"Hills Road Hell"

A review of Hills Road Sixth Form College by Year 13 written on Thursday 16th of September 2010

Hills Road sixth form college. One of the best rated sixth form colleges in the country, they have plenty of money and plenty of people who want to go there.

Every year six hundred odd wide eyed sixteen year olds spill through the front doors in wonder and begin their first term at the college. They're studying subjects they chose, with people like them, and they work hard.

That's all true, but Hills Road know that. They're obsessed with the AAA, or now the A*AA as Cambridge are requesting. Want to take four full A levels, or god forbid, even five? Don't even think about it. You'll spend two years being told you can't do it, or it's not a good idea, or that you don't need it. They want AAA, one A As Level, and you to do two enrichments in year twelve, and an 'academic research course' to bulk out your application.

That's not to say the teaching isn't up to standard. Most of the teachers are great, enthusiastic, well informed and capable. But there are some who are well below the standard that the rest set. But the college seems blind to this. Even the teacher who my year twelve class complained about four times is still in his place and perfectly happy and unpunished. The college heads are so caught up in their own beaurocracy they seem incapable of actually communicating directly with the students apart from via email, and even then they're rare and usually to reprimand the college as a whole. There's no personal touch at all, all communication is via computer and the number you're allocated at the start of your time will be your new best friend.

The students themselves are, as a whole, fantastic. Enthusiastic, hardworking, and dedicated to charity and extra work. And the majority of them will get exactly the university places or futures they want. But that's down to us, not the institution credited with our results. .

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