Today was the day of presentations!! I have been so nervous for them the whole time we have been in Birmingham and I can’t believe it’s already here. Starting off our day we went to the magnificent Joseph Chamberlain sixth form college that prepared students to take their A levels. On Friday they were taking one of the exams so we got to sit in on a class that was running through their practice exams for Friday. We were split into two groups: one was for the college aged students, and the other was for the mature learners. I was able to go into the classroom with the college-aged students and observe the teacher running the class. Something that I can really appreciate is how stern the teacher is. At the front of the classroom there is a bin for phones that she had everyone place theirs in. There were multiple students late, who all still put their phones in. The last one who came in was about twenty minutes late and she stepped outside with him to have a talk. Although she is stern, she also showed how much she cared for her students through many gestures within the short hour we were there. Another thing that I noticed is that these college students left their folders in bins at the back of the classroom. I think the last time I did that in school was in maybe middle school when I was 12. I actually think that this method would be helpful and would reduce the amount of students who forget their work at home. I don’t know if this was just because they’re having exams this week, but she did tell her class that they could take the folders home if they wanted to study. I believe that this was a good observation and highlighted a little bit of how that classroom was ran.

After that hour of observation we had a lecture with Miss Anna Richards. She had a wonderful presentation that held a lot of information about the general understandings of the school. I have learned today that there are eleven centers across the city with approximately 1100 students combined. For the wait-list for this upcoming September, there are already six hundred students. Due to the first come first serve rule at the schools, it is quite a challenge to get into the school. Something that really shocked me was the national law towards citizens with English as their second language that requires them to reach a certain level of education and understanding of the language in order to maintain residency. Although they have that law, there is also a law that states that a non-refugee individual must be a resident of the country for three years before they can even get the funding to go to the school. For refugees they must wait six months until they are eligible for their education. That completely baffles me.

After that lecture we left the college and headed to BCU to eat some lunch and drop our bags off before we walked to the botanical garden. It was a beautiful place to relax and enjoy our time together before we went back to do our presentations. I feel that we all did a good job and it was really nice hearing feedback from the professors in the classroom who were so kind enough to come and watch us. Now that I have the most anxiety inducing part of the trip over with, I really feel like this time will fly by.