India joined Downsend Sixth last September, and a full year later she’s about to start Year 13. We asked her to tell us what it’s really been like, the good bits, the surprises, and everything she wishes she’d known before she started. Here’s her year, in her own words.

Starting Downsend Sixth has been a breath of fresh air for me, even if it came with completely new set of challenges to adapt to, as I went from a huge all girls school to a smaller year group. This meant there was nowhere to hide, but that did turn out to be the best thing for me possible. The transition to one on one and small group teaching was interesting at first, it’s intense, highly focused and really pushes you to be more responsible and motivated with your learning. However, the personalised support from the teachers was unmatched, they have genuine care and time to make sure you do the best you can.

Outside of the classroom, I have been given amazing opportunities to explore new things I wouldn’t have done without Downsend Sixth. For example, we started the year off with a sailing trip to the Solent. This was interesting because we had known each other for a few days and were put into a small space which encouraged us to get to know each other better and quicker. We were put onto three separate boats with different teachers and captains. We spent three days cooking, cleaning and learning how to sail a boat together. We quickly made strong friendships and connections which have lasted throughout this first year. We recently came back from a trip to Borneo, Malaysia. This was one of the best experiences I’ve done so far. We spent two weeks travelling from hostels to the jungle and doing new activities that some of us had done before, but for some of us it was our first time. On the second day, we went whitewater rafting and this was my favourite activity as we were all going over rapids down the river and we had the opportunity to all swim down the river together and this was a bonding experience for us all as it was something we hadn’t done before. We also did activities like snorkelling, visiting orangutans and sun bears, service learning in the jungle where we planted trees, hiked and finishing off the trip in a hotel. This is the type of opportunity that you don’t get in many places which is why I’m so grateful that I had the chance to at Downsend Sixth.

I’ve also had a chance to get involved in lots of volunteering. For example, we have all worked with the prep and preschool, this included helping them with their science and PE lessons. We’ve also helped at Christmas fairs, firework nights and sports days. We did an exam from the English speaking board. This had three different activities which we had to do and present to an examiner and our peers. This included a presentation, a book review and a newspaper article discussion. Each one was marked and all of us received merit plus and distinctions. This then gave us UCAS points towards university. This is special at Downsend because we are all given lots of opportunities since there isn’t many of us and there’s a huge Junior and Senior school to help with.

If I had to give one piece of advice to anyone thinking about joining Downsend Sixth, I’d say: don’t be intimidated by the smaller environment, it is definitely an advantage, use the chance to push yourself and build close relationships with your peers and teachers and make sure to make use of all the opportunities that you are given.