Written by Isabelle, Year 10
Last Friday, we visited the Ada Benson Building to spend a day as a Sixth Form student.
Upon entering the cafe area, a busy buzz of excited peers met us with a quick talk introducing us to the day’s format and to our form tutors for the day before we were on our way. I began the day with a free period, leaving time to sit in the garden and catch up with a few friends I hadn’t spoken to in a while and compare schedules to see if we had any lessons together. We then rushed off to our lessons finding it hard at first to find our classrooms but eventually I managed to find Philosophy in 6.L. Looking back on the lesson, as I previously wasn’t sure if I wanted to take Philosophy for A Level, a mixture of Miss Pallas-Brown’s introduction and the way the lesson was formatted encouraged me to consider it further. An insight to the debates, theories and general outline of the Philosophy course definitely helped myself and my peers with our choices.
During break, a coffee and cookie was enjoyed by many, fueling us for our next lesson, which in my case was History. As a Revolutions enthusiast, I was glad to be met with the fact that the History course follows Tudor, Stuart and Russian Revolutions. An engaging lesson and encouraging layout of the style of the exam from Miss Brazel has encouraged me to also consider History as an A Level course. Hurriedly (but carefully), my friends and I made our way to Summertown to enjoy a lunch out that the Sixth Formers are allowed to have on a daily basis. An ice-cream van welcomed us as we came back to school with enough time to revisit the garden and eat our ice-creams before heading off to the Freshers’ Fair. The Fair gave us all further insight on different clubs, societies, compulsory projects and showed us the extra opportunities that Sixth Form offers beyond academics. As my final lesson I learned about game theory in Economics. Game shows I had watched growing up all turned out to be a part of the Economics course which interested me in the subject and again encouraged me to take it up for A Level.
To finish off the day, comedian, journalist and OHS alumna Tessa Coates entertained us with anecdotes, encouraging messages and tips on how to get through exams acting as a perfect end to what was a very enjoyable day.
