Immigration, Speaking English & Xenophobia - stupid views analysed

Something that makes me extremely angry and worried is the fact that so many people in the UK nowadays (including my friends and other young people) are so profoundly xenophobic. Support for political parties and organisations such as UKIP, BNP and the EDL is ever increasing. It makes me feel uneasy that people can be so close minded and ignorant, leading me to write this blog post to perhaps make other people think in different way, not take things at face value and continually question the ever changing world we live in.

Xenophobia is the unreasonable fear or hatred of foreigners or strangers and the emphasis is on the adjective unreasonable. My friend said that immigrants should not speak to each other in their native tongue and that they should all speak English all the time. This is a topic extremely close to my heart as my parents are technically immigrants to the UK. My dad was granted financial support (from the UK government may I add) and a visa to the UK to do a PHD in physics 20 odd years ago. This meant that of course English was by no mean their first language. As a family we always communicate with each other in Chinese, at home and elsewhere and I do not see why there is any problem with this. Some people may argue that:

ARGUMENT 1:
"You have moved to "our" country, you must speak "our" language."
RESPONSE: To respond to this "argument", one has to try and put themselves in the position of an immigrant. People don't immigrate just for the fun of it. Leaving behind all your friends and family to move to a country geographically and socially alien to what you have you known all your life is never an easy decision. But it is done often to seek asylum from wars, conflict, natural disasters etc. For example, there was a huge influx of Irish immigrants to the US in the 19th Century due to the Great Potato Famine. Another example is UKIP leader Nick Farage, who's protestant French ancestors fled to the UK to avoid persecutions (how ironic). Natural disasters and political instability are circumstances that cannot be controlled by citizens and it is human nature to try and move to a different country for a better life. It can absolutely petrifying living in a country were something as fundamental to daily living as communicating verbally is a challenge.

What I don't understand is when people make it out that immigrants are refusing to learn English - this is absolutely absurd and completely illogical for anyone with any sort of common sense. Why would anyone purposefully try to make their own lives harder than it already is from moving to a foreign country  by refusing to learn the language of the country they live in? If they've made the huge decision to move a different country then obviously learning the language is something that they will have to do for employment and everyday life.

What I absolutely detest about this statement though is not it explicitly says, but instead, what it subtly  suggests. It implies that immigrants who move to other countries do not speak the "national" language, but instead their own native tongue. It is ridiculous that people in the UK complain that too many people can't speak English as according the 2011 census, less that 0.5% of the population cannot speak any English. This is fact from qualitative data, not instead ignorance and paranoia fed to us by politicians and mass media.

In conclusion, look at the facts. They do speak English. 

STUPID COUNTER ARGUMENT 1:
"Well if they can all speak English, why do they still speak (insert language) to each other?" 
RESPONSE: Again, this requires a bit of empathy, which may be tough for those hard headed right wingers. If you live in a country where very little people speak your native language, there is no doubt going to be a inherent sense of isolation and seclusion even without the propaganda these right wing MPs come out with. Thus, whenever you have the opportunity to speak your native language, you would relish in this. Even the most multilingual of all people will have 1 language that is the language they do their "thinking" in and what will be the most natural. Just because they don't always speak English, doesn't mean they can't. Also what gives YOU the authority to say that everyone MUST speak English all the time - what makes English so superior to all other languages?  When has Fascism ever worked in history?

ARGUMENT 2:
"Their accent is so strong, it makes me laugh - I can't even understand what they are saying even if they do speak English! Harharhar! *snort*
Response:
Am I the only one who finds this racist? I have heard so many comments like this before and the fact that people are so intolerant and downright rude makes me so sad, especially for a nation that is so obsessive about etiquette and manners. You complain when they aren't speaking English and still complain when they do - ridiculous.

