Cont...
9) Friendly students
-This of course would vary for many people as it's also subjective.
But speaking from my own experience, I have been lucky in meeting nice well- mannered people. I was mainly based in the maths/sciences department and met intelligent students who were well driven but humble. Of course there are always those who go beyond this statement in a bad way but those were exceptions.
10) Bad teaching
-Ok, bad teaching is everywhere but this bothered me the most. At one point in one of my subjects, in the classes I would learn absolutely nothing. There's a difference between learning nothing because you are not listening/confused to where you are listening but not enough information is being delivered. Some teachers used websites that were meant to aid and complement your revision as class presentations which was not enough. Students need detailed, well presented lessons not lessons where the main source were lists of concise notes. This would often lead to students missing out on key information and important aspects (my physics class faced this dilemma initially). Now here's where things get touchy...I'm not saying that young teachers fresh out of university should not teach as they need to begin somewhere but the responsibility of teaching A level students could be too much for them. You'd have inexperienced teachers teaching important qualifications such as AS level that you need to complete A2- the whole A level course. I feel like graduates fresh out of university that would like to teach should first begin with GCSE students (this is purely an opinion) then with experience gradually work up to A-levels or at least have some amount of teaching experience. I know this is harsh to say but the quality of a teacher's teaching matters! These are students grades. It would be nice to have more experienced teachers who are very confident in their field and teaching skills. (Speaking with the science courses, with the humanities they were excellent actually)
11) Interdependency and starting things way too late
- Overall I think Bsix provides a lot of resources so it wouldn't be fair to say that they did not. But one thing is this, if you come from a school that provides you a lot of support then go to Bsix, you'll straight away notice the difference. Here it's almost like university, you're basically on your own. In my previous school we had study sessions from the first week school began but here it was provided around March/April which is quite late as exams our real exams began in May. Moreover (speaking for the science based study sessions and maths) it wasn't always qualified teachers that taught us during these sessions but university students who were still trying to get their degrees. Yea some teachers taught at times but overall I had university students teach me during my time at these study sessions. Some couldn't control the class and you could see that they were uncomfortable. I feel like if study sessions are provided, teachers who are qualified that could teach and control the class room's environment well should run them mainly.
12) Unprofessional approach/ environment/teachers
- Ok NOT all teachers do this but some. I don't know if this is really an issue for some but this shocked me as in all the years I've went to school, this has been looked down upon. It's not really a big deal actually depending on how you feel about it but teachers sometimes swear and use profanity curse words. My friend would often tell me how her teacher would say words like 'b*stard', 'fu*king, 'sh*t,' the list goes on haha. I would sometimes hear my teacher say 'bullsh*t', not at students though but at concepts and ideas that was made by an author for example. It's actually quite funny to most of us as you'll begin to understand that teachers do get frustrated and that they are real people but I realised it could offend quite a few people. Though I found it amusing, I do think that is unprofessional... especially in a school environment, it's best to stay speech clean in my opinion. I prefer that way too actually Clean language is a bit more comfortable in a classroom environment.
Conclusion/Concluding this review
- In conclusion, I just wanted to say I've had a negative and positive experience at this school. I've met lovely people that I later on became best friends with who are supportive and caring. I've also joined amazing after school clubs and semi communities such as the Japanese club and the student union community. I feel that the humanities department is very supportive, better in the sense of grades and teaching quality. And also doing BTEC with this school is better than doing A levels (Sciences mainly). So if you'd like to study humanity based subjects at Bsix, you could have a whole different experience to mine where I was science/math based with courses.
There are definitely pluses but please consider the negatives (especially students who want to study A level science/math courses). On top of the things that I have listed, look at the grades of this year and previous years. Please research. Almost to no one achieved straight A grades at AS this year and A2, only a few did. I knew some of them personally and I can't start to explain the amount of self teaching they had done which is why I am now considering the self teaching route fully. A pass is an E grade at A level so don't let that 100% pass grade fool you, instead when looking for schools to join, consider those who have many students under the category A*-C as this is what you need to enter a decent university. In our school, probably only 20% achieve B-C while the rest continues from there.
An essential thought is the reforms. Do you think that they could be best qualified for the reforms taking place this September or from onwards? Unless things change automatically....Note that in many courses, you'll have to do your exams at the end of your two years meaning it's completely linear with NO RESITS! So messing up during that time is severe and could lead to life changing consequences for example changing your career plans, you deserve and need the most support that you can get so choose wisely. Do not let the low entry requirements for courses at A level persuade you into entering as there are consequences.
I honestly wish you the best with deciding where you'd like to go for your A levels/Btec courses. To the year 11s entering year 12 good luck with everything. Wish you the absolute best guys and guys xx