Coleg Cambria - Northop

Very strange. They treat their students like school kids, not like their age. Waiting in a line outside class with fingers on their lips. Very very odd. Was quite shocked so see that really.
Apr 19th, 2023

Great place with great facilities
Mar 29th, 2023

Feb 24th, 2023

Feb 4th, 2023

TL;DR: Lovely college with nice students and a good animal care centre, but my experience was ruined when I was forced to move up a level after a teacher disregarded my wishes to protect my mental health. I was a student for 3 months in 2016. It was a really nice college, always clean, the students weren't as rough as some you get in Deeside. But I had an issue with one staff member. I enrolled on the Level 1 Animal Care course. I had an interview and spoke to a nice woman who listened when I explained I have anxiety, had tried going to a college the year prior and had dropped out because of several issues, and she answered all of my questions and made me feel reassured that I wouldn't be pressured to move up any levels (since my qualifications were good enough for the Level 2 Animal Care course), and that everything would be fine. On the first day, my tutor was collecting our GCSEs and qualifications and was looking through them, presumably to make sure everyone was in the right place and class etc etc. She picked me out and said "You're moving up to Level 3, come on." I explained that no, I wasn't, I'd been told I'd be allowed to stay in the Level 1 class and this was where I felt comfortable. She brought me outside of the class, accused me of having an attitude, and asked what the problem was. I explained I had a history of severe anxiety and depression and get very overwhelmed and burnt out easily, and didn't want to put myself in a class that could push me to drop out of a college yet again. Everything I said she brushed aside, and even tried to GUILT TRIP me into moving out of the Level One class. She explained that the people in Level One classes weren't very "intelligent, some have conditions or disorders that make them not as capable as you" and that the class would be too easy for me, I'd be bored, and it'd be a waste of a year of my life. I explained that I'd much rather waste a year of my life but keep my mental health intact than push myself further than I knew I could handle. When she knew I wasn't budging, she said, "you're obviously an intelligent girl judging by your GCSE's (I actually didn't even have the qualifications required to enroll on the Level 3 course!) and your intelligence would INTIMIDATE the other people in the class." This entire ordeal ended with another teacher coming along, the two of them pressuring me into moving up to at least Level 2, and with me leaving in tears. I did as they said, moved up to Level 2 where I would be "capable", and I dropped out by the November because I found myself overwhelmed, anxious, and burnt out! And this entire situation has still put me off going back to college to this day.
May 3rd, 2022