I am studying Psychology, Chemistry and English literature.
9:00: English Literature lesson- on this side of the course, we are working through a poetry anthology, ‘Songs Of Ourselves’, exploring a variety of themes such as love, poverty, society, nature and war. In the exam, you get a choice of two poetry questions, a ‘closed’ question, which is close text analysis on one given poem, which is given to you on the paper, and an ‘open’ question, which gives you a broad theme like love, and you choose any two poems that are relevant and discuss this. In today’s lesson, we worked on the ‘open’ question, by creating a list of themes across the poems with the poems that we could write about for those themes. Then, choosing a theme and the two poems within that we felt least confident with, we wrote an essay plan for the ‘open’ question, the essay we will do for homework, to practice writing an answer for this style of question.
10:25: Supervised study- all AS students have one timetabled compulsory period per week where we are required to go to the library and get on with some work. The library is monitored by the lovely Cathie. This time encourages students to schedule time into the week for revision. Today, I decided to complete my Psychology homework questions on the topic of Eye Witness Testimony, and then I completed my organic Chemistry homework. This is a highly valuable time in my week, as it allows me to productively complete homework or revise for the fortnightly tests.
11:50: Every Wednesday at 11:50-12:30 is Personal Tutor time, where students attend a session with their personal tutor and tutor group, which has approximately 7-9 people per group. In this session, announcements are read, the Personal Tutor checks in on us to see how we are doing, and we often complete an activity, such as learning methods of revision or organisation.
12:00: I left PT time to attend an AS student ambassador meeting with Mary, our head of year, and John, our principal. The student ambassador team consists of the two environmental and sustainability ambassadors, and the two wellbeing ambassadors- I am a wellbeing ambassador. In this meeting, we shared ideas we had prepared for both sustainability and wellbeing in the college. I felt this was an incredibly productive meeting, and I am proud of the efforts that the college not only make towards improving sustainability and wellbeing, but also to ensure the students are involved in the improvements made in the college.
12:30: Lunch time! This is usually a time that I spend catching up with my friends, but today I attended a Jewish society (JSoc) session.
13:00: Chemistry lesson- on this side of the course, we are currently doing organic chemistry. We spent the lesson learning about the types of reactions that a type of organic molecule- alkenes- have, and then we completed some practice questions on the content we just learned.
14:25: Psychology lesson: In this lesson, we began a brand new topic, Research Methods, a synoptic topic that makes up 25% of the exam papers! As it is such a large topic, the plan is to alternate between a lesson on research methods, and a lesson on another topic- psychopathology (mental disorders) on one side of the course, and approaches in psychology on the other side.
15:05: Done for the day! I have recently taken up figure skating, so I spend the next hour or so at the ice rink practicing.
17:30-20:00: Every Wednesday at this time, I do volunteering/ work experience with a charity that works to support people with Autism. Specifically, I work in a social club for Autistic teenagers, and I absolutely love it! The service users and other staff are so lovely and fun to work with, and it is
brilliant work experience as I would love to pursue psychology, and I am particularly passionate about neurodiversity awareness and celebration.
20:00: End of the day for me, phew! Today was a long, but good day, and I spent the rest of the evening relaxing (and writing this article of course!). Safe to say, I am looking forward to a slightly shorter and calmer day tomorrow.
As you can see, today was an incredibly busy day for me! But, I think it is important to note that not every day of the week is as packed as today was for me. At Brampton, as a college, you tend not to be in school from 9am-4pm every day, as you are only required to be in college for your lessons or other timetabled periods, such as supervised study for AS, or the weekly Personal Tutor session. On a Monday, I only have 2 lessons, and I don’t begin lessons until 1pm, and on a Thursday, I also only have 2 lessons, and I finish for the day at 11:45! Of course, students always have the option to remain in school before or after lessons to study in various designated places in the college, like the library. I think this variation in the timetable is incredibly valuable, as the out of lesson time allows me time to do homework and stay on top of revision for fortnightly tests, as well as allowing me to get adequate rest.
By Sophie Lunzer, student
