Sixth Form Campus - City of Portsmouth College - Portsmouth

Ksenia P.

Our experience with this college has been deeply disappointing due to the unprofessional handling of meetings and the inaccurate feedback following my son’s interview.
1. For the first scheduled meeting, both my husband and I joined on time, but the assessor never showed up. We waited, only to discover later that the assessor had not used the official college communication channels and failed to notify us of their absence.
2. During the second meeting, which was my son’s interview, my husband attended with him as a parent. This meeting took place, but the feedback we received afterward was not just inaccurate — it was demonstrably false. The interview included specific questions that required clear answers, yet the feedback listed responses that my son never gave. For example, the report included references to well-known chefs that my son did not even mention during the interview. These are not matters of opinion or interpretation; they are factual inaccuracies.
3. When we filed a formal complaint, the college dismissed our concerns, stating that no one else who had meetings on the same day raised any complaints. They used this as justification to conclude that everything was fine and continued to defend the false feedback, which was extremely disappointing and unprofessional.

Despite this negative experience, my son was later accepted into a similar program at another college. The feedback from that institution was overwhelmingly positive, recognizing his talent, passion, and dedication to the culinary arts — qualities that were completely misrepresented in this college’s assessment.

The lack of accountability, unrecorded meetings, and dismissal of valid concerns raise serious questions about the professionalism of this college. Families deserve fair treatment and accurate assessments, and I hope the college will review its processes to ensure no one else has to go through such an experience.

frostymai

This college is a poor excuse for a sixth form and does not value its students whatsoever. No matter mental health or illness, attendance is seen as the worst possible thing and is considered more cared about then other aspects of students lives. The college favours students with better attendance, no matter the circumstance and sometimes even offers certain rewards to people with a certain amount. Teachers fail to communicate with students, and don’t even bother to reply to emails, instead they are incredibly quick to mark you not in and ridicule for the attendance.
This school feels worse than secondary and feels even less independent then what they tell you.

Unknowingly J.

College is poorly run, teachers actually don't care about your social life so they just fill you with dread they don't make you feel welcome if anything they make you feel miserable they just do nothing but make students feel bad, if you miss one lesson they make out like it's the end of the world, college either needs help or closing I thought secondary schools were poorly ran but this is on another level, fix the college please. The only good thing is e sports they're actually decent and lunchtimes where you actually get some alone time instead of always being interrogated.

Alannah H.

The most unsupportive college ever, tried for 18 months to get help with exam arrangements just for them to say i got them and then that i actually did not literally 20 minutes before my final alevels. Was extremely unhappy at this due to staff and other variables and wouldn't recommend however did have some amazing teachers like Dave Ashleigh and Bonnie who are truly amazing

Robert P.

Unprofessionalism at its finest. Teachers are most likely underpaid or they just don't care enough about their students and their problems, most of the teachers are rude when being asked for help. Every other staff except teachers in this college is way worse than the teachers themselves, most of the staff won't know where other staff/teams specialised in careers/wellbeing/IT are and won't be able to help you. I've studied here and I have only once seen the vice-principle but not the actual principle. Every class that I've got had at least 3 resubmissions due to lack of competence in teaching the said subject and lack of interest to ensure that every student is doing their work and is able to do it while also understanding it. Complete waste of time, I've entered this college with such high expectations and excitement and left with disgust and relief at what amateurism I've had the unfortunate experience to find at this college. Also there are some staff who will genuinely pick on you for no real reason, even if they are your teachers they don't care, 80% of the staff in this college is rude. There is also heavy rolling on weed in the IT Block bathrooms(at least for boys) but nobody checks them for some reason. Calling this college mediocre is a kindness. Do not enroll unless you want even more stress and anger from the staff. Thanks 😉

PuddW

I've studied IT, Digital Media, and Esports at this college. I've only had the pleasure of truly learning something from the first two mentioned, due to the teacher actually being involved in the 2nd year, and quite brilliant at that; the said IT and DM courses went well. They were certainly challenging, but the teacher offered to explain and help, with indulgence and rationalism.
As for the Esports course...not everything was checked, as do some things around the college generally. The teacher checking on work outside of forced deadlines was rare. Explanation was inconsistent (rarely a solid wall of text that a student could use to the fullest), and often resulted in having to stretch out 2-3 lines of instructions for a task you would need to write about for several pages (be it in whatever word processor used), and hardly ever went on to explain how the student would need to interpret independent research they would put into projects, often leading to a pressing anxiety that you might miss the criteria because of the way you've explained something, or not picking the exact topic all together. Especially with how limited insights are on esports players, as of now, and many tournaments.
The state of the college is decently good. There are changes done every year, and judging by experience, the English department, and IT-related department/block are decently well equipped and maintained. In the IT block, one of the teachers will be so kind as to often empathise with their students, to the point where their artworks, or favourite game posters can be ticked to the walls, which makes for a welcoming experience.
Sadly, some of the staff like attendance, and a couple select teachers will become rude if you disturb them or fall behind in performance.

Also a big issue with this college is the lack of professionalism in its punctuality and organisation. Events like taster days, fresher days, and open days are mediocre.
It's a hit or miss, really, with your course. You can have a great teacher, or just fall victim to the college's...weaker side practiced...
I wish it all the best, in growth. I've had a decently good experience here, mainly because of my main teacher's understanding nature after I came back in the 2nd year, following a...'slackish' first year, in terms of attendance.

Pufuletu_02 P.

Unprofessionalism and discourteousness staff. It's not worth taking the chance at a great experience (lesson wise) when everybody will experience a mediocre if not bad experience when it comes to canteen staff and other teams around the college. Also there is weed being rolled and smoked in the IT block bathrooms :))

Jack A.

Terrible communication between the college and parents. No emails/letters or phone calls received between enrolment and the supposed start date.

When our son tuned up to college on the supposed start date he was told they are no longer running the course he enrolled in.

He’s now been dumped onto a course he doesn’t want to do, at a college twice the distance away from home.

On top of all of this he has classes that clash with each other.
We received a text saying a class wasn’t on followed by a text telling us he wasn’t in class!

He’s been in 3days!!!

So far it’s been a shockingly bad experience