Wealden Times | WT265 | June 2024 | Education Supplement inside

The Priceless Education Supplement sponsored by
Aiming
HIGH
We look to sixth form and beyond with two of
our schools
Sixth Gear
Want to know how to successfully transition to sixth form? Head of Queen
Ethelburga’s College, Steven Turner, shares five steps to get you to sixth
Be Prepared
Studying for your A Levels will be
much harder than GCSEs. The
course content you need to cover,
the quantity of work you need
to submit, the depth of research and the
amount of independent study may come
as a surprise to you in September. Use
your summer holiday to relax but also to
prepare. Are there educational visits that
you could undertake over the holidays?
Can you practice a skill or technique or
learn something additional that will help
you and build your knowledge?
Get Organised
Think about how you are going to
organise all your deadlines. Will
you use a planner, diary or an app
like Trello or Asana. Will you organise
your projects by date or subject. Would
it help to use colour coding or separate
folders and books for each subject. Put
your chosen system in place before term
starts. Research clubs you can join for
your mental wellbeing and source work
experience and extra-curricular clubs that
might enhance your studies.
Build an Effective Study Routine
Create a timetable for your week
and identify blocks of time
suitable for study. Consider what
is realistic and whether you are a morning
person or a night owl – work with your
own body clock. Within your timetable,
create ‘catch up’ blocks to create some
flexibility. Try to use your study periods for
study rather than socialising but do allow
some space in your overall timetable for
fun, to keep you fresh.
Study in Small Blocks, Often
It is never too early to chunk
up your workload and tick off
smaller tasks, particularly if you
are susceptible to tiredness, loss of focus,
procrastination or loss of motivation.
Consider a Pomodoro app like Flocus to
time 25-minute study periods with breaks.
Don’t Be Afraid to Seek Help
Just because Sixth Form becomes
more about independent learning
you can still ask questions or seek
advice from subject teachers, form
tutors, academic mentors, fellow pupils
and careers advisors. If you need help with
anything, be bold and ask for the help you
need. At Queen Ethelburga’s, we offer a
lot of support and seminars around this
area and on balancing academics with
extra-curriculars and a social life. We train
students how to study effectively from Year
6 right through to Year 13.
For more
information
on Queen
Ethelburga’s,
visit qe.org.
91
Taking the
Lead
Tonbridge’s Upper Sixth will
be taking up places at leading
universities across the world
A total of 24 students are celebrating receiving
Oxbridge offers for the 2023-24 admissions cycle.
The degree courses they will be starting feature
a range of arts and science subjects including
Mathematics, Computer Science, PPE (Philosophy,
Politics and Economics), History and Politics,
Geography, Engineering, Natural Sciences,
French and German, Medicine, Linguistics,
Modern and Medieval Languages, Chemistry,
Physics, Design, Earth Sciences and Biology..
The acceptances mean that Oxbridge offers have
been made to 15 per cent of the School’s Upper
Sixth cohort. While many other top universities
have not yet finalised their offers, the news for
Tonbridge students looks promising. To date,
they have received more than 580 offers from
either Russell Group universities, such as Exeter,
Nottingham, Edinburgh, Bristol, University
College London, Imperial College, King’s College
London and Durham, or from other high-tariff
institutions including Bath and St Andrews.
Internationally, Tonbridge boys have received
unconditional offers from, respectively, Notre
Dame, Pepperdine, Purdue, Georgia Institute of
Technology, Northeastern, Clemson, UC Davis,
Penn State and others, in the United States, while
six students have offers to study in Hong Kong.
The School’s Headmaster, James Priory, said:
“Congratulations are due to all those receiving
offers from a wide range of world-class universities.
Competition from national and international
candidates is stronger than ever, and these
outcomes show that Tonbridge boys have
performed exceptionally well. A huge amount
of credit is also due to our talented teachers.”
This news follows on from Tonbridge being
ranked as the sixth best independent school
nationally – and the country’s highest placed
boarding school – in Parent Power, The
Sunday Times Schools Guide 2024.
tonbridge-school.co.uk
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