I haven't been very happy recently, and I know that some people have been a tiny bit exasperated with me and my relentless self-deprecation, so I've been taking a bit of a back seat. What's more, I have also had the busiest week what with both sets of parents coming to visit for my graduation, and moving all of my things back to Dan's house, as well as the fact that I have just started my primary school placement in a local school and am practically comatose every day when I get home!
Don't worry, I can't keep myself away for long.

Personally, I feel like students should have SOME sort of academic qualification, even if they are going to be leaving school and going down a manual labour/vocational route. Having a wide-ranging basic academic knowledge (for example, of numeracy and literacy, as well as an understanding of culture through humanities subjects) is useful to individuals if they want to perform as active members of society, or their communities. It promotes tolerance, and social cohesion. This is one of the reasons that GCSEs exist.
The problem is, putting kids under the amount of stress that GCSEs seem to require is unproductive and damaging to children at the 'top' and 'bottom' of academic ability. Whilst most sixteen-year-olds would deny that they are kids, and find that notion very patronising indeed, I think that they will agree on the whole that GCSEs put them under unecessary amounts of pressure for how old they are. I feel the same way, about the year 6 SATS, although I feel even more strongly about that in a way. Ten and eleven-year-olds are being made to feel as though the SATS exams are going to affect the rest of their lives, when in fact they are just a tool whereby schools can compare themselves to one another. The same can be said for GCSEs.
There should be an overhaul of the examinations system, if kids and young adults are going to be pushed and supported whilst they are tested. Exams are important, and a good set of exam results does open up more opportunities for an individual. Exam results allow employers and other academic institutions to gain a rough idea of a candidate or prospective employee's academic ability in certain areas, as well as giving them a rough idea of their ability to perform under pressure (in this case, the pressure of exams). Unfortunately, it could also be argued that all that can be learnt from looking at a set of exam results, is how good a candidate might be at sitting exams.
Another problem with exams is that if one is academically gifted, their previous exam results become redundant as they move on in academia. For example, if a student gets all A*s at A-Level or all high As at AS-Level, their GCSE results are unlikely to be considered relevant by future employers or academic institutions. Similarly, if you have a PhD, nobody is going to care about what you got in your Undergraduate degree. However, in the case of A-Levels and Undergraduate degrees, getting stellar results helps an individual to move on and up. This is not exactly the case with GCSEs, as the candidates who are the most academically gifted don't 'need' their GCSEs in order to get into sixth form colleges, who usually only require 5 passes at GCSE level. The people whose GCSEs will be referred to often, are those who leave school instead of going to sixth form. Their GCSEs will be looked at by employers for years to come, as they are the easiest way to gauge ability.
What I am trying to say in my very long-winded way, is that the GCSE system, and indeed the examination system as a whole fails many students from the most academically gifted to the least academically gifted. A more ideal system would be one that allowed the less academic students to pursue a vocational apprenticeship (of their choosing, or if they aren't sure what route they want to go down, one assigned through personality/careers testing), on the condition that they attend one or two days of school a week in order to keep learning reading, writing, mathematical, and sociological skills, in which they would then be required to complete a qualification, boosting their employability, as well as enriching them, which is one of the oft'-forgotten purposes of school.
Students who are more academically able should be encouraged to see their exams in a less world-defining way, and schools should stop thinking solely about how THEY look in league tables, and realise that for the really academic kids, their GCSEs are of NO relevance whatsoever as soon as they have A-Levels.
Phew. Sorry for the essay...

I switched from Theology to English Literature, and I am so, SO glad that I managed to. It was touch and go for a while.

Haha, erm, I suppose peanut butter and chocolate spreat toasted sandwiches. Those are pretty fucking good, but the amount of saturated fat in those MUST be through the roof!!

Every time I go to the loo, and before and after I cook... I really couldn't tell you how many times that is, as I don't even know how many times I go to the loo in a day!

Nope, not at all. I sing in a chapel choir though, and lots of my friends are hardcore christians. I was brought up by atheists, but I am agnostic, as I don't feel like I have the right to rule anything out, if that makes sense. God is such a fluid concept that saying it doesn't exist at all would be peculiar o me, because for some people God does exist, and I think that that's enough really.

HAHAHAHAHAHA. YES. I must've meant 'Some', but I have trotters for hands, and I was typing on the tiny laptop with its cola-filled keyboard.

Mushroom soup, some cheese, and come celery. It's what we get given after a service on sunday. One of the perks of hanging out with the god squad.

I swear I've been asked this before. There isn't a WAY to get in. You either get through the interviews or you don't. I think that there's a lot of luck involved, it's about whether you get on with the interviewers, and so on. I worked hard, and did all of my homework when I was at school, which I suppose helped.

Maybe I will.

I've been to Reading twice so I guess that.

What is this Ink you speak of?

But who are you?!

I don't like to dwell on bad things. Happy memories are much lovelier.

My friend Sharon.

I like it, but I HATE getting dunked by waves.

Hahaaaa! Okay, one wish at the moment, is for me and Dan to do well in our degrees!

Yeah, I do. I liked them a lot more when I was younger, but I still listen to them sometimes, and enjoy. :)

Freedom and picnics.

Gosh, that's a hard one. One of the most beautiful pieces of music, in my opinion, is the Arpeggione Sonata by Schubert...