Feature
Atlantic College
A campus with a difference

Iftekhar Akter

The campus of Atlantic College is 150 acres of rural and coastal area. The heart of the college is the beautiful St.Donats Castle on the South Wales coast, overlooking the Bristol Channel. The St.Donats Castle is a magnificent 12th century castle that surrounds an Elizabethan courtyard. The castle contains the beautiful Gothic Dining Hall, The Great (Bradenstoke) Hall, Tudor Hall, an extensive library and certain academic departments. Next to the castle are the beautiful gardens and well-equipped modern buildings where lessons take place.

Next to the castle are 'The Tithe Barn (used as a college theatre, arts centre and cinema)' and the social gymnasium blocks. The extensive grounds also include St.Donats Chapel, historic terraced gardens, preserved woodland, farmland and heritage coastline. The students live in 7 houses of 48 each. These houses are named after Welsh counties and benefactors: Gwynedd, Dyfed, Morgannwg, Powys, Whitaker, Tice and Sunley.

The sports facilities are great as well. Although participation in sports is not compulsory it is highly encouraged. The campus has a football ground, rugby field, indoor swimming pool suitable for water polo, outdoor pool, indoor and outdoor basketball courts, tennis courts, table-tennis boards, lawns to play ultimate frisbee, and places for hockey and volleyball as well. Provisions for physical activities like wall climbing, obstacle courses, archery, sailing, running, scuba diving etc. are also there.

Academics and mission:

In 1971 Atlantic College was the first school to abandon national examination in favour of an international diploma International Baccalaureate (IB). The IB requires you to complete six courses from six different subject areas. These subject areas include the language in which the student is most fluent, a foreign language, experimental sciences, mathematics, humanities / social sciences and lastly arts or any one subject from one of the previous groups. These subjects are taught by well-qualified staff (who represent many different countries and cultures) to provide an excellent all-round pre-university education and there is a favourable staff: pupil ratio of 1:9.

The IB also requires you to complete a research essay of 4000 words from a subject area of your choice, taking part in Theory of Knowledge (ToK) class and fulfilling requirements of CAS (Creativity, Action and Service). The ToK aims to encourage students to be critical thinkers and teaches them basic epistemology.

For CAS you have to select one of the nine services provided in the college and carry it out for the whole two year course doing 4 hours a week. The services range from rescue services (lifeboats and lifeguards), community support services (social, children education program and extramural centre), environmental services (estate service, environmental monitoring unit) and cultural and aesthetic services (photographic, design craft, video and arts centre). You are also required to take three activities each term and may even choose to lead one, as these are student organised. The activities range from outdoor activities and global concern activities to cultural and aesthetic pursuit. There are over 80 clubs and activities to choose from.

After AC most of the students get admitted to top colleges in UK and USA. Around 15% get admitted to Oxford, Cambridge and the Ivy League universities.

Mission statement: to enable students to become positive agents of change through action and life choice, fulfilling individual potential and recognising individual responsibilities as global citizens'.

Iftekhar Akter is a 2nd year student of Atlantic College