Moving into new student accommodation is an exciting time, but it also comes with a crash course in financial management. Although not as exciting as sourcing a new duvet cover or breakfast bowl set, dealing with bills is an unavoidable part of day-to-day life. But while it may feel a little overwhelming to get your head around them, providing you keep on top of payments and stay communicative with your suppliers, it’s normally straightforward.
0 Comments
For many young people, the thought of uprooting to study internationally is a daunting, seemingly unrealistic prospect. But you may be surprised to learn that foreign universities aren’t as inaccessible as you may think, and there is help available to make the transition a little easier for anyone considering studying abroad.
Getting things WrOnG:
If someone were to ask me “What’s the most important thing you’ve learned since starting sixth form” it would have to be that failure is a part of life. A BIG part of life. I think rephrasing time management to time prioritisation is much more helpful. Whether you’re in your first year at uni, or doing it all again for the second time round, October is the month to be swept away by all sorts. Torn between choosing pints and pub quizzes or knocking out your essay word count? I’ll be going over some simple steps which should (hopefully) make life at uni a little easier to manage.
Last week, I – and probably you since you’re reading this – stepped foot into a new arena. Whether you’ve decided to take up further study, start an apprenticeship or even begin working – we're all starting a new chapter as we edge ever closer to adulthood.
I’m just beginning my A-levels and have also started a new sixth form. For context, I’d been at my previous school since Year 7 (That’s about 5 years!) and thought it was time for a change. It’s been an *interesting* experience – there's something about being the new kid on the block that you really can’t shake off. If you’re a university student, you’re probably stressed about the rising cost of living. Even before the pandemic, 84% of students reported that they were worried about finances and that these worries had a detrimental effect on their mental health.
Inflation continues to rise, but resources to support student mental health haven’t yet caught up. Only 23% of students are happy with the mental health support services their university offers, and one in five students is diagnosed with some form of anxiety mid-way through their course. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by financial factors out of your control. However, gaining financial literacy and exploring all the options available to you can lighten the burden and help you manage financial stress during your student years. Whether you’re starting your journey moving into halls or doing it all again this year, loneliness creeps up on us all. I'm going into second year and although I'm certainly not in the same position as last year (familiarity with faces, places, friends and spaces) it can sometimes feel like a full circle.
You may have heard the quote ‘shoot for the moon, and if you miss, at least you’ve got the stars.’ In fact, you might have even pinned up the Pinterest version in your room. Despite its popularity and cringe level, there’s still lots to unpack in this well-known saying - about potential, ambition and failure. In this blog, I’ll be talking through the art of setting goals as we face the month of new academic beginnings. But don’t worry, we’ve still got time before September starts, and this can apply to your personal or more educational goals.
Building a steadfast credit history throughout your student years can lead to greater financial freedom in the years to come. A longer credit history positively impacts your credit score. So let's dive right into it: What is credit score and why is it important?
If you're a student who loves theatre, getting into a theatre school can be an exciting prospect. It's not easy. There are several factors to consider when choosing which theatre schools to apply to and preparing for the auditions, so take the time now to make sure your application is as strong as it can be.
If you’re anything like me, you’ve probably been shifting between enjoying summer and then suddenly fretting about results day - actively distracting yourself from the terrifying thought of opening the envelope and being face to face with your grades. One minute I’m soaking up rays from the sun and sipping on a freshly made juice, thinking to myself - ‘Ahhhh...This is the life...’ and the next I get a random flashback of question 3 on my physics paper and start wondering whether or not the answer I wrote down was clear enough, or if I checked my working with enough care.
And just like that I’m overtaken by these meticulous, overbearing thoughts. Lately we hear the word "self-care" a lot. A look at Google Trends reveals that the term spiked during the pandemic and since then continues to be a hot topic in academic research, news media, and pop culture.
So what exactly is self-care, and why does it matter? For the past few summers, there have been restrictions on what we do and where we go. This year, however, we find ourselves in an almost limitless expanse of cocktails and suntans. But it's been many months since we’ve had this much freedom in the sun. Think of last year’s summer, three years ago and how much you’ve changed since 2019. Different goals, perhaps. Changed habits. Shifting priorities. How do you fill this summer of 2022 with memories?
That’s it. It’s over. GCSES are gone and a long summer lies ahead. It’s time to spend hours lazing about and weekends having fun with friends. Some of us might get summer jobs or do work experience but one thing is for sure – we're all going to enjoy the break.
However, something else also lies ahead... What is employability? Well, break it down. Which two words can employability be split into? In the simplest sense it is your ability to be employed. The Oxford Dictionary definition of ability is ‘the fact that someone or something is able to do something;’. There are hundreds of different factors that make up this (and your unique) ability – far too many for me to list here – but that’s the point of this article.
