Hi,

I’m Aaron, the only child at the British Academy who went to St Mary’s School, Ascot in London. The School was working on a program with Oxford and Cambridge, for children aged 8-17 years to learn a topic/s of their choice for 1-3 weeks. I applied for coding. I decided to go, because I thought getting closer to Cambridge would allow me to have a higher chance of being known when I asked to go to their school.

Daily Routine

Breakfast was served at 7:30am, so you had to wake up accordingly. For my roommates and I that was 6:00am. After breakfast, you’d go outside and when everyone came out you’d go to classes. Mine again, coding; you’d spend 45 minutes working, have a 15-minute break, another 45 minutes of work, then a two -hour lunch and then a two-hour class. We’d then proceed back to the courtyard play a bit then go to the extracurriculars we had signed up for. Later we’d have random activities. Finally, you can head back to your dorm and indulge in your Instagram for one and a half hours.

Accommodation

Now think about our canteen staff, Ms. Melissa in her small space cooking for hundreds of students and the food is very good. Now at St Mary’s lots of kitchen staff, big space but more children. There was a wide variety of food and it was just as good. But I still missed wontons and CHOW. The beds were quite comfy, and the rooms were spacious and clean, as were the showers.

Expectations

The usual no graffiti, obscene language and bullying besides that, nothing. So just have FUN. We also had houses, mine was Hazel. You weren’t allowed to use electronics all the time and the internet shut off at 10:00 pm but I didn’t really use my phone. Except a hockey video game, Colour Hockey, I played with my friend to see who was the best. I won when he scored… on himself lol! I was not lonely at all I had all my new friends. Actually, my dad was a few 100 kms away and I do feel a little guilty for not calling him for the whole week. I was having too much fun!

Next Year

I am definitely going next year however, I may be going to Oxford since I’ll soon be thirteen. I do advise people to go too but don’t bring your old friends get some new, fresh, ones for only… the price to go. Hope I see you next year.

 Bye!