Exchange Report: Nick Platt
King William's College - Isle of Man

Sitting at Gatwick airport while my flight to Ronaldsway airport on the Isle of Man was delayed by three hours gave me the opportunity to do what I had not taken the time to up to then: Be with myself and fully consider the three months that lay ahead of me. I can say that I was flooded with so many different feelings and all I wanted to do was get going with the experience. When I arrived at the small Isle airport, I was greeted by a boy who I found out was in my year and my boarding house, and the house tutor, Mr Riekert, a South African man, which came as a pleasant surprise. They both greeted me with pretty amazed looks as I had left 30° Durban in shorts and hadn’t bothered to change them before arriving in the sub zero temperatures of the Isle. The drive to school was very short, with the prominent clock tower being visible from the airport. I was very impressed with the school architecture, the main building reminding me more of a fortress or a castle then a high school. I was shown to my room by another ex-South African, Mr Maree, my house and exchange master while I was there. He was very welcoming and made my stay that much more enjoyable while over there. After allowing me to use the phone to contact my worried parents back home, I was left alone to settle in to my room and waited tentatively for the arrival of the rest of the boarders, I noticed that the sun was going down and looked at my watch: 15.45. It was a very interesting start.

King Williams College, or King Bills as I came to know it, is a 176 year old school catering for 450 odd girls and boys coming from all corners of Europe and even a few ex-South Africans on the staff and in the school. It’s a highly acclaimed institution, winning the award of IB school of the year in 2008, IB being the International Baccalaureate, the global syllabus chosen by the school. The school is home to about a hundred boarders and the rest being day pupils who drove in each morning from around the Isle. I became a member of Colbourne house, home to the male component of the boarders. The mixed community I came to be a part of was one I appreciated very much as it just gave such a broad taste of Europe and not just the small island with a population of 80 000. I became very fond of the people I met and the friends I made in the relaxed and friendly atmosphere that characterized this environment.

Every morning I would wake up at around 7.30 before heading off to breakfast in a suit of my choice, the school uniform. After the meal, we had about 45 minutes of free time before we headed off to the sixth form centre, the hub of activity and central gathering point during the school day. After a short morning session, such as chapel or tutors, class would start at 9.00. Like the IEB, I was told that I had to do six subjects, English, maths, a second language of which there was a broad selection and three electives. For the purpose of variety I chose economics, business and management and D&T. I thoroughly enjoyed these subjects and found my economics class particularly interesting and can honestly say it would be a valued offering at Hilton and an option that should be more seriously looked in to. Each day we would have nine lessons, split in to three two hour sessions of three 40 minute lessons. We had a short tea break at 11.00 and then for lunch we had an hour and twenty minute respite from the classroom which was always more than welcome. After this, we had one more session before ending off school at 16.20. This may seem rather lengthy but the classroom vibe was very relaxed and very often conversation digressed and for most lessons teaching only got underway ten minutes in to the lessons. The student-teacher relationship was far different to Hilton’s. Very often you would find inappropriate language in class and a complete ignorance for the lesson if you so chose, which was often run lecture style, with the teacher saying what they needed to say when they got started and getting it over with as opposed to the more interactive atmosphere I’m used to. This definitely was an indication that the onus was completely on the pupil as to whether they wanted to pass or not. They were never forced to listen and punishments were few and far between. The same thing applied when doing prep and assignments. Prep was very loosely controlled and the only thing that really defined prep in the evenings was the blocking of sites like "Facebook "and "Youtube" for two hours on the school’s wireless internet, as every single pupil but me owned a laptop. Even so, I was impressed with the high standard of work ethic the guys took when it came down to getting the work in and despite the freedom, pupils generally got their work done to a fairly high standard.

