Sixth Form so far...

It has been just over a month so far since I started Year 12, so I thought I would just write a quick update about how it's going and what I've learnt.

 I decided to stay at my current school for Sixth Form, because we have a great Sixth Form and I liked the fact that I already knew the teachers (and vice versa). Plus, my sister went here too, so she could tell me all the hints and tricks, such as avoiding the downstairs common room, for example!

 My A-Level choices were originally History, Geography and Biology. I had wanted to take 4 subjects, however, I couldn't as I didn't get straight As and A*s in my GCSEs (I got 2 A*s, 5 As, 2 Bs and 1 D). I took Biology because I quite liked it at GCSE and it is a facilitating subject. Despite this, after a couple of Biology lessons, I realised I really didn't like it. The subject matter was far too chemistry-based for me, and I REALLY don't like chemistry. So, I made the decision to swap it for Sociology, which I had wanted to take originally (if I had been able to take 4 subjects). The process really wasn't complicated- all I had to do was fill in a form with the reason why I wanted to change subjects and get it signed by a parent. The next day, I got my new timetable and started Sociology. I really love Sociology- it actually fascinates me! At the moment we're doing about the different Education theories, such as Functionalism and Marxism. In History, we're doing Weimar Germany and the Tudors and in Geography, we're currently doing Natural Hazards and Globalisation.

 One thing I'm slightly worried about is the fact that I didn't take Media, as I want to study Film or something similar at University. I didn't pick Media, as the teacher is notoriously uninspiring and boring. My sister had him for English Language in Year 12 and learnt precisely zilch. Hopefully, it won't be too much of a barrier, because so far I've actually only had to discount one course due to them wanting Media or Art at A-Level (Art was the GCSE I got a D in!). The course I most like the look of at the moment is Moving Image at Brighton Uni. If anyone has any experience of that degree or that uni, feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments below.

I thought I would just explain some of the differences between lower school and Sixth Form. This one won't be the same everywhere, but our school has different uniforms for the lower school and the Sixth Form:

 

The photo on the left is me on my first day of Year 11 (last year of lower school) and the photo on the right is me on my first day of Year 12 (first year of Sixth Form).

As you can see, lower school has a blazer, whilst Sixth Form has a jumper. If I'm honest, I don't particularly like not having a blazer, as it means I have to put everything in my bag! 

 This leads me onto some of the privileges that Sixth Formers receive, which I have listed below. Again, I appreciate that this won't be the same everywhere, but I thought you might find it interesting. If your school/college is different, feel free to comment the differences below!

• We get to sit on chairs/benches during assemblies- no more pins and needles in our feet!
• We can push straight to the front of the canteen queue
• We can go off-site at lunch, which is great, as town is only a 15-minute walk away
• If we have a private study in Period 3, we can start lunch at 12- this includes going off-site
• We get free in-school wifi, which includes access to YouTube- the regular school network blocks YouTube
• We don't have to wait in Bus Hall at the end of the day if we're going home by bus- we can get straight on the bus

   Another fundamental difference is the Private and Supervised study periods that Sixth Formers get. Private Study, or "frees" as we call them, is where you can go anywhere in school and get work done. These are unsupervised, unlike Supervised Study, which is held in one room and has to be silent- it is supervised, as the name implies! I have 11 frees and 9 superviseds a fortnight, as well as 9 lessons per subject per fortnight. Supervised study is good, because I get quite a lot of work done, however, I like frees too, as I can chat to my friends whilst working (multitasking!!)

 Lastly, I want to talk about the workload of Sixth Form. I thought, as did many others, that since we were only doing 3 or 4 subjects, the workload wouldn't be too much more than GCSE, right? How wrong I was! Essentially, it is more like doing 6 (or 8) subjects, because you are simultaneously studying 2 units per subject, with different teachers. You will get more homework, too, because the teachers know you have study periods to complete it in. To be honest, I have quite a bit of homework to do right now, but I really wanted to get this written!

 I think that's about everything for now, but if there's anything you'd like to know, or that I've missed, you can comment down below, or tweet me at @applepipYT. Thanks for reading and I hope you've found this post interesting!

Pip x