Hello again, I started my day off earlier today than the previous days. I had breakfast at the Holiday Inn Express for the first time and have to say that the food was not as good as the Kensington Close Hotel. The sausage was not as plump and there were not as many options here at the Holiday Inn Express. For some reason, the British like to eat baked beans for breakfast. Frosted Flakes are called Frosties, but they still taste good. After breakfast, we boarded the Arleen charter bus without a toilet and headed to the John of Gaunt School, which is basically a middle and high school.
When we arrived at the school, the front office required us to sign in and show our passports. Security seemed to be a big deal there for visitors. After signing in and receiving name badges, the Assistant Head Teacher (Assistant Principal) took us to a windowless room called the Bunker, and we meet the Head Teacher (Principal). Student Leadership at the school consists of a Head Boy and a Head Girl. These positions bridge the gap between the 12th and 13th year students and the school administration. Around 1200 students attend John of Gaunt within the age range of 11 to 19 years old. There are about 90 teachers and 200 total staff members. The school year is from September to July and starts at 8:45am and ends at 4pm with five lessons a day. John of Gaunt is a state funded school. We noticed pictures in the hallway that they also have proms as well. The school actually provides lessons on gender and sexuality and had several bulletin boards with information about sexual orientation tolerance and acceptance. We got to visit the Teaching and Learning Center that helps students who have special needs concerning their circumstances and learning disabilities. There are 27 teachers that work in the Teaching and Learning Center.
After our campus tour, we got to meet with some 12th and 13th year students, who are college aged. They provided us with great insight of what they study and what they are looking forward to after graduating. Most of them will be first generation students when they go to college, which surprised me. The students that we got to talk with today were some of the top students at the school. We asked them if there was a stigma about the different types of students at the school. They provided us with the following names for each student group:
Group 1 - Nerds
Group 2 - Average
Group - Dippies
We had big laughs about Group 3 and have never heard the term Dippies. After talking more with the Assistant Head Teacher, he said that 75% of the students that attend John of Gaunt go on to attend an university. An interesting concern that the co-hort discovered about the school is that it is not handicap accessible and the UK government really does not mandate certain facility accommodations for the physically disabled. That is a lot different from the US. However, the school will try to switch classes around to be on the first level in the buildings if needed for a physically disabled student. Lastly, the school has a school nurse to hold medications and administer first aid. There is also a school counselor on campus for three days a week and a local social worker has an office on campus as well. I would love to say that nothing funny happened today concerning the bathroom but that was not the case. In search of the men's bathroom, I went down to the first floor and saw two restrooms that had women on one side and non-ladies on the other side. This seemed sketchy, so I waited outside to see if anyone would come out so that I would know for sure. To protect this co-hort member's identity, I will this person Bonnie , and she came out of the other restroom and I asked her what she thought about this bathroom. Bonnie said that it should be okay, so I went in and used the facilities and did not see anyone. As we were about to depart from the school, there were two females that walked out of the same restroom that I did about 15 minutes prior. I am grateful that I did not go in or out of that bathroom when those students went in or out of it. Thanks a lot, Bonnie, LOL! Bonnie also loves Crispy Creme doughnuts, and her husband found some for her in Bath, England. We thought that he was going to propose to her again because he was hiding the box behind his back and had everyone focus in on what he was doing. I guess Krispy Kreme doughnuts could serve as engagement rings temporarily if you want.
After the John of Gaunt School visit, we traveled to the downtown area of bath. Me and Ike ate at the Ale House and had the Ale House Pie and a real sugar Pepsi. The Ale House Pie consisted of a flaky pot pie crust with meat chunks, carrots, and gravy. It also came with some chips (french fries), and I have to say that it was great. After lunch, I with other co-hort members got on another bus and went on an hour drive to see the Stonehenge. On the way, I saw an 800 year old church still in operation today and a 2,000 year old white horse carved out of rock that towered over the hills. This white horse was carved by the Anglo-Saxons to stave off intruders from their territory. Well, we finally got to Stonehenge, and it was a great experience. It looked so good that it did not seem real. When I took pictures, it looked like I was taking pictures of a green screen with the Stonehenge view on it. I walked several times around the Stonehenge and took pictures from every side. Before our bus dropped us off at the Stonehenge site, the driver told us not to lose our ticket or we would be turned away. Well, I kept my cell phone and ticket in the same pocket. It was very windy today, and the ticket must have flown out of my pocket when I took my cell phone out to take pictures. This is why I call this the Fearful Fifth Day due to my overwhelming fear of having to take a 25 minute walk to the visitor's center. I promptly walked up to the security guards, and they told me that it should be okay. I met up with co-hort members Wendell, and to protect his identity, Stanley, and they began to look for the ticket with me as we walked back to the bus. As I walked on the bus to the driver, Stanley looked on the dashboard of the bus and found my ticket. My fears were removed and life was good again. We went through some exhibitions at the visitors' center and saw some cool straw roof homes from the early Stonehenge era.
After we returned to Bath, we attended a three minute thesis competition at the Bath Brew House. Six doctoral students at the University of Bath presented an 80,000 word thesis in three minutes. They were timed, questioned, and judged. The topics that were covered consisted of fly wheel clutch plates, loneliness in rural areas, lightning therapy of cancer cells, conserving energy, space weather, and converting waste sugar into plastic for better biodegradability. The competition moved fast and the runner up was the waste sugar plastic, and the winner was the fly wheel clutch plates presentation. Overall, the experience was great, and I admire how they made something very complex to something simple in the matter of three minutes. After the competition, we went downstairs and had dinner. Ike could not find a seat and tried to steal a chair from another table and the waitress gave him a stern talk. He was about to leave until a chair from a non-reserved table made its way over to him. I really felt bad for Ike because the last few days have been rough on him. He got left for dinner last night too and his blogs keep disappearing from impromptu webpage freezes and computer restarts. For dinner, I had some sticky prime rib, chips, and a real sugar coke to great satisfaction.
I had a toffee Kit-Kat bar tonight and it was amazing. This is the first candy bar that I cannot complain about so far. Tomorrow's blog will consist of my experience at the University of Bath, and we will get to meet with housing and student service administrators at the conclusion of our visit. This visit is the one that I have been waiting on because I will get to meet with people that are in my particular field.
Cockfosters!
(End Point of the Piccadilly Line)
Ike has several definitions for Cockfosters, but I am using the one listed above.
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