My first week of sixth form! | Back To September+Life Update

Hello lovelies!

(this is quite a long post so if you like noseying into other people's lives, go put the kettle on and sit down with a cuppa tea! I've also given each section a title so you can read only the bits that interest you if you want.)

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It's that time of the year again - September! Autumn is starting and so is a new academic year.

This was my first week of sixth form and so far I absolutely love it!

I got my GCSE results in August and I'm proud to say I got 5 A's, 3 B's and a C - I hope any of you with results got what you wanted and are motivated to keep on working!

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SUBJECTS:

For A Levels, I'm studying Art, French and Media Studies. 

Art has always been my favourite subject and I know that I want my future career to involve art. Somehow, thankfully, I got an A in it, despite lacking inspiration at GCSE because I thought of it as a task. However, over the Summer I've regained my love and passion for art again and I'm determined to really work hard and enjoy it at A Level! My teacher this year is the same as last year so we get on well - always a plus! This week in Art classes, our task has been to draw any 4 objects of our choice, not linked to a theme, just any 4 that we might like to draw. We also have to use different mediums such as pencil, pen and paint, as well as using different textures by sticking down different papers to the page and drawing over them. I've really enjoyed doing this - I drew a water tap, a goat's skull, a crab shell and a starfish. I've had lots of time to complete the task as I have plenty of free periods which I can go up to art and work. The task is due for this Monday but I finished it all in class this week so yay - no art homework this weekend!

Over the GCSE course, I began to love French. I am so pleased I got an A in it because I did work hard for it. I never expected to love it, but when the end of 5th year was coming to an end, I realised that I just didn't want to stop learning it! Languages are really useful and respected qualifications nowadays and I know I want to visit France at some point, especially if I become a fashion designer. My French teacher this year is new to the school, and I can honestly say she is such a lovely person who really seems to want the best for us! She speaks to us in French for most of the lessons which was quite intimidating at first but now I appreciate it because it makes you concentrate and learn, trying to understand her sentences. She is also really personal, she asks us what we did in Summer/last night, what we're going to do at the weekend and if we have jobs and we have to answer in French. She also tells us stories about herself in French which are super interesting. We've really hit the ground running with the course, things are moving fast already! French is my only subject which involves writing/revising everyday so I'll have a lot of time to put effort into it and do the best I can.

Media Studies is a brand new subject for me. My school doesn't offer it at GCSE, only at A Level, but it really intrigued me and I'm interested in the media, news, technology, music etc. so I decided to take it on! I was super excited to begin it and this first week hasn't disappointed. It's recommended to have good results and an interest in English to do Media Studies - a tick in the box there! My teacher is really funny and easy to get on with - I've even had a bit of a laugh with him. In class, we get to use Macbook Pro's which take a good bit of getting used to! This week we've created a blog and a Twitter account for Media Studies - something you'd never get the opportunity to do in other classes! The Twitter account is to find interesting articles and tweet our teacher homework, how cool is that?! I found the task of making a blog on Blogger not too difficult at all as I'd already done it before . . . hehe:) The blog is to upload homework onto. We had a couple of assignments this week - 1) to find definitions for different camera shots/angles, videos which include them, give a comment on them and upload that in a blog post + 2) find an interesting article and tweet it to my teacher. Later on in the year, we'll get to work with record labels and make music videos and short intros to films as well as other things. I can't wait!

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Overall, I love all my subjects, classes and teachers. A lot of my friends have had the opposite reaction to the week - they've wanted to change subjects because they didn't like them but thankfully I haven't had any of that stress. I'm so glad not to be doing any Science anymore! I got a very respectable BB at GCSE Double Award Science and I'm happy to leave it at that. 

'FREE' CLASSES:

As I mentioned, I have plenty of 'free' periods in the week. I use the term 'free' loosely because they're supposed to be called private study classes but they're more commonly known as frees. In frees, you're supposed to go into the sixth form study to catch up on homework, revise or read in silence (quite annoying but understandable), at a single desk on your own. My frees have been pretty boring this week as the workload hasn't been a lot this week, but I know they're gonna come in very useful later in the year. If you don't want to go to the study, you can go to the library, fitness suite or to art. I'll mainly be going to art in my frees to get as much work done as possible. Also, you don't have to be completely silent in art which is good! 

EXTRA CLASSES:

We also have 3 classes a week that aren't exam based, just extras to help us and give us a bit of a break. They are: Careers, IT and Social Religion. I have to sort out work experience soon, as I learned in Careers class this week. Fashion designer is my #1 career choice but a random idea came into my head just this week. . . I might want to be an art teacher? In IT, we'll be learning about programming, and Religion is basically just a class to chat about things and get to know other people. Fun!

CHANGES:

In sixth year, there is such a change in attitude from teachers and younger students towards us. We're seen as more mature and be have to set an example. The teachers seem to treat us more as equals which is really nice. We also seem to have a lot more freedom, due to frees and the fact we are doing less subjects.

LUNCHTIME FREEDOM:

In my school, exclusive to sixth years only, you're allowed to leave school at lunchtime to either go home or to any of the shops near the school. I don't live near to my school so it wouldn't be practical to go home due to limited time, so I went to the Tesco's 5 minutes away from school at lunch on Monday. I got a sandwich, drink and chocolate bar which was all good, except I had to eat it walking on the way back to school - not so good as it was windy and does anyone like walking+eating at the same time?! So for the rest of the week, I ate packed lunch in the study - much safer in terms of hair-in-mouth-while-eating related problems.

I might venture out of school sometime next week though as there's a Chinese beside the Tesco - chicken chow mein here I come.

SCHOOLBAG:

For my schoolbag this week I've been using the coloured checkered backpack seen in this post. It's a really cute bag and fits everything I need - which isn't too much to be honest! If you'd like to see a What's In My Schoolbag post, just comment below! 

MAKEUP:

If you'd like, I can also do a How Much Is My Face Worth: Sixth Form edition post too - just say the word. :)

PERFUME:

The scent I've been wearing this week is Nicki Minaj Pink Friday. It's a lovely, sweet scent that isn't overpowering at all. I just spray it on in the morning and carry a Natural Collection Vanilla body spray in my schoolbag to top up the scent throughout the day if needed. I don't like to carry around a perfume bottle in my bag in case of breakage/spillage so a not so expensive plastic bottle of body spray is great to just throw in and spray on the go. This particular vanilla scent is really good for layering with PF too.

SEASON CHANGE:

It really isn't Summer anymore - it's been quite warm most of the week but yesterday it rained and today it's freeeezing cold. I've got a small case of the sniffles, but nothing numerous cups of tea, bowls of soup and wooly jumpers can't cure! Autumn/Winter are my favourite months of the year so I'm glad the seasons are changing ^.^

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So that was just a little quite a long update into my life so if you read it all, have a pat on the back from me!

Have you been back at school/uni/work this week?

What subjects are you studying?

Did you have a pleasant or a stressful week?

Excited for the year ahead?

Do you like Autumn/Winter or are you sad to see Summer go?

or have you any questions for me?

I'm happy to answer anything, that's what the comments section is for so don't be shy! :)

Maeve

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