there is a large difference between
Discovery College and your school. From
year 11 there's a lot of stress put on
you from exams and teachers, however in
Discovery College you feel a lot less
stressed due to the relationships that
you build with each teacher. Because
we're a small community it means that
you are looked at as an individual and
not just another student. This is
important because tutors and other
staffers can really take the time to get
to know you, as well as you get to know
them. One of the biggest things will that
come from this, is we call all our
teachers by their first name unless the
only exception being that if you are a
public to Public Services student you
call them staff but if you call them by
the first name then this is acceptable
for most of the students. This important
because we build up relationships in our
small community.
So say when your GCSE results day finally comes, and say you
don't get the GCSE's you really
want, and you didn't get the GCSE's you
needed. At Discovery College we've
got our deputy head Kirsten and the head
of Discovery College Tom you can speak to about improving your grades like doing
retake classes or worries you might have
with your GCSE results and starting Discovery College
So there's an end-of-year trip for all the courses
Which we go to is Thorpe Park, then
there is the public service school trip
or college trip, and we go to Dutchy
College, Stonehouse Barracks and We meet
the Marines there, and they show us what
they do in their time there.
So when I started Discovery College,
obviously I needed to transport to get to
college. So I'm a Lipson Student, so I
went to the Lipson 6th form office and
asked if they provide transport. So obviously they came back with yes and they have a
mini bus which leaves their school by
8:30 every morning and then it picks you
up at 3:15 after college in order for
you to get back to college again. If you
take public transport for example there's a bus stop right outside the
college so that will be easy to for you to
get there also. But if you have any
questions about transport you should go
to your 6th form office and then ask them
if they provide transport to college or
not.
There is a wide range of support at Discovery College
In the college you have student ambassadors, you can notice
them with this turquoise lanyard as seen
here this is helpful because we are
normally around most of your college days. There should be at least one of us
present, but do not worry if you cannot
find us because there is a Student
Liaison officer, Nicole, or you can even
talk to Kirsten or Tom, the head of
college. This is important because we
want to make you feel welcome and safe
inside the college. You can also talk to
tutors and this should also be the first
person you go to as you'll build up a
relationship with them in college. As
peers of Discovery College try and look
out for one another because it can be
daunting for some in the college.
Yes there is a college bursery and can find
more about it from our deputy head at
Discovery College called Kirsten. The
bursary can help you with things like
buying transport for instance like bus
tickets or paying for a taxi to get to
and from the Discovery College etc.
On your lunch break you can go outside,
play football, you can go in the garden
and chat to friends, you can go to the
gym, you can either go inside the sports
hall to use your lunchtime up. Or you
could go sit in Steve Snacks with a
bunch of friends and have lunch there.
Yes there is a cafeteria at Discovery College and it is called Steve Snacks.
You can buy a wide range of food from
there from hot to cold for for instance
like pasta bakes and cheesy
chips all the way to packet of crisps
and chocolate bars. And what most
students usually do is they have usually
have a few cold snacks at break like a
chocolate bar for instance and at
lunchtime that I would bring in their
own packed lunch, which is totally available for
you to do. Or to get like a hot meal from
Steve snacks, and I personally I usually
get the cheesy chips.
So depending on the course that you
are doing you'll be in on different days.
So for me I'm a business student and we go in on a Monday, Thursday and a Friday.
There's an exception to this though. Level 2 childcare students only go in
in two times a week, but you will know
which day's you are in on your induction day
in the college and closer to the time when
you start the course. Also the normal
college day is from 9:00 to 3:15.
There is a uniform at Discovery College
like the one I'm wearing now for
instance, what is red because I'm
doing childcare. Other courses like
the Sport offer blue jumpers, Travel
and Tourism offer black jumpers, but
depending what cause you're doing
depends on what color uniform you
get. Now with the uniform, usually well
pretty much all the time, you get three tops, that would that be polo
polo shirts or t-shirts and you would
get one jumper as well saying Discovery College
Now on your first day here obviously we won't have
Uniform yet because we'll be doing a three week induction period first.
So on your first day depending on
what course you doing depends on what
clothes you wear. So if you were doing
sport for instance you wear sports
trainers are maybe a sporty top. For
childcare you wear like a nice top or
maybe jeans and some shoes etc.
On your first day of college you
should expect an 8:45 start and then be
taken into the Sport Hall. This is
because you'll have an induction from
the College Head, Tom. After this you'll be split into your
tutor groups and taken off into
your own classrooms. Most of the first
few days of college are there to build
up relationships between you, your tutor
and other peers. This can be daunting for some, so I urge
the more confident of you to be able to
go and talk to as many people as
possible and build those relationships
as they're so important throughout college.
you
