Hello all

Hello all,
It's been a while, I've been trying to get ahead at school this year to improve my predicted grades for UCAS.
I thought I'd give you guys a couple more daily routine thingamy bobs - one for Wednesday's, as i dont usually go home till 10pm and one for Saturday's.

So Wednesday, I'll use today but I'll also add a bit in that usually happens but didn't today.

6:15 - 6:50 get up, eat, dressed etc.
6:50-8 - do homework/ surf the net.
8-8:20 - dad drives me to school.
8:20-8:45 - chill in study room/ work
8:45-9 - form
9-10 - wrote questionnaire and planned psychology answer for tomorrows assessment
10-11 - watch sea of souls & read history chapter 2
11-11:20 - break
11:20-1:20 - double history lesson
1:20-2 - lunch
2-2:25 - form/ assembly on open evening
2:25-3:25 - EPQ lesson - found some great websites
3:24-3:45 - walked back to nans
3:45-5 - made biology notes
5- 6 - was cool and watched Lizzie McGuire and my parents are aliens & had dinner.
6-7:45 (usually go to help out at cubs but it wasn't on tonight due to splash night at the weekend) dad picked me up and I did a lil bit of homework, at 7:45 we left for explorers.
8:15-10 - explorers, tonight was problem solving activities with the main aim of escaping prison (hence the activity name 'jailbreak) and winning chocolate. My team didn't win, but we did solve most of the problems. Dad picked me up at 10.
10:30 - 11 watched frasier and went to bed.






Typical Saturday (not this week as I'm working, I had Friday off school so I'll use that as an example):

9-9:30 - get up,dressed, eat
9:30- 10 - finish off homework - most is usually done by Friday evenings.
10-10:30 - type up history mind map we made in class.
10:30-11 - rewrite notes neatly from Friday.
11-11:15 - biology reading ahead notes
11:15-11:30 - psychology reading ahead notes
11:30-12 - history reading ahead notes
12-12:30 - EPQ research
12:30-1 - history coursework (the exam board found a potential problem with my proposal regarding balance, but I came up with a cunning plan, emailed my teacher and it's all sorted!)
1-5 - jewellery making
5-6 - surf net
6-6:30 - dinner
6:30-7 - shower
7-10:30 - tv


I'm sure that was thrilling reading, so I'll think of something else to write about :')

Actually, while I was "working" at the weekend (trying to sell my jewellery at a shopping village we hire a display stand from), I actually made £13 on saturday, and £8 on Sunday - 3 bracelets and 3 necklaces - that's the first time I've sold anything while I've been there! Pretty chuffed - that's enough for one fresher's event next year, now for the money to live on and Bob's your uncle!
I was also approached by a woman who has recently opened up a handcrafted jewellery village and is very eager for me to be the final seller, the footfall should be much larger there so hopefully I'll make at least a small profit (it's £5 a week for the space) and I'm going to try and get my website finished and then utilize social media and I might be pushing my products on here as well haha, I'll upload a few examples now actually, I have a lot more stock however, and some cool new stuff I haven't photographed yet. I also make keyrings that i'll be happy to upload if you wish. If you're interested in anything, or are looking for for something specific that I may be able to produce, comment below or email me at j.l-smith@outlook.com - i'll be happy to answer any questions or hear of any ideas/inspiration you internetters may be able to offer me!

Just a fraction of the earring collection

A small number of the necklaces

Personalised braceletes

I went to Liverpool's open day the other day - that was one loooong drive, and I was totally in love, the first accomodation I saw was brilliant, brand new, and so cheap! Then we wandered round the campus which I loved, then went to the subject talk, with no more than 4 others, the lecturer made me even more excited, I REALLY hope I get in! I should get my predicted grades soon so I really hope they're high enough and not based on AS results (my 2nd papers for each exam dragged my grades down cause I was sooo I'll, I don't know how I even passed, pretty sure I was writing gobbledygook.) I KNOW I could get straight A's if I worked as hard as I am now, although that may not be possible as the year progresses, but I do know I can get the offer grades, of only my teachers can see that too!

I'm off now to get sorted for school.

Alonz-y!

Year 13 update

Hello all,

You may remember that towards the end of August I was preparing for heading back to school after the summer holidays, to begin by final year of school, I thought i'd update you on how the last week has gone.

School began on wednesday 4th September for years 7,12 and 13, with the rest of the school coming back on the Thursday.
This was  to give the newbies a chance to settle into high school and sixth form, Year 13 had to go in as we were running the induction day with the year 12s and we are encouraged to make friends cross both year groups, rather than only in our own.

