Spanish exchange students enjoy great week at St Katherine's

This is the second year that the St Katherine’s Modern and Foreign Languages (MFL) department at St Katherine’s has organised a Spanish exchange programme. Once again, it was a very successful week!

Our Spanish partners come from Ciudad Real, a town in the region of La Mancha (the region of Cervantes and Don Quixote!)  Their school, Colegio San Francisco Javier, is a very small school with students from infants right up to GCSE level.

This year, our GCSE Spanish students in Year 10 and 11 hosted 13 Spanish students for a week. They took the weekend of their arrival to get to know each other and meet up in town with friends, before a very busy week!

On Monday, everyone stayed in school so that our Spanish guests could get a feel of St Katherine’s and have a better idea of what it is to be a British student in a comprehensive school.

Tuesday was a Bristol day.  Mrs Maringo (Head of MFL) took the group from the Suspension bridge to Stokes Croft. A lot of walking was involved but also some great discoveries.

On Wednesday, Miss Aubret took the group to Cardiff.  Students really enjoyed trying to read Welsh words and their day particular their visit to the Principality stadium. At the end of the day we had a little party in the Languages area in school with the hosting families. What a warm feeling to have our students, teachers and parents celebrating the programme!

On Thursday, Mrs Sanchez led a visit to Tyntesfield in the rain! The group still managed to visit the manor house and have a glimpse of the beautiful grounds. They certainly witnessed what a British autumn involves in terms of rain and wind!

Friday was the last day.  After a few lessons in the morning, it was time to say goodbye. The many tears shed were a proof that the exchange is not only a cultural exchange but also a beautiful human experience where our students make friends and have the opportunity to live something not many students of their age can.

Now we are starting to organise the second part of the exchange, we will be off to Ciudad Real in February!

As the programme leader, Miss Aubret would like to thank all of the host families for making our Spanish guests so welcome.

Hasta luego!