Hereward College Lodge

I’m really sad that I’ll be leaving Hereward College next year. It’s the best college I’ve ever attended, and they’ve helped me with everything. Just take guided tours on Tuesday. When your time at college is ending, they help you find career jobs with support from the job coaches. Don’t forget to thank me later.

A perfect place for SEND youngsters taking their first steps into the world.

There are very few staff members I’d call nice. Most of the students I’ve spoken with have had a terrible time here, and people seem to stay because they have nowhere else to go. If something goes wrong, there’s no one available to talk to because staff are always “too busy.” I’ve also had to make formal complaints several times this past year about the language staff use. Students are regularly sent home despite local-authority funding, with the explanation that there aren’t enough staff, even though there are over 200 students. An absolutely awful college.

I was at Hereward College from 2016 to 2019, and my experience was a 1/10. Staff often weren’t helpful or welcoming when I arrived by taxi in the mornings. When I needed help with my work, TAs and other staff would say the ILP funding was why they couldn’t help, which felt like an excuse. I also saw staff on their phones instead of paying attention to students. The rules could feel excessive. We had to wear a lanyard all the time, and if you forgot it, staff would stop and search you, then question you about where it was and what you’d done with it. In the media student zone, we were told to eat only in the “Eating Zone,” not the “Chat Zone” or “Thinking Zone.” The LRC charged students for black or colour ink when printing posters, which seemed pathetic. Mentor sessions were awful too: I got just “5” minutes, while some students seemed to get as much time as they wanted. Teachers wouldn’t let me nip to the toilet during lessons, saying I should have gone at break or lunchtime. The safeguarding rules also felt overbearing, as if you couldn’t do this or that. If students are to be treated like adults, then treat them like adults. I’m not happy with my time at Hereward College; they could have done better by the students.