Year 14 Inspiration and Dark Days

Year 14 are armed with their mock results and are getting their personal action plans into gear. At this time of year your progress towards your dream may seem very long drawn out. Pace yourself. Investment in thorough and unhurried work at this stage will get the best value out of a bit of panic nearer the exams. This is also the time to take stock of your commitments outside your academic work. Definitely don't cut off your friends, give up the social life and the part time job, but make good decisions with your long term aim in view. Pull back on your hours of part time work if you don't want to stop completely. Think of the next few months as a failsafe investment. If you put in the work now, you will really look forward to mid June - it's not that far away - when you will be free of pressure, happily chilling out on holiday with your best work under your belt. If the prospect of the next few months fills you with panic, DON'T. Come and talk - all the usual suspects will have you as their top priority between now and June. Don't be afraid to ask for a piece of our time.

A Good Experience

Lots more work experience on the horizon. Some are heading off to Spain, and lots of interesting destinations more locally. A few have taken the decision to go at Easter when they can get themselves a more worthwhile placement. The main thing is to pace yourself and make sure that between now and May/June you organise yourself the right mix of academic work towards great grades, a worthwhile work experience, and some rest and relaxation. Aim high, and do the best for yourself.

French Inspiration

Terrific reports have come back about the students performance on their work experience in France. Leah, who went with them, could hear the accents sharpen up noticeably. She also found all the students a pleasure to travel with, full of enthusiasm and eagerness to make the most of the trip. Have a look at the French blog if you want to read more about how they got on.

Urgent bebo.MySpace check

There have been recent warnings in the press that both universities and employers now check the bebo/MySpace etc. sites of applicants, and have covered the stories of prospective students or employees who have been rejected on the basis of material on their site. When you were young, you probably thought social networking sites were private, and you probably thought that a bit of shock was just normal. It is essential that you check not only your current sites, but any that you had in the past where you may have put something daft which could be taken as offensive. During the years you have been growing up, the law has become progressively stronger in terms of projection for people bullied or humiliated online. Be particularly careful of stuff on your site which may have been meant as a spoof. You won't have a chance to explain if you simply aren't offered a place or offered a job. Take the chance for a spring clean.

New Careers Magazine

Have a look at the new careers magazine on this link http://www.videomags.net/magazines/xcel42 and visit the website http://www.xcel.uk.net/ Both offer access to articles on a wide range of courses, universities and careers.

Open Day Volunteers

Some of you have already volunteered to take part in Open Day within your subject department, and we are very grateful. Beautifully turned out sixth form students are the very best advert for our school and we appreciate your contribution. If anyone not already involved in work in a department, and would be willing to do prefect duty guiding the P7s and parents, please see Ellen McVea. The date is Saturday 31st January and the requirements would be your presence from 1.30pm-4.00pm and perfect uniform. The wages are tea and buns! volunteers to help with display would also be very welcome on the Friday afternoon - wages, the price of your lunch!

Boring Coats

Thanks to everyone who sorted out their Shimna coat. The last few - do it please. You must be really bored with it and I certainly am. We be up front about the uniform in the contract precisely so that we DON'T all have to be bored with coats all year.

Happy New Year 14

Congratulations to all those of you who have received UCAS offers or interviews. Good luck with the interviews. The UCAS final deadline is just about a week away. Supporting those students still working on their application will be Alicia's main priority. Don't waste time worrying or talking yourself out of applying, come and talk about it. Remember that it is important to get your personal statement to your main reference writer, even if it's just a draft. You will get valuable feedback and your reference will be all the better. Remember too that your reference writer needs a couple of days to complete the reference and get it attached to your application. Don't, whatever you do, leave it until the last minute. If you are running into a clash between the UCAS deadline and revision for your module exams, come and talk about it. Putting in the application doesn't mean you can't change your mind later, but missing the deadline leaves you without some of the opportunities you are entitled to.

Happy New Year 13

Anyone who has not yet organised their work experience needs to get on the ball. Talk to Joanne Poland and to Alicia for ideas and contacts. Don't be afraid to split your time if you have two good ideas. It's worth travelling to get to a really good placement. Talk to us if you have travel problems which would get in the way. Don't forget to organise your insurance paperwork well in advance. Don't even think about going somewhere just to put the time in. Work experience is hugely valuable. As well as the experience itself, you may find out what you definitely want to do, or definitely don't want to do. You will also have a really valuable experience to include in your personal statement for UCAS or a job application. Act now!

Happy New Year

Lots of you have started term already, with chemistry practicals, biology mocks, some musical composition and some maths revision all got done on Monday 5th January. Most of you will hit the ground running on Tuesday. Good luck to those of you with modules, which start on Wednesday. January can be a difficult month, when you have to juggle revision time for modules without missing new work or letting ongoing work get behind. As for help if you are stuck.