ARGUMENT 3:
"I have no idea what you are talking about - you could be plotting a terrorist attack and I wouldn't know. This makes me feel scared and unsafe around you."
RESPONSE: Again more deeply racist views. There are often similar views regarding Muslim women and other women of other religions wearing hijabs and burkas. These accusations are downright stupid and highly offensive. 1/5 of the world's population is Muslim - that's 1.5 billion people. The actions of a minuscule minority does not mean 1 in 5 humans on the planet are terrorists. If you are so worried something as stupid as not being able to understand every word everyone says, then you might as well live your life wrapped up in bubble wrap in the Svalsgaard Doomsday Seed Vault.

ARGUMENT 4:
"Your children are a burden upon the schooling system as English is not their first language - the teachers cannot cope with this."
RESPONSE:
Again, a radical statement with absolutely no evidence supporting it. In fact there is plenty of factual evidence supporting the fact that children can learn languages incredibly fast due to neutral commitment. When you are young and exposed to learning languages, this occurs by strengthening and weakening connections between neurons. As you become older, these connections become more hard-wired and therefore harder to change when learning a new languages. So the science and fact is there - children can learn new languages remarkably fast so the burden of not having English as a child's first language is pretty much non-existent. All this talk about schools crumbling under the pressure of alien students is a fallacy. And stop placing blame on children - they have done nothing wrong.

Another thing which bugs me about this brash statements implies is that if English is not your first language, then you will no doubly be worse at English than someone who's first language is English. This is a stupid assumption as even with myself, one could say that Chinese was my "first" language as that's the language my mum spoke to me when I was a baby, but my English is resoundingly better than my Chinese.

Just because it's not your first, doesn't mean it's your worst! 

These are my views on immigrants and speaking English in the UK and I know they are not everyone's. That is what I hate about politics and other humanities - what may seem to be so evident and right to one person is may be completely wrong to another. It all depends on circumstances and morals you believe in, which can vary massively. That is why I love science - a helium nucleus will always be composed of 2 protons and 2 neutrons and that is that.

Anyway, I have slightly digressed on a few points in this blog post, but this is something I could continue discussing ranting on about for a long time. I still have so much more I want to say about multiculturalism and other such subjects and I could've added a few case studies to back up points, but I think this is enough for today. Perhaps I should make "stupid views analysed" a regular feature, although it will undoubtedly be irregular since I never have time to blog.

Let me leave you with a quote from "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee, a book that I studied for GCSE English which seemed pretty boring at the time, but has some important messages inside.

“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view... Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.”

How does your hair conditioner work?

The right hair conditioner can make your hair look glossy and bouncy when the wrong one can make it lank and lifeless. What is in them that can make them so different?

No more bad hair days!

Getting the right pH
When considering the question of how hair conditioners work, you first need to know about the structure of hair. Hair is comprised of 3 major layers: the innermost medulla, the cortex and the cuticle, which is made up of overlapping flat cells like fish scales. These are supposed to lie down flat on to create a smooth, sleek layer which is held together by intermolecular forces called hydrogen bonding.

As you may expect, the more hydrogen there is, the greater the hydrogen bonding and thus the more sleek the hair shaft will be. Acids have lots of hydrogen ions, so the scales will stick down better when the hair is acidic (pH<7), therefore conditioners are usually acidic. However, shampooing often removed the hydrogen ions away from the cuticle, so conditioner is often used to bring that all important lustre and shine back into the hair.

A matter of attraction

The effect of cationic surfactants

The next ingredient that is imperative for the detangling aspect of hair conditioner is cationic surfactants (also known as quaterised surfactants). Do not be put off by their fancy name as the way they work is in fact very simple.

Hair is composed of a protein called keratin and keratin has a high percentage of amino acids that have negative charges sticking out. Soap and shampoo contains surfactants that are anionic meaning that they are also negatively charged. These cleaners are very effective at removing dirt and grease but they also remove the natural oils and positive charges from the hair. If conditioner isn’t used after shampooing, hair becomes frizzy where all the negative regions of the hair repel each other and you end up looking like been electrocuted.

