By Lara Walder

As 2025 is finally here, we can expect some new changes and celebrations to spice up school and exams, but what exactly can we be expecting from just another boring, monotonous year? Although we are not quite sure what this quarter- centennial is going to bring us – because lets face it, we aren’t fortune tellers, we’re just journalists – some new events are sure to have a big impact on how our year will pan out… 

We love to hate them – grade boundaries…

This month, A levels have been getting closer and closer for the year 5s and the year 6s, where the dedicated students and nervous teachers have been racking their brains over their biggest enemy and their biggest savior – grade boundaries. Think you did well on an exam? Think again! If your grade boundaries are high, then you might just not get the mark you’re hoping for. However, grade boundaries might just be your saving grace… If you think your exam went badly, then I’m certain dozens of others thought the same, so you might have done better than you thought initially! So your grade boundaries matter, kids! This year though, A level students have mixed feelings for how the examiners will be marking their tests:

“Maths is cooked for sure, [the grade boundary is] gonna be lower than normal” 

“Hopefully grade boundaries for economics will be lower because of the 14 mark question” 

It can be seen that everyone this year is hoping for lower grade boundaries, but since Covid-19 the grade boundaries have just been rising, making it harder for students to achieve top marks. Maybe Pearson Edexcel will do something nice for once and reduce them? We’ll only know in March when the grades are revealed…

The timetables changed, again? 

Yes folks, it happened again. By now I bet you’ve memorized your daily routine; from Monday to Friday you probably know where you are during 4th period, don’t you? Well you can say goodbye to that, as we have a brand new timetable! Of course, our students have a range of emotions on this new implementation, from:  “NOOOOOO!!! WE DON’T HAVE PE ON FRIDAY ANYMORE!” to “The new timetable slaps”. Obviously, now this means that for some of you will have a brand new excuse for getting to class late: ‘Sorry Miss, I got lost and thought I had Business.’, but for others this means that hallways are going to be filled with confused students searching for their classrooms frantically for the next couple of weeks as everyone adjusts. Hopefully, your timetable did not turn out to be as bad as it did for some people, and with that said we are sending wishes to the Year 6s who unfortunately lost their favourite Friday PE lessons… 

Trips this year 

This year, we are also expecting a few new trips to be taking place the following couple of months, including the annual Year 6 trip to gorgeous Serbia, which the students have been working hard to finally get to! Additionally, the Year 5s are expecting their German Erasmus exchange students to come to Cyprus and pay us a visit this February, which they have expressed their excitement for. We can also expect some Year 6 students to participate in the Erasmus program in Sweden a few weeks after this! 

With this in mind, I’m sure the excitement is going to kill the boredom that may be lingering for the new school year, and will make sure that this year is not only fun but prosperous! 

Finally, we can predict that the year will fly by considering everything that’s going to be racing around our minds, where this year we have been presented with even more opportunities to participate in than ever before, and much more to look forward to! That being said, make sure to include yourself in something this year to make 2025 even more exciting, and hopefully you’ll all have something to look forward to. Whether it’s going to Serbia and Sweden, to simply being excited for the end of school or graduation day – for the Year 6s – we can guarantee that 2025 will be even better than 2024!