Competition - post a photo you've taken of nature >>

Bsix Brooke House Sixth Form College Review (Oh boy lol)

Hey guys and gals :smile:

Introduction: Ok, so I am going to have to post this again. I was asked why I am going through all this effort to get this review out there- it's mainly because I've been seeing a lot of posts recently addressing and asking about this school. Also a year ago, it was me who was searching for something like this. This isn't a hate speech, it's a countered review addressing both the positives and negatives of this school. I wish someone could have given me a little more insight and hindsight to what I would expect, it would have saved many shocks and disappointments from happening. If this could help one person at least, I'd be forever happy x
But previously this was posted as anonymous and I was warned not to use the anonymous post function by the TSR community for other reasons that did not fit the appropriate/acceptable category. Though I did this because a few people on here know my true identity as in they see me daily in real life. I mainly did it and had to edit some areas to avoid my own friends and their identities being out there. I can't believe I am saying this but people have been threatened for speaking out on things which is not cool.
~
Even though they took part by sharing their opinions and their experiences, they don't want people coming at them which I understand. I on the other hand do not mind as what we are saying is simply the truth, if you have questions I am here. Moreover I wanted to note that people's experiences will vary, there is no right or wrong answer as long as you are being honest with your own experience. Please do not tell others they are spreading 'rumours' or lying or being 'too nice' or anything. Rather just be respectful towards other people's opinions and experiences. Like I had stated you could have a positive or negative experience at this place. If you studied BTEC, note your experience will be different to someone who studied A level vise versa. This school does well with BTEC students, this year many BTEC students received good grades on the other hand, for the A level students many had failed and were transferred into BTEC courses. I will be mainly speaking from the perspective and terms of studying sciences A levels at the school. I and my friends actually went and still go to Bsix but I'd like to move for other reasons.

(warning- this whole post is very lengthy but like before I'll post it in shorter episodes rather than a whole entire long post :tongue:

)
Ok, let's begin:

1) You could have many teachers come and go in one subject/course
-What I mean by this is this, say if you studied Physics or Maths at Bsix, you could have 3-4 teachers in that subject alone come and leave in that same year! Many of my friends and I had teachers come and go in our classes. With me, I took maths at AS and had 6 maths teachers from September to May which I found ridiculous. This may not be a problem to some but to me and others it happened to, it was a total nightmare. It mean't you could not establish a strong student/teacher relationship with teachers but rather you had to try and keep up with new names and try to get used to new different teaching styles. Each term we would expect someone new in our classes just for one subject i.e maths and this sometimes happened in our other subjects. The most annoying bit was each time a new teacher came, we had to start somewhere quite new in terms of chapters. This was fine with maths as we ended up finishing all chapters but with courses such as Physics it was not. We ended up having chapters we hadn't learnt and a new teacher who wasn't sure on what to teach and not teach. My advice is to really consider this aspect because though it doesn't seem important, teachers really influence what you study at school and the structure of your classes. In subjects such as the humanities courses i.e Philosophy or English Language/ Literature- it would be difficult to consistently have new teachers as the subject is heavily based on your discussions in classrooms and notes discussed with your teachers. It could be confusing too as different teachers expect different things in terms of marking so be careful.

2) This is a continuation from point one but lack of teachers in a subject.

-I know you're probably thinking huh, how if many teachers come and go in that school but please hear me out. An example is with the English department. Last year my friends who took this course only had two teachers teach this subject in the whole school and both left this year. You could find the same thing happening with other subjects such as Drama and in some subjects, you'll find only one teacher in the whole school! This is a major disadvantage as if the course you've applied to only has one teacher in the whole school teaching that course, if you do not get along with that particular teacher too bad as this would be your only source of schooling in that subject and chance of achieving a good grade (especially if they are the ones marking your coursework. This applies to those wanting to do subjects with coursework mainly). But after speaking to others, some who were in this case suffered, including me. In one of my subjects, I had teachers that I both didn't particularly like. Not because they were bad people but their teaching styles, their teaching overall did not suite me and other students that I had spoke to. One also was very unhelpful, this teacher didn't give clear feedback or mark assignments/homework at a consistent rate which was frustrating. A friend of mine who took English Literature last year explained that they even drastically changed coursework dates. I mean essays that were due in March became due in January! The worse part was that for some students, during the week it was moved to had very important science particles that contributed to their final grade at A level. I remember seeing them stressing over how they were going to balance it all. It was that stressful and serious. When my friend complained about what was happening, they were told that this is how university is like but I'm sure at university dates are set wisely and are purely set without movements, let alone drastic movements. They do not just decide one day hey let's move the due date 2-3 months earlier for course work lol.