However, cationic surfactants counteract this effect and instead, prevent the build up of static electricity. Most hair conditioners usually contain these cationic surfactants, which are positively charged molecules. Thus, when you use your conditioner after shampooing your hair, the positive charged cationic surfactants are attracted to the negative charges in your hair and they are not completed rinsed out with water. When the hair dries, it is coated in a thin film of these cationic surfactants which are attractive to the negative charge regions on the hair shaft, making the hair sleeker, less likely to tangle and more manageable.

Beautiful hair from beautiful science
So in the end, it’s all a matter of electrostatic attraction and hydrogen bonding. Who knew hair conditioner could contain such exciting science?!

Me with fishies

Today I tried to do something different and take some outfit posts indoors - it didn't work. Instead, I decided to quickly take some snaps on my webcam and pimp it up on MS PowerPoint, rather than doing revision for my A level exam the day after tomorrow... oops. Enjoy!

A Level Reforms: A 16 year old's opinion

The government are implementing the plans for scrapping January Modules for A level from September 2013 and I am absolutely outraged that they will affect OUR year who began our A-level studies this September. We will not have January exams in their second year as expected and instead as they will be taken all at once in June.

I agree with the government when they believe that the "resit culture" of many students nowadays needs to change and perhaps only having summer exams could be the way forward. However, I am extremely concerned about the fact that these plans are going to be introduced half way through our A level courses. Next year, due to the A levels that I have chosen, I am going to have a total of 10 exams in the summer, 6 of which are just maths! The syllabuses that we are currently studying are designed to be tested in chunks, hence why there are multiple modules. Surely then it's ridiculous that we are taking modular exams in a linear format?

Even Chris Keates, the head of the NASUWT teachers' union said that teachers and students would now face "huge turbulence and uncertainty", which will prove incredibly true for our year in particular since our teachers have already started teaching the courses with the plan of having January exams in year 13. I do not understand why the government has implemented these changes two months into the start of term - it does not make logical sense! Perhaps it's due to the looming UK general elections in 2015?

The point that Secretary of State for Eduction Michael Gove is missing is that we are not just a statistic on graph that needs to be lowered in order to kurb "grade inflation" and make their political party look better- this is the future of thousands of 16-17 year olds that they are tampering with. Another example where Ofqual succumbed to external pressures to lower "grade inflation" and consequently, our year bite the bullet was the fiasco with last summer's English Language GCSEs. Many English papers which should have achieved a crucial pass at C grade were marked down to a D grade, devastating further education and employment prospects for many 16 year olds. I can clearly envision a similar fiasco happening to our year again with these A level reforms and it is not fair on us.

I think I speak on behalf of all the 16-17 year olds in the country when I say all we wish for the government to do is to let us do our January exams in our second year of A levels and start afresh with the reforms in September 2013 for students in their first year of studies. Here is my The Student Rooms post on the same topic; as you can see, we all share the same opinion. This is our future that they are meddling with- please do not ruin it.

Thank you for taking the time to read this - I strongly hope that the government will take our opinion into consideration and listen to US, the young people of this country you are affecting, rather than just using us as a tactic in their political football.


Rebecca

Ode to Shugo Tokumaru

My love for Shugo Tokumaru's music is indescribable, but today, I am going try to describe it to you.
(POST EDIT: ahaha this sentence doesn't make any sense...)

For those who don't know (which I assume will be the majority of you guys), Shugo is a Japanese multi-instrumentalist who creates eccentric, low-fi, indie/experimental songs using a plethora of quirky instruments, ranging from melodicas to metalophones, bells to bongos. He is definitely not everyone's taste by any means but his music just appeals and speaks to me so well. It really is hard to describe, but whenever I listen to his music, I feel automatically at peace and I find it so entrancing and fascinating. I feel like I am being taken into a magical world of a Studio Ghibli film and am in a state of awe by the beauty of the breathtaking landscapes and colours. If I had to use colours to describe his music, I'd use vivid blues, violets pastel greens, lilac and yellows, warm oranges with flecks of shimmering gold and silver. His music just makes me feel so happy when I listen to it, hence why I love to listen to it before I fall to sleep as it helps me have dreams - not nightmares - during the night and puts me in good mood for the morning.

