Welcome to Yury Gorbunov

This week we welcomed Yury Gorbunov to JLC. Yury is from Moscow, Russia, and he's here to sample 6 different A-level subjects - ICT, physics, chemistry, maths, further maths and business studies!

Good bye to Gwen



Good bye Gwen - we hope to see you back at JLC soon!

Gwen with Sociology teacher Dave Wood

Cookies for the office

Gwen brings her baking to college to share with the international team

My weekend by Gwen Chan

Saturday

After a rest this morning then I went to a windmill on the way to Lincoln. We had a look around – the first windmill I have been inside. It was an old working mill [but not spinning today]. We then carried on our journey.

We arrived in Lincoln and went to a small shop where I got souvenirs and then to a coffee shop for sandwiches and tea, it was a traditional English lunch. This was at the top of steep hill. Lynne and John took me to Lincoln Cathedral and we took some photographs. It looks very fragile and old but the windows are very impressive. I saw the castle but didn’t go inside.

Next we walked down steep hill and looked in some small accessory shops. I bought some more souvenirs. I bought a parker coat then had a walk back up the steep hill. It was exhausting! And we had a drink, too tired to shop any more. Nice city to visit, more like a village than a city.

At night we went to a Chinese restaurant in Scunthorpe to celebrate Chinese New Year. I had Singapore fried noodles (spicy) and Yeung Chow fried rice. It was very English Chinese food, not traditional, but I was happy to have rice with chop sticks! Overall a good day.

Gwen with host 'mum' Lynne at Lincoln Cathedral

 

Inside Lincoln Cathedral

Sunday – Chinese New Year

Today we went to a farm coffee shop for brunch. I had a super sweet cake. We then went to a garden centre for a walk, Lynne did lots of shopping – plants for her classroom at college.

Later we went home and baked some chocolate chip cookies - the first time I've made cookies (and they look great!) - and then in the evening I packed up my suitcase ready to leave on Monday.



Gwen doing a spot of baking

Waiting for the finished cookies!

 

Gwen's experience (Thursday 7 February)

Hi! I am Gwen Chan and I come from Hong Kong.

I am joining the JLC A-Level Taster Course for this week. This is my fourth day; I think I am definitely having a good time in college. :)

I join this course because I like the A-Level course in England, and I am thinking of quitting the HKDSE to continue study in England. Also, my cousin had recommended that JLC is a good school for international students. So when I was worried about how should I make a good decision, I heard about this taster course. Then I decided to have a try, and hoping to gain experience from here too.

My first impression of college is “Big”. I think the college is really big that I will not be able to get used to it! The college is like 5 times larger than my school in HK, and the facilities are very impressive, so are the students I met here, they are nice and friendly.

 
I think the JLC international centre is very helpful, and every staff in the office is being so friendly to me! When I was here on the first day, I was very nervous, the teachers in the centre helped me to calm down, and this gave me a brilliant impression of the college.

I am living in a host family now, and my host mother is a teacher of JLC. I feel warm living in a host family, as we can always have a chat with different things we have done during the day, and eat dinner together, etc. Personally, I prefer living in host family more than in the school dorm.

I have been to UK twice before, one is for a study tour and the other one is for sightseeing. However, after a few days of school life in JLC, I feel like I am a real UK student now, though the weather is a bit cold, I am still enjoying life here in UK.

I am studying Economics, Geography, Psychology, Sociology, Maths, and Chemistry in the Taster Course. The subject I like the most is Sociology and Economics. I have been learning about “Childhood” in Sociology, “Aggregate Demand & Supply” in Economics. I found it a little difficult, but very interesting! I really enjoyed the lessons. Therefore, I will continue with these 2 subjects in the future if I am coming again.

I have been learning by doing practical work, discussion and group work in the lessons,  I think a diversity in learning ways is important, as I can learn by myself and from others.

As I have mentioned, I am here for this taster course, and hoping to make the best decision after trying the A-Level course. I think the taster course has helped me a lot with my decision, I am now much more confident in making the decision that will affect my future life. 

Meeting the Principal

John Leggott College Principal David Vasse presents certificates of achievement to Jessica and Gwen as they near the end of their A-level Taster Course

My weekend by Jessica Li

Saturday

Today I was feeling very tired. In the afternoon I went with my host family to Scunthorpe. We went to the cinema to see Life of Pi [which I really enjoyed] and then went to a big supermarket called Asda.

Sunday

I went to Lincoln today. Lincoln  is an small peaceful lovely city, that contains lots of English culture. We went to Lincoln cathedral and then Lincoln castle, but it’s the old shops in the lanes that gave me the deepest impression.

There is a canal running through Lincoln which separate Lincoln shops into modern ones and old traditional ones. Standing  among the new modern shops make you feel no different  between the other big cities in the world.  So I think it is the old shops that make Lincoln different. There are sweet shop, clock shop, clothes shops, pot shop, old book shops and lots of tea rooms among the old streets.

I went to a fossil shop where is full of fossils that are all collected by the shopkeeper. It was amazing to look at different kinds of fossils, it seems like you are connected with the antiquity when you are observing the fossils. Then I went to a tea shop where sells different types of tea and tea cups. The shopkeeper collected all kinds of tea cups or pots which are from China, Japan, German, England and so on. I’m very interested in tea cup so it took me a long time to wondering in the shop.

There are not many tourists at the time I go, which made me feel great that escape from the crowded. Although the transport are not convenient in Lincoln, but it’s still worth to visit there.     

Welcome to Gwen!

 

Today we welcomed Gwen Chan to college. Gwen is from Hong Kong and has come to sample JLC lessons for a week. This is her very busy timetable!

Week 1: Chemistry, Maths and Physics lessons by Jessica Li

Chemistry

We are learning organic chemistry recently, which is quite different from what we have learnt in China. We had to do an experiment about the addition reactions of ethene, which helps us understand the reactions of alkenes. Then we learn about the addition of hydrogen bromide. The difference between here and China is that here we learn the chemistry knowledge more detailed.

 
Maths and Further Maths and Scary Maths

Maths is always the classes that full of Chinese students. We learn about function in maths class and bubble, shuttle, quick, shell sort in further math. It’s not as hard as the other subjects. The teacher in further math really gave me a lot of help to help me understand the difference between bubble sort and shuttle sort. It’s different from China that we have lots of maths exercise to do, here they do have exercise but not that much. 

Physics

This is the hardest class I think. Because the AS class are having practical  experiment, so I was sent to A2 class  to study. We learn  about resonances for the first class which is quite difficult for me, I couldn’t understand a word in the class at all which made me felt quite sad. It didn’t become better even when it was the last class for the whole week. I think it may be better if I started with AS class.