Sea and sandcastles in sunny Spain!

Published on isbi School News dated Monday 20th of January 2014

Over the Christmas holidays a group of Fourth and Fifth Form (Years 10 and 11) pupils from Oundle School, who are currently studying Spanish for GCSE, travelled to Murica in Spain for what was to be an action packed week.

Pupil, Hope Dillarstone (14) commented, 'After arriving at our hotel in the Mar Menor we were introduced to our leaders for the week, Mamen and Mercedes, who set us a task to take a variety of themed pictures around the beach.'

Excursions during the week included: an exhilarating climb up a mountain where the views were spectacular, an opportunity to try out our Spanish and barter in the market, a fascinating trip to a nature reserve where we had free time on the beach, a sandcastle competition and a chance to explore the Mar Menor on a boat and kayak on the sea.'

At the beginning of every day, the pupils were grouped together for a Spanish lesson with their leaders and learned useful vocabulary and phrases that they would need for the day ahead.

Hope concluded, 'I really enjoyed the week in Spain especially getting away from the British winter! I feel my Spanish has improved a great deal from being immersed in all the activities and Spanish culture. The highlight of the week for me was the trip to the market as it was very different to traditional British markets with the Spanish sellers trying to lure you into buying their gifts. We got to practice our Spanish a lot on the different sellers. Learning languages is very important, not only to communicate and make friends with people all over the world, but also to understand their culture.'

The week in Spain was very well planned with a wide variety of different activities and excursions and I had a really good time whilst I was out there.'

Trip organiser and Spanish teacher, Richard Charters commented, 'Language students need to be inspired and motivated by direct contact with the culture that they are studying. Language immersion trips are a fantastic way of bringing a language to life and giving pupils a chance to practice in a less structured and free environment where language is acquired more through necessity and pupil interest.'

Head of Modern Languages, Sara Davidson commented, 'Internationalism is important to Oundle; today's pupils will be competing for jobs in a highly competitive and global world. Our aim is not only to be at the cutting edge of teaching and learning, but ultimately to enable Oundelians to learn and appreciate any language of their choosing.'