Northampton College - Northampton

habibi M. Y.

Worst college by far, the reason I say this is my experience was terrible. I was there for 3 years, my mental health has deteriorated so much so I now go to therapy every Friday. The teachers did nothing but complain about how they hate us and there job didn't seem trained at all and I'm still in disbelief.

The teachers also prefer to use A.I to write there work for them but this is not all teachers but a large amount this should be investigated upon. but over hearing a teacher being happy that 2 students where being withdrawn from the college and laughed and joked about it. would you say that's professional ?

Whenever i enter the toilets at any time of the day in the college there will 100% be someone smoking, there are no suitable smoking places for students that are 18 and smoke. The students use the entrances as smoking areas and makes the college look very unprofessional.

Arabella

My experience at Northampton college was disgraceful. They treat victims as perpetrators and punish victims in fights. The staff are rude and never on the same page and the students are genuinely horrible.

carolanne L.

Absolutely loving my course and staff in the evening. A big shout out to the construction team 6-9pm. From C.mace

Neyoshu

couldn't be much worse to be honest

the one good part is that a couple of my teachers were okay, particularly my form tutor who was an actual gem of a person

other than those few exceptions though, most teachers seem to just not care. some would barely explain the fundamentals of the topics, some would just breeze through all the bullet points of a topic with zero elaboration, and expect us to somehow understand.
often they have zero flexability with the assignments, there were multiple occasions where a teacher expected me to include things that i had never been told i needed to include, and even at least one time where my assignment was being rejected literally due to how i had formatted the document.

the students in my class were also mostly terrible, openly admitting to being racist and homophobic, and one person was openly recounting how they were telling a trans girl to kill herself (all of this being well in earshot of a teacher, who obviously blissfully ignored everything, which was of course a very comforting sign as an lgbt student myself).

on the topic of lgbt+ students, there is no additional support, not even a basic social club or anything. the closest thing they have is a small ✨️ gay books ✨️ shelf in the library. though to be fair, this lack of support is hardly surprising given what i've heard from disabled people's accounts of the place.

also, my head of department can genuinely only be succinctly described by one word, which i'm probably not allowed to use here, so to describe her un-succinctly, she was incredibly vindictive, completely unsupportive, and almost actively discouraging at times. she'd refuse to address any of my problems and would just insist that she is correct - in the way that you just know she thinks she is perfect - and has literally zero room for accommodation of anyone else's ideas. there were even occasions where a vast majority of my teachers agreed that what she was saying was illogical or counterintuitive, but since her word is final i imagine they've all accepted that her tyrannical ego is the only thing that actually matters in their department. the fact that she has a job as a head of department should honstly be taken as an insult to every teacher seeking promotions in this school.

the final nail in the coffin for me realising how terrible this school is, is when i was removed from my course - albiet, on a fair basis - and they didnt inform me until *one week* before we came back for the second year. it was even I who had to reach out to them regarding whether i'd be returning, as i'd noted weird behaviour in their automated emails that didnt make sense to be sending to returning students, and i dont feel like i should have to explain why only telling a student they have been removed after THEY ASK YOU is terrible management, particularly given i'd had people tell me prior that there was nothing to worry about, and that I should be returning.

there are also many, many other problems with this college, but I would like to still have some of the essays I wrote for them be longer than this review lol.

overall, this place is genuinely terrible, and would likely have far far fewer students if it wasnt for a severe lack of well-known alternatives in the northampton area.
if you have an alternative option, then id STRONGLY recommend taking it.

(rant over)

Encraft

Teachers constantly took the p*** with assignments as they wouldn't speak with each other and expect you to focus on their work specifically over everyone else's when you needed all of it to complete the course. were extremely unorganized throughout the two years I was here to the point they didn't even know what was going on themselves half the time or where some of the resources they needed to teach us were. huge lack of communication between teachers as they would tell you one thing and then you would get told the opposite two days later. facilities constantly stank of urine and had people vaping in them or vandalizing them. canteen was an absolute rip off. had to complain about a teacher at one point because they pushed me outside the classroom because i took a phone call to my mum which i got told i could take.

N L. (.

this place sucks man don’t go, everything they do is for the teachers comfort and they don’t care about you at all. Also I’ve barely learnt anything and I think it would have been more useful to just get a job

Jess F.

Don’t go to this college. They’re awful with people that have physical disabilities or need extra support. They treated me very badly and basically pushed me out of the college. I went for a meeting for another course and they were horrible to me and said that i’m not suitable for the course due to my mental health problems. They don’t really care about students wellbeing and the teaching isn’t great.

Katherine C.

Was horrendously bullied by a "teacher" in the drama department named Helen during my time here. I was 16 and newly living in a halfway house due to being removed from an abusive home. I would take a 45 minute bus every day, yet she would give me an instant disciplinary if a bus was late, pulled me from tour because I had an emergency dentist appointment (my face was visibly twice it's usual size), one time she tried to goad me in front of the whole class and I didn't react, so she disciplined me for 'looking at her funny'. You can't make this up! What's more there was a girl in my class named Lauren who she adored and would give a free pass for missing days often. Lauren and I were friends so there's no resentment towards her. Shockingly, she was backed up by head of department Julie, who as office staff never took an interest in any student, and not one of them ever sat me down and asked if I was okay. I went to a disciplinary with the two of them alone (no parents remember) and cried my eyes out about how I felt Helen had a personal problem with me, and was told I was being dramatic. Looking back on this now, that disciplinary should NEVER have happened without me having an adult with me. I'd actually explained my situation to Helen on the very first day, but she just glanced down at my nails (my boyfriend had treated me for my birthday as I'd never had them done before) and threw me a look as if to imply I was lying. I think that was probably the catalyst.
I have since went on to study drama in London at university and ended up travelling the world after that, so her attempts to derail me were futile, but I feel for anyone else that was bullied under her care, teenages are still children after all, this woman should be ashamed, and Julie too for letting her behave the way she did/does. I have no doubt she had other victims before and after me, and I can't imagine how their esteem was affected.