 Welcome back, it's still the breakfast and plus TV Africa. We have a first major conversation up next and it bothers on education now. Have you ever wondered what schooling the United Kingdom is like? We usually hear about the university education or like my friends in UK say about uni but what about the secondary school or the education that holds before the university level? UK boarding schools week is around the corner and we're set to find out some more about what it means to attend a boarding school or what we call here secondary school in the United Kingdom even to find out more about the education system in these days of ASUS strike. I'm sure parents will be thinking about that. So what is the UK boarding schools week about? I'm glad to see we have director of admissions and marketing at one of the schools in the United Kingdom called Mount Kelly, Vanessa Balls right here with us in the studio. Vanessa good morning to you. Good morning. And she's also accompanied by Anne Lawrence. Anne is a senior housemaster at Haberdashe's Monmouth schools. Anne good morning to you. Good morning Sophie, thank you for inviting us. Yes yes, glad to have you. Wow, I said to you off here before we came on the you know when we hear about UK education it's usually the university. Tell us about the is it said you call it secondary education in UK because we have a secondary system and so what's the UK system like the pre-inversity education? It's very similar to Nigeria and that's one of the reasons why us coming here and introducing our system to Nigerians work so well because we know that the curriculums are very transferable and we know that a lot of Nigerian families like to go to UK universities so if they come to a UK school for a couple of years before university they can get settled in and apply to university from us. Interesting interesting I'm sure it gives the students a good ample time to settle in and to get used to the system. How many years does it run from what age does the system start from? We represent schools here going from the age of three all the way to 18 but predominantly we are secondary schools so that will go excuse me from the age of about 11 through to 18 and I said I think children settle in very very quickly because of the similarities and I think we share the same values so people can feel at home very quickly I think in the UK. So let's go to similarities because I mean we have West African senior secondary certificate examinations called WASI or WAEC and you have the junior secondary school classes that go from junior secondary one to junior secondary three just as one just three we have the senior secondary one to three but before that you have the primary level from primary one to six or to five in some cases we don't have all we had before in terms of A level and all levels and all that so what are the differences slight differences and similarities. So I think it is very similar we do GCSEs the general certificate of secondary education at the end of year 11 which I guess is when you're sort of 15 16 and I know a lot of schools in Lagos international GCSEs same thing and then you can transfer to the UK and but certainly we've had pupils at Mount Kelly who've done the WAEC and have been absolutely fine they're just at the same level but I think it's sort of it's more the GCSE level and then they come to us to do two years for A levels which is when you just study three subjects so it's particularly good if you're you know if you love your science and maths or you love your English and languages you don't have to do the other one you can concentrate on this up which then leads you into university so good preparation for university. So you do 11 years of secondary schooling and then you now write your you do your GCSE GCSEs that's right so they'll take those in year 11 so they're 15 and 16 years of age at that point and then they'll go on to study A levels or it could be a BTEC in order to prepare for university but I think more broadly than that it's the whole experience I think are probably coming to a UK school it's the whole package in terms of the sport that we can offer the drama the music all of those sorts of things and many of our schools most of our schools have a very strong Christian ethos so it's the shared value system that I think that we can we can offer in the UK. So you've given us a bit of that can you you know give us an idea more in depth three of what a typical UK secondary school is like I mean we used to see in the pictures of the uniform we have uniforms here as well so that's a similarity compared to the Americans who wear you know whatever they want to wear but what is it like you talked about sport yes sort of a drama yes so first of all the Christian ethos I think is very important so at normal school we have our own chapel and typically in the morning all the students would attend a school chapel service either in the week and on Sundays and then we begin our lessons around about half past eight working through till four o'clock well that's very similar yeah yeah and then portions of the day will be allocated to sports so we're very keen on on football soccer rugby cricket if your boys got netball lacrosse hopefully your viewers out there will be recognizing some of these sports I think absolutely athletics so I'd imagine they're very very similar and we have a moment school we've got half a dozen children from Nigeria at the moment who've settled in extraordinary quickly and an asset to the school and I think that's a really key point I think one of the reasons we're here is because for a school like ours like Mount Kelly we're in the west country of England so it's really great to have people from lots of different nationalities at the school and so whilst yes we have a Christian ethos we also welcome children from all over the world and in fact we've got a super family from Lagos with us at the moment who are Muslim and in fact the daughter is my daughter's best friend and one of the things a man likes to do is come