Today was our first day at Birmingham City University or BCU. We first got breakfast and then started our walk over to the campus. It was about a 20-minute walk. When we walked in we were kindly greeted and were taken to our classroom for the day. Jemma was our tour guide and showed us around the building. After the tour, we headed back to the classroom to listen to speakers. They were all very nice and educated. We learned about healthcare and the education system. Everyone was so informative and I took everything I learned today to help me in my future. 

Secondary education was great to learn about. In Birmingham, it is very important to do good on your A levels and the exams. In the United States of America, the school systems are based on grades and you start at 1st grade, go until 12th grade, and have the opportunity to go into a trade or college. In Birmingham, we learned they have levels. The levels are based on your age and not when you started school. Secondary education in Birmingham is levels 7-13. Once you get to level twelve or thirteen, depending on the University, you are able to decide if you want to continue to get your degree. Another cool thing we learned is that after primary education, you go into a main subject-based education. You can choose what you think you might do when you are older and continue to go down the path of that education. They have 3 main subjects, English, Math, and Science. When choosing what they might want to study or pursue when they are older they are able to focus on that particular subject. This way it is more engaging and hands-on for the students to learn about what they are interested in. I think this is a great idea to keep everyone involved in the class and start everyone on the right track. 

Learning about research and what we can do to better our research was very useful. My research group and I were able to get a better dive into our question. We learned the forest, the wood, the tree, the branch, and the leaf. Adding slowly into each step to get down into the leaf helps our group get a deeper understanding in our question. We will continue to add to our question to deep dive into diversity in education. This helped us create a better question and better ways to research to learn more on the subject. We also learned some fun facts about the education system here. Some of the Head Teachers, or principals/superintendents of schools in The United States, were able to give us specific details about the school they are in. One of the Head Teachers told us her specific school has around 90% of students that english is their second language. This is an amazing fact! We also learned they call highschool, secondary education in Birmingham, and inside of that is the levels 7-13. Primary education is early childhood education, which is my major, so listening to the primary teacher was very informative and inspiring. 

Birmingham City University, or BCU, is the education and nursing system here. We ended the day at dinner. We all got together and ate at Santorini. I got a Greek pizza and it was amazing. After dinner we headed back to the hotel to settle for the night and get ready for an amazing day tomorrow. I appreciate the speakers being so friendly and keeping us on track and listening with little jokes. They were so open to everyone’s questions and were able to educate us better on how education works in Birmingham. They were able to make such a big impact on us and help fill our day with amazing things to learn. The speakers were able to connect the education system to nursing and we all appreciated how much time they put into preparing the day for us. 

Overall the day was memorable. We all had a great time walking around and being around each other. We all are getting along great and having a great time. Meeting new people to learn more about the world and its diversity is an amazing experience. I hope to soak up all of the small things that I learn and do. I am excited to continue to go to Birmingham City University to learn more about the education system. It is also interesting to learn about the healthcare system although it is not my field of interest. It helps me understand how I want to run my future classroom and be a better person.