Hi everyone!

It's coming round to the time of year when my mum and her lovely committee are getting everything together for the local event: Royston in Blue. I've written about this before - but I never really go into what the event is for and what actually happens on the day.

Royston in Blue is an event set up by my mum and her friend, 4 years ago to raise awareness for teenagers with cancer. So this event helps raise money for Teenage Cancer Trust and the money goes to units in the East Anglia region. In the first year, Royston in Blue raised money to help a unit to be opened in Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge - somewhere where the patients can relax and have a cool place to hang out than being on a normal ward! The unit has now been made and now the event is aiming to raise more money for more units across the East Anglia region.

Over the last few years, Royston in Blue has raised a whopping £53,000! Each year the event has had an amazing turnout and this year I would love it if it could get even bigger! But what does Royston in Blue exactly involve?

This year on the Sunday 28th June, many people turn up at Therfield Heath to take part in a 5k walk/run fun run! (5k is only 3.5 miles AND you can walk it!) Everyone who takes part gets to follow a lovely course around the Heath and gets to be a part of the sea of blue! It's a simple fun run, but the result of everyone taking place really is outstanding and it really helps out those who need it!

I've taken part in this event every year, and it's always been lots of fun - everyone gets together to make a change. And honestly, 5k is not that far and the fact you can walk it as well makes it a smoother ride ;)

Once you have completed the race you receive a rather lovely medal and a great goodie bag filled with little treats! Have I sold it to you yet? No? Well this year, there is something different for anyone who enters! You could be in the chance to win a GOLDEN t-shirt instead of the regular blue. If you get your hands on a golden t shirt, it also comes along with one of their fantastic prizes! 

I will leave the link to Royston in Blue's website where you can download an entry form and I will leave a copy of the entry form here too!

I would love it if you (readers) would be able to sign up for it and take part in the event! Or if you could donate to Teenage Cancer Trust that would mean so much to me and the Royston in Blue committee as well!
http://www.roystoninblue.co.uk/

Hope to see you there!

Hi everyone!

On the 11th May I visited BBC Radio 1's Academy event in Norwich, and went to two journalism Q&A's. It was a really interesting day as I got an insight about journalism and presenting in the real world and how to make it big online! I wish that I went for more days instead of the one but other than that it was really great - I will definitely be going to the next one! The video above is just a little snippet of the day all filmed on my GoPro (its not great as it's a fast edit.) Enjoy watching and as always

See you in the next blog post,

Hi everyone!

I have had a very busy weekend of celebrating my 17th birthday! It was a lovely weekend with the people I love and receiving wonderful well thought gifts from everyone! So, for this weeks blog post I thought I would share some of the things I received and what I got up to.

My first birthday celebration was in Hitchin, where my friend (Aimee) took me to go pottery painting! She wound me up for weeks about what we were doing on this day, I literally had no clue what we were going to get up to. I didn't do pottery painting before, but I really enjoy taking part in different arts and crafts things every now and again. I'll be honest,I didn't even think of this - but I really couldn't wait to get in there and start designing my own thing! I went for a pale blue/green design with polka dots for my mug. But then my saucer wasn't so fancy. I kinda gave up on the idea that I was going for as we didn't have a lot of time to paint them both! It was lovely, so relaxing and therapeutic and I cannot wait to pick my little designs up when they've been put in the kilm! If you enjoy doing artsy things like this, I definitely recommend it, it was so much fun! 

After creating our own little mugs and bowls, Aimee then took me out for a meal to Pizza Express. I love Italian food so it was definitely a good shout there! We started with dipping dough balls and pizzas for mains - and then Aimee brought be a birthday cake and it was sent out with candles - lovely! Well, the woman sang happy birthday to the wrong person - but either way, it was really lovely. It was a really fabulous day, and I can't thank her enough for taking me out!

It was going to be a very long day for a start - my birthday just had to fall on my longest day at college, but that meant a longer day to celebrate! My college friend Emily gave me one of my many favourite foods whilst at college: Krispy Kreme doughnut and a San Pelligrino lemonade - perfect! And I received a cute little speaker too (thank you Emily!) 

Then I got home and all my gifts were waiting for me including a huge hamper of all my favourite foods (i must talk about food a lot) from Aimee. It was so lovely! And she also got me a lokai bracelet - for people that dont know, lokai bracelets resemble the highest and lowest points of the earth (Mount Everest and The Dead Sea) it reminds you to stay hopeful and humble on your sunniest and rainy days. She spent so much time on all of it as I said all the items about 2 days before, she must've had blooming good memory!! Along with these gifts I received some lovely presents from my family and neighbours (thank you all!) 

Then it was time to head out with my family. My mum booked a meal for my brother, dad, her and me and it was at my FAVOURITE Italian - WildWood in Cambridge. Yeah, I went there last year for my birthday but I love it there so much I just had to go back! The sharing board and the dipping bread was to die for and the penne pasta with fajita chicken was just *inserts heart eyed emoji*. (it was a little spicy though!) And a raspberry and sorbet to top it all off? Perfect. My outfit was this polka dot skater dress from H&M with black tights and kitten heels from Matalan. My hair was braided and I went for a brown smokey eye and red lip - my favourite combo. 