The induction day consisted of making balloon chairs, spiders web and other team building activities.

My teams balloon chair

After the activities we had an assembly and got to go home at 3pm.

In the 5 days since however, I have had lessons each day, although I do have many more frees now as I have dropped geography this year, so I will only be doing Biology, Psychology and History this year.

On top of the extra study time, my dad is currently planning my own little study so that I can utilise my study time at home more effectivley as my room at the moment is too small for me to be organised.

When it is finally completed, I will upload some before and after pictures.

For now however, it is getting late and I have some bracelet commisions to complete before the day is out so I should get a shower and do them before I settle down in front of the TV. 

I will be posting an in-depth daily routine one of these days to show you how I organise my school work, as well as having that all important "me time", and maybe it will help one of you guys!

Alons-y!

Update

Morning all!
It's just occurred to me that it's GCSE results day today (ok, I was watching the news), so I'll take this opportunity to say good luck to everyone getting them.

On the topic of results, I thought I'd give you an update on my AS results and compare them to my GCSEs (and if your starting them in September, motivate you to work your socks off).

GCSEs:
History - A*
Biology - A
Chemistry - A
Physics - A
Statistics - A
Geography - A
English Language - A
English Literature - B
Maths - B
Humanities - B

Now, I was pretty happy with those results and was confident for year 12, and remained confident until around February, when I realised I wasn't retaining the info as well as I had at GCSE.
This led to me revising non-stop from just before Easter up to exams, and this took its toll on me.
You need to go over your notes, and perhaps condense them, EVERY DAY (I know you might have planned to do that, but the chances are, you won't.) Because, if something happens during the exam period, such as falling ill, that can drastically affect your results, and special consideration won't make up for what you've lost, you need to have as much information as possible in your long term memory by reading your notes throughout the year.

These were my overall results:
History - C (from an A* remember, I was confident in these exams.)
Biology - C
Geography - C
Psychology - B

And a breakdown of papers: to show the difference between when I was healthy, and when I was ill.

PAPER 1 - HEALTHY
Biology - B.
Geography - B.
History - B.
Psychology - A.

PAPER 2 - ILL
Biology - D
Geography - D
History - C
Psychology C

So basically, work hard! :D

Alons-y!

Lochearnhead Scout camp 27th July - 7th August 2013

Well, I'm finally home from a fantastic trip to Scotland with the scouts. It's taken a while to get this up as after getting back from Scotland, I was off to Wales and since then I've been doing all my homework and getting my folders organised for school. I can't believe year 13 starts in just 14 days! I've hardly had a chance to sit down (except to write this)!

DAY 1 - 27th July

I arrived at the station at 8:20am with my luggage ready for a brilliant summer camp, I placed my luggage onto the trailer that the coach was towing and then climbed onto the coach (a double decker) and found a seat upstairs near the front.

We finally set off at about 8:45, at this point I only knew 2 people on the trip and I watched the Hitchikers guide to The Galaxy on my ipod.

I also read my book and listened to music, we stopped twice along the way, once at the M6 toll services and then again at Carlisle services.

Stirling Castle

We finally arrived at Lochearnhead at around 5:30pm where the scouts unloaded the trailer and carried all the bags up to the station. 

We were then assigned our cabins and went to get settled in before dinner at 18:30.

After dinner we were told what each clan would be doing the next day, I happened to be going on a 3 day hike so I had to pack my rucksack after dinner in preparation.

Then we sorted out who would be sleeping on which bunk before eventually going to bed.

Our cabin

Starfishing

DAY 2 - 28th July

Got up early today to finish packing for the hike and then went to flag break at 8:55 before breakfast at 08:00. After breakfast I collected my lunch for the 3 days and then we had to collect our rations, we finally piled onto the minibus at about 09:15, once dropped off, we set off in search of our camping ground, we found it at around 17:00, there were 3 clans on the hike and each clan had to find a different spot to pitch the tents, after pitching our tents and sorting out the problem with numbers (we ended up with 3 girls in a 2-man tent which was tight) we cooked our dinner, I had curried rice.

After dinner we sat around chatting for a while before climbing into bed for what was a rather uncomfortable night.

Dinner!

The view from our pitch

DAY 3 - 29th July

Set off around 09:00 today to climb Beinn Challuim, it was tough, but we made it by 14:00 and got back to the tents around 17:00, by this point it was pouring with rain and we couldn't cook so dinner comprised of half a packet of chorizo, fridge raiders and some cereal bars, then we went to sleep.

