NCS Newham Collegiate Sixthform HONEST REVIEW (ask questions)

Hi people!

I am currently a student at NCS and i noticed the information on student room is quite outdated now so if anyone has any questions about NCS PLEASE LET ME KNOW im quite active on student room so ill get to ur questions asap!

Reply 1

Iumin

any advantages or disadvantages of going to ncs? or how does it compare to other sixth forms (e.g. brampton, lae)

many thanks!!

Reply 2

urfaverowboat

Original post by Iumin

any advantages or disadvantages of going to ncs? or how does it compare to other sixth forms (e.g. brampton, lae)
many thanks!!

Hi! sorry took me a while to write the reply:

so an advantage of NCS is defo the amount of support you get: e.g. you're confused on something, they make it very easy to ask for them to repeat, the teachers are super engaging and are always checking to make sure you understand what's going on in the lesson, the timetable is nearly the same everyday, so while that sounds rlly boring, it's not rlly cos they teach something new or progressive every lesson and always help to give like full mark structured answers for you to follow to guarantee top marks if you use it properly which i find rlly useful. classes are also not huge so it feels more personal, secondary feels like 30+ students in one room but here it's like 20 at most and can be lower which i feel is quite nice cos the teacher can spent more time on you rather than maybe brampton or lae which some friends of mine say feels similar to secondary. the building itself is so 'posh' ig you feel like youre in an academic setting already which is nice, you also get private study which is nice to catch up with personal revision or homework (i use it for homework most of the time). Also THE IPADS omg they’re so useful and nice to use, there is some limitation obviously like you can’t download whatever you want but like you can request for certain apps if they aren’t an available option and if the app is deemed as useful they’ll let you download it, you use one note a lot to take down your notes and teachers give you handouts on it and stuff and teams is also a rlly big part of it to like access the powerpoints and stuff, but yeah the ipads are nice, us current year 12s got Ipad 10^th generation, I think for the 2025 cohort you guys might also be getting them too because current year 13s don’t.
Disadvantages are very very limited I’d say: the amount of homework is quite a lot for the amount of time you have, so you NEED to figure out a timetable fast so you have time for your own study and not just for homework. But this si why private study is useful cos you can finish most of your homework there if you try hard enough. There’s no canteen so you can’t buy from from the sixthform, but if you get free school meals, they give you £75 sainsbury vounchers so get ur lunch from high street which is nice, most people go out to eat and lidl is cheap too lol. Uniform is a bit strict on like skirt length, badges, but not rlly for other things like you have the freedom to choose nice clothes as long as it meets the uniform requirements (and the tie is only mandatory for boys). Also there’s no lockers available but tbf you only need the ipad and a whiteboard pen so it’s not much to carry in the first place. Yeah that’s about as much of a disadvantages I can think of, there’s a few solutions but yeah.
In terms of lae and Brampton, idk many people who go Brampton I’d say their biggest disadvantage is the fact it’s connected to a secondary school, it just seems very off putting while ncs is like all 16+ and ncs has high attainment as well so if you don’t want to be around little kids I’d say ncs is nice in that sense. For lae their uniform is business casual while we have business formal but idk the uniform is not a selling point. Lae is good in size but I’d not let external factors dictate education I’d say, but lae has a lot of drama and so does Brampton (Brampton especially with the lawsuits) so if you ask me I’d say ncs is a rlly safe bet it’s a mix of lae and Brampton but with basically no issues, ncs is a chill environment and everyone is open to making friends and the education here is nice.
If you have other questions I didn’t answer lmk!

Reply 3

HebaMah

Hi
I wanted to ask (if you dnt mind sharing your predicted grades) what predicted grades got you an offer from ncs
ans if one grade 6 (in re) amongst all other top grades really impact whether or not they woll offer me a spot?
Also how do they usually offer conditional offers?

Reply 4

Grade9er

Original post by HebaMah

Hi, in 2024, they didn’t use predicted grades but instead our actual GCSE grades. If you got a few grades that weren’t exceptional. They don’t really care much, but you have to have really good grades in the subjects you wanna take, so, for me, I got 2 6s and 1 4 ( in German 💀), but the subjects I wanted to do, Maths, Further Maths, Physics and Chemistry I got pretty good on (9 in maths and chem, 8 in phys). Overall, try and get the best grades you can ( ABSOLUTE MINIMUM 7/8 grades 7-9) and make sure you get really good grades in the subjects you wanna do.

