NCS: The Good, The Bad And The Thoughts.
As I have newly finished NCS I feel that it is the prime time to write an honest review about my experience to help others who are thinking about going as a way to end Year 11. My simple answer to that question is that anyone wanting to go should because it is a good experience, there may be some tough moments but they could also be translated into growing moments; learning to deal with issues and be mature enough to overcome them. I have met so many new friends and learnt many new skills (some I didn't even think of trying). So now to the reasons why:
Week 1
For week one we had to meet bright and early meaning 7:30 in the morning, we signed in and soon got into the coach on our way to Newquay. We got to the place around 3:30 to go up to our rooms and meet our roommates for the week not knowing that we'd be in a room of 14. As you can imagine it was a bit of a shock but what made it worse was there was one bathroom with two showers that faced each other. So the room wasn't the best but me and my friends were the first up there so got first pick of the bed. We didn't do much the first day other then unpack and eat. In the evening we went to the beach and met the our team.
The next few days we'd be doing activities such as; Rock climbing, Coasteering and Surfing. The good thing about being in Newquay was that the beach was very close so all the activities were a short journey away. The instructors were very encouraging and were aware of the bravery needed to complete them. These activities were also useful for team building and made us a stronger unit. We only did one activity a day so we had a lot of free time which created boring points during the day where we sat not really doing much.
Overall the week was okay, we seemed to get stronger as a group and although the place wasn't the best and some of the activities gave us a lot of time afterwards it was an enjoyable week. One of the highlights for me would be on the first day when they let us go down to the beach and we stood and let the waves go over our feet, it was the start of friendships and what would seem like 4 weeks of fun.
Week 2
Week 2 started with us meeting at a much nicer time but still not able to lay in time. We met at the same place but this time instead of going straight to the Uni, where we would be staying for this week, we went to our first activity. On the first day we went to the new forest and helped cut off the tiny branches of trees to help them grow better. We then went on what I guess you would call a mini hike to get to the place where the bus would pick us up. They told us that when we got back to the Uni it would be the best idea to check for ticks and even gave the leaders a tool for getting them out which was a bit shocking because their was a risk of us getting an illness. When we got to the Uni the chaos started; not only have they not sorted out rooms but they also didn't sort out the kitchens so we has to sit and wait for that to get done in a small common room. Most of us were wondering why they hadn't have done that whilst we were on activities.
Once we finally got the room keys we went upstairs and the accommodation was way better then the previous week; we had a room to our own with a bed, wardrobe and sink. We still had to share bathrooms but there was more privacy as each shower and toilet was in their own separate stalls. We were given sleeping bags as there was no bedding but most of us brought our own blankets and pillow, it was a good idea on their end though. We were all hungry and headed to the kitchen but they were locked, we found out that we were not allowed in the kitchen without our leader which was annoying as we couldn't be as independent as they made it out to be the previous week.
The rest of the activities were alright and the people who lead them were easy to talk to and seemed interested to help us learn the skill. Evenings were quite boring as we had nothing to do as the football was on but we whiled away the time talking to each other but it seemed for some that it would be better if they had something planned for us other then just watching the football. The journey home was longer then expected due to an accident on the motorway but that was unpreventable.
Week 3 and 4
Now these were the weeks where we had to travel to and from the centre, which was on Eastleigh. I had taken the train which wasn't the best experience but I won't go into that on this blog. Week 3 we had to plan what we were going to do the next week and our team had finished planning and organising our events by the third day and there was nothing much planned for us to do. The one improvement they should make is having other activities to keep us entertained when we had finished. There was a football table and a pool table but most of the time we were not allowed to play on them. One of the more interesting days was the Friday when we did the Dragon's Den. We all dressed in our 'fancy' outfits and had to present what we were doing for the next week by the end of the week though our group had gone from 12 to 7.
Week 4... this is where it gets interesting. On the Monday we were doing a sponsored walk from Eastleigh to Winchester, originally it was just meant to be our group on the walk but then the other groups had nothing to do on the Monday so joined in on us. In a way it was better as we could do it with all of our friends but it also meant it took an hour or two longer as we had to wait for everyone to catch up and we took more breaks then we planned. On the Tuesday was one of the worst days, we had to paint the local museum. The staff there for lack of a better word were disrespectful and unappreciative. We were only meant to do one day but apparently our work wasn't good enough so we had to do another afternoon. So after our long bike ride on the Wednesday we had to go back to that place and paint again. On the Thursday we ran a tombola and book sale at the Eastleigh market. That day the girls worked in the morning ad the boys worked in the afternoon. We had a good deal because we went to Creams for lunch. On the Friday we just did evaluations and pulled weeds.
Overall those two weeks weren't the best or most interesting but it gave us a chance to give back to the community even though it wasn't my local community it felt nice to help. We were able to raise a lot of money for Headlines and One Community.