Day 04 - Gumley House Convent School/ Let It Be Musical
Tuesday, 27 November 2012, 00:35
DAY 04
The day began with the usual routine of the group adjourning downstairs to the Travelodge’s cafeteria for breakfast. Some, having eaten the exact same breakfast for the past two days (a full English breakfast) had started to exhibit signs of homesickness by resorting to the ever-dependable Maggi instant cup noodles and/or porridge. We then took an hour long ride by coach to the Gumley House Convent School. The bus ride was brimming with a myriad of emotions; while some were feeling satisfied from the filling breakfast, others were groggy from the unpleasant bumpy humps. I was personally filled with a great sense of anticipation and excitement for the long awaited trip to Gumley. Whilst on the bus, the teachers debriefed us on yesterday’s visit to the National Gallery where some of the paintings were explained and analyzed in depth. That was a fascinating time for me as I found myself absorbed in the discussion of the paintings, realizing how the kind of critical analysis skills used for the paintings are actually very similar to that of literature.
Having finally arrived at our destination, oohs and aahs were heard as we stepped out of the vehicle and feasted our eyes on the Gumley grounds. The school compound was vast and the buildings were impressive. We were to meet another group of SAJC students on a geography trip there to experience Gumley.
The school having been founded in 1841 by a French lady Marie Madeleine d’Houet, is a Roman Catholic secondary school for girls (As of 2012, there is only one male student in Gumley Convent, he is in the Sixth Form) ages 11 to 18 which is part of a consortium with other Roman Catholic Colleges in the country where there is a joint sixth-form system (the Sixth Form is the Singaporean equivalent of Junior College Year 1) It prides itself as a multi-cultural academy with students from 52 different ethnic groups speaking approximately 59 home languages. The sixth-form students are allowed to wear their own clothes though they are required to maintain decorum to maintain a focused and studious environment It struck me that such a rule would most unlikely be implemented in Singapore schools where uniformity is prized and deviation from it is punishable.
These were all rather interesting facts about the Convent but what really grabbed my attention was when Mrs Ewa told us that every single sixth former out of the 192 in the cohort are given an iPad. At this instant, the room was loaded with gasps and exclamations of shock. My guess is that my counterparts were aghast at the difference in our education system. That is because this is much unlike the Singapore education system at Junior College level where such personal gizmos are strongly discouraged for fear of them being more of a distraction to students rather than a useful teaching aid. After introducing us to the available subjects offered and a rough outline of the school curriculum, Mrs Ewa then concluded by reiterating their mission statement “Vive Ut Vivas” which is Latin for “Live that you may have life”.
Armed with his stylish laptop and impressive Prezi slides, the bespectacled Mr. Byrne proceeded by relaying instructions to everyone about how to connect to the school’s Wifi network before informing us that we were to key in our answers on polleverywhere.com. Simultaneously, a live update of the poll results was then displayed in front of us. He basically wanted to prove the point that a large majority of youths globally are rather digitally literate. The lesson was captivating in that it was a timely break from the conventional classroom-styles back home where student response is largely limited (although most teachers try to interact with their students during the lesson instead of merely teach content). During this lesson, we were encouraged to speak up and provide our opinions and views, and even challenge whatever was being said, something I don’t particularly find common in Singapore schools. Mr. Byrne pioneered the idea of letting each student have their own iPad for school. He even appeared on BBC for it (the news footage was shown to us and is available on YouTube for your viewing pleasure) He and Mrs Windmill also introduced many useful learning applications the school has encouraged Gumley students to use as well as other applications the students have themselves discovered for folder sharing, note taking, class timetable and mind mapping purposes, among other things. After the one and a half hour lesson, we all concluded that that was one of the rare lessons we had ever attended in our schooling lives where the saying ‘time flies when you’re having fun’ was actually most apt.
We were then led out of the building to the library which is a mere 2 minute walk away for lunch. I must say that those were some wholesome 120 seconds as we were warmly greeted by Gumley students and staff who held the doors for us and greeted us most politely at the door entrances. The school had even graciously closed down the library for the day just for us because their canteen wasn’t large enough to accommodate the 50 odd people we had in number. As if that wasn’t enough royal treatment, we were fed with a myriad of sweet and savoury treats as well as hot drinks to whet our appetites.
To end off the day at Gumley, we were split into two main groups - one would attend a Psychology class while the other would attend the Sociology class with the Gumley Sixth Formers. Although I attended the Sociology class, let me first give you a brief overview of what happened in the Psychology class.