3) Great library so take the advantage of it (in a good way)

- A huge advantage is the library and computer rooms. At the library, you have free printing and free WiFi which you could connect to with your own facilities i.e phone, Ipad, laptop etc. The computers are ok but they are timed which is expected as it wouldn't be fair if students remained at one computer for long hours. I must say though that this year for some reason the computers began to play up. They would often shut down on their own to reboot and update which sucked if you hadn't saved your work. And this took place at any time, it was so unpredictable...you literally had students who had just logged in but their computer shut down immediately then those who were about to save their final drafts to a piece of work, theirs went too :/ It was so sad but funny to some extent ...but on a serious note overall it was sad and annoying, especially if you were about to save work and Bamm it's all gone because your computer decided to switch off to 'update'. Though, I must say I truly think they are working on this problem because during half term we saw a team of technicians who since then regularly visit so we'll wait and see if this issue would be resolved.

Reply 1

Cherry82

Cont..
.4) Not organised- Science practicals, grades, mocks especially, missing holidays and breaks

-Ok here I'll explain to what I mean about lack of organisation.
This is towards the students who are interested in studying science here next year. From my own personal experience it was difficult to progress and improve your grades. A policy with practicals is that students are allowed many trials with individual practicals but in Bsix we did not have this at all. We only had one shot and that was it i.e Biology. Some science students were lucky enough to have more than one shot at it like I know the Physics students did but some of us who took Biology did not. The problem with this is that exam boards know why they allow countless tries as it's virtually almost impossible to do well at your very first go. Imagine having year 11 students who just entered year 12 and they are expected to have certain skills for a practical in two weeks while learning a whole new unit at the same time. It was too much handle. Each grade that added to your overall AS level mattered. Failing one unit in a practical was enough to pull your grade in that unit down which affected you AS result. I'm hope I am making sense...But my friends from other schools would be doing the same practical as me and get like at least two tries while I would only get one maximum though OCR allowed countless of trials. The reason for this was mainly because teachers had many classes and didn't even have the time to go over material for exams let alone practicals. Touching a different topic that surrounds organisation, before students had to have their mocks during February on a school break. Not only was this too late in the year (three months before the real exams) but instead of recovery from a school semester- students had mock exams while most students from other schools were on break. Often people were worn out by this time and had their next break a month later which was more tiring for students and teachers. Luckily they've shifted mocks to December but let's hope it's not during important holidays like Christmas lol. But even after mocks most students were not told their grades or areas that needed improvement. We were only told our grades a month before our real exams so if you did poorly, it was a sense of panic as it was almost quite late to try and improve (I'm not saying it is impossible). But there were countless of times where students had no clue their scores for tests, exams, practicals but this varied with your subject and teacher. I had a good teacher who was an exception to this aspect but the others were not.

5) Great, diverse community.-You'll find many students from many countries.

-Some came from abroad like places from India and Somalia, even places like Italy and France. It's super cool because you'd be walking around the building while hearing 2-3 different languages. The school also celebrates the days of countries independence days, so an example is on the day of Pakistan's independence day or Ghana, food surrounding the culture would be at the Canteen and traditional performers would be out performing. This aspect of the school is a personal favourite of mine

6) Overflow of students

-The very first day I had joined, I had like 60 students in a class that was only meant to maximum contain 30. In Bsix last year there was an over limit of students which initially caused choas as they had to make extra classes and look for new, extra teachers. I don't know if this would happen again but if it does report it. I'm only now finding our that this could be a health hazard. There are also so many forms due to the overflow of students. Maybe they are calming down with this now/ I don't know why they let this happened but they had been enrolling all the way till December which is unusual as most schools finished enrolment as early as August/September. Most of us thought that they allowed this because of funding issues, apparently more students equalled more funding but I am not sure to how true that statement is.

7) Nice Canteen food but quite expensive unless you're on bursary (in that case it's free).

-The food at the Canteen is nice. They have everything for everyone, including vegans and vegetarians. I love that the food provided is diverse too; sometimes cultured based foods are presented such as 'Jellof rice' and 'Jerk Chicken' which is cool as you'll have a variety of things. I do dislike the prices though to some extent because you could end up paying double the amount for something you could get cheaper at a store. Could you imagine paying 50p for one wing? Lol so 3 wings only is £1.50.

8) The head of departments do not necessarily listen to student's complaints/deal with them on time.

