“My goal is to become a primary school teacher, it’s what I’ve wanted to do for a really long time. I absolutely love working with children and I’m really passionate about education.
“As I was approaching the end of Year 11 I had a choice between going on to study A Levels at my school’s sixth form or coming here. A Levels are generally the more traditional route into teaching but I felt I had outgrown school and I was ready for a change. I also didn’t want to be stuck in a classroom studying three or four subjects just for the sake of being able to go on to university when I could come here and start developing the skills and knowledge that will be really useful to me in my career.
“We get to do a lot of practical learning here, which includes working with some of the children at the onsite nursery, and I just love that I’m able to build my experience of working with children. I don’t think I could go back to just learning from a textbook.
“A lot of people seem to think that a vocational childcare course is only for those who want to eventually work in nurseries or as childminders, but that’s not true – there are loads of careers you can eventually go into as a result of studying this course, including teaching, play therapy, supporting children with special educational needs and disabilities.
“By completing the extended diploma, I can go on to do a teaching degree at university, but I will already have a deep understanding of child development, supporting literacy and numeracy, and I will have had a head start in things like planning and assessment, which is an essential skill for teachers.
“The staff are all really friendly here and we hear a lot about their experience of working in childcare and education settings, and that’s really useful.
“The other students are all really friendly, too, and I’ve met some really nice people that I hope to be friends with for the rest of my life.
“I’d say that my favourite things about the course are how easy the tutors are to talk to and how they are happy to answer any questions we have. I also love how much hands-on work we get to do.
“I believe that teachers’ support is so important in helping students reach their potential (one of the reasons I would love to become a teacher) and that’s what I get here in college. From anything classwork-related to mental health support, there is always a staff member that can answer my questions or offer me support.
“I also love how we can see how what we talk about in class and what we write about in our assignments is related to what we do in practice. We can link what we learn from this course directly to what we do in a real setting, which makes me feel a lot more prepared too.
“If you want to study somewhere that treats you like an adult, but will also work really hard to support you, you should really consider City College.”
