GCSE results day

At 8:00am today, most of my jitters from last night had subsided, and I only had one hour to wait to discover my GCSE destiny. The minutes passed swiftly; before I knew it, I was at school, nervously approaching the results desk. Overhearing somebody say that the documents were organised in alphabetical order, I slowly gravitated towards the left-hand side, and landed directly in front of my name. That was all I noticed as I snatched the stapled sheets and held them closely to my chest. Eventually, I summoned the courage to look, and was flabbergasted to find this:

• History: A*
• Religious Studies (full course): A*
• Biology: A*
• Chemistry: A*
• Physics: A*
• D&T Graphics Products: A* (I didn't expect this at all; a B would have been great)
• German: A*
• English Language: A*
• English Literature: A*
• ICT: Distinction
• (and Mathematics A* from March)

In total, that's 10 A*s and 1 Distinction, which is the highest grade attainable on the OCR national course and has the point equivalent to halfway between A and A*. I am absolutely delighted with these results; when I began Key Stage 4, over 23 months ago, and even as recently as May, I was rather frustrated by my high target grades, but now I have actually achieved them! My friends did very well too, getting lots of As and A*s between them. I'm especially happy for Jasmine, who has overcome a lot to become one of only 1.6% of students in the country [x] to achieve an A* in Health and Social Care. Now I have A levels to look forward to.

A challenge

Today, Jasmine, Chris D and I caught the bus to the cinema, while t'other Chris, Tom, Ben Winter, Jade, Rosie and Jess Boulton cycled to the same destination. It was a race, but not even self-confessed slow cyclists Chris and Rosie could hold out long enough to let bus team win, although our half-hour venture did  culminate in the vehicle momentarily breaking down. Eventually we met up with the victors, all of us apart from Jess entered the cinema to watch the film "Chernobyl Diaries". It was pretty scary; Jasmine's deathly arm grab got my right arm during the trailers, while Chris spent most of the final third cowering into my left. I was sceptical of the premise: a horror film set at Chernobyl seemed rather insensitive to me, but the focus was on the characters and their eerie situation, not sensationalising the disaster. Plus we got to see the trailer for Ted!

Prom

It's been four days since the class of year 11 formally waved goodbye to compulsory education, and the celebration certainly didn't disappoint! We had pictures taken at school, then twelve of us, in a sea of blue and purple, squeezed into a fire engine limo and were whisked away to the venue.

Posing in front of the limo

The event itself was brilliant! We lapped up the American-style buffet, before heading to the dance floor.  There, we grooved to classics such as the Macarena, as well as recent chart hits and nostalgic requests. All too soon it was over, but the memories still remain, assisted by the flurry of photos uploaded within hours, and videos, including this keek.

I should be revising...

I haven't posted a lot recently because I have a history exam coming up which is worth 35% of my final grade. Also I was feeling a bit ill at the end of May, but I'm feeling much better now! On the 29th, Em, Chelsea, Nina, Elisha, Jasmine and I went ice skating to celebrate Chelsea's birthday (which is in just over a week's time), then to Flavourz for the all you can eat buffet, which turned out to be very nice. On Tuesday it was my dad's birthday; we celebrated with a meal and a game of Monopoly at my grandparents' house. It's now the holidays, but rather than relaxing, I really should be revising...