Ah...food, meal prep and weekly shops - where would we be without it? Richer, probably. With more time on our hands. But alas, a regular excursion to Aldi and bulk making of pasta bake is pretty necessary for student survival. We can’t go without food, however time consuming and expensive it may be. Let’s take a look at managing the food side of student life, and how it coincides with tackling food waste.
On Sunday, streets all over the world were filled with people and decorations celebrating the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. Now, I don’t know an awful lot about the monarchy but I do remember sitting alongside my friends, holding paper plates and eating chocolate cake in primary school - almost 10 years ago, celebrating the Diamond Jubilee - or was it a royal wedding?
This jubilee got me thinking - I found out that Queen Elizabeth is 96 years old and is currently the longest reigning queen in the world. 96 years is a very long time - almost a century - so for this blog I want to take a step back in time to the 1940s to see how well kids nowadays would fare in the times of a teenage queen E. The personal statement is a symbol of that nerve-wracking transitory period between school and university, amongst opening your student bank account, visiting open days, and the tingling anticipation of Fresher’s Week on the horizon. Written by every sixth form student as a precedent to CV writing, it urges them to express their interest in their course, the institution, and what exactly they have to offer themselves.
As exams across universities start to clog your calendar, it can be hard to think about what comes next. If, like me, you procrastinate by thinking ahead, past this chunk of deadlines that seem to be wreaking havoc to your onedrive, you might get a little shock. No matter how much you might moan and groan for these exams to be over, they almost always mean one thing: the end of the academic year.
Last week, thousands of Y11s across the country sat down and opened the pages of their first exam; we’ll have to spend the next two months writing paper after paper, fiddling with calculators and trying to figure out how to use a compass for the hundredth time. As I was sitting in the exam hall I couldn't help but think: why am I doing this? We’ve all been told that GCSEs are important; they can help us get good jobs - or at least craft good applications - but how important are they really? And are they worth all that stress?
Ok, so there’s a big difference between being lonely and being alone. Whereas being lonely is more a sense of isolation and being separate from those around you, aloneness connotes a more conscious state of singleness. You’re going to have to trust google on this because if I have to cite my sources one more time I might just go insane. Of course, there can be an easy relationship between being lonely and being alone, but I would argue that being within the company of others doesn’t necessarily mean you’re not lonely.
In Erasmus’ 16th Century book ‘In Praise of Folly’ he said that he only believed people saw him as a genius (he was thought at the time to be one of the cleverest people alive) because he was willing to laugh at himself. He didn’t consider himself a genius. He felt he was full of idiocy: and as we all know...there’s a fine line between madness and genius.
Erasmus believed none of us really know what we are doing in life. We just DO, then we react and analyse. Then do again. Action, reflection, action, reflection. Some patterns will stick and we will realise they give us either one of 2 benefits: they help us survive and live better, or they provide us some reward. In 1844 the French author Alexandre Dumas – the man who wrote The Three Musketeers – finished a new book, The Count of Monte Cristo. It is an incredible book, if not very long-winded, because Dumas was paid by the line, which meant he put loads of unnecessary stuff in to up the word count – a bit like a student trying to pad out an essay.
Quite early on in the book, the titular hero, a man called Edmond Dantes, is in a horrible island prison where he meets an old priest digging an escape tunnel. The priest, being a very clever man, hears Edmond’s story and swiftly figures out who it was that caused Edmond to be imprisoned. Edmond is understandably angry when he hears this, and vows to have his revenge. The priest offers to help him, using the four years it will take to complete their escape tunnel to teach Edmond everything he knows – multiple languages, science, history, politics, etc. The words that have been flooding every TikTok and Instagram feed on planet earth. We’ve seen the edits, the memes and those endless debates about whether Will’s actions were justified. In fact, there was so much conversation around the matter that it got me thinking…
Since it’s March, the month of Easter, baby sheep and daffodils, I thought I’d talk about the importance of education, for women in particular. Oh, and also because of the minor detail of March being Women’s History Month and the month of International Women’s Day. Before we get going, to any guys reading this- please keep reading! Having a blog which talks mainly about women and girls in the education system concerns men as much as it does women.
|
This section will not be visible in live published website. Below are your current settings: Current Number Of Columns are = 1 Expand Posts Area = Gap/Space Between Posts = 15px Blog Post Style = card Use of custom card colors instead of default colors = Blog Post Card Background Color = current color Blog Post Card Shadow Color = current color Blog Post Card Border Color = current color Publish the website and visit your blog page to see the results Categories
All
We're always interested to hear from talented young writers, so if you'd like to feature as a guest author then hit us up for more details.
|