His ability to utilise so many different instruments is what I think makes him stand out of an indie crowd of hairy guitarists. He really knows how manipulate different timbres and textures from instruments to create a beautifully complex soundscape.

There is no boundary of language with his music - even though I can't understand a single word he sings, it really doesn't matter as just the instrumental is so absorbing and illustrative. Sometimes it can bring me tears, sometimes it can just put me peace and I can just forgot about everything - it is a perfect form of escapism.

If you can't tell, I absolutely adore his music. I can literally listen to his albums for hours and I have since most of his songs on my Spotify are purple since I have listened to them so much. His 2010 album (Port Entropy) is my favourite so far - possibly my favourite album of all time and I am so excited with anticipation to hear what is latest album "In Focus" is going to sound like.

He truly is a GENIUS.

My picks:

• Vista - an absolute masterpiece 

• One of his more well-known songs - Parachute - with his INSANE guitar skills at the beginning

What I thought of my GCSEs

(I've somehow managed to get this post featured on the Student Room's twitter - my claim to fame!)

Now that I have finished my GCSE courses (so crazy, I know right!), I thought I may as well reflect back on the subjects I have been studying the last two years, while it's still fresh in my mind. I'm going to discuss what I actually thought of the course, as well as my own school's teachers and how they run the course - I realise I probably shouldn't publish all this stuff on the internet, but hey, I'm entitled to my own opinion.

BEFORE WE START, I'd just like to state that I've spent literally a month putting this post together. I got really bored of writing this post about half way through, thus what I write might not make grammatical sense as my brain was getting so tired of writing this never ending post!

ALSO like to mention that whenever I talk about GCSEs and academics and whatnot, people always seem to get offended. Lots of people don't understand that I often use my blog(s) to vent about life and write whatever comes into my head. This is often quite hyperbolic and is definitely stuff I would never say in real life, so please don't take it like that. I like to have my blogs as a creative outlet where I can write anything and I don't feel like I have to censor anything in order to not offend anyone, so if it offends you that I do that, please click away.

I can also honestly say that this post is not me bragging about how easy I found GCSEs. I've written this post as an honest reaction to what I thought of my GCSEs and this will probably annoy alot of people, so if you start feeling anger towards myself, please click away. I wrote this post for something that I could read back on when I am older. This is just how I personally found my GCSEs and is definitely not a reflection of how OTHER PEOPLE found their GCSEs and I am not suggesting this is how you should've found your GCSEs. I pretty much wrote this post only for myself, and since so little people actually read this blog, I might as well publish it here as it will then be easier for myself to find it in the future.

With that out the way, COMMENCE THE RAMBLE!
Maths - AQA linear
GCSE maths, in my opinion, is a bit of a joke. I know I'm probably jinxing myself by saying this as I haven't even got the results to my exam yet, but I feel like it could be far harder, as I know of 11 year olds who are taking this exam and passing it.

Because we did a linear course, i.e. only two exams at the end of the two year course, this meant no modules, so over the two years, so maths was pretty much my relaxing lesson. I really liked my class and teacher and we have had some hilarious times of us five fighting for the four spaces on the same row of tables.

All in all, GCSE maths was a relaxing lesson, where I didn't have to work to strenuously, even though that is going to change now that I am taking double maths for A level. I just wish that in my school that they would have the GCSE exam after only one year, as that is very achievable, considering we finished the GCSE syllabus within this time span.

Additional Maths - OCR
Additional maths isn't a GCSE - it is a free standing qualification which we managed to squeeze into year 11. This is definitely something I had a love/hate relationship with, as when I we were covering it in class, I would get so emotional and frustrated with myself. This was because I did find it quite hard since it introduced many new concepts such as calculus.

