Today we got up fairly early to grab some breakfast from the recommended cafe around the corner. Then met up with the other Newcastle teachers from Heaton Manor and Longbenton, before arriving at our host school in Seoul for the day.

First impressions were very good, greeted by a large banner with our names on and then a breakfast meeting in the library, before have cactus juice with the head teacher. After an hour’s meeting we were then taken on a tour of the school by Miyung and Year 8 students. On first comparison, there appeared to be a bit more discipline around the corridors, but still fairly bare in places. Both schools have only had 2 computer rooms and every classroom has a large TV for displaying PowerPoint slides – nothing cutting edge as yet! However, the top floor was gated off due to suicide risk! It hadn’t happened in this school, but has occurred in other Korean schools.

Lunch was an interesting experience; as student are mainly taught in the same form room all day they also eat in them too. As soon as the bell sounded for lunch to begin, food trolleys were wheeled out into the corridor and outside each room students would serve portions of food to their classmate. All in a very sensible and mature away, they ate the food in their room and washed and tidied everything away for lunch to begin. We ate our own lunch, and observed a few more lessons in the afternoon, all very similar to those in Gwangju.