and decorate our Christmas tree every year so it's just that whole shared culture and and recognizing that it and I think you know the children then learn that it doesn't matter where you come from what your faith or belief is we're all fundamentally the same and are friends and that's really important let's talk about the boarding school system I mean we have boarding schools here some people will be surprised to hear our boarding schools in the UK our boarding school system is unique I ought to go into detail so what's a what's a typical boarding school in UK like so most of the boarding schools will have houses so the children live in rooms with two or three other pupils of their year group and obviously girls houses and boys houses and I think one of the great things about that I know our headmaster is fiercely passionate about belonging and everyone needs a sense of belonging so the children in their house you know they we have interhouse competitions and all that sort of thing so that that's a nice part of school but essentially we have a same here yeah exactly I've seen it at CIS and some saviours and yeah absolutely it's very similar is an extended family yeah by definition so you're in small groups you're being looked after by a house parent and his deputy and his wife and so they're a team of people who really from a pastoral perspective really get to know the children incredibly well and what is very important to us is that we maintain strong links of course back parents yeah parents so we are regularly corresponding with parents either talking on the phone or or the internet to keep parents completely up to speed with how the children are getting on and making sure that they're happy and and we we form one team it's definitely a three-way relationship isn't it parent child school yeah and that family ethos is the best I think well it's a very powerful nurturing environment in which school children can thrive all right you talked about how a Nigerian family how well do the Nigerian students you know fair in your school and in schools across um I'll start with Vanessa um well we would we were talking off air earlier and I think one of the best things about Nigerian children is that they integrate so you have some nationalities you tend to stick together a bit more but Nigerian children come in they join in with everything they they're bright they're intelligent they work hard they play hard um and they make friends with everybody they're they're friendly and outgoing and they make the most of all the co-curricular opportunities you'll always see them involved in the choir or the drama or yeah I believe this is lovely it's fantastic so with you in in your experience absolutely they will join in everything but I think more than that um we are interested in developing the future leaders for sure yeah um and so we've got um several of our Nigerians are prefects so they are chosen to be the top 12 leaders within the school and we've had Nigerians who have also been a head boy of the school so they they lead the school um and they go on to the better universities either in the UK or perhaps abroad Oxford Cambridge but other great universities too and for sure um they will be leaders of the future you know you're moving to a new a new country uh is difficult enough in terms of integration but if you have to now add on top of that staying in a boarding school which is you know with your family that could be a different totally uh a different experience for a child what do you do to make sure that foreign students not just Nigerians but other foreign students um who are away from their families uh you know find easier to integrate but I think the key well from sorry no no no you go ahead speaking as a house master so I'm a house master normal school so the key thing is to help children get to know one another and equally for the staff to really really get to know them so I don't really like the term house master very much I'm a house parent because every decision I make will be for the best interests of the child and I think I think um a house is a unique environment because not only are the children from Nigeria but we have children from Hong Kong from Germany from France um and from other countries so as well of course from Britain so here is an incredibly powerful mix of children where they'll they'll make friends for life um with with other with their other peer groups and friends from other schools so um and from other nationalities so it's a it's a really quite a powerful time within their life to to network and make a group of friends I think the other thing is keeping them busy um so as as Ian already mentioned you know lessons to eight in the morning till four in the afternoon and then at four in the afternoon there's sport um and there's you know we do the Duke of Edinburgh award where they go off hiking and all that kind of thing learning how to map read and first aid and then there's choir and drama and so you keep them busy and then they're happy interesting yeah definitely yes when you said uh you know the Nigerians like involve getting involved in that too that I said yeah yeah so let's look at the UK exhibition boring schools week um tell us about that because um I saw the flyer you know the details and why you having this this this program so we're here with Mark Brooks education and Mark um does a lot of work in Nigeria and has a lot of support from um the UK Department of International Trade here who help us with um setting up these exhibitions and I think the real purpose of it is um firstly for us to meet families and to families for families who are looking at the UK education they can come and meet 15 different schools and sort of start to make a short list before they come to the UK and visit but it's also about us um meeting heads of schools here and working with schools so we uh Mount Kelly has a 50 meter swimming pool so we have a elite swimming program at the school so we have been working with um St. Xavier's prep school and our coaches