You arrive, or at least aim to arrive, at school at around 8:30am, to hang out in the sixth form only areas; lounge in the common room, catch up with friends in the library or do some work in the study room. We don’t have mandatory tutor sessions here at Cowes, so the early mornings are yours to use, until lessons officially start with period one at 8:50am.  

Everyone’s timetable at Cowes is slightly different, if you study three A-levels, even on your busiest days, you still have two hours of free periods, during which you are free to come and go from the building. Break-time marks the end of period two at 10:50am and is an excellent opportunity (that many students take) to go on a walk to the shops and bring back some snacks to use as fuel for the rest of the day.  

When you get back to school, all the same sixth form exclusive areas are open for you to quietly get some studying done, or socialise and hang out with friends. As much as it is important to do all the work to keep up with your lessons, sometimes it’s just as important to use the gaps in your timetable to recharge.  

During lessons, you sit in a class of about 10 people, allowing the teacher to put equal effort in supporting you all. Perhaps in this lesson you sit next to someone who you never would have known a year ago but now are quickly becoming best friends with because of your shared interest in this new subject. Sixth form lessons can be challenging and are a big step up from high school but you’ll get used to them before you know it.  

All lessons finish at Cowes at 2:45pm but the day is far from over. You could take part, or even run, any extra-curricular club you could think of, or utilise the library computers to catch up on the work.  

To be honest, there is no ‘average’ day for a sixth former at Cowes; Monday could be filled with lessons and meetings keeping you in school the full day, but on Tuesday you could be back home for lunch after having only two timetabled lessons. What each day at Cowes has in common is freedom and independence between your hour-long lessons to spend time in a way that is effective for you, making studying more personal and, in my opinion, more enjoyable than it ever was in high school.