To start off the next day of this trip, we had an early start time compared to other days. We all walked to the bus stand to go to the Joseph Chamberlain College (JCC). We went inside and got signed into the school’s system because they are very keen about security and safeguarding. This is very important to them to the extent where they only have one entrance and exit to the entire college. Then, we were taken to a classroom to observe a little bit. In the first classroom I went to, there were students learning the responsibility and duties of being a teaching assistant (TA).
Then, we were taken to another building where we visited more classrooms. Only this time, the classroom consisted of adults who knew the basics of English. In this specific classroom, when we walked inside, they were learning about the Protected Characteristics Equality Act 2010. Everyone seemed to be very interested in who we were and where we were from. I was super happy because everyone, including the teacher, were very interactive. All the adult students introduced them by saying their names and where they were from. The classroom consisted of adults who were from Somalia, Bangladesh, Sudan, Yemen, and Eritrea. This truly just shows how much diversity there is in the city of Birmingham, which is just amazing to see. The teacher and students were very welcoming and loved having us in their classroom. Soon, they moved onto learning how to fill simple questions that would be on official forms like gender, occupation, work status, ethnicity, etc. I realized that learning all of this means that these adults came into a new country not knowing much at all. So, in a way, these classes allowed the new adults to restart a new life in the UK. I realized how hard this could be and yet they all still smiled and looked happy when we were there.
After that classroom visit, we got to learn more about the college as a whole and got a tour. There are 2500 16-19 years old students and 1162 adult learners enrolled. Eventually, the college prepared people for employment or just being ready to join the community in simple ways, such as learning the common language, English. I learned that 98% of the college were muslims, mostly British Bangladeshi or British Pakistani. In addition, there are high expectations within the school, which helps the students to succeed and go on further in their lives. The college strongly believes disadvantages shouldn’t mean that opportunities are closed for students. While on this tour, one thing that really caught my attention was the fact that there was a prayer room in the campus. This is something we can never see in the US. On the other hand, we learned some information about how education works in the UK, such as A level and BTEC. The school receives 2.6 million from the government to teach individuals and give them new opportunities. It was really astounding to listen to some stories of specific students. Most of these students started off with little to no English knowledge. Soon, with the schooling provided at JCC, these students would graduate, going on into further education at different universities. It is astounding and impressive to see how the progression occurs within the students while studying there. One thing I did find really interesting was how the word “college” does not mean university in the UK. “College” is technically a part of high school, not university.
After this information session, we got on a bus to go back to BCU South Campus for lunch. I really wanted to try something new and not buy the same thing I had bought in the past 2 days so I got myself a chicken burger and chips.
Next, we had a lecture about learning disability nursing. Unfortunately, learning disability nursing is not seen as proper nursing in the UK. The presentation started off by defining what learning disabilities are. Learning disabilities are “significantly reduced ability to understand complex information or learn new skills in addition to reducing the ability to cope independently”. There are many causes: mother’s illness in pregnancy, birth trauma, genetics, or illness/injury in early childhood. As of now, it is said that nearly 1.5 million people in the UK are diagnosed with learning disabilities, with 2.16 being adults and 2.5% being kids. One specific thing that stood out to me during this lecture was the concept of eugenics. Eugenics is the belief of improving the population of humans by controlling reproduction and the traits that are passed down generation to generation. Another thing that stood out was the fact that it used to be very common to use inappropriate terms to describe individuals with learning disabilities. I am happy that is slowly changing now as more research is coming out.
After this lecture, we all walked to the Birmingham Botanical Gardens. It was really pretty in there and it reminded me exactly of Phipps Conservatory on campus. It was really fun to hang out with friends, take pictures, and just take a nice peaceful walk out in nature observing all the beautiful flowers.
After that, we came back to the hotel and took a little break. Then, we decided to get some dinner at a restaurant. I had pasta alfredo and a passion fruit cooler. It was absolutely delicious and I enjoyed it very much! It’s been a nice day today and I am ready for the next one as usual!