However, looking back at it, I did quite enjoy learning it as it was a challenge and ultimately very interesting. I reckon if we only did GCSE maths for the entire two years, our entire class would've gotten incredibly bored. I just wish we had spent less time doing stupid GCSE maths and more time on add maths, since we only managed to skim through the syllabus of add maths very quickly, hence why so many people got confused and lost along the way. I also wish I had done some more of my own practise with add maths, so I was more prepared for the exam, but in the end, it was not a priority as it's not a GCSE.
English Literature - AQA
English lit is a subject I have always hated, as I am not much of a reader, nor a fan of literature and it is probably my weakest subject. However, I think this has been the subject that I have learnt the most in and improved my own personal skills in. Yes, I still find writing essays utterly mind-numbingly boring, but towards the end of the course, I did start looking forward to the lessons, which is pretty crazy.

I've already touched upon this on my other post, but the harder I work at English Lit, the more I enjoy it, and I think that English Literature has been one of the subjects have have worked hardest at, as I know I'm not great at it, but I feel I have gotten the most out of it, thus being very rewarding. I think I even slightly enjoyed the exam at the end of year 11?! As for the lessons, we had mixed ability classes, which I think worked quite well and my teacher was very good. With all of that said, I am still so glad that I have dropped this subject forever.

English Language - AQA
The same goes for English lang as it was for English lit as we did both of these GCSEs in the same class. However, out of the two, I enjoyed English language far more, to the extent that I was even considering taking it for A level and is something that still is at the back of my mind. This is because I find it so fascinating why some people talk the way they do, and the impact it has on others, and I do quite enjoy public speaking. Also, I feel like I have so much more to learn when it comes to English Language; this is my principal language in life, yet I feel like I could have a far greater command of it. It is a skill while is literally so vital to everyday life. I feel sad that I'm never going to have a similar opportunity in life to develop this vital skill as I really do want to improve my English, since I always have trouble with precisly expressing what I truly want to convey with words. I yearn to be that wordsmith wizard who can craft and manipulate their sentences into beautiful, articulate works of art.

As for the course, I hated the exam and found the fact we had to complete a billion pieces (slight use of hyperbole) of coursework for it, which each accounted for a tiny fraction of the entire GCSE, quite ridiculous.

Sciences (Biology, Chemistry and Physics) - AQA modular
I grouped all three of these GCSEs together, since they were all so similar. I have so much to say about these GCSEs, but I'll keep it short. They were all pretty much a walk in the park (not being cocky) as the GCSE syllabus is so fact based - memorise the facts, ace the exam. That is probably why I am so compelled to continue them onto A level; I am simply not satisfied with what I have learnt at GCSE. I want to why this material has these properties, and why this happens when you apply a force, rather than just learning the fact that it does.

I would like to say, I really did enjoy my science lessons, not only because they are my favourite subjects, but also because of our science set. I loved our set as there are no mean girls, and the guys are pretty hilarious. Plus there are no complete dumbasses as everyone seems to have a brain. Our teachers ranged from great to absolutely horrible (an incompetent teacher who would copy stuff off Wikipedia, onto a PowerPoint, for us to copy into our books, without even removing the hyperlinks), but to be honest, the syllabus was straight forward enough to just memorise yourself, regardless of the caliber of teaching that you have been subjected to.

French - AQA
I have never really enjoyed French as a subject as a whole since I do not see myself as a linguist at all. I only started learning French in year 7, and the only occasions I would ever practise it would be in the 2.5hrs of lessons we had of it every week, so I am not surprised that even after finishing the GCSE French course, I feel like my command of the language is pretty infantile. I think the minuscule amount of French I managed to learn is pretty feeble (nowhere near enough to communicate sufficiently with a native French speaker), yet hopefully it is enough to get a good qualification. I think this is because of the general national, ignorant attitude of "If everyone can speak English, why do I need to learn their languages?", hence why there is very little emphasis on MFL on the school curriculum.

