Colegio Sagrado Corazón Agustinos Recoletos, Guadalajara, Spain
Short-term exchange of groups of pupils
14th-20th May 2023
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Sunday, 14th May 2023
Teams from Croatia, Greece, Italy and Sweden arrived in Spain. They are ready for the following week's programme!
Monday, 15th May 2023
The meeting in Spain has started! After landing in Madrid, teams from Croatia, Greece, Italy and Sweden gathered with the hosts at Colegio Sagrado Corazón in Guadalajara. At the welcoming ceremony, the headmaster greeted the guests. The hosts prepared a programme, presenting musical performances and traditional dance, which the guests immensely enjoyed. After that, the pupils and teachers went for a tour of the school, which included visiting the staffroom, classrooms, school library, playground and other rooms on the premises.
Next, all teams gave presentations on local project activities, an essential part of every mobility, to keep everyone up-to-date with the project progress at every partner school.
The previous week was marked by an important date for all of us - EU Day and eTwinning Day. Therefore, we decided to dedicate a part of the programme of our learning, teaching and training activities to this. Writing stories inspired by The EU Charter of Fundamental Rights was one of our local activities, and the project collection of stories was published previously; teams from each country presented one of the stories by telling them in class to all the participants.
After that, the pupils were mixed into groups of different nationalities for the workshop on creative writing for the pupils, called EU storytelling. The pupils wrote stories in groups. When the stories were completed, the pupils published them as digital books using the web 2.0 tool Canva. Finally, the groups visited the kindergarten, where they told picture stories to the children.
In these workshops, the pupils increased their ability to create stories, developed their fluency in oral and written narration, developed their digital skills, practised cooperating, and their awareness of the EU citizen was raised.
Tuesday, 16th May 2023
The second day of the programme was dedicated to learning about Spain's rich cultural, historical and sports heritage and expanding intercultural knowledge. The participants visited Madrid, the capital of Spain. They saw beautiful landmarks and, with the help of our guides, learnt a lot.
The group visited Stadium Santiago Bernabeu, including a museum with essential exhibits presenting the history of football and basketball clubs Real and the history of sports in Spain.
Afterwards, the participants went for a guided tour of the city centre. They saw the Royal Palace of Madrid. They learnt that it was constructed in the 17th century and is the largest royal palace in Europe. Furthermore, they visited Almudena Cathedral and learnt it is Madrid's most important religious building. Its construction began in the 19th century but was finished in 1993 and consecrated by Pope John Paul II in the same year, making it the first cathedral to be consecrated outside of Rome.
Also, the pupils and teachers visited other significant monuments, such as Monument to Felipe IV. They learnt that the statue was based on a famous artist Diego Velásquez painting. Since the statue shows a horse rearing up, as in a battle, Galileo Galilei calculated the weights to prevent the statue from overbalancing and falling, which did not happen until this day.
The pupils and teachers also visited Monument to Miguel de Cervantes, widely regarded as the most excellent writer in the Spanish language, where they took a group photo.
They finished their visit to Puerta del Sol, a famous public square, where they saw many important sights, such as the Old Post Office, now used as the office of the President of Madrid, and a mounted statue of Charles III of Spain, who was known for promoting science and university research.
Wednesday, 17th May 2023
The third day of the programme started with workshops with a local storyteller. The storyteller led the pupils through storytelling with different realia, such as wooden spoon puppets.
The next activity was a cultural tour of Guadalajara, including a visit to the Town Council. The deputy mayor welcomed the pupils and teachers, gladly told them about Guadalajara, and answered their questions. They learnt about the history of the town, the school system and the population. They also visited The Museum of Guadalajara, where they saw exhibits from its archaeological, art and ethnographic collections and leart about the life of Guadalajara throughout the centuries.
In the following part of the programme, teacher Cristina from the host school prepared a presentation about the most famous Spanish writers, such as Miguel de Cervantes, Federico García Lorca, Gloria Fuertes and Rosalía de Castro. The pupils later checked their knowledge in a Kahoot quiz.
In the last part of the programme, groups from all countries held their previously prepared presentations of favourite authors and books of popular literature. It was an excellent activity to compare what the children in each country read for pleasure.
Thursday, 18th May 2023
Thursday, 18th May, was dedicated to an educational visit to the historic theme park Puy de Fou in Toledo. This park represents Spanish medieval history with well developed scenography and epic shows. The participants not only listened, but also took part in stories of history, such as historical performances, old crafts, introduction to life in the Middle Ages.
Friday, 19th May 2023
The last day of the programme at school included more workshops to promote literacy skills: the workshop on writing according to what music tells you and a storytelling circuit. The pupils participated in a stimulating activity where they went around the school premises and joined different story-writing activities in classes.
As a special surprise, all the participants and the host school staff were invited to see the former headmaster of Sagrado Corazon revealing a memorial to the meeting in Spain, which you can see in the video below.
At the coordinators' meeting, plans for the rest of our project were discussed, as well as monitoring and evaluation of activities behind us.
The pupils enjoyed engaging and creative outdoor games at the school playground, where they made their own pirate ships and participated in a ship race (the video below).
The Twinspace workshop and evaluation showed that all the learning, teaching and training goals had been successfully fulfilled.
In the evening, there was a farewell dinner with the staff and parents at the host school, an occasion to thank the host and exchange impressions and newly acquired knowledge.
Saturday, 20th May 2023
The pupils and teachers are leaving Guadalajara full of positive impressions: they learnt a lot, made new friends and expanded their horizons. They will keep this trip to Spain in their hearts forever!