Almost at the top

DAY 4 - 30th July

The rain had made the river to high to cross so we couldn't climb the second mountain, instead we hiked along the hills to a nearby town where the minibus picked us up and took us back to the station.

On arrival, we fought with the younger scouts for the showers (Well, we hadn't had one for days) before flag down and having a lovely hot meal for dinner.

We went to bed somewhat early, although the scouts on the bunk above had an argument about sleeping arrangements that didn't cease until around 23:30.

Halfway to the town

DAY 5 - 31st July

Got up at 07:30, flag break at 7:55, brekkie at 08:00.

By 09:00 My clan (MacNeil) and MacPherson were grouped around the mountain bikes. We hopped onto the minibus to get to our starting point and then cycled along the old railway line for about 7 miles before leaving the line for the remaining 8 miles, here it began to get quite hilly with some steep climbs and a VERY scary, VERY steep zigzag trail, brakes were on the whole way down!

The fate of one explorer after mountain biking

We got back to the station around 15:00 where we showered, had cake and then went to flag down at 18:35 and dinner at 18:30.

DAY 6 - 1st August

Today was sailing and the weather was DISGUSTING! Unfortunately I was ill in the morning so had to watch everyone else, after an hour though I started to feel better so decided to get in on the action after lunch. However, everyone came off the boats for lunch shivering, they were absolutely freezing, so we bailed out and got the minibus back to the station at 12:30. As we were back so early, I decided to sort out all my stuff seeing as we were off to Meggernie the next day. Once that was done we played cards for a bit, then I went and sat on the windowseat (under the heater), this didn't turn out well as I fell asleep and then fell on the floor, landing on my hip (which hurt for the next 7 days). 

After what seemed an eternity, it was time for flag down and dinner, it was VERY welcome!

Playing with Daisy (The dog)

 

DAY 7- 2nd August

KAYAKING! So, today was kayaking, it was sooo much fun, and the best part...despite how AWFUL I was (couldn't go more than three strokes without spinning), I didn't capsise, not even down the rapids and into the swirly water, I was so proud of myself! :D

It was warm and sunny today so we dried off quite well before heading back to the station for showers and food.

At 8pm, 34 Explorers and scout patrol leaders piled onto the minibuses to go to Meggernie outdoor centre, our home for the next 4 days. It was an hours journey and my minibus managed to get a puncture, but because the track was so uneven, we couldn't change the tyre so had to drive on it and change it when we got there!

On the plus side, the tents were already up (the first group had put them up on the 27th July), and ours was an 8-man with 5 girls in. However, we also had a bit of a leak, we managed though.

DAY 8 - 3rd August

Canoeing, but 2 of us were ill today, so we chilled in a hotel for the day (it was actually extremely boring and we were asleep most of the time).

We had a bat walk in the evening, which was fun.

DAY 9 - 4th August

Began with archery, where I came soooo close to bursting the balloon I was supposed to, I missed by millimetres! Then we went onto frisbee golf, grass sledging and finally traversing. 

Despite the mix of activities, it was a nice and relaxing day, and we didn't have to go off site.

We had a campfire in the evening and had a blast.

Missing the balloon

DAY 10 -5th August

Today we built a swing, cooked on open fires and did some orienteering, another relaxing day, but enjoyable nonetheless.

DAY 11 - 6th August

Back to Lochearnhead today, took the tents down and packed up Meggernie (and made friends with some of the Danish scouts) and got to Lochearnhead around 2. 

As there were no cabins available, all of us that had just come from Meggernie had to sleep in one big mess tent, it was chaos finding a spot!

We had a traditional dinner with someone on the bagpipes and then we all had some haggis (I personally quite liked it).

To round off the last night, each clan had to perform in a talent show, which was highly enjoyable.

DAY 12 -7th August

Up at 6am today to get everything packed away, so we could be on the coach by 9, then it was a simple 11 hour journey home (there were a few accidents on the roads), filled with music, sleeping, and a vague sadness that it was all over.

I made friends with one of the scouts though and found out he'll be starting my school in September, so I'll have to look out for him and be an unofficial buddy. :)

Work experience, University visits and summer

Well, It's been a busy couple weeks over here, I was on work experience at Paradise Wildlife Park from 17th-2st June 2013; monday-Wednesday I was on Farmyard which was loads of fun, I was cleaning out Rabbits, Guinea pigs, sheep, goats, pig ducks, tenrecs (and cuddling rabbits!).
Then Thursday and Friday I was on Paddocks with Zebra, Camel, Alpaca, Tapir, Wallaby (I wanted to take one home!), fox, deer....

