[schoolandlife]

Results Day :)

Hello all :) I just want to say I'm sorry for the long gap and I know results day was a little while ago but I've been going through a really rough personal time. Right onto the main subject of this post, the 'joy' of results day. Now I'm going to start with my own personal experience with my results. Also a little disclaimer for this, I'm not doing this to brag I'm simply doing this to show my experience and talk about how these reflect the experience of my exams. Now I've thought of what I would want for my results before results day and I was going in with ideally needing three B's for my three subjects and then I would work on improving them through Year 13. Now it turns out I got just what I needed but not necessarily as expected. I got two B's in English Lit. and in R.E but surprisingly I got an A in Sociology :) On my results sheet they gave us what we got in our individual exams so I also got my grade for SY1 and SY2 and I found a little lesson in this. Now SY1 was the module we covered in class from the start of Year 12 to about Christmas, but we didn't have the SY1 exam in January, instead we had to cover SY2 and then revise both units for the two summer exams. I hated having to go back and practically learn all of SY1 again and this showed in my exam, I got a C in my SY1 exam but for Sy2, the one that was worth more of my grade and the one I was more confident in because I had recently learnt it was SY2 and for this exam I got an A. This shows that if you don't do well in one half of your subject you can still bring it up with the other half, so if you're struggling with one half, maybe it's similar to mine and you're just struggling with a part of the course that you learnt ages ago and you find it hard to go back and learn it again, so if you struggle with one part look at the other part and focus on making that the absolute best it can be. However don't completely ignore the half you're struggling with, go in and talk to your teacher about it and try to improve it but don't be disheartened if you do better in one as both these marks go towards an overall grade so you can use you're understanding of one to help bring up your mark in the other. :) I was more surprised with my results this year and I defiantly wasn't disappointed, even if I did say I would of rather got the A in English Lit. but just remember if you didn't get the grades you wanted and you need to bring them up in Year 13, take your results in and show your teacher in the subject you need to improve and tell them you would really like to go up a grade so they are aware and they can help you understand the work and warn you of how much work you will need to do in order to improve to the level you want to be at. Also don't be worried about another jump in work load, as you already have experience of the work needed in Year 12 so you need to be prepared especially for the extra need to do all of the applying for UCAS but this should all be done by Christmas and a lot of pressure will be taken off if you can do a draft of your personal statement during the summer so then all you need to do within school is redrafting with the help of your teachers. Please share your results day experiences and I hope you all did as well as you wanted and deserved :) From Vicky :) E-mail - [email protected]

[schoolandlife]

WHAT IS YOUR EARLIEST HUMAN MEMORY?

Filming a green screen Safari video in nursary, where I was in the car just doing what the lady told me and looking kinda cute :)

[schoolandlife]

Yeah... Trying to read both these books in summer and do all the rest of my summer homework is not the best idea :( This is the joy of English Lit. :P

[schoolandlife]

Summer Homework

Hello all :) Just going to say now I'm sorry for the lack of updates as the last week was one of my mum's only week's off so we have been making the most of it so I haven't had much time to sit down and write but now I have so I hope this post makes up for the sparse upload schedule :)

This post is about summer homework. I have never really had any summer homework before but as Sixth Form basically takes two years to complete and you don't really change teachers from year to year and the courses may retain the same structure your'e more likely to have summer homework, sucks I know.

However there is a form of silver lining, my summer homework at least can be split into sections and should (main word here) be easier to keep on top of, notice I didn't say complete :P I only really have very little homework from English Lit, for my head of Sixth Form and the main subject I have homework for is the dreaded Welsh Bac.

The homework for English Lit really isn't all that bad as it's pretty much essential and only includes buying the necessary books and doing research on a poet, so that isn't that bad. However on the other hand the Welsh Bac homework can be a big pain as I have to complete some pages of the Diary (about 10 or so pages) and an entire booklet. This homework can be very easy to just not want to do an forget about it but unfortunately if you leave it your going to find it's going to catch up with you and just leave you in a panic just before you go back to school, which you really don't need in Year 13 with the Uni applications going off around Christmas. I have told myself that I'm going to try my hardest to find a balance between having fun this summer and not shutting myself away for two days to just get it all done (but that would work for some people especially near the end of the summer). So what I'm going to do is take it slowly and gradually and see how it goes, by doing say two questions for the booklet and maybe a page to half a page of the diary a day or every two days, so I don't wear myself out.

