Reviews on ncs
Just signd up for NCS 2018. Anyone got any reviews and advice? Need all the info I can get 
Kind regards
Kind regards
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I didn’t like it personally, all depends on your group and personality. Would definitely recommend asking to be in a group with someone you’re friends with.
I personally really enjoyed it, but I know others in my group didn't . my advice is try your best to enjoy everything and look at the positive because the ones in my group that didn't enjoy it would have preferred to be in bed
I've just done Phase 1, It wasn't near what it was hyped up to be.When I signed up I asked to be put into a group with my girlfriend as we were both looking for something to do over the summer and it looked like a cool thing from the presentation we had at school. So I get there, and they start putting us into our pre-decided groups and viola we're not in the same group. So I go to my mentor I got put with and ask to get moved or to get her moved and they reply with 'we'll see what we can do, it depends on group sizes.', I wait til next morning and ask them again and they say that it's difficult to change groups etc etc. Took them 3 more days to finally sort it which meant my girlfriend had to do the 7 hour long walking activity (exhibition) for two days running. The activities weren't as good as I'd hoped either. If you've been to somewhere like PGL before like ever and done stuff like DofE before like I have you'll find yourself sat doing most of them pretty bored. They advertise it as 'the summer of a lifetime' but evening activities which I thought would be like sat round a campfire with tunes on just chatting with ya group were instead everyone sat in one large boiling hot stuffy tent doing a quiz about stuff like history and geography for 2 hours... Not exaggerating when I say it felt exactly like school. Every evening activity I did I was sat there just counting down the clock till we could leave, just a bit naff... Out of the 9'ish day activities we did over the 5 days, I enjoyed 3... High ropes, Bushcraft and Via Ferrata. The day long exhibition was terrible, we literally just followed a path marked on a map that if you've done any sort of map reading or DofE before you'll find very easy. The views on the walk were nice, but not worth being pretty exhausted for the rest of the day... The views of the peak district at the camp were already great.Now onto the 'social bond' that you have to sign when you sign up. It reads on the bond about how they have a zero tolerance of sexual activity, pretty understandable. What I didn't understand is why they had a problem with me sitting with my girlfriend that I've been dating for over a year now on a bench with my arm around her. We weren't like showing major PDA, just literally sat there talking. They reminded us of the 'social bond' three times. Once in a group meeting, and then twice in one hour when I was sat with her. It felt uncomfortable, they told us twice that they were watching us when they came over to us. I'm not one who's really bothered about being looked at like some people are, but even I didn't feel too great about it. They already separated us for most of the week during activities after we asked to be in the same group, and then they start having problems with us sat there talking in our free time... Really, really frustrating.I read online before I went that they had one power socket per tent, so I wasn't really prepared when we arrived and they laughed when I asked if there were the sockets. Like, I totally get that every camp is different etc etc but at least keep it somewhat consistent. Like if some camps get power in the tents at least give people access to some kind of power in a public place on the camps that don't have power in the tents, just feels like some people got better treatment or added bonuses depending on where they lived and the staff don't make any effort to minimalise those differences at least somewhat. I get that phase 1 is supposed to be like 'in the wild' and a chance to leave the phones behind which I understand but at the end of the day they still let other camps have power sockets for everyone and if they don't give us power most prepared people would just take power banks anyways so what's the point in not letting us use power sockets that they obviously have on the site for all the staff. It's just another annoying inconvinience.So basically, if you don't plan on going with anyone; want to make new friends and haven't done stuff like PGL or DofE before then Phase 1 might be alright for you. However if you're going into NCS for a break from a stressful exam period, you might just be disappointed... I'm usually optimistic but Phase 1 in my opinion was a waste of a week and I really hope Phase 2 is much better.The camp we stayed at was Beaudesert camp in Staffordshire.
Original post by sarahyousaf786
Just signd up for NCS 2018. Anyone got any reviews and advice? Need all the info I can get
Kind regards
Kind regards
Don't do it mega bullying issues kids out of control parents not informed of incidents about their children staff out of their depth inexperienced staff who need educating on keeping children safe and young people's mental health be warned...
You either have the best time of your life or the worst. There seems to be no Inbetween
most definitely Agreed. esp regarding ncs staff, I was very surprised, but now not bothered - why? - we paid, over a year ago, so very excited to go, this year, not bothered any more because, we so relieved that we didnt do the second week, the first week was a good one, because of the pgl centre activities , not the ncs staff or their activities in the evening which were childish to say the least. I could go on, bad supervision
10/10, Goddamn electric. Would do it all over again. Nothing that was in the control of the staff went wrong. You can't change Lancashire's temperature swings at night, nor can you change the position of the university dorms in relation to the Sun. God save the south-east.
Original post by Nightmare in NCS
Don't do it mega bullying issues kids out of control parents not informed of incidents about their children staff out of their depth inexperienced staff who need educating on keeping children safe and young people's mental health be warned...
completely agree.
Gotta love the horror stories. 'I got shot while on NCS!' You'll be fine. HM Government did a great job for me, would do it all over again.
it was alright lol made decent friends and good to get away from home tbh
I’m in the middle of phase 3 right now and so far it’s been nearly all great, here’s how it’s been:
Phase 1 I went to an outdoor activity centre in Somerset (which is beautiful). I did hiking one day which was tiring but amazing and probably my favourite part of NCS altogether, one day was team building activities which was not as exciting but good to get to know others in the team. The last day was abseiling and rock climbing which was great fun and definitely an opportunity to challenge myself. Of course the activities are different for everyone depending where you end up but thats just the type of thing you might do.