And we got home and another huge hamper was left on my doorstep. Once again, it contained more of my favourite foods along with various beauty products, some which I haven't tried (reviewing soon;)) along with some other bits and bobs. This was from my group of girls (Chloe, Kat,Amy and Sophie) and it must've taken them forever to buy all of the items there was so much! (Oh and confetti decided to decorate the living room;)) it contained so many things I love including a GHD heat protectant - I LOVE the smell of this and try to spare it wisely. Thank you to my wonderful girls who spent the time on this!

And it is only now on Sunday evening when I have finally blown out my candles for my 17th year on this earth (deep.) I have truly had a wonderful birthday and I'm chuffed to bits with everything I have received! Thank you so so much to all my friends and family for making my day so special -I will be forever grateful for making me feel like this!!

Right, I'm off to scoff down some raspberries and kinder buenos and head off to bed :)
See you in the next blog post!

Hi everyone!

Its recently occurred to me that the exam period is coming back around, and I'm seriously amazed how quick the time has gone since I took my exams! Since I'm taking an 18 unit media diploma course (possible blog post explaining what thats all about soon) I don't have to take any A level exams, but I'm still able to leave college/sixth form with at least 3 A - Levels. Thankfully as well, none of my GCSEs were too low that I would have to re take them again this year (phew!) 

Anyways, for many people this is an extremely stressful time and sometimes you have no idea if you'll be able to get through it all once you get your exam timetable - I would know, I've been there! There are many reasons that I'm writing this post: 1) tips that really helped me 2) advice for those who may need it and 3) pretty much most of the UK will have to go through GCSEs, whereas A levels are an option to take or not, thankfully there are courses out there to offer you the same opportunities as those who are taking A levels.

So, if you don't need or want to read this - I'll see you next blog post, but if you're at this stage in your life - I really would love it if you could hear what I have to say on this subject, I wish I knew some of these things before going into the exam room!


(These tips are all my own and are from someone who's target grades were from A-C, I averaged in Cs & Bs so these will be great for those in the same range as I was!)

So my learning style was and still is kinaesthetic and visual - basically, I have to touch and move things about or see them for my eyes first for me to learn the facts. The tips that I will be sharing will be specifically for these types of learners, but if you don't know what your learning style is - you can find out on this website: http://www.learningrx.com/types-of-learning-styles-faq.htm 

Science is one of the core subjects in GCSEs, something that wasn't my forte and honestly didn't enjoy at all. However, I wasn't awful at it (not blowing my own trumpet) but that was due to this learning technique. At my old school, my science teachers would show demonstrations of different chemical reactions etc. When they did this, I tried to keep up and write notes along with what they were saying - then when going to revise, I would be able to re learn the same thing that I learnt that day. Along with these notes, adding diagrams to these really helped out too - basically, felt tips and permanent markers will be your best friend.

Writing the small facts on post it notes really helped me out during this time! I would sit at my computer, study the certain area of the subject (i.e. history) and write little facts on them and a few drawings too. Its amazing how much you can actually fit on a post it note! Switch it up a bit too - add some colour to the post it notes, colour co-ordination is always fab too! Also, the best part about bedroom walls is that you can split them into different subjects - I had all my history on one wall (there was so much - image below) science on another, then French and English together (logic) and once those exams are out the way you can relay new post it notes for another subject.

So typical for me to post something about YouTube (sorry;)) but there are channels out there that specialise in certain subject areas (I'll leave some links below.) These really helped me out when studying - again as I have to learn by watching things, videos were super helpful and the fact that I could pause and rewind certain areas made such a difference! Another online thing is going onto sites such as SAMLearning or BBC Bitesize. Honestly, I hated the word when teachers constantly nagged about us going onto these sites, but one day I just clicked with them and their learning methods really helped me. Since these sites are quite popular, they have pretty much everything online that will be included in the exam (give or take a few subject areas.) It really helped, because I felt like I was learning things a lot more than I would in a classroom.

LINKS:
Struggle with science? - https://www.youtube.com/user/myGCSEscience
Maths? - https://www.youtube.com/user/HEGARTYMATHS

SAMLearning - I think schools get automatic logins - but ask just in case! https://www.samlearning.com/

BBC Bitesize - http://www.bbc.co.uk/education  


AQA Apps - search on Google Play or App Store, its all free :)

This sounds so bazar - but I'm the type of person who cannot sit in silence and work. I have to have music playing to keep me from going crazy! But, with current music - I've heard it all before and I'll want to skip them or the lyrics will either annoy me, causing me to skip or begin singing which then leads to procrastination. But, with classical - its very chill, no lyrics and the same song goes on for about 10 minutes sometimes. It really helped me focus when revising and I felt a lot more went in when those songs came up again. I listened to Classic FM, who advertised A LOT of the time about revision/studying with classical music and how much it could increase your learning etc. So give it a try - it sounds very dull and I don't listen to classical anymore, but honestly it was a life saver!

Good luck to all of you taking your GCSEs this year - I promise that it'll be fine! 

See you in the next blog post,