Reply 5

Iumin

Original post by urfaverowboat

Hi! sorry took me a while to write the reply:
so an advantage of NCS is defo the amount of support you get: e.g. you're confused on something, they make it very easy to ask for them to repeat, the teachers are super engaging and are always checking to make sure you understand what's going on in the lesson, the timetable is nearly the same everyday, so while that sounds rlly boring, it's not rlly cos they teach something new or progressive every lesson and always help to give like full mark structured answers for you to follow to guarantee top marks if you use it properly which i find rlly useful. classes are also not huge so it feels more personal, secondary feels like 30+ students in one room but here it's like 20 at most and can be lower which i feel is quite nice cos the teacher can spent more time on you rather than maybe brampton or lae which some friends of mine say feels similar to secondary. the building itself is so 'posh' ig you feel like youre in an academic setting already which is nice, you also get private study which is nice to catch up with personal revision or homework (i use it for homework most of the time). Also THE IPADS omg they’re so useful and nice to use, there is some limitation obviously like you can’t download whatever you want but like you can request for certain apps if they aren’t an available option and if the app is deemed as useful they’ll let you download it, you use one note a lot to take down your notes and teachers give you handouts on it and stuff and teams is also a rlly big part of it to like access the powerpoints and stuff, but yeah the ipads are nice, us current year 12s got Ipad 10^th generation, I think for the 2025 cohort you guys might also be getting them too because current year 13s don’t.
Disadvantages are very very limited I’d say: the amount of homework is quite a lot for the amount of time you have, so you NEED to figure out a timetable fast so you have time for your own study and not just for homework. But this si why private study is useful cos you can finish most of your homework there if you try hard enough. There’s no canteen so you can’t buy from from the sixthform, but if you get free school meals, they give you £75 sainsbury vounchers so get ur lunch from high street which is nice, most people go out to eat and lidl is cheap too lol. Uniform is a bit strict on like skirt length, badges, but not rlly for other things like you have the freedom to choose nice clothes as long as it meets the uniform requirements (and the tie is only mandatory for boys). Also there’s no lockers available but tbf you only need the ipad and a whiteboard pen so it’s not much to carry in the first place. Yeah that’s about as much of a disadvantages I can think of, there’s a few solutions but yeah.
In terms of lae and Brampton, idk many people who go Brampton I’d say their biggest disadvantage is the fact it’s connected to a secondary school, it just seems very off putting while ncs is like all 16+ and ncs has high attainment as well so if you don’t want to be around little kids I’d say ncs is nice in that sense. For lae their uniform is business casual while we have business formal but idk the uniform is not a selling point. Lae is good in size but I’d not let external factors dictate education I’d say, but lae has a lot of drama and so does Brampton (Brampton especially with the lawsuits) so if you ask me I’d say ncs is a rlly safe bet it’s a mix of lae and Brampton but with basically no issues, ncs is a chill environment and everyone is open to making friends and the education here is nice.
If you have other questions I didn’t answer lmk!

thank you so much! if i have any other questions i think of i will let you know!

Reply 6

HebaMah

Original post by Grade9er

Oh so they dnt jusy take ppl with all 9s or 7-9s as thats what ive mostly heard.
So if they dodnt use predicted grades
Did they not give out conditional offers?

Reply 7

ittobitto

Original post by HebaMah

Oh so they dnt jusy take ppl with all 9s or 7-9s as thats what ive mostly heard.
So if they dodnt use predicted grades
Did they not give out conditional offers?

No, it’s based on what you get on results day. Also, just make sure your average point score is 8+ and you have 8/9 in the subject you want to pursue other than that they don’t really care if you have like 2 4/5/6’s

Reply 8

urfaverowboat

Original post by HebaMah

HI SORRY IM SO LATE IVE BEEN SICK, but my grades were hella good I gave gave them seven 9s and one 8, with a good personal statement so I was sent an email saying I would have gotten a conditional offer if they were giving them out.i don’t think they’ll be giving them out anymore because of inconsistency with schools. Also they don’t rlly care about ur predicted grades anyway, only ur real grades, so defo do ur best (at least eight 7-9 grades so be pretty much guaranteed) and write a RLLY good personal statement cos they put u on a separate list for students they want to give offers too. But a predicted 6 is fine if ur PS is good and ur real grades r good

Reply 9

urfaverowboat

Original post by HebaMah

Oh so they dnt jusy take ppl with all 9s or 7-9s as thats what ive mostly heard.
So if they dodnt use predicted grades
Did they not give out conditional offers?

Yh u submit ur predicted grades anyway and a personal statement and using those they say IF you would have gotten one which basically ups ur chance of getting in. But they didn’t give out offers this year or last year so the real exams are the most crucial

Reply 10

HebaMah

Original post by ittobitto

Is that really trje?
Cus i know they want top 8 gcse to add to 63 poijts minimu? So how would that work if you dnt aik for all 7-9s? Plus on their website alot of people who go usually have all 7-9s

Reply 11

urfaverowboat

Original post by HebaMah

Is that really trje?
Cus i know they want top 8 gcse to add to 63 poijts minimu? So how would that work if you dnt aik for all 7-9s? Plus on their website alot of people who go usually have all 7-9s

yh most people who go DO get all 7-9s including me but like thats considering ur best 8 subjects 63/72, most students did more than 8 gcses so there was room for getting 6s, ittobitto was a bit wrong about 4s and 5s cos they do care about that and u risk getting waitlisted and even if u get in u might not get the subjects u want, that happened to a friend of mine, like you HAVE to get 9s in the subjects u want basically. the main thing rlly is the real exam not ur predicted, so do well for ur predicted but u need to ace the real thing

Reply 12

Grade9er

Yeah I totally agree, if the grades for the subjects u wanna do are below AT LEAST 8/9, ur probably won’t get in. Because of some of my grades I got waitlisted, but they DEFINITELY reviewed my personal statement before letting me in. I was invited to the taster day (strong indicator that you will probably get in) and I remember them commenting on my beautifully written personal statement and emails that I sent them (even though I got a 6 in Lang 😒), which I believe contributes greatly to my acceptance despite some of my lower grades. SIDE NOTE: I got majority 8/9s and had an APS above the 63 point minimum: something that is extremely critical for the decisions on whether you will get in or not. My personal advice would be to prioritise your GCSEs, icl I was a bit of a slacker, meaning I didn’t really focus on my GCSEs that much, and did other things *cough cough*. I’m regretting it dearly as of now and if I had the opportunity to go back I would say, don’t think about colleges/sixth forms TOO MUCH, but instead prioritise revision. Keep practicing questions, memorising mark schemes, writing essays, improving vocabulary. Things like this will help and everything will later come together when u get all 8-9s - every sixth form is going to want u. Just focus would be my main advice, don’t get distracted ESPECIALLY during the gcse exam period *cough cough*.