Day 9 started off with yet another ride on the public buses in Birmingham to John Chamberlain Sixth Form College. It was a shorter bus ride than our other days and when we arrived at the college, I was surprised at the check in system as it was very efficient. At my high school, IDs and relationships to students/reasons for visits were needed to get into the school, but it was a much longer process with a verification from a student or faculty member was needed. I thought it was cool as well that they had a tablet system that could take photos of us.

We first got to hear a little bit from Tom who was one of the assistant principals at the college, and he explained the different aspects of the teaching process and what would happen if certain elements were removed. He explained how there’s input from the teacher, output from the students, assessment, and then feedback which can go either way. The assessment aspect of the process gives the teacher the opportunity to understand how students get from point x to point y and how efficiently they do it. Based on this, they give feedback and can change their process accordingly.

Then, we got to hear from Anna Richards who was another assistant principals who explained the adult learning experience to us. She told us that they give opportunities to students anywhere from ages 18-90. She explained that due to the high demand it is often hard to get a place but it is also hard to get a job without sufficient knowledge of english. She also expanded on other services the school provides such as english education for parents that have children in primary schools and need help with homework. They provide vocational education for people who are learning english at the same time for careers in health and care, childcare, business, and education. With this education, students can go on to study at university or find a career in many different fields such as teaching assistants, care technicians, and more. We also got to sit into a class with an english teacher in which students were preparing for the english portion of their GCSE. It was an interactive teaching style with a lot of output from students which was a refreshing thing to experience.

After this, we took the bus back to BCU where we did our presentations that we have been working on for a while so it was nice to finally be done with them and get good feedback and questions from the staff and students that came to see them which we really appreciated. We also got a little bit of time at the botanical garden by BCU which was beautiful and a nice time to relax before we presented. We also got to eat good items from the bakery that were a good treat before the presentations as well. Overall, it was a good day with a lot of insight and it was nice to interact with the professors at BCU.