Life at Bellerbys College

Meet Our Student Bloggers!

Thinking about studying in England?  Find out more about the lives of some of our current students here in their blogs.  Each week, they'll share their thoughts and experiences as they progress through their courses.

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Our bloggers are:

Ksenia Rostislavleva from Moscow, Russia
Ksenia is 17 years old and in the first year of an A Level course.  Ksenia previously studied English Language Preparation and GCSE courses at Bellerbys Brighton. 

In her spare time, she enjoys shopping, reading, socialising with her friends and she is a member of the college United Nations Association and Debating Society.

Ksenia is hoping to attend Imperial College, London ("If I'm very lucky!") to study Biochemistry.

Wang Xuxi (Shiny) from Guangdong, China
Shiny is 21 years old and in the final year of an A Level course at Bellerbys Brighton.  He's hoping to study Civil Engineering at Imperial College, London when he leaves us this summer. 

Like Ksenia, Shiny makes the most of life at college and is a member of the Music Club, Poetry Circle, United Nations Association and Table Tennis club.

Sam Hang from Hong Kong
Sam is 18 years old and currently studying Business Foundation at Bellerbys Oxford.  He would like to study Economics at university in September and has a conditional offer of a place at Bath University. 

In his spare time, Sam enjoys reading, watching movies and telling jokes!

Jag Gupta from New Delhi, India
Jag is 16 years old and studying IGCSEs at Manor Campus, Bellerbys Cambridge.  After completing his A Levels at Bellerbys, he hopes to go to study Business at Bath University, followed by a Masters.

Jag is a sociable chap and outside of class enjoys rugby, cricket, basketball, drama, Young Enterprise and playing the drums.

Easter Holiday - Shopping and a Visit to Devil's Dyke

Posted by Shiny

Shopping

On the first few days of Easter, SING (Shiny, Ivan, Nelson and Gary) went out shopping.  As the May Ball is on the way, people want to buy an outfit so that they look their best.  A spectacular suit is the dream of many men, including the SING.  Shiny was not looking for a suit, but he had just got “annoyed” by ING who told him that the way he dressed was too childish.  So he began to check himself again.

Usually, when you are criticized by two groups of people frequently, you’ve got to review yourself.  These two groups of people are “boys & girls”.  As you can’t have a 3rd group, the opinions from these two groups of people are absolutely vital and fatal.  For the past 20 years in my humble life, what I wear has definitely demonstrated the aesthetics of my mom since I don’t really pay any attention to clothing and I am happy for her to do so.  Gradually I’ve got used to the life.  Virtually school uniforms have become my favourites after wearing them for so long.  It is actually a breakthrough to hear their comments since I don't window shop any more.  Therefore this trip was meaningful.

The comment from Ivan about me was “country boy who comes into town”.  It was a fair comment which clearly told my situation.  Yet I still think that being united in terms of uniforms may look tedious but I like the simplicity sometimes.  “Whatever” has become my personal idiom since long time ago.  Because I was “sealed” and didn’t grow tall (just as plastic which can’t be reshaped), and as time passed on, I kept wearing the same clothes until they were worn out utterly.  I was aware that I've saved loads of money by not growing up!  As what the people say, the clothes I’ve brought to the UK were regarded as “sports clothes” and classified as “for kids”.  OMG, life is so short that we can’t afford to waste any time, but why shall we spend lots of time on the silly dressing?

Devil’s Dyke

On March 24th, I went to the Devil’s Dyke in East Sussex with three lovely little dollies: Lim, Mandy and Yuka. To get there, you need to take a number 77 bus which only runs on weekends and Bank Holidays.

Easter Holidays and Mock Exams – My Heaven and Hell

Posted by Ksenia

Hello everyone!!

As you can probably guess I am already back in the UK and the new term at Bellerbys has begun.  Hope you all had a great Easter Break because I really had (as I promised you).

As usual it was so nice to see my dear parents, relatives and friends.  Everybody seemed very happy to see me.  I ate plenty of Russian food which is absolutely delicious and then…I went to Thailand!  So the summer arrived a bit earlier for me and my mum. 

I’d been to Thailand several years before and I really fell in love with this country.  The sea is always really warm as well as the air; people are really friendly, sand is white and extremely soft.  There are plenty of different plants around and views are just breathtaking. 

Last time we visited Bangkok, the capital of Thailand.  It’s quite a strange and an extremely interesting and exciting city.  Enormous skyscrapers and shopping centres, crowds of people and dreadful traffic exist quite happily next to a calm and relaxed atmosphere of Buddhist cathedrals.  One of the things that impressed me a lot was the royal palace – it was so beautiful and it seemed that absolutely everything is made of gold.

This time we flew directly to Phuket – an island that is especially popular with Russian tourists.  It takes quite a long tome to get there – about 9-10 hours.  For me it’s quite exhausting due to the fact that I can’t sleep in planes, I do not know why.  Anyway this magic island really worth it!!  It is just a pure relaxation – swim, sunbath, swim again, go for a walk along the seafront…  I gained some interesting experiences as well – Thai massage that is quite famous around the world.  The special thing about it that the masseuse only concentrates on particular parts of your body and uses her legs, elbows as well as hands, obviously.

