NCS Testimonials
“Hello, I'm 17 years old. I live in Ellesmere Port. Currently I am in 6th form at Ellesmere Port Catholic High School studying my A Levels.
Prior to the NCS Summer of a Lifetime course, not much happened in my life. I had just completed my GCSE examinations after another uneventful year at High school. In fact, most of my school life prior to the course was pretty much uneventful. I was bullied and I got average grades.
My social life was even worse, both inside and outside of school. Inside of school, I had very few friends. Outside of school, I hardly ever went out. After school and at the weekend, I stayed in all day, playing videogames and watching television. It was the only true comfort I had in my sad, lonely life.
The first I heard from the summer of a lifetime was when a member of Youth Federation staff, Helene Devey, came to my school introducing the course to year 11. At first I was reluctant to join the course because some of the activities seemed ‘out there’. But then another sixth former convinced me to do the course and I have never looked back.
The course has helped me in countless ways. I am more self-confident, I am more sociable, I have more friends and many more.
This course was the best experience of my life. It is literally life changing. Summer of a Lifetime. It really lives up to its title.”
Summer of a Lifetime 2011 participant, Cheshire West
“Hi I’m 16 years old and I live in Ellesmere Port.
I joined the Summer of a Lifetime when I broke up for the summer holidays ready to relax having done my GCSE examinations. To be honest at the start I had my doubts and thought I'd rather just waste away the holidays.
Day to day life I used to come home from school everyday and spend 5-7 hours studying for exams or playing computer games. This was my sole entertainment, and not much happened in my life. My biggest worry was failing my examinations and being a failure to my family.
My social ability extended as far as to talking with teachers, people in importance and family. My friends used to rip on me for being overweight, nerdy, geeky and not very attractive. Often this would upset me, but I learn to ignore it after a while.
My passion was and is business, in which I got 2 A* grades by the end of the year. At the time business was the most important subject next to mathematics, and I prized the grades over relationships in school as I deemed them to be worthless.
Eventually a light appeared at the end of the tunnel, my dad shown me the summer of a lifetime. I say he shown me when in actual fact he forced me to come to the summer of a lifetime. As at the time I was not in the mood for the event, in hindsight I’m glad he did.
I met new people who I could get along with and they taught me to be less apprehensive about the different people in society. I became a much better person more sophisticated and ideal. As I’m a much happier person now, I have a lot of friends which I talk to on a regular basis.
I got rid of all the guys who picked on me, and now I’m working hard in sixth form multitasking everything around the place spending time with friends. Without the summer of a lifetime id’ still be stuck in the same position I’ve been in.
The challenges I have overcame the places I have travelled all of it I will remember forever and continue to do throughout my life.”
Summer of a Lifetime 2011 participant, Cheshire West
“I attend West Cheshire College and am studying Vocational studies. I wanted to join the NCS course because I was bored and had nothing to do. I have learning difficulties and attend a local youth group for young people with disabilities and I thought it would be good for me to go on the programme and mix with other young people.
From taking part in the NCS Summer of a lifetime I have learnt about the aim of the course and doing expeditions, walking and dragon boat racing.
I think people would have to congratulate me for doing the course and I think people were very fond of me at the start and the end of the course which helped to increase my confidence mixing with other young people. I had a really excellent time. I’ve made some friends for life who I am still in touch with. It was such a great experience to be involved in the summer of a lifetime programme. The best part of the programme was the community event that we organised, I really enjoyed it and everybody who attended had a really good time. I found that it really improved my confidence and I met a lot of people through the experience. I would definitely do it again and would recommend anybody else to do it.”
Summer of a Lifetime 2011 participant, Cheshire West