Role models: the key to success?
Friends, celebrities, parents, YouTubers, authors, teachers, older students. These are the types of people that influence us and help us grow as people. I, for one, have been more than thankful for the support I've had throughout these past two years at Heathfield Community College.
This year, especially for us Year 11s and 13s going through exams, role models have had a bigger impact on us than we may have first guessed. We can conclude that parents don't have a clue about the stress we're going through, so we turn to our friends. These are the people we can whine and moan to about the unnecessarily large amounts of revision we haven't done - but need to. We turn to the peers in the years above for hints on ‘what could be on the exam’. Even just a listening ear helps, because we have no idea how they stayed in their room for two weeks solid and learnt entire GCSE courses. We marvel at the high grades they got when they passed with flying colours, when we can't even remember the context for a Lord Byron poem. We turn to the Internet and teachers to provide us with textbooks that have the potential to help us pass. If only we could remember 350 pages of conclusions and equations and useful observations made by professionals.
Contrary to midnight meltdowns and parents saying we should get off our phones, we can do this. Yes, it may seem like we are the new specification guinea pigs. Yes, we may have those collections of ELPs on our mind that we never even did. But we are believed in. We have the support of our friends, teachers, parents and older students, who inspire us, and younger students, who look up to us. Lately, I have relied on the people around me to get me through - my role models.
Not only do I feel like I can achieve what I thought I wasn't capable of, I know we will all pass with flying colours. I know that we will all pull through our exams and when results day comes we will all be proud of ourselves yet still know that we can do better.
We can become the role models that get us through.
Cal Carvey, Year 11
This year, especially for us Year 11s and 13s going through exams, role models have had a bigger impact on us than we may have first guessed. We can conclude that parents don't have a clue about the stress we're going through, so we turn to our friends. These are the people we can whine and moan to about the unnecessarily large amounts of revision we haven't done - but need to. We turn to the peers in the years above for hints on ‘what could be on the exam’. Even just a listening ear helps, because we have no idea how they stayed in their room for two weeks solid and learnt entire GCSE courses. We marvel at the high grades they got when they passed with flying colours, when we can't even remember the context for a Lord Byron poem. We turn to the Internet and teachers to provide us with textbooks that have the potential to help us pass. If only we could remember 350 pages of conclusions and equations and useful observations made by professionals.
Contrary to midnight meltdowns and parents saying we should get off our phones, we can do this. Yes, it may seem like we are the new specification guinea pigs. Yes, we may have those collections of ELPs on our mind that we never even did. But we are believed in. We have the support of our friends, teachers, parents and older students, who inspire us, and younger students, who look up to us. Lately, I have relied on the people around me to get me through - my role models.
Not only do I feel like I can achieve what I thought I wasn't capable of, I know we will all pass with flying colours. I know that we will all pull through our exams and when results day comes we will all be proud of ourselves yet still know that we can do better.
We can become the role models that get us through.
Cal Carvey, Year 11