He's a big bunny

This is Boris

Tiny Tenrec (called Puff)

Russian Hamster

Here Mousey Mousey

Boris liked my shoes

And the shovel...

Foxyyyyyy

The following week had a severe lack of lessons as well, Monday and Tuesday were business as usual, although my history teacher was not in, then on Wednesday us year 12's were bundled onto a coach to the University of Essex for a higher education fair, this gave us a chance to talk to people from hundreds of universities across the UK (and made me realise that it may not be a good idea to drop geography) and get some freebies too - a definite high point!

On returning home I headed off to Explorers for a game of real-life where's wally! This consisted of one of our leaders hiding "somewhere" in the town and we had to text questions that he could only answer yes or no to. My team was 2nd to find him so didn't win the prize for finding him first, but we were the first team back to the scout hut by quite a long time so we won a box of lindor chocolates to share. :D

Then on Thursday I headed to Bristol with my Dad for the university open day, the sun was shining, it was warm and I fell in love with the city.
The Archaeology even has a fleet of landrovers for transporting students to various dig sites!
I used the trip to get some photography in, so here's a few of my shots:

Welcome to the Open day (Victoria rooms)

Clifton suspension bridge

View from Clifton Suspension bridge

I think it's a very photogenic city and I could definitely see myself living here and spending summer days sitting in one of the parks with lots of books, working the day away.

I'd best be off, I need to get some work done if I'm going to get the grades to actually get in here! :D


Alons-y!

Year 13 - A2

Well, that's it, year 12 is officially over!
Final exam was on wednesday 5th June, I then had 4 days to recuperate before coming back to school today to start my A2 courses.
The whole applying to uni has really hit me now, considering how sure I was just a few months ago that I wanted to do psychology, i'm now somewhat torn between psychology, palaeontology and archaeology; not helpful when I need to churn out a personal statement tailored to my subject... I'm thinking that my AS results in August will make the decision for me (or at least, i'm telling myself that for now). Right now I'm doing rough drafts of statements for each subject and i'll make the final decision at a later date.
I also need to make a decision about which subjects i'll be continuing with as I believe it's highly unlikely that I can continue with 4 subjects and an EPQ as well as starting up my business and getting more involved as a young leader while doing my silver DofE - I might just keel over!

Over the weekend I was working at Gosfield shopping village near Braintree (do feel free to visit - seriously!)

My display

While there, I spotted an item that I fell completely in love with and I'm not entirely sure why, perhaps I found it charming, let me know what you think:

It's a Raleigh folding bike, priced at £75, I might just ask my family to club together for one christmas present haha!

Got my first A2 geography lesson tomorrow, I'm going to need all the relaxation I can get, I think i'll treat myself to 10 minutes of personal statement-ing followed by a good old movie, perhaps Matilda, one of my all time favourite stories. :)

Alons-y!

I'm still here - honest!

I can't believe it's been over 2 weeks since my last post, it's all got a bit crazy here with exams and whatnot, but I am still here - honest!

Totally snowed under with Biology and Psychology revision this week as I was ill during the first exams and messed up big time, so I need to ace these ones to bring my grades up.

Snowed under Psychology

Those of you that are observant may notice that i'm wearing shorts - DO NOT BE FOOLED! I'm only wearing them to convince myself that it is in fact, summer (it's not working). At 10am this morning, it was 10 degrees celcius, on the 30th May...less than a month before midsummer...

I've rediscovered a childhood love - My parents are aliens, I've actually ended up scheduling revision breaks for 14:30 and 17:30 just so I can tune into CITV and watch it! I know, I know, It's a bit sad for a 17 year old to be watching a kids TV show, but it makes me laugh and there's so much humour that I didn't pick up on 10 years ago!

I also spent a good few minutes exchanging "miranda memes" with a friend - and formed an entire conversation! (This was before settling down for revision)

In fact, all this Miranda talk is making me want to watch it, I'm going to have to dig out the DVDs any minute now! (Well, I have powered through todays revision and I need a good laugh!)

In fact, I can't contain myself any longer, I must leave now while I still have time before dinner.

Alons-y My hearty reader chums! (Anyone see what I did there...No? Just me then.)