The class was led by Mr. Graham on the topic of aggresion. Those who were present commented that they were initially somewhat stunned at the layout of the classroom upon entry. Unlike the traditional Singapore classroom layouts where tables are paired and arranged in four columns and five rows, their classroom consisted of many round tables that held approximately 7 students each in order to facilitate discussion in smaller groups.
The lesson began with Mr. Graham defining institutional aggression as a violent behavior that exists within an institution (a group of people held together by a common factor) People may become aggressive due to space deprivation or the existence of a hierarchy where the higher up they are in status, the more likely they are to be more aggressive. In order to illustrate this, a video was shown about prison officers torturing prisoners. The question was then raised as to whether the aggression of these prisoners was self-induced, inflicted by the officers, aggravated by the deprivation of space within the prison cells or even fueled by the need to cement their identities in the other prisoners’ minds in order to stand out from the rest. Many whys and wherefores were asked and discussion was facilitated by Mr. Graham accordingly.
As I was gathering information for this article, I was amazed at the depth of involvement psychology had in our daily lives. Such a scenario of a prison and the individuals is something I would never have thought more about prior to this.
At the sociology class, Ms. Standing attempted to lighten the mood by distributing stickers for us to write our names and allowed us some time to mingle and get to know each other. We were similarly split into small groups.. I observed that the small classroom was very well utilized with storage boxes holding files and textbooks that fit snugly into the nooks and crannies of the classroom. It was also rather cost-efficiently decorated with the students’ written on mahjong-sized paper pasted all over the walls and even on the ceiling. Bunting made from more of students’ works on sociological terms were also posted.
Ms. Standing wanted each group to write out what the government in each country generally does and how some of its policies have had an impact on our lives before comparing them between the countries and offering possible reasons for any differences. This was an intriguing time of interactive learning where most of us Singaporeans sheepishly realized that we weren’t knowledgeable enough about Singapore’s laws and policies to be able to confidently and accurately convey all of them to the British students. Nevertheless, we tried our best and allowed Ms K to fill in the information where necessary. We also learnt from the British students about the coalition government in the UK and the different political parties and what they each stood for.
To end off the class, each group was given a particular political party they were to follow after from which they were supposed to come up with a party name, a manifesto, a logo, a slogan as well as a speech accordingly. By the end of the activity, the classroom was bursting with laughter at each group’s ideas as each group came up to present what they had come up with and a ballot was done. In the end, the Feminist’s won by a single vote. Their party name was Girl Power while their slogan was “Men smell and women are swell”
Walking out of that classroom, I wondered why all the Sixth Formers we attended lessons with were so enthusiastic about their classes in general and why their attitude towards class participation starkly contrasted ours. Generally, in UK, a teacher’s question would be met with immediate responses shooting back at him/her like flaming arrows. In Singapore, a teacher’s question would be met with blank, bored, dreamy or dazed expressions floating back at him/her like fluffy cotton wool. After raising these questions on the bus ride out of Gumley, we realized that these differences lie in the fact that the Sixth Formers actually view their education as a privilege since it isn’t mandatory and hence cherish it to a far greater degree than we Singaporean students who mostly take our education for granted. That is something that I won’t be forgetting anytime soon.
One question that is still lingering on my mind now though, is why the students at Gumley do not greet their teachers. Is it an unnecessary practice or unspoken, executed through telepathy?
The surprisngly clear London traffic granted us access to Covent Garden in a mere 30 minutes from Gumley . We were then allowed one and a half hours of free time to get our own dinners in groups. After which, we walked to Prince Wales Theatre on Coventry Street to catch the West End Musical based on the lives of the Beatles: “Let It Be”, a spectacular theatrical concert jam-packed with over twenty of The Beatles' greatest hits including Hey Jude, Come Together and, of course, Let It Be. Despite not being such an avid bunch of Beatle fans, most of us enjoyed the experience.
After the show, we walked to the nearby underground tube station Picadilly Circus where we skilfully navigated ourselves back to Southwark sattion with little guidance since we have become professionals at commuting on the tube over the course of the trip. A brief 5 minute walk from Southwark station and we were back to our ever cosy and familiar Travelodge.
Let’s see what more enthralling, enchanting and enrapturing sights London has to offer in the coming days…
Written by Leanne Chua 12A02 (Group B)
