First Impressions from New Concord Students

This is a new academic year. A new beginning. And things will change. And now we welcome the new year, full of things that have never been. This will be a challenging year but also a year full of joy and excitement, especially for new students at Concord. Here is what they had to say about their first impressions of the school and meanwhile their expectations and hopes for next year.

‘I came to visit Concord two years ago. At that time, I fell in love with the school. When I arrived, the monitors here were kind, friendly and helpful. I love the school.’ – Wendy F.3

‘Food is yummy.’ – Maggie F.3

‘When I first arrived in September, the staff were nice and helpful. Moreover, the students were kind and they were willing to help. When classes started, the teachers helped us a lot when we did not understand. There are a lot of fun activities too.’ – Josephine F.3

‘From the first day, I knew Concord was an amazing school. Although it is known for academics, Concord also has a wide range of other activities.’ – Anonymous

‘The school is very big and a little scary at first but you will get used to it. Also, I have made lots of friends since I first arrived at Concord. Most importantly, the food is very tasty. Every day, I am very looking forward to knowing what am I going to have in every meal. Overall, Concord is quite pleasant.’ – Maggie from Hong Kong F.3

‘My first impression was good. The staffs were nice – such as helping with my bags, taking me to my room, giving me an introduction to the school and the school policy. The food was good, especially the first meal, so much better than my old school. Lastly, I think the house parents and teachers were really helpful.’ – Rafael F.3

‘The first thing that struck me when I got off the arrivals bus was the incredible amount of diversity of students–although I had expected a large portion of international students, I didn’t realise that students would be coming from all around the globe, literally, including many students in my home city of Hong Kong. As I continued to walk around the campus, I was in awe at the campus’ beauty and spaciousness; the greenery, paired with both traditional and modern buildings particularly stood out to me. The students I met in the following days were also extremely friendly, especially the F5 monitors who were happy to answer questions that any of the new students had. This friendliness extended to class time, where most teachers heavily encouraged us to ask questions and were accepting of all views and opinions. I was also pleasantly surprised by the wide selection of food available in the canteen, catering to any sort of people from vegans to students with specific allergies. So far, I have made many friends through not only my classes and induction week but also through the various sports teams that I participate in–this brings me on to my last point about the how students here are able to impressively balance their social, sports, and academic life. Overall, my first 2 weeks at Concord couldn’t have gone better, and I am optimistic to see how the next 2 – potentially 4 years of my life will unfold here at Concord College.’ -Duncan Hsu F.4

‘During the first few weeks, I was unsure about how this whole ordeal would turn out, but as Steven Fischer once said: “This is just the beginning, so far so good.” As cheesy or awkward as that may sound, it actually sums this whole thing up pretty well. I’ve been enjoying it so far, but there’s been some ups and some downs with a few curves hither and thither. So, I’ve fitted in pretty well, but that may only be because I’m socially outgoing. On the first day, I was introduced to the campus for the first time, my monitor was kind enough to show me around the place and let me know where I was staying (don’t worry, I haven’t been kicked out yet!) and where the different buildings were. During my stay here, I met many different people from many different countries around the world. When the sky started to turn dark, we played this activity called the monitor games, where the monitors from form 5 would pick some random team building games to “get to know each other”. To be completely honest, the monitor games actually worked because I never imagined I would know so many people in the span of two weeks. This was pretty much the whole week, in the morning we would wake up, go to a few assemblies, introduce ourselves to a bunch of new faces, and then do some activities that made us get to know each other better. Then, on Thursday, we had our first legitimate full day of school. At first, I was confused as to where to go for some classes because the campus is pretty big and the buildings are fairly spread apart. The second week soon rolled around and we had to go to our classes every day – I was fitting in well, making it to class on time, just being punctual all the time. I thought that it was good and relaxing… boy was I wrong. Saturday tests rolled over and we had to prepare. However, after finishing the tests I felt enlightened, so it was all well and good. Overall, so far, I think that it’s been decent, to say the least, not one of the best moments of my life, but still good enough to enjoy it.’ – Felix F.4

Compiled by Sam Kwok – F5

First week of term

Last week, all Concord students had their first full week of school. 7:50 breakfast, 8:35 registration, 40 minutes lessons all the way until 4:00pm. All of you are probably still having some hard time trying to get used to the busy routines after a long and relaxing holiday (I hope it’s not just me).

On Monday however, we got to skip period 9 (woop woop!) because of the enrichment fair where students have the opportunity to join different after school activities and clubs such as choir, Charity Club, Outreach Society, Debate Club, Fashion Show, Chess Club, sports team etc.

On Wednesday, instead of going to sports like we did in Form 3 and 4, now we are in Form 5 we get to go to town, but this week the form 5s did the Morrisby Test which would help us determine which career suits us best. It took us a little over 4 hours to complete the test, but with the supervision of three nice invigilators, the test wasn’t so bad after all. In fact, I am actually looking forward to the results. I think that it would be interesting to know what kind of jobs I should go for in the future.

On Saturday, we had our first Saturday test of the year. I am sure most of the new students were feeling a little nervous, but it’s okay! Because us old students felt the same too, it certainly felt weird to be doing tests in exam conditions for the first time after so long. I always see going to town on a Saturday afternoon as a treat for being able to sit through 1-2 hours at the sports hall, my friends and I decided to have lunch at a Thai restaurant and went grocery shopping after.

However, it is wrong to think that Sundays in Concord would be boring. There are many things that you could do: trips to the cinema, shopping trips to cool places like Liverpool or Birmingham and even volleyball practices in the evening every Sunday night; It even gets pretty intense sometimes!!!

Have a lovely term!

Brandy Chu Form 5