As for the actual GCSE course, even though it was beneficial to myself and made my life alot easier. All the controlled assessments seemed to be rather tedious, considering they were pretty much no test of your language ability. Instead, they were just tests of your memory, which was good as I find that not too hard.

Geography - AQA A
This is a subject which I had a love/hate relationship with. Sometimes I would love the lessons, such as when we would do group activities, but other times we would just do mundane and tedious exercises straight out of the text book. I really liked our geography class and our trip to Snowdonia was one of the best school trips I've been on. I feel like geography has been a course that I have worked hard in, so I hope it is reflected in my exam results.

Something that is quite frustrating about the geography GCSE is that so much of the knowledge needed is pretty much common sense. For example, it is obvious that congestion charge would reduce traffic, but in order to achieve high marks in the exam, you have to state that congestion charge discourages commuters from travelling in their own private cars, thus reducing traffic, which to someone like me would seem rather obvious. Apart from exam technique, another aspect of the course that I didn't like was that some of the topics that were covered were so boring. It's just my personal opinion, but I found that topics such as urbanisation to be so pointless. We covered such trivial knowledge and memorised numerous pointless case studies, when there are topics which are far more relevant in the world of today, such as globalisation and population change.

However overall, I'm glad that I took geography as I could not have imagined how I would've coped with history.

Music - Edexcel
Ah, music, where do I start? There is honestly so much I can say about this subject. Let's start with the course. The exam was pretty straight forward and easy in my eyes - it's not just me being arrogant or anything, but the only new content I learnt doing GCSE content was about world music and what the words "melismatic" and "syllabic" meant as I pretty much knew everything else from grade 5 theory/Saturday morning music school. It was pretty much just memorising facts and dates, such as structure, time and key signatures etc. They say it's a "listening" exam, but about 80% of the questions could be completed prior to hearing the music, which shows how similarly to science exams, its just a matter of memorise all the facts and then acing the exam. The performing aspect of the GCSE is a bit ridiculous considering it is not possible for grade 8+ violinists to get full marks when it is far easier to get full marks on an "easier" instrument such as the clarinet or something. It seems that the only way that one could achieve full marks is to play a really simple grade 5 piece to perfection as obviously coursework moderators cannot be knowledgeable about all instruments, so the method for gaining good marks is to play something that is easy and sounds impressive, rather than playing something that is technically challenging, but losing marks as it doesn't sound like you're making it easy as it isn't easy. Does that make any sense? (Probably doesn't).

Lastly for the composing, there is so much wrong with this aspect of the course! The problem with this is that every single music teacher in the country feels like they have to tamper with student's compositions as they feel everyone else's compositions in the countries are so good, but that's only because their teacher's have the same mentality, so they make their student's composition better and thus it continues in a vicious circle. I can honestly say that almost everyone I know who has done music GCSE has had some help of some sort of help with their composition. No one's work is their own, thus that is why it is so hard to have a really good composition.

As for our lessons, they were bloody amazing. We would spend about 15 minutes of each 1 hour lesson learning, and the rest just jamming on the keyboards or gossiping with the teacher, yet we still managed to cover all the syllabus for the exam several weeks before the lesson! Even though looking back, this wasn't a very hard GCSE for someone who has spent most of their life doing music but my compositions and recordings made me so very stressed at the time. I really did regret taking Music GCSE at times too, but I suppose it was all worth it in the end.

Design and Technology (Resistant Materials) - Edexcel
This is personally one of my favourite subjects, hence why I am doing it for A level and why I did quite enjoy the course. I didn't find it too stressful as I managed to meet all the deadlines and our entire class managed to complete all our coursework a few weeks early. It also really helped that we did the exam in year 10, as that was a lot of stress off our shoulders. I personally really enjoyed doing the folder work as it's something that doesn't require too much brain power and I love drawing.

Our class was relatively small with only 2 girls (including myself), and I think I preferred having this class dynamic as none of my really good friends were in my class, so I had no choice but to really focus on my learning. For our final make project, we made a clock which was quite fun. I just really didn't like how we had to use different wood veneers to cover the outside of the clock, which kept chipping off when sanding, thus ruining the quality of the finish.

