info@cowesec.org
Dear parents/carers and students,
We are thrilled to introduce a fortnightly newsletter, ran by the students of Cowes Enterprise College!
Our target audience is to those across our school body; from Year 7, right up until Year 13. A focus will be had on our Sixth Form, updating all readers with vital deadlines, which we will still highlight those in the lower school.
We are delighted to announce that we have reintroduced 'Charter' to our current sixth form timetable. This will enable our students to access a wide range of extracurricular activities, providing them with an abundance of opportunities to work alongside the wider Cowes Enterprise body. We have been fortunate to partner with local primary schools, charities such as 'Sight for Wight', the Isle of Wight Literary Festival, plus much more!
What will future issues of this newsletter entail?
The purpose of this newsletter is to inform both students, and their parents/guardians of upcoming opportunities- internal and external our school has to offer; clubs and opportunities available for our lower school community; dates for important assessments/tests; a dedicated section solely for Mental Health, and a section highlighting upcoming university open days, webinars, summer schools and subject taster days. We feel these will enable our students to fulfil their absolute potential, within our already thriving school body.
We hope you enjoy this first issue and welcome any feedback!
Sam, Jess, Taylor, Charlotte and The Blog Team!
www.cowesec.org
01983 203103
21st October 2022
Charter News
This week's Charter News highlights the work dedicated towards the 'Community Action' strand. Over the last 4 weeks students have been collating ideas, in order to improve our school; within and outside the school building. The community action strand of Charter involves initiating positive changes amongst our school community. This could involve a collaboration with the Eco Council to promote an increasingly sustainable future or the creation of a remembrance garden located by our pond. Multiple ideas are being thrown up in the air as we speak!
In regards to Armistice Day, or Remembrance Day, planning has already began underway! Below shows just a few of the sixth formers contributing to this year's commemorations! Betty came into to help make up the boxes and pots for fundraising, in which they are ready for donations! If you are keen on donating to the Poppy Appeal, head to Reception where you can do so!
You can find out more about the Poppy Appeal online at: https://www.britishlegion.org.uk/get involved/ways to give/donate?gclid=CjwKCAjwwL6aBhBlEiwADycBIDv 11J_M23EEeQLqvAdUInSGA_cfwggSvS9hONoqb66Dc0_DPgvbxoC9AUQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds
In addition to our commitment towards Armistice Day, some students have been creating 'Positivity Jars' for each KS3,4,5 and members of staff, in order to bring a smile to everyone's day! These can be found in each of the year offices.
www.cowesec.org info@cowesec.org 01983 203103
City or Campus?
City – Oxford is a unique university, with colleges spread throughout the city. Unlike other city universities, they are not subject specific, and also contain student accommodation.
Location(s): Oxford
Best Subjects: Medicine, linguistics, humanities, social sciences
Typical grade requirements: A*AA Travel:
The Cross Country rail service from Bournemouth to Manchester Picadilly stops at both Southampton Central and Oxford. This takes just under an hour and a half, is the fastest route and has no changes.
Open Days:
Open days vary by subject, and are found using the link below: https://www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate/open-days-and-visits
Student reviews:
‘The university is college based, but the university offers good societies and careers advice. However the campus you live on is your college. Your college basically acts as your home, and each college has a porter who is there for you.’
Graduate prospects:
is a research
university.
Oxford
focused
• 46% of graduates enter educational careers • 14% of graduates enter research careers • 3.8% of graduates are unemployed Oxford
Angela Ruskin
City or Campus? Campus Location(s): Chelmsford, Cambridge, Peterborough, London
Best Subjects: Art, Education, Health and Social Care
Typical grade requirements: 96 UCAS Points
Travel:
To travel from Southampton Central to Chelmsford train station, you first would take the train from Southampton to London Waterloo. You would then take the tube to Stratford, before boarding the train to Clacton on Sea. This route stops in Chelmsford. This route takes under 3 hours and is the fastest way to get to Chelmsford
Open Days:
Subject specific open days found here https://aru.ac.uk/study/open day Chelmsford and Cambridge Campus tours every Friday between 12pm and 2pm
Student reviews:
‘There are many clubs/societies and if there isn’t one you want, you can make your own! Facilities are great. Wifi works great but very occasionally crashes. Career service are always there. A lot is available, you just have to reach out for it’
Graduate prospects:
ARU is a career focused university. It is ranked number 1 in East England for full-time career prospects.
Recent studies show a sharp increase probable mental disorders in England, from 2017 to 2020.
Here are some of the findings:
One in six children from the ages of 5 to 16 were identified as having a probable mental disorder (16.0%), increasing from one in nine in 2017 (10.8%) this was evident in both boys and girls.
This large increase in mental health means children struggle with their emotions and motivation in schools causing their education to be disrupted, which is bad for everyone.
How can we help:
We need to acknowledge this increase in bad mental health of children within schools and educate staff, parents and students of symptoms and help for bad mental health.
• https://files.digital.nhs.uk/CB/C41981/mhcyp_2020_rep.pdf
• https://www.mentalhealth.gov/
The next few pages provide personal suggestions and advice from a sixth form student.
As we all know, the dreaded exam/mock season is approaching and once again you may find yourself feeling scared, anxious, or just low in general. But you might be wondering about how you can start coping with the thought of taking an exam or revising in general, luckily for you that is what we will be talking about today!