-This one here I could relate to the most and here's where my friends mainly come in. So I had a friend who was forced into taking a subject because the college did not allow students take three subjects initially. She was forced into taking AS Physics when it was clear that she dreaded this subject but as it was the only option available for her third option at the time, she was forced into taking it. After she had complained to the head of the science and maths department to move to a different course, it took months for a proper reply. She's now repeating year 12 because she received all U grades sadly. But there was space as they eventually made extra classes that could contain one or two new students. I felt so sorry for her as at one point she had just given up. But wanted to say as the reforms are taking place, this may change because I've noticed all teachers are trying to adjust to this new system. So they may not force you to take four as before, rather three or let you have that option.

Reply 2

Cherry82

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

Reply 3

studentatbsix

I saw this post as trending and was quite shocked because I went to this college. I take on-board everything you said but I personally believe you are exaggerating, I did A levels in Chemistry, Physics and Maths and my teachers through out the year were helpful; without them I would not have achieved an A and two B grades respectively. I realise your frustrations in failing your exams but A levels are tough and require hours and hours of independent learning so it is not all down to the teachers and I feel like I have the right to say that it was your fault, to be frank if you want to blame your teachers then obviously the blame lies on you, they all have degrees and know what they are doing , but you cant expect to pass A levels through attending class alone and if you actually thought you could you really need to have a good hard think about your failures. My tip for you next time is to put your head down and learn the content of the books provided by the institute and go through the specification thoroughly and with the help of the teachers it would be impossible to fail.

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 4

Cherry82

Original post by studentatbsix

You're entitled to your own opinion. Of course I disagree with statement that I was exaggerating lol :smile:

But you were one of the lucky students who received good grades at Bsix. I could properly name you as these students could be counted on one hand and were made public on social media. You see there were few and this is my problem, it's not just about me. Let me explain something....
Would you mind me asking who were your teachers? You don't have to say so actually for personal reasons. I know there were good maths, physics and chemistry teachers. I had a great maths teacher once. Great guy and passionate about teaching, anyone who has him will enjoy maths. Before him, I also had many other maths teachers which I will not name but weren't so great. By the time he came along, time had already gone by and he really tired to get our class back on speed and track. It was bad because we ran out of time in trying to cover the whole units but imagine if we had him earlier, the time we would have saved?
But notice I did not say all fitted this category. If you were blessed enough to have these teachers which were also few, you were lucky but the others were not. The ratio was like 1:4 in terms of good teachers to 'bad ones'. So when you had those good teachers, at lease four other classes did not have a decent teacher.

You see I'm not saying that it isn't also my fault for where I am. But you can't ignore completely that if the majority did not do well, it's something bigger than just 'independent studying'. It would be different if only a few failed and it was obvious because they did not put effort but note a majority were not as lucky as you to even receive B grades. Some didn't even have teachers before their actual exams and had to join other classes. I'll admit I am frustrated but I am not bitter, I'm not here to spite the Bsix and say hey it sucks. No, I'm simply here to state my experience and warn people because many did try hard and do 'independent study' yet failed. No everyone is going to be lucky enough to have those good teachers. Until this school changes, what happened to me will happen to someone else.
Funny enough, even if I did receive all A grades, I would have still said the exact same thing. So you're telling me numerous of students just didn't put the effort in or self teach the content outside of school? That's a huge statement to make, judgemental on your behalf too. I could list numerous of students who worked very hard throughout the year yet still failed or achieved low grades. People aren't satisfied with C and D grades.You wouldn't be if you worked your socks off and actually knew the content. It's not just about 'learning the content', it's many more things such as exam technique which many lacked. It's no coincidence when it's the majority. So be it, you did well and I congratulate you, I'm not hating on you but please do not try and judge others to why we didn't do as well as you. No offence but I don't think your in that position to do so as you do not know us personally. Many of us DID work hard, went to every study session, stayed back and asked questions in every lesson. So I agree that it's not fair to simply blame the teachers, but eyebrows are raised when the majority face similar outcomes.

