Transition Tasks, Wider Reading and Discovery Lists for Level 3 Subjects
These tasks are designed to support your transition from Key Stage 4 (GCSE level) to Key Stage 5 (Level 3) and to challenge your learning skills. The transition tasks are there to challenge you and it’s recommended that you attempt what you can manage in the time that you’ve got. These tasks will help you learn more about the subjects you’ve chosen to study and more about the heightened level you will be working at next year. Don’t attempt to do everything in a mad rush, take your time over them and try to enjoy the experience. Please don’t get stressed out by these tasks, and ask your teachers for support if you really need it, but try to do them on your own first as Key Stage 5 courses require lots of independent learning.
Going Beyond the Classroom: Super-Curricular Learning
One of the best ways you stand out during your Sixth Form studies is through the amount of independent study you undertake outside of the classroom. Regardless of your future plans, the ability to extend yourself and research independently into your interests is an invaluable skill – this will support your university applications and/or future job applications and interviews. All universities expect more than just classroom knowledge, which is where super-curricular activities come in; these are academic enrichment tasks that show you are interested in your studies beyond what is on the school syllabus.
This ‘Discovery List’ has been put together to help you develop your interests not only in you chosen fields of study, but also in the wider world around you.
Discovery List:
- iTunes: Free podcasts, video lectures, reading recommendations. A whole range of resources from leading universities (Oxford, Yale)
- YouTube: Has its own educational channel – EDU
- Staircase 12: www.staircase12.org - A website put together by University College, Oxford (our link college at Oxford). Contains interviews and book reviews from current students
- Radio 4: Excellent range of archive material. Recommended – Week in Westminster / Thinking Allowed / A History of the World / In Our Time
- TED: Watch talks from experts from a variety of fields, these are superb in developing a wider perspective on topics related to your subjects.
- MOOCs – Massive Open Online Courses – These online courses provide videos, reading lists and activities – you often don’t need to formally complete the course but it is a great experience in developing your own skills and knowledge.
- FutureLearn – www.futurelearn.com
- EdX – www.edx.org. Coursera – www.coursera.org
- Websites of Professional organisations, e.g.:
- www.rsc.org – Royal Society of Chemistry
- www.history.org.uk – The Historical Association
- Read newspapers! Most online versions are free. Read more than one to develop your critical skills.