The food was not the best but honestly that’s not too important because when you look back you’ll remember all the fun times and not the food haha
Phase 2 was quite different, I stayed in university accommodation. In my flat there were 7 others including one adult. It was on the 9th floor so I had a really cool view from my window and everyone got their own room!! Part of phase 2 was cooking ourselves for dinner (recipes provided) and also being given a budget of £80 and choosing things to buy from a shopping list e.g. fruit, sandwich fillings etc. for the week. It may be an idea to bring some snacks from home though
In terms of activities for phase 2, it wasn’t the most exciting - we had workshops such as public speaking, enterprise and storytelling which did help with confidence. Once again activities vary and I’ve heard of some waves doing courses such as first aid!!
Phase 3 is split into two parts, in my honest opinion week 3a has been the most boring so far. If you’re like me and not great with lots of teamwork and social interaction this may be a struggle but it’s nothing impossible. It mostly involves planning how to raise awareness/money for a local community partner for example a care home. At the end of this week you have to pitch to ‘dragons’ your ideas to win some money towards your cause.
Tomorrow I start week 3b and I’m doing a sponsored walk! So it should be a bit more active and interesting than the last few days.
One worry many people have is that as it’s all new people, it will be difficult. I’m really shy but I made friends really easily because everyone is in the same boat and willing to talk to you (and most people I met knew somebody I already knew). Unfortunately there were a few unkind people on my wave but 90% are so lovely. during the evenings there is team time and wave time which is a good chance to socialise with everyone else, especially team time which I found the most fun as everyone can contribute as it’s a smaller group so everyone gets pretty friendly.
Wow I went on a bit haha but let me know if you have any questions!!! x
Phase 1 I went to an outdoor activity centre in Somerset (which is beautiful). I did hiking one day which was tiring but amazing and probably my favourite part of NCS altogether, one day was team building activities which was not as exciting but good to get to know others in the team. The last day was abseiling and rock climbing which was great fun and definitely an opportunity to challenge myself. Of course the activities are different for everyone depending where you end up but thats just the type of thing you might do.
The food was not the best but honestly that’s not too important because when you look back you’ll remember all the fun times and not the food haha
Phase 2 was quite different, I stayed in university accommodation. In my flat there were 7 others including one adult. It was on the 9th floor so I had a really cool view from my window and everyone got their own room!! Part of phase 2 was cooking ourselves for dinner (recipes provided) and also being given a budget of £80 and choosing things to buy from a shopping list e.g. fruit, sandwich fillings etc. for the week. It may be an idea to bring some snacks from home though
In terms of activities for phase 2, it wasn’t the most exciting - we had workshops such as public speaking, enterprise and storytelling which did help with confidence. Once again activities vary and I’ve heard of some waves doing courses such as first aid!!
Phase 3 is split into two parts, in my honest opinion week 3a has been the most boring so far. If you’re like me and not great with lots of teamwork and social interaction this may be a struggle but it’s nothing impossible. It mostly involves planning how to raise awareness/money for a local community partner for example a care home. At the end of this week you have to pitch to ‘dragons’ your ideas to win some money towards your cause.
Tomorrow I start week 3b and I’m doing a sponsored walk! So it should be a bit more active and interesting than the last few days.
One worry many people have is that as it’s all new people, it will be difficult. I’m really shy but I made friends really easily because everyone is in the same boat and willing to talk to you (and most people I met knew somebody I already knew). Unfortunately there were a few unkind people on my wave but 90% are so lovely. during the evenings there is team time and wave time which is a good chance to socialise with everyone else, especially team time which I found the most fun as everyone can contribute as it’s a smaller group so everyone gets pretty friendly.
Wow I went on a bit haha but let me know if you have any questions!!! x
My Daughter done this a couple years ago - hated it. Lots of uncontrollably druggies end up there and there is no real emphasis on discipline. Lots of people dropping out and things going awry. Be warned, your better off spending a week watching a Netflix Box Set 😆
Original post by sarahyousaf786
Just signd up for NCS 2018. Anyone got any reviews and advice? Need all the info I can get Kind regards
Kind regards
not good. i was put in a group of i believe 11 including me. 9 of those people including me were people from my school. when we worked with other groups we would always go with the group that had people from our school. when we went away for a week we were woken up by fire alarms every night, one night there 3. I at 11pm, 1 at 12am, one at 2am god knows why. During our second week it was cancelled because of a disease going around so someone threw a party and we went there instead. Apart from all of that it was decent.
Well, this is certainly a mixed bag. I'm signed up to do it this year, 2019, and I'm terrible at the new people thing. I mean I can force myself to do the meet and greet thing, but after that I flounder. Any advice?P.s Even if it sucks, that's four weeks I'm not babysitting so no big nay-sayers, please?
Original post by WannaBJ
yeah lols but one of the security gave me a full body check while I was in a bikini and after he asked me to show him my tittles but I said I’m shy lol and ran away
That’s one big pervert 🤮👋🏾
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