Rochester College - the school, which helps to achieve an impossible!

The historic town of Rochester is located only a half hour drive from Central London San Pancras, if you drive a high-speed train. This typical today for the province of Kent the city has long served as an Outpost on the way from the sea to London. Rochester castle and Rochester Cathedral - historic monuments which testify to the importance of this Outpost, protecting London from direct invasions from the sea.

I attended Rochester independent College Rochester in the middle of April 2018, after the conference on secondary schools, which was held in London. ry wanted to see the College, which his coat of arms and motto declares that they are here to help to do the impossible every student to achieve academic success that was not achieved in other schools.

The campus was very different from the campuses of all the schools that I have seen. It is an urban campus, drowning in the gardens the wildlife for which the College received numerous awards.The buildings of the College are scattered on the terraces below the hills. On the one hand, a lot of stairs, but the terrace create a special atmosphere. The territory is more like a resort, very green, lots of ponds and trees, a private orchard and garden, decorative buildings. Under the branches of old trees on the lawn is a 2-needle, one of them as decorative, the second is used as a class for mathematics, as mathematics teacher – one of the founders and he likes to do.

The sports facilities on site, just a little: Playground and gym, the rest of the time students use the sports complex of the city, which is about 5 minutes from the College.

The main College building is a compound of many buildings and many hallways and stairs easy to get lost. Two canteens, one of them covered lunch for elementary school students and I spied delicious salads, variety of fresh fruits and cheese cakes, drowning in vanilla sauce. Classes are small, which is due to the fact that the average school 7-8 students in the class.
Just in College studying little more than 300 students, aged from 11 to 18 years old foreign students in pension take 15 years and here their 15%, other British. A very good ethnic composition - no more than 3-4 students of the same nationality.

Prior to 2015, in College, there was almost no foreigners, the College was created for the British students and it became so successful that was purchased by an educational institution. Education, the founders the custom in this business through. While other organizations have built their colleges or redeemed existing and changed there staff and techniques. Education redeem the most successful projects, leave all of the staff and part of the shares to the founder, leaving the former owners to continue to develop your College and make key decisions. On the other hand, Dukes is promoting Education colleges in the international market and adds to the College international students that transforms the atmosphere of the school.

I was able to talk with an English student who is studying here A-level. He said. that moved into this College at the beginning of last school year, because here he studied his older brother and he had very good results. He himself in previous school performance was not very high, and now he gets straight a's all grades A and he submits documents to the universities with the specialization of medicine.

Such performance is achieved by the very close contact of teachers and pupils, in classes of no more than 12 students, on average, 10, in biology class, in which we went, there were only 4 students. With such a proportion of students to teachers, each student paid a lot of attention in the classroom. In General, the school immediately felt a special friendly atmosphere between students and teachers, no one wears the form and call the teacher by name.

To Rochester College often pass students from other schools in high school precisely in order to improve their academic performance. The school's logo – the Flying pig (flying pig), which symbolizes the famous English proverb reflecting, make it impossible that it will be possible, when a pig will fly. The founder of the College Alistair, who gave me short interviews, founded this school in 1994 ago with the idea of giving each student a chance to do the impossible. He picks up the whole team of teachers on such principle, to give the opportunity to open up each child to exceed their potential. To the team of teachers better supported this concept, some graduates of the school who want to be teachers and share the views of Alistair, the school pays a scholarship to study at the University, with the condition that they will return to teach students of Rochester and paid so much attention to each student, how much was paid at the time that they achieved the best results in performance.

The school has a very strong departments in the Sciences, English language and literature and art. For example, in the art Studio we met a student, whom our accompanying congratulated on his great achievement. When I asked him to tell me what is the reward, he said that for fun, decided to participate in the national competition for the best essay for graduate school and received first place in the country. At the same time, his core subjects is the art that could be seen from the picture, which he had done.

Despite the fact that the school has just over 300 students, 200 of them in high school for A-level, where a more than 20 items, 5 of which in art. All these subjects are taught by different teachers, practicing artists, while even in ranked independent schools miscellaneous objects of art are often combined with one teacher.
Students can choose from the following courses in art Fine Art (including drawing, painting, sculpture, and prints); Graphic Design (including corporate design, packaging, illustration and computer design) Photography (including traditional and digital photography, the light output and photoshop); Textiles (including the creation of fashion collections) or Art History.

Accommodation in residences RIC

4 buildings of student residences divided by age and sex, dormitories surround the school campus, while out on the street. Someone might get the impression that it's not safe, that students left unattended when out of the room and go to school. When ATM, no stranger comes to the school without an escort. Even if we had to come back, then we immediately put accompanying the student. If the children come the parents. They certainly can go into the room to help with things, but also under the supervision of staff. The kids can go to town, but must register in the journal and return to position for their age time. All rooms are individual with private facilities right in the room or in the block on 2 rooms.

David Bowie played in the building currently occupied by the College in 1964. In memory of this on one of the walls, the art teacher painted his portrait, and all visitors to the school are trying to do their photos at the portrait of Bowie.

I recommend Rochester Independent College for those students who have the motivation to improve their grades and enter a good University, and who for that just need more attention of teachers.