hello Folks,

anyone had any experience of the National Citizen Service (NCS)?

I'm just wondering if teenagers actually enjoy this? I remember when I did voluntary work, it was very disorganised and I hated it, but was forced to spend my wednesday afternoons there. I dont want to recommend it to my DS if is it the same ... Would be good if anyone could share their first hand experience

F4T.

DD did NCS this summer and on the whole it seems to have been a positive experience, even though the 'university accommodation' week was spent in some kind of army cadet training facility (admittedly, quite close to the University of Essex) and the camping week was spent in a country park only three miles or so up the road from home .

The planning / social action week did have its frustrations, but she made some new friends from other schools in our area and I think she would recommend the experience overall. And it was only £50 plus her fares for the third week.

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Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.Groucho Marx

Good Morning food4thought

I'm afraid I can't be much help as I know 2 children who have taken part in this-one had a great experience the other not so great!

I'm hoping to sign my son up this year and I'm a bit apprehensive too. However, I think it will be a good experience for him and truth be told I think he needs to do something over the twelve weeks break from school for his sake and for mine

He also has to do a week of work experience which I'm currently trying to arrange (easier said than done) but that's a whole other thread!

I have had to ring the NCS folk twice before and on both occasions they were very helpful so it might be worth giving them a call to see if they can allay any of your concerns?

Anyway, good luck whatever you decide and I'm sorry I can't offer any helpful advice.

2 little boys x

DD1 hated every minute of NCS. Totally out of her comfort zone on many levels. Will I be sending DD2? Absolutely.

I had a couple of friends whose children did it last year and loved it. I have already signed DS up for next summer. He says it looks good on your CV which he is very focused on. I just like the idea of 4 weeks keeping him busy in that long post GCSE summer is a good thing and if he learns something then even better.

I'm sure that your DS is aware, though, that just having 'NCS' on the cv (or indeed Personal Statement for university applications) is totally meaningless without any indication as to what the participant actually did and what s/he learned from the experience .

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Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.Groucho Marx

My eldest did the ncs and loved it. He went to a pgl near Wales for the fun residential part, his uni accommodation was at Middx not too far from home. He is quite shy and it took him out if his comfort zone, helped with presentation skills, mixing with different types of people and got him thinking about the experience of others. He did a photography specialisation and is now a keen photographer. The facilitators were really motivating and supportive helping to get him out of his shell. He is also still friends with people he met. So it's a thumbs up from here. Although I gave to admit his keeness did not convince his younger brother to attend.

We looked at it with DS1 as an alternative to Bronze DoE, which I am not a fan of, (being such a tick box exercise and being completely ignored by every university admissions tutor I have ever spoken to....) NCS looked great on paper but, in our area, was not a mix of people at all, as they targetted specific schools which they knew would jump at the chance to fill their spaces - was a bit full of pointy elbow brigade in this area, so we decided he would be better off organising his own work experience and voluntary work (which he has, and is). Friends kids who did it here felt similarly but friends in other areas were quite positive. It reminds me of the the old Prince's Trust courses I used to help run a few years ago, for young people who were unemployed, although ours were not residential.

I could not interest either of my sons in this - they had a stereotyped image of the type of people who attend and sadly the ones who went did fit this negative image. Among their peer group no one went at all. On the positive side I did hear about a cripplingly shy child who did it last year and it has proved life changing and brought about a complete change of character (in a good way).

None of mine have been interested either. DS2 did announce that he & his friends were going to do it next summer (rather than last summer when he had over 2 months off, of course). However I doubt it will happen, which is a shame.