Robert Leverington

Today we were told about the sports day being held this Wednesday, the format is drastically different to last years and I am disappointed to say the least. This year my school started using the vertical tutoring system where form groups had members from each year, designed to create a more cohesive atmosphere within the school (contradictorily split lunches were also introduced this year, so friends who are in separate years won’t necessarily have lunch together - I was also fairly annoyed regarding this change). Due to this change in the form pupil distribution houses were also introduced (these have not worked very well though, in my opinion), and this year play a fairly large role within sports day.

For the first four periods of the day forms will play as a team (just year nine and ten though, as year eleven are on study leave and sixth form cannot be made to participate) in four activities including dodgeball and football. They will be working to gain points for the house, used to generate a final ranking. I suspect that this will involve a fair amount of waiting around and generally be boring. In the afternoon there will then be one hour of individual and team events for those who want to participate (such as the 100m, relay and tug of war), if you do not want to take part the only other option is to sit and watch. There is no choice to just attend normal lessons, and if you do get a letter to say why you can’t participate one still has to where PE kit and watch. Another issue is that they want you to turn up to school in PE kit, this would be both uncomfortable and potentially embarrassing (especially for a number of other students who are not necessarily comfortable with their appearance).

On a different note the PE awards assembly recently took place, as expected the same people got all the awards. There is never an assembly to award the academically talented - not that I’d want one to take place - and it really feels as if the school doesn’t care about what happens in the classroom. The PE department is also allowed to punish you if you forget your kit, even though you took part in the activities anyway and were forced to wear old, dirty clothes instead; few other departments could get away with this.

Today me and seven others completed our Duke of Edinborough Award bronze assessment expedition, to say the least I’m knackered and sun burnt.

While there should have been about fourteen of us, several had dropped out leaving just eight participants (so we went in a single group, rather than two or three); this made the experience more enjoyable as the two teachers supervising the event could spend more time with us rather than rushing between groups. In principal the activities we had to undertake should not have been difficult, but it is inevitable that on occasions some groups might get lost - this proved the case for us, and was very tiring. Firstly we encountered a very overgrown woods, this was virtually impossible to navigate and set us back about an hour (as well as causing quite a few stings and cuts); we also ended up in a farm and could not find our way out. On the first day we ended up spending a whopping nine hours walking (although this included breaks), rather than the six we were meant to; this was mainly attributed to not having a clear goal (we were walking a circuit, rather than a linear point-to-point route), this became evident when on the second day we had a much clearer destination (heading back to the school, from the campsite), so travelled far faster than expected.

Certain aspects of the trek were enjoyable - mostly the bits where we weren’t walking, such as cooking our food and sitting around the camp fire together - but overall I found the weekend fairly melancholic, perhaps attributed to the sheer amount of time spent walking. The practise was much more fun in terms of the activities we did, but this time the two supervising teachers were limited as to how involved they could get. Another factor was the landscape, on both days it felt as if we were travelling through field after field, and the views themselves weren’t remarkable.

The award has been quite a mission for me, I found it difficult to find things to do for my skill and service, and in the end my chronic hayfever got the better of me. It would be nice to do the silver award, but I’m not strong enough emotionally to undertake such a long and draining task again. I enjoy camping, but clearly this is not for me.

This morning was my first mathematics exam, it had been rescheduled for about twenty-six of us since our GCSE Physics exam was taking place immediately after the original slot - so would have put a lot of strain on us to perform well. It was the non-calculator past-paper and went, I think, rather well. The questions themselves weren’t very challenging and they hour and a half given was more than enough time to complete it. What stood out most about the exam, however, was the behaviour of certain pupils and how the invigilators responded to it.

The child development exam was also being sat at the same time as ours (it was the only remaining one and a half hour slot that could be used), one boy who had taken it was behaving in a silly manner, and eventually had his paper taken off him. A girl also got the hiccups. Both occasions prompted a response from other people taking exams; several people smirked at the first incident, followed by the majority of participants turning around (nearly everyone had finished so there wasn’t much to keep one occupied) when the latter occured.

At the end of the exam one of the invigilators (I believe the ‘cheif’ one) told us all, in a very stern way, that the behaviour had been utterly unacceptable, and in a real exam would not be tolerated. Fortunately this was simply a streaming and diagnostic exam, so disqualification itself was not imposed; but regardless, such rules are quite harsh.

It is my understanding that most of the regulations imposed upon candidates are designed to prevent cheating, as apposed to anything else. By no stretch of the imagination can I imagine smiling to be a symptom of this, in fact, it is rarely even disturbing to other candidates. While turning around can be an issue, the occasional glance never did anyone much harm. The same goes for mobile phones going off, providing they are not answered (or read) the most they cause is a minor commotion that can quickly be resolved. In any case I believe it is quite unfair that any of said incidents should result in disqualification, and cancellation of all your qualifications, there are far more serious things this punishment should be reserved for.

Last week I began my first round of GCSE examinations. This year my school trialed a triple science course (six modules in each flavour of science, rather than four), twenty-six of us opted to take it (there was an entry boundary though, you had to have scored at least a level seven on your SAT). Rather than having one exam covering the first module of all three sciences at Christmas and another, covering the second modules, in the summer, we had three exams in the summer (one for each of the sciences) - each covering the first three modules of its particular subject.

Today I had my chemistry exam. Last week I had a miserable time doing my biology one (which, in hindsight, I don’t think I spent sufficient time preparing for), but this was far easier. A lot of the answers were spoon-fed, this made the paper less challenging, although I’m still slightly concerned about how well I did.

Next week is the physics exam, hopefully I will perform better in this, at least doing so would alleviate some of my concern of failure. The topic has less material, although a lot more math; I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not at this point.

For those of you who are interested in the gory details, my school does OCR Gateway Science and we will have three exams each summer of the two year course (three this year, three next year). My brother (who is the same age as me, but attends a different school) explained that his school did a science exam at the start of the year, but he also does triple science; I am unsure of what the difference is - perhaps an alternate exam board.

There are also several exams the school is running over the few weeks left before work experience, I was slightly annoyed since the maths exam (which we were informed may influence deciding who stays in the excel set next year) is right before our proper physics exam - although I’m told by the maths teacher that I shouldn’t worry about it, and problems will only really arise if one gets an abominable score. We do, of course, have two maths exam, so there is always a fallback. We also have a two hour RS exam, this is one of the subjects I detest, and haven’t a clue why it needs to be that long; it just seams ridiculous.