Ewan Beresford is one of the Sixth Form students at Chesterfield College. Ewan decided to move here instead of progressing with school as he wanted to experience more freedom and independence. He wanted something that fit around his part-time work and our courses allowed him to be flexible around his personal commitments.
“I’m doing politics, English literature and English language. I decided to come here because I wanted to experience more freedom. I felt like schools didn’t treat me like the age I was, I wanted something a bit more adult. My expectations have been met, we get so much more freedom and I still get the grades. I can do an education that fits in with my schedule. I can just come in when I need to. I’ve managed to fit my studies around part-time work, it’s been really helpful.”
Ewan is studying three subjects that are challenging yet relevant for his studies and interests.
“The content is hard on my course but the tutors have been good along the way and I felt like the course hasn’t given me irrelevant work, everything has had meaning. It’s all towards the exams rather than for the sake of it.
I’ve enjoyed my politics course the most. The content is really interesting, especially as it evolves around current events.”
As we are getting to the end of term, we are wanting to reassure our prospective students that college will be a positive transition. We asked Ewan about his experience.
“Obviously you get that nervous feeling about coming here but when I came to the induction it felt like a nice place and I met people on the induction day so then I didn’t feel as sceptical.
There’s definitely a community feel here, I think especially in the sixth form, people look out for each other. We have a common room too that we can socialise in between lessons. The Heartspace is also a great place to meet people.”
Ewan is a student ambassador and has enjoyed getting involved with open evenings as he can relate to what the students are going through.
“We ran an open day for prospective students which I helped with. I thought that was quite interesting, it was fun to see where I was last year to where I am now and help them around. I could relate to them.”
The college has prepared Ewan for next year, he knows exactly what to expect and what he needs to prepare over the summer.
“Since we’ve finished our AS exams we have been given an overview of what to expect next year in our courses. I am intending to work on my A-Levels over the summer so I can be as prepared as I can. We get given summer work, for English in particular we have been told what we need to revise but it’s up to us how we revise it. I like that as we all revise differently.”
Ewan wants to become a primary school teacher after his studies.
“I’ve been around some open days at universities. I want to train to be a primary school teacher. I am really hoping to get the grades I need to go onto that. You teach everything at primary, whereas at secondary you specialise and then a year of teacher training. With primary education, you do it all in one course.”
There are lots of ways to make friends at college, including societies and groups.
“If you are struggling to make friends, definitely join a society or group, that’s a really good way to meet people even if you are not so interested in the group. Don’t worry if you are scared of coming, the tutors are really good and over time it will just feel normal.”