Year 12 students have completed the initial two months of KS5 in sixth form and they can feel the immense struggle already as they dread the following years...
Being used to relying on teachers to help them all throughout their work, year 12s are finding adjustment to a more independent school lifestyle quite difficult as they feel helpless.
A student from the Phoenix Collegiate remarks that in year 11, even though they had “ten subjects to keep up with”, they still didn’t have “that much homework” – the jump is proving to be insurmountably huge, mainly because students feel as if they aren’t eased into it and, thus, don’t have time to adapt to that change in lifestyle.
The student adds, “I miss GCSEs despite not liking the subjects" – it seems as if the A Level workload immensely impacts students’ personal lives too; as a result, even despite studying subjects they have an interest in, they miss the social freedom from GCSE days.
Due to the amount of content, “the work feels rushed” – adjusting to new teaching styles and increasing difficulty in content is proving to be harder than initially expected.
Perhaps what students require is more support to help them ease into this new lifestyle; another student from The Phoenix Collegiate suggests that “revision groups might be quite insightful”.
Considering the independence they have to latch onto now, studying in groups may provide an intuitive experience – students will feel less pressured if they are secure with the taught content alongside other students with similar ambitions.
However, the students do seem to be more tolerable of their situation now because they are studying the subjects they “chose” – the interest they have in their content keeps them pleased and satisfied enough to tolerate the overwhelming jump from GCSE to A Level.
Evidently, passion is indeed enough to overcome difficulty.
