The leaves are changing, the nights are getting darker and there is a distinct smell of new pencils and growing stress in the air, which can mean only one thing – it is the end of summer, and a new school year has begun. Now, for those who are still getting acclimatised to the new school, or those like me, a new Year 12, who prior to this week hadn’t had an actual lesson in four months, I have compiled an easy guide to recognise the different types of students coming back after the summer break.

“But I’m sure I’ll need this someday”
said no GCSE student ever.

And so, as GCSEs are nearing their end (or so I like to think), along with the help of some of my friends, we’ve collated your Essential Guide to The Useless Things Your GCSE Subjects Will Teach You.
Whether you’re yet to pick your subjects and are looking for some advice, or you’re looking for someone to commiserate with, here is your guide to all things GCSEs.

An eight is a fine-tuned boat. Grace, power, precision, speed. You take a big oar with two hands and go “right against that footplate”. So, without further ado, what your position in the eight says about you.

Summer has so nearly arrived, and while this may immediately make you think: ‘EXAMS’ or ‘so close to a glorious stretch of no school’, what it actually means is that the Duke of Edinburgh expedition season is well and truly upon us. There is most certainly, shall we say … a slight divide… in opinions out there on these expeditions, and so I thought I would capitalise on this in honour of Y9 recently completing their first one, and to make a nice send off for Y10, who are soon to be trekking around the Peak District.