Meet Ben, former Sixth Form Boarder and a member of the BCS Football Academy. Ben has shared his story of his travels around the world and his exciting plans for the future!

Q: Tell me a bit about your past, where have you come from and what brought you to BCS?

A: I was born in Bristol, I lived with my parents in London for about two years before moving to Dubai for four years. We then moved to America for six years and then onto Singapore, but I didn’t really enjoy the school.

Q: Why was that? What was it like?

A: It was just quite strict and very much based on grades. After that I went to a boarding school in Norwich, but I wanted a change for Sixth Form.

Q: So, what made you come to BCS?

A: Mainly for the sports and academics, for everything really and their links to the outside clubs.

Q: How have you found being here and getting involved with sport? You board with a lot of different nationalities so how have you found the settling in process with that?

A: Having been to lots of different countries myself, I enjoy talking to everyone and find everyone very interesting. With the sports, everyone is sporty, so they have joined the school for a similar reason. The first time that I got here I was in quarantine, I met Will and we just played football on the field every day. I found that I made friends easily and being in the sports teams, I found I made friends quite quickly too.

Q: Tell me about your mum, you mentioned she went through some bad experiences in America?

A: Yes, really it has been throughout her life. Growing up as a black woman at the time was quite difficult, so she has experienced things like people not wanting to sit next to her on trains, being called names and things like that.

Q: How has that impacted you? You mentioned that you are quite active in campaigning for Black Lives Matter and other similar movements.

A: I have been lucky that I haven’t experienced much abuse or discrimination. However, knowing the way it has affected my mum and her whole side of the family made it something that I am passionate about, almost in a way where you hope and wish for change. For me, that not happening is almost incomprehensible.

Q: You’ve been boarding here with so many different nationalities, where everyone just gets on and supports each other, so it almost seems unheard of.

A: It seems unimaginable, but my mum speaks to me about these experiences which were too casual in a way and normalised. I wanted to bring awareness to it and say that this is not right, and things do need to change.

Q: Is there anything you want to see the school do around it?

A: I don’t think so, I think the school takes quite a good approach. I think it's brave for certain people from different cultures to move to England. They are moving to an entirely different culture, so it can be very difficult for them to adjust.  For example, when I first joined the school, I had a couple of friends who were Muslim and couldn’t eat pork, which was featured quite often on the school menu. However, we spoke to someone about it and changes were made, making it much easier for them.

Q: Who would you say is your role model and why?

A: My biggest role model is probably my older brother because he is so selfless, very caring and he puts everyone else first. No matter what he has going on he always tries to help and also has the best attitude.

Q: What does he do?

A: He coaches football in Manchester

Q:  Is that what you want to go into?

A: Yes.

Q: Who does he coach?

A: He has his own goalkeeping academy, so he coaches goalkeepers at all ages. He’s got a few 18-year-olds to semi-professional players as well.

Q: So, what is your plan after leaving BCS?

A: I’m going to continue playing football and do the best I can at it. My dream has always been to go professional, but if I can’t reach my dream then maybe I can help someone else to reach theirs.

Q: How do you find the Football Academy here?

A: It is quite good; we have training twice a week and everyone seems to want to get involved and help. I’m not exclusive to one sport as I like to play basketball as well. The Seahawks coach, Olly, is always keen to get me playing, as last year I couldn’t play, so this year I am finally playing basketball.

Q: So, you will have fond memories of BCS then. If you had to pick one of your favourite memories, what would it be?

A: I would probably say the quarter final for the national cup with BCS United since all of my friends from boarding were there and it went into penalties. I saved three of them and it was one of the best feelings ever.

Q: Sixth form in general, how have you found that at the school?

A: I love it, I think all of the teachers take the right approach and they don’t treat us like children. Being here, I feel like I am being treated like an adult and I am allowed to take more responsibility.

Find out more BCS Sixth Form - HERE