DLD College or Campbell Harris Private College

[Iamaworrywart]

I'd be interested to hear from anyone who has knowledge or experience of either DLD College or Campbell Harris Private College both based in Central London for GCSEs.

Thanks

[Iamaworrywart]

Bump

[Needmoresleep]

I do know someone who switched from another educational system and did GCSEs in a year at Ashbourne. The college did its best to provide some level of extra-curricular, and they ended up with fantastic grades and a place in a good sixth form, but it was very hard work. In this case the child was motivated and willing to devote nine months to essentially getting up to speed with our educational system, including learning in English. I assume that these colleges live for their results so can be expected to provide sound teaching. My bigger concern would be whether the student themselves has the interest and discipline to learn at a fast pace outside a school environment.

[Iamaworrywart]

Thanks Needmoresleep.

[notquiteruralbliss]

It depends what you are liooking for. My daughter did a term on the GCSE course at DLD and hated it. It is very structured and they go through the entire syllabus, starting at the beginning. She wanted more of a tailored course to take her from where she was, having done the first year of the GCSE course at a troubled London comprehensive, to where she needed to be to get decent GCSEs. She transferred to Oxford a International College and found it much better.

[kk10]

Hi , I am looking for advice regarding Campbell Harris too. Please update, what you decided in the end ?

[Kattyy]

Hi,
Likewise am interested in Campbell Harris for ds for 6th form. Anyone any info/advice, please?

[Mamajeet112]

Hi there, I am writing on one of the old threads, as people have asked about Campbell Harris (an independent College in Kensington) on several threads over the years, but no one ever answered. I would have loved some information about the College myself and hope that this will help someone who is in the same situation. We chose Campbell Harris for our son's GCSE course without much prior information and we are happy with our choice. It is a small College with extremely small class sizes (between 1 - 5 students per class). It is not the right school for students who love the school community feel with sporting activities, assemblies, large friendship groups and school events. The College offers events on a smaller scale, though, such as Pizza Evenings; the focus is on learning and studying for GCSEs (they also offer A-levels). The environment is mature and students can leave the College between lessons and explore the High Street, for example, or they can use their free time between lessons to study, if they choose. School starts at 10am (since COVID times, but they may go back to an earlier start in the future). Due to the small class sizes the timetable can be a bit unusual, with sometimes two free periods in between lessons, but our son mostly stays at school and uses the periods to revise and do his homework. One of the teachers (Spanish) is based in Spain and mostly teaches online (he will teach face-to-face closer to the GCSEs), which is something we questioned initially, but our son makes very good progress and there is only one other student in the class, so it is a great learning experience for him. The teachers are qualified professionals who tend to stay with the school for a long time. Students get a good amount of homework, but it is not excessive. Just for context: Our son went to a Comprehensive School (outstanding, but not the right school for him) before and was completely unmotivated there. He is much happier at Campbell Harris, feels more "seen", likes the fact that there is less discipline and enjoys the lessons.
I hope that this information will be helpful to someone.