English in Liverpool – Monday

This post follows on from: English in Liverpool – Day 1.

My first day of lessons has arrived!

I knew that at 8.15am I had to reach the school. I arrived in good time and, after a fast registration, I was asked to wait in the common room.

The school is very nice! It occupies the first and the second floor of a charming building in the city centre, in the Cavern Quarter in Liverpool. There is modern furniture throughout and even a Beatles and music theme!

The environment at the school is lively and colourful, the school team is very friendly and kind. The common room is a great place to be and meet other students. It is a bright space, full of windows, with a table-tennis table, a big kitchenette, TV (rigorously tuned on a English news channel!). There are computers for the students and four huge tables where there was a little welcome breakfast 🙂

The school’s welcome

We were meeting each other and waiting for all the new Monday students to arrive, then a girl came and gave us a presentation of the school. We had another copy of the Welcome Pack and read through it together. We were given the Wi-Fi password, a bracelet with two emergency numbers, the activity calendar with all the afternoon activities for that week, a book suitable for our level and our personal timetable.

Everything was meticulously explained, all in a really friendly way. This school really makes you feel welcome! After this briefing we move on to a school tour, around its two floors. We discovered more than 30 rooms, each of them with a name inspired by the world of music. There were two more common rooms with computers on each floor and the bathrooms (two in the school and another two in common with other people in the building). We also saw the administrative office and a multi-faith prayer room which perhaps is what had interested me the most!

My first lesson

Whilst we were given a welcome tour all the current school students were arriving. The time was almost 9.30am and our first lesson was upon us! The atmosphere is really incredible, totally international. You don’t need to do any effort to feel like a part of a nice group. The credit for this goes also to the teachers who teach English in a light but effective way, entertaining the students and allowing them to socialise with each other through many activities and group exercises.

My class is at Intermediate level, but both me and the teacher realized that, maybe, it’s a little too easy for me, especially because I have only one week to spend here! But it wasn’t quite the right moment to think about it! I decided to enjoy the class and thought that I would change level during the afternoon.

Dynamic English language games

The lesson is very dynamic, we’ve started with a “risk- game” (yes, but with Monopoly currency!) betting if the sentence that teacher had written on the whiteboard were correct or wrong. You had also the opportunity to raise the amount if you knew the mistake. The game was really funny also because we were all paired up with “cash-mates”, allowing us to speak and practise our communicative skills.

The second activity seemed really suited again and allowed me to get to know better my classmates. It consisted in finding someone who had some characteristic or particular way of life that were written on a paper we were given. I found this a really nice idea because in the classroom there were a few Chinese, Japanese and South-Korean students that have cultural backgrounds, opinions and names! that were very different from the European students.

Every activity was broken down by a grammatical way of teaching and through the use of practical exercises. The 15 minute break was a good time to catch your breath and focus with a coffee or cold drink. The last exercise was really well managed also. Every student had a little paper with one word written down. Every word made an English saying with another one and whoever had the other half of the saying would became our partner in the last conversation exercise. I had “back”and a girl from Chile had “forward” so, thanks to fate, we met and were speaking about books, films, travels, animals and many other issues. It was a little like a speed-date but for friends. Really funny!

Lunchtime

At 12.15am it was lunch time and all the students got together in the common room. It is a very beautiful place with a special environment. There was lots of chatting, laughing, hugs and tennis table matches. I quickly got to know many other nice students, especially a South-Korean boy and a Slovak girl who I spoke with for many hours during our week together. Before leaving the school for the day, I asked for change my level. After a quick consultation with the teachers, they allowed me to attend the Upper Intermediate level for Tuesday! The school was quick to give me my new timetable: for the rest of the week I’ll have lessons in room 11 at 9.30am. Fantastic!

When I was travelling back to my accommodation I met some of my flatmates, so we decided to have a walk in to the shops and to watch a movie all together in the evening in our shared kitchen. There was a big TV and you could even link your computer to it. We did and enjoyed streaming a movie (in English, with English subtitles of course!) sitting on the comfortable sofas.

I definitely can say that the first day at school has been amazing, from every point of view!

Read my next post here: Tuesday in Liverpool

Fiammetta