The lectures are experienced practitioners and provide great knowledge and insight into what being in early childhood and education is like.

Positive aspects: The course is really well run, with all of it conducted in person and catch up material is also available online. There are several points of contact with lecturers and are easily accessible in person to talk to. Lecturers are reflective practitioners and always strive to make the course a positive experience. Negative aspects: Lack of staff sometimes negatively impacts on taught hours.

No

The campus is a great community with great facilities and nature. The student support services are extensive and there is always someone to talk to. This year the new team for coordinating this services was launched: the Nest. This service answers all queries and signposts relevant teams/offices. The university has a strong focus on sustainability and volunteering. For example, there are recycling bins everywhere, a wormery for food waste from the catering team, and a vegetarian cafe. The Growhampton initiative allows students to volunteer with the community allotments, look after the chickens and go on enriching trips to growing initiatives around London. The security here is 24/7 365 days of the year and can support in emergencies or non-emergencies. This makes it a very safe place to study and live. The societies and sports list is extensive with opportunities for everyone to get involved. I go to about 8 societies each week. Lastly, the library is phenomenal. The building is modern, with great facilities and resources: journals, subject magazines, computers, moving shelves, laptop loans, cafe, study rooms, and the Academic Achievement Team.

The course is extensive in terms of the areas of learning. You can specialise in any subject of the national curriculum in your second and third years, which is quite rare. The course is taught in person only (unless train strikes) through seminars and lectures. You can also attend tutorials with a lecturer if you would like, through booking it. The tutors are amazing. Many of them have published books or been part of groups designing the curriculum for their subject. They have so many different experiences and backgrounds and are happy to share stories and will often give their own anecdotes or strategies from their time in the classroom. The course is taught two days a week, typically with 2 modules each half term. One day will be 4 seminars (groups of around 20) and the other day will be lectures (everyone in the year). Each module contains a group of subjects or professional learning. For example, this year Core Curriculum 1 contains maths, English and science, and Wider Curriculum 1 contains RE, computing, DT and music. There is a high level of professionalism expected. This includes 100% attendance at all lectures and seminars unless there are mitigating circumstances. We are expected to explore each subject beyond our required readings and engage with the professional community through reading clubs, CPD training, Twitter etc.

Elm Grove is centrally located in the university, on main campus near the entrance and library. It is one of the newest buildings on campus. The rooms are all ensuite with small double beds. Typically you live in a flat of seven rooms along a corridor with a shared kitchen. The kitchens typically have two hob/cookers, 2-3 fridges and freezers, lockable cupboards, a microwave, kettle, toaster, hoover, mop and bucket, and ironing board. There are many accessible or ground floor rooms to request if needed. There are lifts in every block as there are five floors. It is very safe, with CCTV cameras at all entrances and outside, and security is 24/7 and available through using your own phone to call, the flat's phone, or going to the security lodge nearby. The university is an open campus during the day (anyone can come on site) but the gates to campus get shut at night and are opened by your key card, which makes it feel even safer. There are many options for laundry, such as outside machine services and washrooms. The cleaning service cleans the kitchen and hallway once a week and they change the kitchen bins (recycling and general) every week day. Maintenance is very good and complaints are addressed quickly. The one downside is the fire alarms. People typically set them off in the middle of the night by accident. The alarms are extremely loud in each room, corridor and staircase. When they go off everyone (about 350 people) have to go and stand on the lawn by the library for about 20 minutes until the fire brigade come and declare it safe. This is an inconvenience across all the university halls. We have had no actual fires this year so far. If you need it there are disabled access points with speakers and emergency buttons on each floor if you do need them to help you evacuate. I find it great living on campus for the sense of community and quick/easy access to facilities and societies. There are several options for living situations, locations and price ranges on campus. I find living in Elm Grove great value for money.