The key to homework like this is to try and get it done early, if you want to shut yourself away for a day or two to just get it all done then the first week is ideal but if you want to take my approach then it's vital to plan out your summer and make most your plans early so you know when you can work on it, and most importantly DON'T FORGET ABOUT IT!

Some may be lucky and only have one piece of summer homework which for Sixth Form students is vital if you want to go to Uni. It's to create a draft of your personal statement. Now when you get to school and hand it in to be read and checked you may be told to just re-write it all again but it's still vital to create a draft during the summer so you can start to get a feel for what it's like to write one and to get your main ideas down on paper. It can also give you an idea of what course you would be more suited to by looking at your personal interests and achievements down on paper.

So overall don't leave your summer homework to last minute and don't forget about it, either get it done at the start or plan out when your'e going to do it and stick to your plan as best you can :)

Hope you found this post useful.

From Vicky :)

E-mail - [email protected]

[schoolandlife]

Open Days and websites

Hello :)

This post is about open days. These open days are put on by Universities so that you can see an insight into what their building is like, what the course is like, and even what their staff are like. Ultimately this is the Uni's opportunities to sell themselves to you to inspire you to put their course on your list of Uni's to apply to and they hope to get an offer off you because you have liked what you saw at that specific open day.

If you plan on going to university you really need to start going to these open days early preferably starting the beginning of year 12 maybe even the start of year 11, but if you decide to go this early i would go back at say the end of year 12 to make sure there aren't going to be any major changes for when you are applying to the Uni. These open days can also help you figure out what course you want to do, not just the Uni you want to go to and this will help you find out what your passion is, ultimately fueling your personal statement.

I started going a hell of a lot earlier than you really need to, I went to my local Uni about an Art course in Year 10 but obviously my aims have changed since then and you really don't need to be going this early but don't leave everything to even your last year.

Websites can also be a helpful part in this search but if you plan to go somewhere out side of your home town or somewhere you aren't really familiar with, don't just rely on the website as you need to get a feel of the city, the travel, and what the accommodation that Uni offer is like. But websites are defiantly a big help and you need to start on these to figure out three very important things; 1) Which Uni's offer the course you think you would want to do 2) When their open days actually are 3) Booking your place at the open days.

Obviously to find the dates of the open days and how to book them you need to go to the actual websites of the Uni's but the best starting point is UCAS. On UCAS you can search by course and location. For example you can search for 'English Lit' and state that you live in Wales and you will get a list of Universities (not just in Wales) that have an English and/or English Lit course. Here you can get a review of the course and all the basic information that you need but you will also then have a link to the website of the universities where you can then begin to plan going on open days.

UCAS is also an important site as you do your actual Uni applications through them.

Here is the link to the UCAS website -> http://www.ucas.com/

I hope you all found this post helpful :) 

From Vicky x

E-Mail - [email protected]

[schoolandlife]

The AS exams

Hello :)

The AS exams are the exams you take after the first year of Sixth Form (around the age of 17) and these exams mainly go by in a bit of a blur as they were all done in about two weeks (some of my friend's took longer but they were still done by the end of May).

Overall I was happy with how they all went and I, surprisingly didn't stress as much as I thought I would during the actual exams. If anything I was more stressed at the start of the year than during the exams but this could of been because by the time the exams rolled around I was used to the work load and I had gone past the vast jump from GCSE to A-Level, that I have done a separate post on.

I only encountered a few issues during my exams with the main one being the agony of not knowing. This applies to both before and after the exams. Before the exams I hated not knowing what the topic of the questions would be but the main issues for me started after the exams as not only did I worry about the amount I had written, whether it would be enough or not enough, and also not knowing my results and knowing I wouldn't know until August. This is particularly hard when you go to Uni open days and you see the required grades but you simply don't know your result.

I will update you on how the results go :)

I hope you found this helpful and enjoyed it,

from Vicky :)

E-Mail - [email protected]

[schoolandlife]

Revision lurks behind you

Hello :)

This blog post is mainly aimed at the AS exams that I've just gone through but this is mainly about revision so you can put this advise towards any form of revision or preparation you need to do as all subjects will ultimately need revision for exams and even subjects that are assessed by coursework will need preparation in some way :)

The teachers particularly in A-Level will tell you to to start your revision early and believe me although overall I was happy with how they went, I still wish that I had started my revision early. My technique to 'revise through the year' is to take it slowly and to type or re-write the notes you make in class as this will help you go through your notes to find the very important information (which I would put in bold or in red but don't leave anything else out) and this will also make your notes neater and easier to read when it comes to your full on revision closer to your exams because, believe me there is nothing worse to really needing to revise a topic and finding your notes aren't very readable because you rushed to get them written in the first place.

