Student
BGA offers alternative pathways to education normally offered in international schools, but there is a lack of clear information about what they actually provide. They do not offer some basic IGCSE subjects such as English Literature or Double Science, which are usually required in many schools. Since I was planning on changing schools for A Levels, not having IGCSE English Literature made it difficult to find a school that would accept me for A Level English Literature.
Learning coaches were often misinformed on basic things such as grade boundaries and assessment objectives, which made getting useful feedback difficult. Because of the large number of learners, follow-ups were sometimes missed and I was overlooked since I did not have alarming issues like some other learners.
Feedback was also very limited, mostly 20 minute office hour slots, short conversations with teachers, or exam prep sessions that only happened for one hour a week. BGA also claims to be flexible, but many assignments and mocks still have strict deadlines and I experienced unfair grading a couple of times. In those cases a teacher had to intervene. This may be because there is usually one teacher per subject and separate graders rather than a full team of qualified teachers. Some graders or teachers also took more than a month to correct simple worksheets, which delayed my work by weeks.
Another issue is how BGA counts learners who continue studying there as receiving grades on reports and predicted grades, which makes the system confusing, especially since the way predicted grades are calculated is not very clear.
Overall BGA has potential, but based on my experience with the British curriculum they need more subject options, better qualified teachers, and learning coaches who are informed on the fundamentals of each curriculum. If my parents and I had been better informed about these aspects beforehand, we likely would have chosen an online school and only used the hub for the social aspect, or enrolled in another international school.
3 other reviews for Brave Generation Academy, Lisbon - (Reviews aren't verified )
Showing 2 reviews by parents and students.
Parent
Poor academic support, poor IT platform, slow feedback, little teacher involvement, may be a good hangout for kids to do the minimum but not for kids wanting to learn. The concept is amazing, the execution is awful. Far more interested in expansion than quality. Defensive and unwilling to listen to concerns. Oh and not legal to be enrolled here, Portugal does not recognise it as a school nor as homeschooling.
Student
Brave generation is definitely brave in thinking they’ll survive as an establishment . Whilst I was a student there it was like I was a ghost. No one could care less if you’re actually doing work. The “learning coaches” are either children themselves or failed adults who need to meet ends meets. The learning coaches have no prior education, no prior work- experience and are genuinely idiotic. Hiring people just because they speak English shouldn’t be the only requirement.
Uninspiring, unmotivating, and you should only come here if you want to waste you time and ultimately fail.
The platform is poorly designed and most of the online teachers haven’t even heared of A-Levels before.
The noise levels are out of control. The owner of BGA is delusional. BGA is very cultish.
The learning coaches force you to do weekly checklists which they lie on so it seems like there’s no probl... read full review
