Today, May 15th, we attended South City College. The morning started as we took taxis to the college, and one ended up being pretty late! We had to wait outside the college for a while before everyone arrived. Then, we got visitor tags and had a meet and greet with the staff. We spoke directly to the director of EAL/ vocational classes at the school. Majority if the students here are 19+ years old, and are people seeking asylum, refugees, migrants, or displaced peoples. As a result, many are skilled adults who struggle to function in UK society due to huge language and cultural barriers. So, the goal of this school is to teach the students English and basic skills so that they will be able to function in UK society and find employment. Also, the college combines EAL with skilled courses such as plumbing, child care, construction, IT, and fashion so that the students can become skilled and employed, or to teach them the language for the skill they already have. This school does not have an age limit, so student ages range from 16 to over 74 years of age. In the UK, education is viewed as a right that everyone deserves to have, so it is made accessible during every phase of a person’s life.
This is a picture of the group at the meet and greet!
I sat in to observe an EAL for child care class, and it was very interesting. The room was full of older women who were making an information leaflet for the Council which gives information on the role of adults in supporting play and leisure activities. The students and the teacher all speak in English, and I found the dynamic of the classroom to be very similar to that of a normal high school class, even though the students are significantly older. For example, the class got loud and chatty, but the teacher quieted them down the exact same way a high school teacher would. I also noticed that students are doing their assignment on desktops provided by the school, so they don’t have their own electronic devices that they bring to class. The school provides everyone with the devices they need in order to be successful students. This EAL class differs from the one I observed in Chamberlain College because these students are working mostly independently, and can read and write in English. This must be a higher level class than the one I watched in Chamberlain because there, it was a class wide lesson where everyone was working together and talking out loud. They were focused on grammar whereas this class is focused on more complex topics surrounding child care. A bonus for these students is that the teacher helps teach them about how to care for children by asking “what would you do for your children?” Since these students are older in age, they can actually relate to the curriculum content and that may make understanding the answers and the English better because they have first hand experience.
Next, I sat in on an EAL class for plumbing, where there were much less students, all of which were male. It’s clear that the gender stereotypes in career fields are very much prevalent in this area. Men go into physical labor work/classes while women go into care-based classes. This class was very nice, and we listened as they learned how to make a formal letter for a job interview as well as prepositions of place.
After that observation, we went back to the meeting room for lunch and then to an entry-level EAL class. This class was learning about sentence types, like simple, compound, complex, and compound complex. At the end of this month, there will be writing exams, so in all the classes I observed today, writing was the emphasis. This class, specifically, looked at the proper ways to write English and they did many activities to practice combining sentences using conjunctions.
When that observation was over, we went to the construction zone to observe the hands on vocational work that many students study. We saw bus repairs, brick laying, tiling, plumbing, gas work, and mechanics. The facilities were really cool and the college made very realistic classrooms for the students.
This is a picture from the engineering room.
We then went back to the hotel to grab our luggage and wait for the coach bus to take us to London! The bus was actually very late so we had to stand outside the hotel for over 30 mins, but I’m just grateful to be on our way now. When we arrive in London we will drop our luggage off at the hotel and then go to the alumni dinner. I can’t wait to try the yummy food and see Paddington Station. I’m also interested in meeting the alumni to hear about their experience at Pitt and why they live abroad now!
This is a view of London near our hotel!
This is my delicious burger from dinner at the alumni dinner.