My placement working at Wanstead High School

For the past six weeks or so I have been doing a placement at Wanstead High School. I go to the School every Friday to help out and sometimes do some starter lessons with the year 7, 8 and 9 class. Although this placement is part of my final year undergraduate programme, I believe that it is relevant experience for me to become a secondary school teacher. Doing this placement also gives me the added benefit of strengthening my PGCE application.  One of the requirements of a PGCE programme is to secure a minimum of 10 full, working days in a classroom setting, and so by doing the placement at Wanstead High School, I wou8ld be fulfilling this criteria.

Aside from doing the placement and attending my other maths courses, I also need to focus on writing up my personal statement, in my opinion, writing personal statements can be quite tricky, as sometimes there can be so much to write about, however I need to only think about the relevant points which would interest the admission tutors, reading my application.

The most important characteristics to have, to be a successful school teacher is to be motivating, a good listener and patience. Of course there are many other character traits which are also just as necessary, such as good organisational skills, communication and practical.

I aim to submit my PGCE application by early December, so hopefully I can hear back from some universities to attend an interview. Practicing interview techniques is also important, as I want to make a good impression and show that I am a keen and serious learner, and I am eager to do well, if I were to be successful in securing a place on the PGCE Secondary Education programme.

Maths at Uni

Maths at university can be fun and interesting, but that’s only if you’re determined to work hard and be successful in your studies. It is more in depth and covers a much broader range of topics. My best piece of advice would be to study A Level Further Maths. It’s really useful, as some of the topics are repeated, especially within the first term.

Top tips to be successful for the exams would be to practice maths regularly. Try and do some maths every day even for at least an hour or two (if you can manage it). Practising maths regularly, helps keep your brain sharp and you find it easier to remember important formulae, and methods of solving mathematical problems.

Studying maths daily means that you complete the topics quickly leaving you more time to tackle past exam papers. It is best to do past papers under exam papers, without using the textbook. Doing past papers gives a good idea of the topics which you are most confident in and other topics, which you may need to, go back and revise again. By doing lots of past papers you can improve your understanding of maths, and overall improve you’re a Level grades.

My final piece of advice is to try and get it right from the beginning. Don’t depend on retaking the module again at a later time. Retaking modules again and again just adds more pressure and increases the workload, as you have to do well in the modules you are currently studying and also the modules you retake. Another reason not to be dependent on retakes is that students don’t get an opportunity to retake modules as easily as to when doing retakes in college. So of course, it’s a really good idea to get used to it, students who study hard and thoroughly at college life, find the transition from college or sixth form to university much easier and smoother.

Good Weekend!

I would say that I had quite a good weekend. It was Eid-Ul-Adha on Friday, which was really nice. My family and I didn’t go out or anything, as both my parents had work and my brother had university classes. So my family was busy overall, just as if it was a normal day.

Overall, we just had a peaceful and relaxing afternoon and evening, with us all just watching TV and just generally chatting together

Oh yeah and the time changed on Sunday. I read some of my messages on my Facebook account, and a lot of my friends were awake before 7am. I had to check the date to make sure it was Sunday, and not Monday, otherwise that would mean that I would have been late for work, which is a big ‘no no’. But waking up on Sundays before 7am seems so pointless for me. I guess I am one of those people who prefer my sleep, rather than watching TV or doing something else, whatever it is people do early mornings on a weekend. Although, saying that, I guess it is good practice for the weekdays, so we can get used to the time change.

On Sunday, my aunt and uncle came over to my house. My aunt is my dad’s sister. It was quite a long visit and for some reason I wasn’t feeling so sociable. I have seen them quite often over the last two months, so their visit wasn’t so exciting or special. My uncle is going back to Bangladesh on Wednesday, so that was his last visit before he goes back to his home country. I didn’t mind them coming to my house or anything, but I guess I was having one of those days, where I just wasn’t feeling so chipper.  

Bundle of Joy and potential winter wedding

Last Sunday we received news that my cousin had a baby boy. Aaw he looks absolutely

adorable. My uncle sent me pictures via text. My cousin and his family live in Bangladesh and the last time we saw each other was last December when he got married. Oh those were such exciting times.

We may be going back to Bangladesh for this Christmas holidays again, as his younger sister is due to get married on the last week of December of first week of January. We are very close to their family as their mum and my mum are sisters. Nothing has been confirmed yet, but as the weeks pass by, things seem more and more likely.

