Durham

Another little bit of travelling I have done over the summer entailed a couple of train journeys to reach Durham. Absolutely nothing in comparison to my other journeys as it is only quite a short distance and it wasn't quite a holiday I was going for... 

I left for Durham on the Sunday after results day for a summer school at the university. Whilst I was there I took part in daily academic sessions (mostly mathematics), many different social activities as well as team building excersises and competitions. I have to say, when I first signed up I didn't expect a summer school to be anywhere near as interesting or fun as it was. And I most certainly didn't expect to meet some of the best friends I could ever have asked for. 

The summer school was intended to give AS students a taste of university life and to help them to choose the subject that they want to do at university if they're still unsure. I was one of the unsure ones! But the summer school helped me to realise exactly what I want to do in the future a lot more than I immediately thought it had. 

We also enjoyed plenty of activities such as Salsa dancing, yoga, quidditch (!), journalism, photography and other challenge-type activities. There was still time to fit in a full tour of the city so I had chance to visit Durham Castle and Durham Cathedral as well. It was fantastic to see the areas which had been used to film scenes from the first two Harry Potter films! Though I was extremely shocked when one of the girls in my mentor group hadn't watched any of them! 

Overall, I completely enjoyed my week away; it flew by! And I was absolutely gutted when it was over but I know I'll be catching up with a few of my new (and old - Zoe!) friends in the future!

Keep smiling,

Kathryn x

Results Day

I returned home from Egypt on Wednesday 13th of August and I think everybody in the country knows what came the next day...A level results day.

This is an important day for Year 12s and 13s all over the country as it is the day that you find out if all of your hard work has paid off. For year 12s it is important to find out if you are able to carry on into the next year. And for year 13s they either find out if they have the grades that they need to carry on to university or have the grades they need to get themselves a full time job. 

This year I have been a year 12 so I woke up extremely early nervous to find out if I'd worked hard enough and my grades were good enough to get me into year 13. And they were! I was thrilled to get an A in both maths and further maths, high Bs in both biology and chemistry. I know that I need to put a lot more work in if I'm going to get into the university of my choice next year but also feel quite proud of what I have achieved! 

I'm so glad that I don't have to worry anymore about results and I hope everyone else did as well as they deserve (including GCSE students who only got their results a week later)! Feel free to let me know how proud you all are of your results because you deserve to be. And let me know what's next for you up the education ladder.

Keep smiling, 

Kathryn x