Welcome To The Summer Term

Posted by Jag

Hello, I hope every one had a great Easter break. 

Welcome to the summer term.  It the most intensive term of the year.  Everyone is now preparing for the finals exams here at Bellerbys College, especially the GCSE students because our exams are in just three weeks.  We have now completed all our coursework so the only thing we are doing is revision, revision and more revision.

I'm a little bit nervous but I am actually looking forward for my exams.  Everyone came back from the Easter break and have now become very serious in lessons because it feels like our final minutes before our exams.

In class we are studying past papers and revising topics which we find bit hard or some students have doubts about.  Outside lessons some students go to the library to study and complete all the past papers which we are given as part of our homework.

Our exam timetable are now up on the student notice board.  They start from May 13th and end on June 11th.  For our exams we have to go Queens Campus which is across town so some students are planning to come to Manor campus and then share taxis together which is cheaper and can get you in the other campus in 15 minutes whereas the bus will take around 30 minutes. 

Another good thing is that after each exam we don't have to go the lessons anymore!  Which means that from start of June I don't have any lessons on Monday, Tuesday and Friday because I would have finshed all the exams for these subjects.  Finally on 11th June I will finish all my exams so I will be able to fly home and enjoy real summer.   I'm looking forward to that!

Trip to Bristol

Posted by Shiny

During the Easter holiday, I visited my relatives who are working in Bristol.

It was a long, long journey which lasted for over four hours.  As usual, I enjoyed the time on the train.  As I’ve never been on a train in China, after I came to the England, I’ve become attached to trains and never, or not yet, got fed up with it even if the journey is long or even though some trains are a bit filthy.

And as usual, it started raining not long after I left home.  Although my name is Shiny, it rains almost every time when I want to do something vital or meet someone important to me.  There is a saying in China: “The auspicious people usually travel with rain or immerse into water.”  I am not sure whether I am one of them or not.  It suddenly reminds me of an ex-classmate or a “diehard follower”, How Huang, who got wet three times when he came to my house.

It took me 1h 40min to get to Southampton Central from Brighton and it rained extremely heavily outside the window, which took away my interests of enjoying beautiful scenery.  But thank goodness, the sun smiled at me when I got on the train to Bath Spa. 

My Busy Easter Holiday

Posted by Sam

Hello.  Long time no see.

The short Easter holiday finished a couple of days ago.  During the holiday I went back to my hometown, Hong Kong.

I am proud of Hong Kong International Airport.  The efficiency is beyond your expectation.  Everyone should use it at least once in order to try that. 

One thing which is kind of odd is that I nearly lost my skill to control chopsticks!  It seemed that I needed to practice.  It doesn’t matter though.  It’s a piece of cake to overcome.

In contrast to Oxford, the weather in Hong Kong was really nice.  I do like the sun and the beach.  The warm weather encouraged me to go outside more often that I do in Oxford.

The low prices of things in Hong Kong is also very attractive to me.  However, the English books are more expensive there than in England.

After the exams, I did need some time to recover and relax as well.  Staying in such a nice place really helped. The third term is the busiest one as I am going to study four subjects, which are English, Business, Economics and Pure Mathematics.  Preparing for IELTs is also making it worse.

Hope you are not busy as me!

Easter Break

Posted by Jag

Hello,

Easter break - is it a holiday?  Well, not exactly for me and my class mates.  We would rather call it "study leave".  I am doing I.G.C.S.E and our final exams are in May and June.  Teachers tell us to have a nice holiday but how can we have a nice holiday if we are going to take our final exams one month later! 

I am doing Maths, Chemistry, English, Computing and Accounting.  We can only choose three other subjects as Maths and English are compulsory.

We have five hours of each subject per week.  My friend, his name is Mark, he is from Hong Kong.  He enjoys Maths and Computing whereas I enjoy English and Computing.  We have fun in lesson, he helps me out when I dont understand and I do the same if he doesn't understand.

I love this college becuase you can get all your work done in class.  The best thing is that we have a small group with a maximum of around eight students per class.  This means our teacher can sort out problems and concentrate more on everyone in the class.

I usually finish at around 2:45pm or at the latest 5pm, depending on my timetable. Then I walk or sometimes cycle (if I am not feeling lazy) to my house where I have my dinner ready for me by my host mother.  She cooks really nice food, I really enjoy it.

Now I have got one day left until I break up for the Easter holiday and I have lots of studying to do for my exams. I will do so during my holiday so that I don't need to panic when I come back to college. I hope you enjoy your Easter holidays becuase I really wont be able to! I am actually looking forward to my exams because I just want to get them over and done with so I can have a proper holiday.

All my teachers have given me a lot of past paper do which will be really helpful so I can pratice how to deal with the type of questions which examiners write.  And hopefully I can achieve the grades which I am aiming for.  I have never felt so busy in my holiday before but I have to do what I have to do.