So why do we feel this way around exam time? We probably hear people talking about their negative feelings towards it, but no one really expresses why they feel this way. Sometimes people notice these thoughts and feelings but other times they can present in your subconscious.
You could not enjoy exams for a number of reasons, but the most common reasons are listed below:
• You are anxious about underperforming/ failing
• You do not cope well in the exam hall environment
• The Invigilators make you feel on edge
• You don’t want to be poorly or have an existing condition that makes exams extra hard and nerve wracking
• You have really high expectations for yourself (or maybe your family members put that pressure on you)
Now this may only be a short list but either way we want you to know that your feelings regarding exam stress/pressure is completely valid! No one can control how you feel, and neither can you, but we can control what we do about these things to create either a positive or negative outcome.
So, what can we do? The most obvious answer (which you are all probably groaning and rolling your eyes at!) is revision, its not fun and it is stressful but in the long run it will positively affect your lives (trust me, this is also coming from someone who HATES revision). But you might find yourselves thinking… How do I revise? I know I’ve certainly asked myself that numerous amounts of time, but I can recommend that you jot down important information whether it be in your notes, flashcards, or a poster so that you have them readily available. After that you can start looking into past papers and practicing them! It’s super annoying and boring I won’t lie to you, but it is a really efficient way of remembering theories, studies, and structures of the questions you will be faced with and gives you the best possible chances of not being caught by surprise by a question.
Although, if you do not like the idea of doing a past/practice paper then I recommend you use sites such as Quizlet or Seneca as they actively make you recall the information you have learnt because just looking at it will transfer it into your Short Term Memory when actually you need it in your Long Term Memory. So, to do this you need to periodically go over and recall what it is you need to remember.
But! Also, your teachers might constantly tell you to revise, revise, revise! I cannot stress enough that you do also need time to rest otherwise you will suffer from burnout and unlike rumours may tell you, burnout does not last a short period of time and can last for years! Not what you want for your upcoming exams… To decrease the risks of burnout it’s best to sort yourself out a revision timetable (if you’re struggling your teachers will be happy to help you) that way you have a set routine you can repeat that covers everything you need and leaves time to rest and do what it is you enjoy. However! Your time tabled revision days do still need gaps where you are resting because cramming hours and hours’ worth of information into your brain will not work, I’m afraid, perhaps start with a small chunk, take a break after a set period of time and then return to that information chunk and see how much you can recall from before. That way you are moving it from your Short Term Memory to your Long Term Memory!
Now enough revision talk (I bet you all just breathed a sigh of relief huh? Me too!) I want to steer you onto the topic of coping with anxiety. I am going to describe to you a very effective breathing exercise below (it won’t work for all of you so if it doesn’t there is nothing to worry about).
The breathing exercise asks you to list: 5 things you can see, 4 things you can touch, 3 things you can hear, 2 things you can smell and 1 thing you can taste. However, a common mistake people make is performing this exercise when their anxiety is already heightened when you actually need to stop it in its tracks before it can develop further so it is best to perform this exercise when you first notice you are getting stressed or anxious.
When it comes to feeling stress and pressure you could try breathing exercises with a well known example being to picture a little circle moving along the edges of a rectangle. The two longer sides you hold your breath for 8 seconds and the shorter sides you inhale/ exhale (one for either side) for around 5 seconds. You can change these counts to suit you as long as you are holding your breath longer than you are inhaling and exhaling.
By now you could be thinking that that won’t work and it’s useless but that’s completely okay because again, your feelings are valid!!!
There are also a large number of anxiety and stress related items to help you ranging from fidget rings to discrete toys and textured patches. These can create a calming affect as it provides your brain with some stimulation, giving it something to do that is not focusing on the negative thoughts and feelings you may be experiencing. But I think my most important piece of advice to all of you anxious/stressed students out there is that it is okay to fail! At some point in our lives, we have all failed and we will do so again, if we didn’t, we would never improve but communication (as scary as it can be) is so worth it! Expressing your feelings to your teachers or mental health team at school is so worthwhile because they can give you one on one help and put things in place to help you process and break the cycle of what you are going through.
I’d like to thank you all for reading, if there is anything no matter how big or small you want to be discussed regarding mental health please feel free to ask your teachers to pass on the message or email myself at tpurrott16@cowesec.org because none of you should ever have to feel alone, you are valid and no matter what I am proud of you.
If you need any help at all regarding mental health, please visit:
The school help team
Your local doctor
Believe in children | Children's charity | Barnardo's (barnardos.org.uk)
Childline | Childline
It is never embarrassing to admit you’re not okay because it happens to a lot more people than you might think. Getting help can be scary but it is very worthwhile if you are tired of constantly feeling the way you do. Also, the people you are talking to are trained for this purpose! There’s nothing you can do or say that they haven’t seen/heard before and they will do everything they can to get you on the right track. If it is any help, I am mentally ill myself, so I know my stuff! I attend therapy and am so happy to provide help to others via my own experiences and what I’ve learnt.
What you’re reading does not come from someone who does not understand what these struggles are like so for the final time:
• You are heard
You are valid
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Contact details for The Blog Team: • Srivett16@cowesec.org • Jclaridgelaw16@cowesec.org • Cbrooke16@cowesec.org • Tpurrott16@cowesec.org