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 5

Cherry82

Original post by studentatbsix

And I can't help but wonder if you are Jabokar1 after analysing your account. I'm not saying you are but it's just weird how this account was made today, a few minutes ago and I hadn't received a reply back from him...even the name 'studentatbsix' is very alarming. So you only made that account just to reply back to my posts? You could very well be anybody. I hope this isn't a trolling scheme, if so I'll just report the account. If it's not a trolling scheme and it's just you Jabokar1, stop because it's not cool to make up scenarios just to make a school look good. You need to understand that's wrong. Don't back up wrong things or it will eventually meet you up. I'm all about rights, justice and morals. I'm not going to sugar coat and lie, it goes against my own character as a human being. If it's not you and it's just a random person, what I had just said goes to you too x

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 6

Cherry82

Hey guys

I thought it would be sensible to use some statistics to validate my points so you can see it is not just me making rumours but from this you could get a better feel of the school. One thing I would suggest to any one going to any school where they would begin their time with the institution is to look at their exam results. I know you may think oh it's just about the individual but take heed as the results of a school say much in terms of their success as a collective.

So on the school's website it says- '264 students took A Levels at BSix this year and 92% achieved.
12 A2 subjects achieved 100% pass rates'.

Then it also states the subjects that had a 100% pass rate: (note: A pass = E grade minimum)
Accounting
Art & Design
Classical Civilisation
Communication & Culture
English Language & Literature
Government & Politics
Law
Music Technology
Philosophy
Religious Studies

Note- Can you see that these are mainly humanities based courses?
From looking at results this year 2015, I do not mean to sound harsh but this supports what I am saying.
So heads up maths/sciences students!

There are 25 subjects taught at AS/A2 at Bsix and only 12 courses (that were mainly humanity based subjects) had a 100% pass rate. Therefore this means in 13 subjects, there were students who failed. It means 13 subjects did not have a 100% rate and a pass is an E grade! So please consider this science/maths based students x

Also the word- 'achieved' is NOT a statistic! It's unreliable as no figures and percentages are used to explain how well the 264 students did. Achieved could mean anything, it's a subjective statement. Someone who has D grades at AS could be happy with their result therefore seeing their results and journey as an 'achievement'. If you're happy with those grades, that's perfectly fine but me personally I would like to get at least B since the course I am interested in at university requires AAA. Also notice they stated statistics for the pass rate only so it meant that this was something they felt was presentable. Since it was the only factor that had stats, please be wary.

Here's a link to the school's website, this is on the results: http://www.bsix.ac.uk/college/news_archive/2015/august/results.htm

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 7

SuperSah

Let me just chip in.

I studied at BSix for the past two years and whilst there was a lot to complain about, I received excellent support and manahed to secure a place at York due to the help in which I received.

BSix is by no means an amazing college, but it got me to a top leading uni, though some complaints I read are fairly accurate.

Reply 8

Morse1995

You quite correctly point out the obvious fact that both the percentages/statistics and language used to publicize and promote the A level results is so ambiguous as to be both meaningless and a complete waste of time,or indeed, a warning to others!
If any potential student had aspirations of attending a Russell Group Uni I would look elsewhere for you're A level subjects,basically I agree with you,good luck.

Reply 9

SuperSah

Original post by Morse1995

I ended up in a Russell Group from there, actually. :-)

Reply 10

Cherry82

Original post by SuperSah

I ended up in a Russell Group from there, actually. :-)

Yea, students still enter Russell group universities. A guy this year is going to Leicester to study IT so that's not the problem. But if you're aspiring for a career such as medicine or engineering and you plan on going to Bsix to study the science/math courses, often at the school people change their career goals because most of them wanting to enter those fields eventually don't make the grades.
Courses such as medicine require consistent, strong grades. And it's not even that these students aren't hard working, focused people- sadly, you'll see students from other schools that had up to 10 A*s at GCSEs yet end up doing badly in their AS levels for so and so reasons such as lack of support and direction from the school.
It's not even that they did not try but that they needed the support of their teachers. So many people this year, a good 70% of those who were studied the sciences/maths to become doctors etc ended up scrapping their dreams in studying, doing dentistry etc at university.

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 11

Cherry82

Thanks guys for your input, it's much appreciated :smile:

Everyone is free to express their experiences, don't mind me x Sorry if I'm seeming quite aggressive or forward, it is not intentional. I realised that with typing because there is no emotion or tone showed compared to speaking, things can seem harsh and rather rude. I definitely do not mean it in that way, if you feel offended in any way please tell me so I can explain what I had mean't and apologise x
As a side note I just wanted to say that you can still get into Russell group universities but normally it's the humanities students who get onto these universities as the humanities department is quite strong and they're the ones who normally get the good grades. If I heard that someone got A*AA and Bsix, you can be reassured that it would be most likely a humanity based student. Of course there are exceptions but in terms of chance and percentages, this is true. For the science/maths students, it's a little bit more tricky because most don't get the grades required to enter a certain course at a Russell group uni.