A Day in the Life of a Sixth Form Student at Ursuline High School

August 17, 2021

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Situated between Wimbledon and Raynes Park, my school, Ursuline, is up a residential road. You could easily miss many of the schools in this area, despite it being the most densely populated area of schools in Merton. Ursuline recently celebrated its 129^th birthday and has been aspiring to teach young women since it opened in 1892. Here is a day in my life as a Sixth Form Student.

Morning

I would normally wake up around 6.30am to get ready for school. It is only 30 minutes on the bus to Ursuline from my house, but sometimes the traffic is busy later in the morning so I prefer to leave early. Our uniform in Sixth Form is smart clothing, which I much prefer to wearing a school uniform.

I meet my friends in the Sixth Form Common Room. It’s a nice change to the lower years where we used to sit on the floor of the corridor outside our classroom. We have comfy chairs and even a kettle so I can make myself tea in the morning.

Form period starts at around 8.25 am and its about 20 minutes long. Everyone spends the time waking up for the day. We say the school prayer and then our form tutor often has something planned to do during the time such as a quiz or preparation for writing our university applications.

The bell then rings and its time for the first lesson. My first subject is double English Literature and I love it. My teacher is amazing, and we are currently studying ‘Frankenstein’. In contrast to the lower years, we all sit in a massive semi-circle and discuss the book in question. Sometimes we will write short answers to exam questions, but the time passes way too quickly as I am immersed in the world Mary Shelley created.

Following this, it’s break time. We have 20 minutes, so I head back to the Common Room where I meet my friends and we will chat about what we have been up to. After break, I have a free period which I use to catch up with some homework from English and prep for my next lesson which is one period of mathematics. My teacher for maths is someone I have had since year 9, so she knows me well. The class is 50 minutes long and our teacher talks through the theory of a topic before setting us questions to have a go at.

Afternoon

I take lunch in the Common Room again. Lots of sixth formers use the canteen downstairs, but it’s always super busy with the lower years, or use the toastie bar we have in the common room. The toasties are always delicious, but I normally bring my own food to eat. Sometimes at lunch there will be some clubs going on. I will go down and help with the running of the Science Club some lunchtimes or attend the debate club. At debate club, we talk about the current affairs of that week and normally have a short debate over a particular statement.

At 1.20, the final two periods of the day start, and I have double physics. This session is a laboratory class; we have twelve laboratory sessions that need to do by the end of sixth form. Today we are working on investigating simple harmonic motion using a pendulum. We work in pairs to set up the equipment and take turns between recording and collecting the results. Towards the end of the session, we have completed the lab and we take some time to begin writing up results.

Evening

The bell to mark the end of the day goes at 3.10pm. Sometimes I attend an after-school club; I used to play netball and badminton when I was doing my GCSEs. This afternoon I went to a talk that was being held by one of the Sixth Form societies on studying languages at university. There are often lots of talks about higher education held after school or in the mornings and I really enjoy attending them to learn more about what I can study at university.

I normally get home at about 4.30pm. When I get back, I like to get started on some of my classwork before dinner. I spend the evening unwinding such as watching TV with my family then head to bed around 10pm.

Is your school different to Ursuline High School? I would love to hear.

Written by our intern Natasha J-R.