Ami Blenkharn

I knew that A-Levels wouldn't get me to where I wanted to go, as I couldn't do exams, and I wanted to get away from school life. I came to an Open Evening, saw the lab and met the tutors, and that's what made me want to come.

What course did you study at Kendal College?

Level 3 Forensic Science, which is equivalent to 3 A-Levels.

Why did you choose this course?

I was just so interested in criminal investigation and psychology, especially working with offenders and understanding why they commit the crimes they do.

Why did you choose Kendal College?

I knew that A-Levels wouldn't get me to where I wanted to go, as I couldn't do exams, and I wanted to get away from school life. I came to an Open Evenin, saw the lab and met the tutors, and that's what made me want to come.

What did you most enjoy about College life?

The freedom of it. Freedom that you have the time and resources to plan your assignments and do them in your own time. I had 3 full days in college – up to 5pm, and then 2 days to complete my assignments. We learnt how to organise our time and not to waste these days, so it really prepared me well for university. We could use all of the college resources throughout the week e.g. library, university hub, macs, iPads, laptops, books, and you had the time to get things right. Being treated like an adult was such a big difference from school- I felt so much more grown up here! Some of my friends were still getting detentions and their phones taken away from them, but here it's a more grown-up environment and you have a mutual-respect with your tutors.

I really like that if you’re struggling or don’t get the grades you need, you can talk to the tutors first, enabling you to personally try and figure it out, rather than straight away phoning your parents. There is a parents evening once a year, which is good, and enables parents to see the facilities and speak to the tutors, who are always contactable by phone too. So it is a good balance between treating you like an adult and still involving your parents so they can support you. If you go to uni, parents aren't involved at all, so it's preparing you and building you up for university and independence.

I learnt so much e.g.

• Harvard referencing
• Essay writing
• Using my time well and organising myself
• Planning essays and making breakdowns, so I understood what I needed to do
• Time management
• Teamwork and communication
• Lap skills and working with the equipment and chemicals
• And so much more!

We learnt the skills we needed for university, whereas school felt like it was just focused on exams. We had extra classes on referencing and assignment writing. We also completed 3 scientific reports, which was like a mini-dissertation. We had to write a hypothesis & null hypothesis, introduction, abstract, literature review, methods, results, discussion and conclusion. Going to college was a no-brainer for me! I also didn't have to worry about exams. I didn't have to wait until August to get my grades. We had 19 modules, with about 4 assessments for each, so you know how you are doing and what else you need to do. If you don't get a result first time for an assignment, you have the opportunity to re-submit once. It was all coursework, I didn't have to worry about exams at all.

What opportunities did you have as a student at the College?

My confidence increased massively. As well as the course, we could be a class rep and we got to go on loads of trips. We went to Lancaster University twice for a university talk on Criminology, a tour and a Chemistry day, where we did the experiments we couldn't do in college. There was the opportunity to go to Geneva and I went to London for a day trip to a policing museum. We saw how evidence was collected, learnt about the death penalty and how innocent people were killed for crimes they didn't commit. We also had the freedom to go out and have lunch by ourselves. We’ve also been to a factory that makes cleaning products, which the Principal set up for us. We were shown around the labs and saw what chemicals they use. It was really interesting.

What was the teaching style like on your course?

We had three teachers and the teaching approach was really varied, which was good. We did two mock crime scenes including collecting evidence, photography, filing in evidence bags, making sure all the notes were up to standard and doing what a CSI would do. Lessons use power points, group work, research on the computers and then going to do experiments. In a unit we had on Forensic Evidence Collection and Analysis, we used lab equipment and microscopes to analyse things like hair samples, bullet samples, and blood samples.

How did College support your University application process?

I remember I applied for Forensic Anthropology (study of bones), Forensic Psychology and Criminal Justice, Forensic Science and Criminal Investigation, and Forensic Psychology at two different universities. I got offers from all of them in the December, much earlier than my friends in sixth form! We got taught how to apply for university, we didn't have to do it by ourselves. We also had a talk from Student Finance. I decided to go to UCLAN for Forensic Psychology, as it is one of the best places for policing, which is what I chose to do.

If you could give one piece of advice to people considering College, what would it be?

Just do it! Take the risk, it might be scary because it's something new, but if you go from school to Uni people it's even scarier, here you learn what you need to prepare for Uni!