Yesterday was quite busy as one my uncle, aunt and his whole family came over for a lunch invite. We hadn’t seen them much since they got married back in February, so it was nice getting to know each other since the wedding day. We were supposed to go to my cousin’s house yesterday also for lunch as the whole family were going to meet up and just have lunch together, but we were unable to attend as my uncle and his family. It’s not too bad as Eid is coming up this Friday and even though most of us will be studying or working, we have the weekend to catch up with each other and next term is half term for all kids(except Uni students). Although saying that my brother has reading week next term, which is sort of like half-term, but I guess with lots of reading and other assignments to complete throughout the week.

So it seems like I have lots of things to look forward to and I can’t wait for the next 2 and half months to go by.

Busy weekend

This upcoming weekend is going to be quite busy for me and my family as we are holding a dinner party on Saturday night for my dad’s colleague and his family. I haven’t seen them in quite some time so I guess the atmosphere is going to be different compared to just having family or cousins over for an afternoon.

On Sunday, I’ve got a wedding party to attend. We are from the bride’s side and it’s my dad’s cousin’s daughter who is going to get married. I am very much looking forward to that as it’s been approximately a month or so since I last attended a wedding. Weddings are generally a good opportunity to socialise and talk to lots of different people.

Last month, I attended my cousin’s wedding. I was from the groom’s side. It was a really fun and interesting event and once again a brilliant chance to meet cousins and just generally spend time with them. The day was great in general. All the cousins along with the groom got to sit in the limo on the journey towards the wedding venue, and some cousins got to come back on the journey home.

Overall, the day was really enjoyable and fun. At the end of the day the wedding ceremony went smoothly and all my cousins and I gained a wonderful sister-in-law.

New Beginnings

Once again another month has passed and we are in the middle of September. Thankfully the weather is bright and beautiful today which is always positive news. So, after anticipating my brother’s exciting news, he has now received his results for 2 A* in Mathematics and Biology and 2 grade A’s in Chemistry thus securing his place at the University College of London to study MEng Biochemical Engineering a 4 year full-time degree with intercalated masters. He will commence his study from 24^th September. He is thrilled to be accepted into such a prestigious institution to study the programme of study of his choice.

As for my youngest brother, he will now proceed to his final year of A Levels with his subject choice of Economics, English Literature and History. As much as my eldest brother (eldest in terms of age compared to my youngest brother, not necessarily older than me) is into Sciences and my youngest brother is into Humanities. I suppose he is looking forward to completing his final year of college and then proceeding onto University. Although if you ask him what programme of study he wants to go into at undergraduate level, he has no idea. Hopefully he can sort his ideas out soon enough as he has approximately 4 months till he needs to submit his UCAS applications to different institutions for which ever programme he wishes to study. So far, he knows that he wants to study a degree related to his A Level courses. I have suggested that he could do a combined degree, for example Economics and History or English Literature and History. If he does decide to go ahead with a combined degree then I would advise him to study a joint honours with a 50-50 combination rather than 75-25 as he is equally good in both Economics and History and he enjoys both those subjects, however for all I know, he may just end up studying a single honours degree in BA Hons English Literature. Well whatever he decides to study, I will support him all the way. 

Time flies by

Wow times passing by really quickly and we are nearing the middle of August. I’m so so excited for next Thursday which is… A Level results day. Yaayyy. Both my brother’s results will be released on that day. My oldest brother’s A Level Results and my youngest brothers AS Level results will be released on this day. Yes as you can probably tell by now, they are quite similar in age; there is only a 15 month age difference between them. I think my mom and I are more nervous for their results, than they actually are. Hopefully this means that they feel they have performed well in the examinations and will both receive brilliant results.

My cousins are also due to receive their final results this year. One of my cousins will receive her AS results on the 16th August and two of my other cousins will receive their GCSE results on 23rd August. So overall, there is quite a bit of pressure in all four families for the youngsters to perform well. Obviously the better grades they achieve in their A/AS Level and GCSE Examinations will mean that they can apply for good courses in college and University. The higher grades they achieve will open up more opportunities for them. 

In terms of other news, my closest friend text me the other day wanting to meet up and just generally catch up. We haven’t seen each other for nearly eight weeks now. So she suggested we link up after Ramadhan is over, that way we could probably go out for a meal together. My friend has text me and left some Facebook messages over the past two weeks so I guess she misses me. I do miss her too, but I'm busy with work nowadays, and I mostly spend my weekends sleeping, so I don’t have so much time catching up with friends, unless they text/message me first. It’s kind of one sided I know, but after another 6 weeks or so, I should be a little bit more free. After Ramadhan is over, I won’t need to sleep so much during the daytime in the weekends, so perhaps my friends and I can catch up then.