After a pleasant uphill stroll from KKCL to St. Dominic’s College (The Sunday Times Sixth Form College of the Year 2017), our PhD students welcomed the glucose infusion provided by St Dominic’s lovely welcome breakfast and friendly meet and greet by their senior staff and the student council.
The visit then moved to the College Chapel, which is a wonderful serene sanctuary with intricate stained glass depictions, sparse in number, possibly due to lack of funding between the wars when built in 1926, but nevertheless a lovely setting for the presentation about the College by the Principal. After this, our Thai friends split into small group tours around the College, with guides from the student representatives. They took in the view over London from the grounds on the hilltop position, and then it was back to the Chapel for our Thai students’ video presentation about their university in Thailand for the benefit and enjoyment of our Harrow neighbours.
Following a short break for refreshments, some of the group went to carry out lesson observations whilst the remainder of us attended a seminar on Teaching and Learning given by the Assistant Principal. This was thoroughly informative, generated a lot of interest and generated a lively question and answer session. Overall, both the earlier presentation and this seminar gave the audience a holistic yet thorough insight into not only St Dominic’s Sixth Form College but also the English educational system.
To finish up, an excellent nice spread was laid on for lunch which, along with grateful goodbyes and plenty of photo taking, topped off a very interesting, informative and memorable morning.