gap year experiences?!

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Do something that would get you closer to your desired career - be it a professional course (not too sure if there is anything specific to biology that you can do since it's mostly an academic discipline) or some sort of work experience (seems more appropriate). If it's science, your best bet is either at the local hospital or under an academic.

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If you are working on yourself, I hope you mean getting mental health and looking into self development

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If you do intend to get work, I would try to do something that would get you a higher wage rate that you can do on a part time basis instead of going for the usual: catering work, supermarkets, tutoring, retail, or care work. Think broader e.g. personal training, teaching English as a second language, junior marketing role, junior accounts, paralegal roles, start a business/freelance, lifeguard, sports coach, teaching assistant. You might need a short day course on it, but it's usually worth the money if it's only a few hundred pounds.

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If you intend to work for a year, you would ideally go for something full time and pays well. It should be related to what you want to do, but it doesn't always work out that way.

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I would also do things that you would need to prepare for university (a number of them tend to be short and relatively easy to do) e.g. pick up speed reading (or do a course on it), touch typing (10 hours online free exercises), master Microsoft Office, and learn academic writing

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If you do courses and you intend for them to be useful for work, you want something that is recognised by the industry that you intend to work for e.g. whilst learning language courses from your local community college and from mum and pop's local language school are great, they're not equivalent to the language certificates (e.g. DELF, HSK, Goethi) internationally recognised by the country of origin. Likewise, doing a random marketing course of Udemy is probably not as useful as getting a Level 3 diploma from CIM.

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If you do any courses that are recognised under an NVQ framework, you wouldn't want something that is higher than an NVQ Level 3 (e.g. A Level), otherwise you might run into a few funding problems with your uni course.

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If you do engage in a personal project (e.g. making a film, creating a game, programming software, volunteer project, investment portfolio, writing a book, creating art), you should make it something that you would want to spend hours on and you can see yourself doing for several months. It should ideally be something relevant to what you want to do in your career later on, but it can't always be helped (especially if the career is in science). The only thing that I could possibly think of from the top of my head that I would immediately recommend is something in data science.

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Unless you intend to do something financially drastic e.g. try to become a millionaire within a year, the most you would probably get in terms of money is something around £10k-15k. It's not going to be something life changing, so try to keep it in perspective.

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Network with people in the career and industry that you intend to go into

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Resit A Levels if required

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Getting your driver's license (if you haven't already)

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Get into the best shape of your life

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Look into self development and counselling (if necessary)

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Learn a foreign language (or improve the ones you already know to A Level standard)

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Look into professional certifications up to NVQ Level 3 if it's relevant for the job that you want to do (typically can be done in 1 month and have no entry requirements)

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Read recommended books relevant to your desired career or subject

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Build an investment portfolio or at least learn to invest properly

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Learn a high income skill or a life skill that will become useful later

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Network and find a mentor for your chosen career.

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Resit specific A Levels, if relevant