GCSE RE Students Go to London
On Tuesday 11 December our class, along with the Year 11 GCSE R.E class, went on a visit to the Islamic Cultural Centre (ICC) and the British Museum Islamic Galleries.  Incorporated into the ICC is the Central London Mosque at Regents Park.
We arrived at the coach park at 08:55 where we waited for the coach, and waited, and waited, and waited.  FINALLY, at 9.10, the coaches arrived.  The Year 10s had the nice, big, luxurious coach:  T.V, toilet, soft seats.  Then a little mini bus pulled up for the Year 11s.  We travelled down to London, me with my music blaring in my ears, and all of us generally having fun.
When we arrived at Regents Park we saw the golden dome of the London Mosque. My first impressions was that it was not quite as impressive as Mr Christodoulou had first made out made it out to be.  However, when we got inside my opinions changed.  We walked through the door and the first thing I saw was the magnificent prayer hall and it's brilliant chandelier.  Inside there were people praying and reading the Quran, the Muslim holy book.  The floor of the prayer hall had hundreds of individual prayer mats woven into the carpet. 
After yet another wait we met with our guide, Mr Abdullah.  He took us into the prayer hall and explained about the different objects in the hall and what a Muslim must do in the prayer hall.  We then moved on upstairs in the Mosque library.  There he gave us a talk on Islam and answered any questions we had.
After that we got back onto our coaches and moved on to the British Museum, where we went up to the Islamic Galleries.  But before that we went into the new Great Court.  The Court was made a year ago and cost £125 million to build.  Its ceiling gave the effect of a wave and according to Mr Christodoulou it had been designed by computer.
In the Islamic Gallery we had some questions to answer in a booklet we'd been given. The questions were about all the interesting things we were looking at in the cases, including ancient Qur'ans and other artefacts.
It was a very interesting and enjoyable day and I would like to thank our RE teachers for organising it for us.
Robert Paice
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Year 10