As your exams get better you will have to combine reading over your notes with other things such as spider diagrams but taking care of all the re-writing through out the year (after every class preferably) then you'll have a lot more time closer to exams to do extra revision like this.You also will still need to read over and over your notes during study leave as once is never enough but it all pays off in the end. :)

I hope you enjoyed this and found it helpful :)

From Vicky x

E-Mail - [email protected]

[schoolandlife]

The jump from GCSE to a-Level

Hello :)

If you choose to continue in school and go on to Sixth Form, you can be tempted to just see A-Level as simply a continuation of your GCSE courses, especially when you take similar, or even the same subjects. However the jump from GCSE to A-Level is never really talked about in school, it's always "You are going to Sixth Form." not, "You're continuing to your A-Level." when you're in school.

Looking back on this it seems it would be better to look on Sixth Form as a completely new stage, like if you were going to Uni in a new city. However with Sixth Form you have the comfort of familiar teachers and hopefully your friends from your GCSE and early school years, so you won't be dropped in at the deep end like you would going to Uni in a completely new city. Simply don't really look at A-Level as a continuation of GCSE just see it as a fresh start but with comforts of the familiar.

Things to help you do this can be both in your own choices and in the A-Level courses themselves. You can help this 'fresh start' by both looking at what subjects you enjoy as this will make you more willing to work at the work you have if you enjoy the subject but also look at your grades because of the leap in work load. I hate to say this but it is a fact that if you get a higher grade in a subject at GCSE then that subject is more likely to be easier for you at A-Level but hopefully the subjects you get high grades in are the ones you enjoy. :)

The topics in the actual A-Level courses themselves can help with this 'fresh-start' as they are 90% of the time completely different. I would also recommend that you be brave and take one subject that you didn't take for GCSE, like I took Sociology as it is quiet similar in assessment to English and R.E, but obviously you need to check that you don't need the knowledge from GCSE but I know that Sociology didn't need me to have taken GCSE but you really need to check this with your teachers first.

Also you need to get to grips with new subjects and new pressures. The main one for me was the Welsh Baccalaureate as this takes a lot of time and needs a lot of getting used to but it is worth it if you want to go to Uni but check what your equivalent may be if you don't live in Wales like I do.

I hope this was helpful and you enjoyed this :)

From Vicky x

[schoolandlife]

The 'Normal Path'

Hello :)

So, this blog post is about the path you can take after GCSE. Now this isn't meant to be a preaching session where I tell you which path is best, this is to simply make you aware of the vast number of choices and combinations and just use my personal experience as an example and I'll also bring in any slight knowledge I have of what my friends from school went on to do. So I hope you enjoy and feel free to comment or E-mail me :) The E-mail will be at the bottom. :)

What many people, myself included, may think is the 'normal path' after Year 11 (when you are 16) is to do your A-Levels in Sixth Form and then to go onto University (Uni). This is what I always went through secondary school thinking that I would do because I simply didn't really know about the other options and because I am more of an academic (more interested in books and theory), this path seemed best for me and just my obvious choice. However when Year 11 came and we went through lots of talks about our path that we would take after school, collages, apprenticeships, and work came up again and again.

The main two choices that we, my school year, had was between collage and sixth form. Now some may not really know the difference between these and I must admit that I'm not an expert, I don't really know if there is a difference in qualifications or anything like that but I do know what the main difference in style can be between the two of them. Now obviously all collages and sixth forms are different, I'm just going on my personal experiences.

From what I can gather, it seems that Sixth Form is a lot more achademic, so a lot more suited to subjects such as maths, english, science, law, economics and sociology (although you can still study subjects such as project design but we'll get to that later) where as on the other hand collage seems to be more practical with courses such as veterinary medicine and art.

So you really need to look at the subjects you both do well in and enjoy and you need to do research into whether collage or sixth form will offer you the best course for you and for what you want to do in the future :) I don't really know how easy it is to go from collage to Uni but if it isn't that easy and you're intending to get a job as say a vet after collage then you should also look into whether you would need to go to University to be able to do the job you want.

Hope you enjoyed this and found it helpful :)

From Vicky x

E-mail - [email protected]

[schoolandlife]

Constantly Changing Ideas

Hello :)

Your ideas and ambitions as far as school is concerned can be both formed and changed due a number of different things. Ultimately don't be afraid to change your ideas but if you have found something that oh have a passion for don't change at the first sign of trouble I would say only really change if you feel by changing you are giving your self better or more opportunities.