The school also has an extremely liberal outlook on life compared to what I’m used to. There was a complete lack of school spirit in comparison to the rich and passionate ethos of Hilton and most pupils just saw it as a place to get their education over and done with. It was displayed perfectly in the negligence of extra murals and sport. All sport was optional, even matches. A large portion of the guys would push sport aside and rather spend time sculpting at the gym. While I was there we could barely scrape a second football XI together, but regardless of the quality, it was always a huge amount of fun. We only practiced once a week for under an hour and a half and then played our matches on a Thursday afternoon. The conditions were also a fresh experience for me. Often the wind whipping off the Irish sea was so strong that a powerful kick would end up flying back past you at an alarming rate and as well as that, the temperatures left me numb too, with a staggering -11 Celsius at my first practice, causing extreme difficulty in removing my socks as my fingers refused to work. Throughout my time there, there were also three light snowfalls at the school and many more on the inland peaks of the Isle. The fact that sport was played on a Thursday also left weekends completely free, from Friday afternoon to Monday morning. That being said, one could also leave the campus at any time in the afternoons as a boarder to trek to Castletown, a short fifteen minute walk away, or if you were lazy, make use of the Islands efficient public transport system. All you had to do was sign a book, no permission needed. Because of the legal driving age of 16 on the Island, I found the weekends to be a very independent and enjoyable time, as many of my friends (most of whom were extremely wealthy) had their licenses and cars and most of my travelling was done with them. I only got in to the car of a parent once. The lack of a speed limit in the Isle’s picturesque countryside also made for some hair-raising and exhilarating moments as the boys put their machines through their paces. The people at school were 99% fun loving and didn’t take the copious amounts of free time for granted, knowing when it was work and when it was play time, using as much time as possible to full effect which is probably why King Williams is now beyond the structure and control I’m used to.

On the odd occasion that there was a planned school event, the most were made out of these and I thoroughly enjoyed them, quite often having the opportunity to suit up in a tux for formal dinners and the pinnacle of the term, the IVth form ball, where the girls and boys of my grade, the Lower IVth and the Upper IVth, the grade above me, got together and had a night of festivities, including fireworks, an acclaimed Ministry of Sound DJ and a hotel function room booked out for the occasion, a winning formula. I’m extremely privileged to have been a part of this and it was certainly an event I will hold dear for a long time to come.

The experience which had the deepest impact on me while over there was the friendliness and interest shown by the people I met at the school. They were very curious about South Africa, Hilton and me, which was fantastic as it made it so much easier to make conversation and form friendships. I thoroughly enjoyed the effort my friends put in to start incorporating bru, howzit and china in to their vocabularies, as well as ceaselessly quoting Danny Archer, their model South African/Rhodesian. Conversation was always light-hearted and witty and the girls and guys were very welcoming and the atmosphere one sensed was very integrated.

Exchange was summarily a time for opportunities, where I could put myself far out of my comfort zone and experience a whole range of things I usually wouldn’t be able to. Broad opportunities such as being part of a co-educational environment, something I appreciated very much while over there. It was also a chance to put my independence to the test and deal with my own problems and needs without a watchful mother, some 12 000 km away. This I did on my ten day half-term, which I was fortunate enough to spend the majority of with Dawid and Tom. We were by and large left to our own devices and had to deal with transport, food and anything else and took these responsibilities on ourselves as we tried to bother our host, a family friend of mine, as little as possible. We also grasped the opportunities that London held for us, taking time to see various sites and dip our feet in to the rich culture too, Dawid and I going to see the play “Billy Elliot” in the West End, an absolutely incredible play. We also had the privilege of linking up with just about every Hilton old boy on a gap year over there and it was wonderful to see some familiar and welcoming faces so far from home. I also had an unsavoury encounter with Britain’s chav culture and, despite my stupidity in the moment, it all ended up as part of the learning curve that exchange was. There are so many more amazing occasions and events that I could mention, and each one I look back on with such appreciation because I know the time over there helped me to grow as an individual.

To finish off, I will only look back on exchange with the fondest of memories and I know that it is a phenomenal experience which has stood me in good stead as a person and put my role at Hilton College in perspective. I appeal to all who have the chance to just apply, because if you are granted the opportunity to take part in this unique offering, you will never regret it. I would just like to thank all the people involved in my exchange, my parents who supported and organized me for the trip, the Headmaster for overseeing and allowing the process to go ahead, Mr Guthrie for his work as Master-in-Charge of the Exchange Programme and the selection committee who dedicated themselves so well to the process. I would also like to thank people like Messrs Maree and Riekert for making my time over there as fun and worthwhile as possible and finally, my teachers and extra teachers who have been so helpful in assisting me catch up the work I missed out on.