Everyone in my class will be doing the same thing as I am this Easter break but what about you?

Easter is Coming!!

Posted by Ksenia

Hello!

The end of term is coming very soon and actually I am a very naughty girl – I am going back to Russia even earlier – on 15th of March.  The Vice Principal of Bellerbys Brighton, Mr Corcut, was very nice to give me permission to go and in return I am coming back early to prepare for the BIG event – mock exams.  We have nearly finished the syllables in certain subjects, so I will have lots of revision to do… But I definitely won’t think about it during the holidays!

On Wednesday the attention of all AS students was focused on the presentation given by LSE, UCL, Kings, and last (but not least!!!) Imperial College of London.  One more time we realised how great it is to study in London at such prestigious places. 

Anyway, most of the AS students here are dreaming to study in one of these fabulous universities.  The talk made me go and visit the Imperial College website again and have a look at their courses.  Most of them sound fantastic and and I still can’t make my mind between Biochemistry, Biochemistry with Management, and Biochemistry with a year in industry (as you can see the only thing I am quite certain about is my favourite biochemistry, it’s a good start anyway!).

Last Saturday there was an interesting talk at Bellerbys as part of Brighton Science Festival.  It was about fusion – the process by which a huge amount of energy can be produced.  The realisation of this project is still quite far away in the future, but potentially it can give the mankind an unlimited source of energy (sounds exciting, doesn't it?) so we were really inspired by the idea.

Go Karting

Posted by Jag

Hey.

In Cambridge we do a lot of things together outside school.  Last term, our welfare officer, Marcela, organised a activity for us to do at the weekend.  We went for go-karting.  Twenty students signed up for it and we all agreed that it was one of the best activites we ever had.

Although I only came 6th I really enjoyed it.  It was really good fun we had at least eight races each.  As we were a large group it was also quite cheap as well!

Everyone loved this trip and we can't wait to get back on the karts again.

An Unusual Day

Posted by Sam

Life is boring, I would say.  In order to make it much more interesting, you can do something to discover the hidden and abnormal things in usual days.  Here are some examples.

While you are waiting for the bus in the morning, close your eyes, listen to different car engines and try to recognise the modes.  If you are interested in cars, that is.  You can try others like birds and that sort of things.

Then, you can read a novel on the way to the college.  Currently, I am reading ‘Atonement’ and falling in love in Cecelia, played by Kiera Knightley in the film.  It is not good for your eyes though.

During the lesson, you can anticipate the gestures and tunes made by your teachers and classmates, provided your brain can handle them simultaneously.  On the other hand, it can be found the abnormal things through different time period, especially in some particular days.  Apparently, the students are happy to meet the holidays when they having the last lesson at Friday.

It is inevitable that we must respect others in the library.  Fun can still be found though.  Through the observation and making eye contacts, hidden things are shown.  How to manage a library I think may require a variety of skills.  For me, it seems that the library is a laboratory where I can apply the theories I learn in my mind.  (I forgot to write it in my personal statement…ha ha)  You may think using different motivation theories to manage different people so as to keep the environment quiet and harmonious.

After school, you can listen to the BBC radio.  This is beneficial to foreign students beyond doubt.  Afterwards, why not turn on the television and watch a Euro football game with your roommate.  Football is so famous in United Kingdom that it is always a topic between the guys.  I haven’t had the chance to watch a match in a stadium yet though I hope to one day.

Cultures of Valentine

Posted by Shiny

A couple of weeks ago, there was a questionnaire from Psychology coursework spreading around Bellerbys collecting information about love.  Love may have become an inevitable topic in our daily life.  Today I would like to talk about a hit topic which is about different cultures of Valentine’s Day and what love means in different ways.  Although I am not an expert on love, I have attempted to exchange ideas about love with some students in our college.

Above all, let’s talk about marriage.  Students from different places have different opinions about this.  For instance, in China, one man mustn’t have more than one wife, although in the ancient China, some wealthy men could.  As for the culture of some countries, a man can have more than one wife.

A few days ago, I saw a piece of news telling that Muslim people in the UK can have up to four wives although this is illegal according to the law.  It is said that the British government would subsidize those who are legally having over one partner within Britain.  Obviously, the British culture is so tolerant and humanistic, even the law would allow moral cultural issues to happen. 

I once had a chat with one of my Nigerian female friends in Bellerbys whose father has got “dozens of” wives.  I was shocked and I asked her whether she though this is kind of discrimination.  What she said did make me give in.  She told me that, “Of course I don’t think it is.  Who makes money and earns the living for your whole family?  It’s your dad, right?  That’s it.”  It is indeed a fair comment if we think in terms of contribution to a family.  Yet some casual empiricists may argue that women also devote themselves to their family to a large extent.  Whilst what men and women do were different, it is not sensible to compare with each other.  No matter what people think, as long as there is an agreement between women and men, everything is fine.