All in all, I think res mat is a great subject. The teaching was very average in this lesson, but I did enjoy the course. Some of the course work seemed a bit tedious and long winded, but none of it was all easily handled and it didn't take up too much time.

PRE (philosophy, religion and ethics) - OCR
This was beyond a shambles since only had one hour of this every 2 weeks. Moreover, it also seemed like all our PRE lessons would coincidentally be on INSET days etc, so we had even less lessons than that. Over the two years, pregnancy and cover teachers plagued our PRE education- it appears that our school didn't actually have a specialised PRE teacher for quite a while which is quite ridiculous.

Thus I can positively say that I had learnt NOTHING substantial before the exam. I reckon about 90% of the knowledge that I had acquired for the exam was from my own individual revision. Year upon year they lecture us about how we should have a high percentage of As and A*s, when they did close to nothing in helping us actually achieve the qualification. Yes, it's only half course, but surely it is the school's obligation to teach us the syllabus! Yes, it's compulsory, so most student's attitudes to the subject is pretty unenthusiastic, but this is not helped when the teachers are equally unenthusiastic!

As for the actual lessons, they were hilarious as they were with our science class. It seemed to appear that most of our class was extremely atheist and anything our teacher would try to teach us about would end up in a cacophonous uproar. The syllabus was also terrible as we only learnt about Christianity. Yes, it is the official religion of the UK, but only learning about one religion feels very narrow minded considering the fact that we live in such a modern multi-cultural society.

ICT - (I don't even know... Something Irish)
Basically, we started this "Functional Skills" qualification in year 10, but then the coalition government came into power and thus it was deemed that this qualification was a load of rubbish, so we had to change half way through the year into short-course GCSE. They say everything we had covered in Functional Skills hadn't gone to waste as it was required in the short course GCSE, but I am not so sure.

We managed to finish the course work pretty early on, so that wasn't really a problem. Something that I had/have a huge problem was my teacher's attitude towards teaching the exam material to us. He effectively refused to teach us any of the knowledge required for the exam as he deemed it so easy and straight forward that we could learn it all ourselves, when in fact, that was not the case. He set up these tedious revision grids to do (which he said were "tried and tested", but by who?...) and these stupid revision websites to go on to "revise" the topics for the exam, when in fact, we had not even covered them for the first time. Yes, it some of the facts for the exam were pretty much common sense, but this was no means the bulk of the knowledge required for the exam. Later on the course, he said that if we were getting really confused about something, we could ask him a question. However, his answer would always been extremely patronising towards us, as he would either respond to us saying that we should look it up ourselves in a textbook or via the internet, or he would explain it in a way which personally made me feel uncomfortable with his condescending tone because I asked such question in the first place. He pretty much alienated us students from his teaching, which discouraged most of us from actually learning in these lessons and I am pretty sure that almost everyone in my class wasted weeks in ICT just sitting there, not knowing what to do, as that is definitely what happened to myself. In other words, he pretty much neglected us and did no actual teaching to us for months. This is not the way I would expect a teacher to act, if he/she were to wish for his/her students to all achieve good grades.

POST EDIT: I have received all my GCSE results now! And low and behold, the two subjects where I had pretty much no support in (ICT and PRE) ended up being the two subjects I got A in, rather than A* like my other subjects. What I find quite interesting is that I managed to get an A* in my ICT exam, which was all my own hard work as the teacher taught us nothing in class, when I only got B in the coursework, which was marked and done with the help of the teacher. Needless to say, I am pleased with my results, but my school really needs to sort out the problems in some certain departments in my school *cough* short course ICT and PRE *cough*.

CGS Glee Club - Shrek Medley

I feel like I have been neglecting this blog for a while, so I thought why not post this video of my proudest moment this year: our Glee Club singing a Shrek Medley!