As part of our most recent Open Event – we asked a Year 10 student, Patrick Lemming to present his story on life at Global Academy as a Year 10 student. Here is his speech which he presented to two large audiences in the Main Theatre as part of the Open Event:

Good afternoon my name is Patrick and I am a year 10 student at The Global Academy.

I have been at school now for about 4 months, and it is the perfect fit for me. At most secondary schools in the UK, there are a large number of students but not enough teachers to look after them, but at this school they accommodate each and every one us and support us no matter what the case is. This is enforced by the schools amazing safeguarding team. But of course, this isn’t the only thing great about this school, if you came to any of our open evenings you probably couldn’t help noticing the schools state of the art facilities in which I get to use every single day. Some of these include: an amazing music studio where you can record and practice your own music, there is also 8 radio studios in which you can use and break and lunch to record podcasts and anything else using the high-end speakers and technology the school has to offer.

And there are not just great facilities when it comes to media, we also have some really nice science equipment, which you will get to use in your lessons when we do our regular practicals. And that is another wonderful thing this school does in comparison to others; at my last school I did not do one practical throughout the year. But here I have already done a bunch of them.

At the school we address our teachers using their first name, and you might find this strange at first but actually this reduces the gap between teacher and students and brings a sense of trust to the classroom. We also treat others around us with respect at this school and here we see ourselves as kind of a family… and if one of us is in trouble we all do our best together to help that person.

When it comes to classwork, there are a lot of things we do in our lessons. For example, in media we participate in many projects and group work, including making videos and posters with our peers. But we don’t just do group work, we also spend time in many of our lessons do individual work, this helps in our core subjects when it comes to revision and learning new things. And if you find you are struggling in some of these core subjects, whether it be maths, science or English, the teachers will make sure to stop and help you individually so that you understand the work we are doing.

And if after that you still feel like you don’t understand and need a longer explanation, which I sometimes do need myself, you can always ask the teacher after lesson or send them an email. And that’s one of the best things about the school, they always go the extra mile to help you in any case. The school is very professional and the teachers treat you like adults. This helps to build responsibility in the school and sets you up of when you go into an industry. The staff here always use the phrase industry standard, it basically means, would you act like this in the industry or at your job, is it okay to say that at your peer or college. This really helps us understand how we should act and gets us even more ready for the industry.

When I moved to this school I was scared and nervous and I was actually lucky enough to have someone I knew come to this school, but I soon made loads of mates and I could finally be myself. And that is my most favourite thing about this school, no matter who you are you are, or where you’re from, you can be yourself at this school and thrive in your education. Thankyou