In my own personal experience I never thought of  myself as a student who would change their ambitions and from quiet a young age I wanted to become a Graphic Designer and I had the whole plan figured out as I enjoyed art at GCSE, I would take it as an A-Level and go onto study Graphic design in Uni. However this plan all changed when I walked in on day one of AS Level Art where I met not the  nicest of teachers and was told I could only really hope for a C grade, which would be no where near good enough for both my mind, my parents and especially not Uni so after a lot of thinking I decided Art as a qualification was just not for me so the next day, after a long talk with my mum over a hot chocolate, I talked to my head of sixth form and my art teacher about dropping the subject. In hind-sight my teacher telling me to expect a C was probably meant to be motivation for me to prove her wrong but now that I have been through my other three very essay heavy subjects I don't think I personally could of coped with the work load of Art as well as RE, English, and Sociology. And the extra time in school that dropping art gave me, allowed me to improve my grades in these three subjects. 

Now when this happens you have two options in your personal life and two options in your academic life. As far as your personal life is concerned you can either walk away from that subject completely and have nothing more to do with it or you can keep it as a hobby or even a back up plan. I got quite luck with this as the subject I walked away from is quite practical I could have the option to study it in collage if I did need a back up plan but for now I keep my art as a down-time hobby and I draw for say my friends birthdays. 

In your academic life when you drop a subject you can be lucky and pick up another subject that interests you if they have spaces left. However on the other hand you can simply leave your 'subject box' free, giving you more free lessons to concentrate on improving your grades for your remaining three subjects. My experience was a mixture of the two, I did at first ask my head of sixth form about switching to another subject such as Law or Media but they were all full so I just left my 'subject box' free and had the extra free lessons to work on improving my grades for the other subjects, and looking back this was the right decision. 

Now I've changed completely to wanting to study an English degree and become a book editor but even now my plans might be changing due to an amazing media course I heard about on a Uni open day.

Overall My advise would be to stay open to change and don't be afraid to accept it but also when you know you've found some thing you are passionate about don't be scared to try hard to commit to your plan and try your hardest just always think about your options when you face trouble or the opportunity of change and, as cheesy as it sounds, always follow what you know you would be happy to do for the number of years you'd do that course or aim for a job you would be happy to do through out your life and follow what your heart ultimately wants with help from your head.

Hope this helped and that you liked it :)

From, Vicky x

E-Mail - [email protected]

[schoolandlife]

Like a baby :)

Hello,

My name is Vicky and I'm currently almost at the end of Year 12 (the first year of my A-Levels) and I decided to make this blog to just share some of my experiences of what I've gone through and what I'm going through as I will be updating while I go through Year 13 and University and even after. :)

Obviously this is going to be quite a stressful time so some updates may come after the event but I do have my note book that I carry around with me so I will be writing down any notes for this blog so nothing will get left out. Also, the posts concerning things that have already happened are going to be done pretty much from memory so please forgive me if the first few posts are a little shaky but I promise as the bigger stuff like University applications etc happen they will (hopefully) become a lot better and more interesting, and most importantly more helpful.

The main aim of this blog is to share my experiences and to hopefully help some people out who may be wondering what something like going through Sixth Form is like but I am going on my experience so I am sorry if some things aren't relevant but I will put in parts that are specifically talking to you reading this to try and help you. Another note I am going on the Welsh and British education system which (especially with Universities) can be different from the English system and vastly different from say the American system but I hope that I'm not closing this off from some people just because the systems are different because I will also be discussing other things like exam stress and how to balance a social life which I hope will be helpful to you all no matter what style of education you study.

A final note, I am going to be as truthful as I can so this will not just be complaining and it will cover the good parts and the bad parts so please don't think i'm just complaining and attention seeking when I cover the bad parts, or boasting when I cover the good parts like the grades I get, because I really don't mean to :)

I do have an E-mail specifically for this blog for you guys to ask any questions that you feel you want to ask in privacy or you just feel uncomfortable putting in the comments or if you just want a friendly chat, this will be put at the bottom of every post and will be put in the bio along with a twitter account specifically for this blog. (There will be a separate post announcing this when I've got it up). I'm going to try to keep this quite informal by saying Uni (short for University) as I am only 17 and I want this to be relate able but I'm also not going to speak in text speak or slang.

That should be all for the general starting update, I hope you like this blog :)

From, Vicky :)

E-mail - [email protected]