The Spanish students of Year 11 along with a few LowerSixth went on a language trip to Spain at the start of the October half term.
We landed late on the Monday evening but were still shocked by how warm it was.
There was no time to waste because by Tuesday morning we were straight off to
‘work’. We arrived at the school that was just around the corner from our
little hotel and we were all pleasantly surprised by how welcoming it was. It
was run by nuns and it didn’t seem to have a busy school atmosphere…

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Then we were shown to the classrooms and we seemed to
cause a bit of a commotion! Even though the students were in the middle of a
lesson they all jumped up and came to the doorways to get our attention. We
then all separated into pairs and small groups and got immersed straight into
their lessons. We expected it to be like any Queenswood class, however we
quickly realised that the Spanish way was quite different. The lessons are a
lot livelier than they are here and they call their teachers by their first
name.

 

After lessons each day we went to meet Sra Law, Srta Giminez
and Srta Pierre at the ‘Plaza Cabildo’and we told them about the lessons we had
attended that day. Then we had a few hours where we could have a tapas lunch,
relax at the hotel pool or hit the shops. At five o clock we had lessons back at
the school and we learnt about the subjunctive. This was very beneficial
especially as the teachers only spoke to us in Spanish. On the last evening of
lessons, some of the students that attended the school came to speak with us
and at the end we had a sing-along of ‘Bailando’ by Enrique Iglesias that we had
practised earlier in the week – even Sra Law joined in!

 

After our evening lessons we all went out each day for
a meal just off the plaza, where we ate typical Spanish food such as paella and
Spanish omelette. Then it was straight back to the hotel for a little bit of
homework and then sleep.

 

The Spanish school day is so different to the Queenswood
routine. The pupils have a small breakfast before school which starts at 8.30.
They have three hours of lessons before a half an hour break, where they eat
sandwich and play football. After another three hours of lessons the students are
done for the day – at 3 o’clock! Also, the classroom facilities were slightly
outdated because they still wrote on chalk boards. Some of us also had the
opportunity of teaching in the primary section of the school, which was really
enjoyable.

All the students in the primary and secondary section were
so welcoming and we thoroughly enjoyed all parts of our trip. We were sad to
leave all the new friends we made there and they were just as sad to see us
leave. We really think we improved our Spanish – and our football skills too!

Maddy Davies and Scarlet Ward, Year 11