come out and run swim swim weeks for the children at St. Xavier's um and I know other schools have done similar things with football and um you know we we do some stuff about um continuing education for teachers we invite teachers back to come and work in our schools as well so it's sharing of good practice from Nigeria and from the UK um which is also very important so we meet we're here working with heads of schools we're not here working with agents it's just heads of schools all right interesting so um who should attend this uh UK boarding schools week all of you anyone who um anyone's whose children who they're interested in sending back to the UK and then maybe maybe they've got a firm idea that a decision that they are gonna um their children are going to be educated maybe they're thinking about it and they're not quite sure so I would encourage any parent or grandparent um who's interested in perhaps their children coming back to the United Kingdom to come and come and see us at the fair so we'll be at the at the Wheat Baker from 11 till four o'clock uh tomorrow so please come and meet us so as Vanessa said we we are you know you get a chance to speak to the teachers to speak to the house masters like me uh to speak to head master so you get a really good feel for it um I think and you can um get our details and to continue a conversation I think over the next a period until um a parent can make an informed decision all right and are these admissions going to be for your schools alone uh yeah so the schools that are here would be the other schools but it but it is just a a taster I mean you could we will we will be back mark Brooks will be back here two or three times a year with different groups of schools and I think it's you know it's really important to find the right school for your child whilst on the surface many of our schools seem very similar they will all have different slightly different characteristics so it's finding the right school for your child how affordable is education in the UK um in terms of our secondary school and you know up to maybe the year 11 for instance so boarding school fees are between 30 and 40 thousand pounds a year okay okay so it's expensive but it's worth it it's worth it definitely I've had three children through the school it's definitely worth it definitely definitely and what what kind of document should the parents who are coming uh come with well to be honest with you they can they can turn the door yeah a lot of parents have registered already but don't be put off by that so if there are parents out there who are interested in coming along uh to the week Baker between 11 and 4 tomorrow please do so and we'll be pleased pleased to meet you to pass on the information to you to make links with you and of course if you wish to the next stage might be for you to come across to the UK to come and visit us and we'd be delighted to see you so the the door is open but we particularly like meeting the children so do bring the children with you as well interesting this exhibition lasts for how many days two days it's just saturday um this time sometimes we come for two or three days um but we'll be making connections and keeping up communications with families afterwards all right um what what happens after the uh the meet everything is a follow-up you know yeah so we're so um Mark Brooks will follow up with his team here but also we will follow up with families you know we'll follow up on whatsapp or with emails just keeping up the communication really just giving you the opportunity to find out as much about the school as possible all right so we go over the details of this exhibition um you're saying it holds tomorrow at the week Baker in the Ikoi from 10 till 4 all right so this is UK boarding schools week uh Lagos Nigeria at the Wheat Baker Hotel Ikoi um saturday 14th january 2023 that's uh uh tomorrow it starts from 11 am and ends by 4 pm so they can walk in uh anytime between 11 and 4 pm uh you're looking to meet parents and also heads of schools as well parents and pupils we like to have the children and the heads of schools as well yes heads of schools are very welcome all right and um of course for those who want to register uh what do they need to do i think there's a link link okay so that uh but otherwise they don't have to register they can just come in yeah all right but you have your link uh mark brooks education dot com slash Nigeria yeah mark m a r k brooks b r double o k s yeah and education dot com slash Nigeria or any final words from you i'll start with uh Vanessa and Nigeria say ladies first so well just thank you very much for having us and it's great to be back in Lagos again um and and really lovely to have the opportunity to talk to you all all right and and then likewise it's just fantastic to be here i'm really enjoying the stay i'm i'm so excited about meeting people tomorrow so um i'm looking forward to to seeing everybody at the week bacon thank you all right fantastic it's been a pleasure having both of you thank you and um i think you've done a very good job of selling a British education and the benefits to to those watching i mean i wish i could wind back the hands of times i jump in um particularly with the extracurricular teams the epl is quite big in Nigeria yes indeed everybody follows one club or the other yes and so we're i'm sure that the kids who live here want to play a lot of football yeah and uh so like soccer like the americans call it all right so please make it make your way to the week big i go eat tomorrow um uh saturday by 11am between 11am and 4pm and take advantage of this program thank you very much um ian loren senior house master at haberdasher's monmouth schools and of course uh Vanessa bulls director of admissions and marketing at mount kelly thank you very much thank you thank you coffee thank you all right we'll take a break and when we come back we'll talk sports let's look at what the ministry of sport is spending as far as the 2023 budget is concerned stay with us