Want to know what the college canteen is really like? Here is a review by Ben in Yr11:
Canteens are one of the biggest communal areas in a college, somewhere where hundreds of students traverse every day. An area of both work and pleasure, an area to relax in whilst under control from the college rules. The Canteen provides an area to escape from the normal college environment, an area to socialise and laugh with friends. Do you feel the same way?
UTC Portsmouth’s college canteen trumps all others with its vast atrium stretching 3 storeys above you, natural lighting and open windows infusing the air with fresh fragrances. The sun’s rays beaming down upon the canteen making it feel “as light as day”. The open plan of the college really accentuates the calm and adult working environment, also making it easier to socialise and chat with friends. Bam! As soon as you enter the college you immediately enter the canteen to proceed to your first lessons, by this point the canteen rumbles to life providing bacon butties, butter croissants and buttery smooth orange juice.
The Atrium and canteen are overlooked by walkways that wrap and hug around the side of the building connecting all the classes and various teaching areas. The canteen provides a thoroughfare for students to navigate around the college, from the dirtiest of Engineering workshops to the heights of the science department. During Lunch-times, students lean on these walkways and see the vastness of the canteen: students chatting, teachers working. All like clockwork at 12:55. Leading off from the first-floor walkway, is a smaller canteen outpost providing fewer services, but easing the queue for the main canteen and majority of students.
Now! Onto the main event. The Canteen Booths. Such comfort and softness after sitting on hard, hirsute blue chairs. These booths are the centre point of the canteen, with various sizes, tucking into the very edge of the atrium. Honestly, this is by far my favourite feature in this canteen. There are 2 sizes of these cushy booths, 6-man and 2-man. One for the more intimate and the other for the more social of groups. These booths contain features seen in no other college, TV screens and charging ports for laptops and other gizmos. When the clock strikes 12:55 the bomb countdown begins, it is an Olympic level sprint to reach these memory foam beds and only the strongest survive. Have you got booths like this at your college?
Food, oh glorious food! UTC Portsmouth’s Canteen is catered by award-winning Radish Catering “it's all good”. By far my favourite catering service in all schools I have attended. With cheap prices and scrumdelicious food, what is not to like? The crisp cold refrigerator is the humble abode for Pepsi, Seven Up, Fanta, flavoured water and much more. The heating trays warm up the scrumptious main meals, cheesy pizza, mouth-melting mac and cheese, pasta, curry, you name it - they have it. The southern fried chicken is by far my favourite meal, with cajun spiced wedges. Just thinking about it makes my mouth water. All this variety, all this flavour and for what, cheap prices as little as 90p per drink, £1,50 the main meal, £1.20 for a BLT sandwich. Who wouldn’t want to eat in this canteen?
There are many other facilities in this canteen, such as toilets that always have a cubicle open for you, and high-pressure water fountains that refresh your body and soul. These toilets always have squeaky clean seats and toilet paper.
All of this sounds amazing right, and trust me it is, but all of this is only possible due to the amazing staff who clean, maintain and cook for the canteen. This canteen will definitely receive a 10/10 from me as it has served its way to the top.