The idea that despite how our biased minds perceive it, things can never be endlessly bad or good, eventually they have to come back to the middle - to each subjective norm.

The effects of Covid-19 have been felt all over the world and are impacting massively on the way we all now live. The decision to close schools to all but the children of key workers or the vulnerable in order to reduce contact and save lives has inevitably caused severe disruption.

It’s now officially halfway through the school year and this also marks the halfway point in my Gap Year with Yipiyap. Since September it feels like I have been on a never-ending rollercoaster and as it’s the beginning of March and many of you in Year 13 will be preparing for your A Levels and considering options for next year, I wanted to reflect on my experience at Yipiyap so far with the aim of helping you decide if Yipiyap might be right for you.

All aspiring Medics can relate to, I’m sure, the pressure of MMI Interviews! They can be extremely daunting which is why I cannot recommend enough to the 2020/2021 cohort, Yipiyap’s practice MMI Interviews!

In early November I attended the Battle of Ideas Conference at the Barbican in London for the sixth time and, as ever, I came away having gained new insights into many contemporary issues and dilemmas.

The journey to University is a strange and complex one. You start hearing about it very early on; barely into your GCSEs, people are telling you what Universities will be looking for in applicants, how it’s so different from how it used to be, and how you will spend thousands on books (the latter is a true story; I heard this from a guest speaker at my school!)

In an English session based on Creative Writing, one of the best techniques I found to improve the student’s standard of work was Group Peer Review. I’d tried Peer Review before, but I wanted to make the process of review more transparent and productive.

I think I speak for the entire 2019 / 2020 Yipiyap tutor cohort when I say that everyone was looking forward to the two Induction Days, mainly to put our worries aside. For most of us, this was our first professional job and so a really informative Induction was essential to help us prepare for the role of a Tutor - Yipiyap did just that!

I was working as a member of the SEND department in my placement so the need to differentiate was near constant as I worked with several students with varying and complex needs.

Receiving an email regarding the Regional Directors’ Training stating that on one of the days we have a 07:00 start where we must bring ‘outdoor clothing and trainers, but also posh shoes’ is bound to baffle anyone!

Questioning Techniques with one student I've been working with since the very start of the year has made a really big impact and helped improve her Maths skills no end.

The Royal Norfolk Show is one of the biggest events in the Norfolk calendar with people flocking from across Norfolk and the surrounding counties either for a day out in the sun or to compete.

As summer quickly approaches, it’s again time to provide our tutors with a valuable send-off in advance of their next steps.

I had a student ask me this during a small group session with some of their class’ lowest ability students. With their exams only a couple of months away, I was trying desperately to engage these kids in what they were learning - cracking some jokes with them, allowing them the freedom to dictate the direction of their creative response, all in an effort to help them engage with the complex nature of the tasks.

The past two months have had me thinking of Anatoli Burgoski; the unfortunate Soviet scientist who stuck his head into a live particle accelerator and swiftly received a right hook from a proton. One minute you’re fiddling with a wire and the next you’ve got a tunnel seared through your skull.

After such a great start to the year, Yipiyap tutors are taking a well-deserved break for Christmas. Our annual Christmas meals went down very well last night - thanks to everyone for coming along!

I thoroughly enjoyed working for Yipiyap in my gap year. So much so that I'd been dead set on coming back ever since I left to start my Sociology degree at the University of Manchester. Well, three years later, here I am again.

During the summer of 2018, I took part in a month long World Challenge expedition to Laos and Vietnam. It was the most amazing month and such a fantastic experience that I will never forget.