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Spanish children's visit to Camelsdale Ten pupils and three staff visited the school from the 4th to the 8th February 2008, from Jueces De Castilla School in Burgos. They spent the week with us, staying with host families. The Spanish children were welcomed with a traditional English tea, took part in pancake races, enjoyed a day in London and much more. They have put some photographs on their school website, follow this link to see them: Camelsdale visit. Anglo-Spanish Programme 2006/2007 Trip to Jueces de Castilla, Burgos, Spain March 2007 Photographs on the Jueces de Castilla website The Headteacher's report to the British Council The Children's Report of Camelsdale First School’s Trip to Burgos 26th February – 1st March 2007 Monday 26th February 2007 – Take Off! Today, six Year 4 pupils, Flora, Ben, Kier, Rachael, Alex and Charlotte went to Spain for four days, accompanied by Mrs. Palmer, Mrs. Morris and Mrs. Glue. The reason we went to Spain was to visit our International Link School in Burgos called Jueces de Castilla. This friendship started in 2004 when Mrs. Glue went to Madrid to make a link with a Spanish school. Two teachers from Burgos came to Camelsdale School in Spring 2005. So the aim of this visit was to make this link stronger and for pupils to actually go and meet our Spanish friends and to learn about their school and their way of life. We have been learning Spanish at Camelsdale since September, so we hope we can practice our Spanish as well! We set off from school at 9.00am. As we departed, Years 4 and 5 waved Union Flags to bid us “goodbye.” We all felt a bit nervous and had butterflies in our tummies. It took us an hour to drive to Gatwick Airport and we parked in the Long Stay Car Park – Section F – 116. Above our heads, five British Airways planes came into land – it sounded like a lion’s roar! We got on the bus that took us into the airport. Gatwick Airport was big and busy and some of us still felt nervous! We checked in our luggage with Easy Jet - our flight number was EZY 5477. We put our luggage on the conveyer belt to be weighed and we wondered what happened to it when it disappeared out the back? Next, we went through passport control. The man checked that we matched the photos in our passports. Then we went through security. We had to take off our shoes, coats and scarves. Charlotte forgot that she had a ‘smoothie’ in her bag and they took it away. Keir had some scissors in his pencil case and they too were removed. We then went into the departure lounge where we had to by some drinks and English biscuits for the Spanish staff. We looked for our gate number – Number 18. When our flight was called we could board the plane and we went down to the gate – it was 1.05pm. We were allowed on second as priority boarding. We got on the plane and sat together. We zoomed along the runway and up into the air!!! It felt so weird and when we took off, the sensation was just indescribable. Rachael felt sick and some of us felt excited. Mrs. Morris was just as nervous! On the plane we chatted and ate our lunch. We flew over Guernsey, Jersey and France. We were flying at 38,000 feet at a speed of 500miles an hour. The pilot told us that there was a tail wind of 170miles an hour. We got there quicker than we thought! As we approached Madrid Airport, our ears kept popping until we had landed. The ground was sandy coloured and it was very hot – 18 degrees! We had to change our watches for the time difference….one hour forwards. We collected our luggage and went out through arrivals, and we were pleased to find a man standing there with a sign say “Group Camelsdale.” The man took us to our minibus, but it turned out to be a huge coach! Mrs. Glue said “Are ten seats each enough for you?” We all laughed. We traveled north for three hours. The landscape was very different. We saw snow topped mountains, wind turbines, boulders and vast open spaces. We stopped on the way for a drink and we discovered CHOCOLATE MILK!!! It is delicious! It was dark when we arrived in Burgos. It was about 8pm. It wasn’t a town…. it was a HUGE city, which was a bit of a surprise!! We arrived at our hotel; it was called Hotel Tizona – named after one of El Cid’s swords. The hotel was very nice and smart. We put our luggage in our rooms and Helen ( the school’s International Links Officer) came to meet us. She told us about Al Campo and that we could find a place to eat there. Al Campo was a shopping mall…a bit like the Friary Centre in Guildford. We could walk there. We ate a selection of pizza, hot dogs and chicken and chips – not very Spanish! We slept well! Tuesday 27th February – Meeting our new friends and finding out about Burgos. We woke up at 7.00am. We had a competition where after breakfast we had a room inspection. Mrs. Palmer inspected our bathroom, room and floors and we could get up to four points each day. The girl’s room was called “The Tiger Girls” and the boy’s room was “The Cool Boys”. For breakfast we had selection of croissants, Cola Cola (chocolate milk) and magdalenas (sponge cake), alcoholic tasting orange juice!! Yolanda ( the deputy headteacher) came to the hotel to take us to the school for 9.00am when school started. We had to be careful about the roads as the Spanish drive on the other side. We used the zebra crossings – but the drivers didn’t always stop. Mrs. Palmer, Mrs. Glue and Mrs. Morris wore their yellow florescent jackets. As we approached the school it looked big. It was surrounded by a secondary school, a university and very tall flats. It was very urban. Inside the school it seemed even bigger – like Dr Who’s tardis! It was spread over three floors. We toured the school. The playground was bigger than ours, but it was a playground and not a field. The school has 376 pupils aged 3-12. The classes have fewer pupils in than ours ( about 20) and their rooms were smaller than ours. The classes were called things like 4a or 2b – they didn’t have animal names like we do. We took part in the school’s first ever assembly. The choir sang and welcomed us in English. The Chief Inspector from the area and his colleague also came to the assembly. They gave each of us a present….a diary…a bit like our homelink books. The rest of the morning we visited some of the classes and we learnt about El Cid, a very famous Spanish hero. El Cid was born in 1043 and went to war in 1074. He had two daughters called Maria and Christina. He died in a big battle in Valencia. You can see a copy of his sword in the Arch of Saint Mary in Burgos. His wife was called Jimena and is buried with El Cid in Burgos Cathedral. Burgos is very proud of its connection with El Cid. Playtime wasn’t until 11.45am and the children taught us some Spanish games – frog and handkerchief. The tannoy ( not a whistle) sounded at 12.15 for the end of play. At 1.00pm we walked to Al Campo for lunch at Picassos where Helen had booked a table for us. We had a selection of paella, pasta. Mrs. Palmer had to return to the school to attend a staff meeting about Camelsdale School being an eco school. She told them all about our eco school work. We stayed on and ate enormous ice creams! In the afternoon, the headteacher, Carlos (in Spain the children call their teachers by their first names) took us by bus to the centre of Burgos. We went on a long walk following the El Cid route, and saw where his house was and the cathedral where he is buried. We followed the old walls which used to surround the city and the arches which were the gateways into the city. The main gateway is the Arch of Saint Maria. Part our walk also followed the Way of St James – a route for pilgrims. Carved shells show this route through Burgos. We went to Plaza Mayor where we stopped for a drink – more chocolate milk!! Outside the cathedral, we sat next to a bronze statue of a pilgrim. Inside the cathedral, we saw the beautiful Golden Stairs. Our walk took us four and half hours! We were quite tired after our walk! We went back to the hotel, changed and went to Telepizza for tea. The Spanish children told us this was a great place to eat. It was good. We went back to the hotel and went to bed at 10.00pm. Wednesday 28th February – Happy Birthday Day. We again got up at 7.00am and guess what…….it was Charlotte’s 9th birthday. Charlotte opened up her presents from her family. We had same breakfast as yesterday and we walked to school. On the way to the school, children from the school said “hola” to us. This time we visited the younger classes. In one Class, they sang “Happy Birthday” to Charlotte in Spanish….it was the same tune just different words. We tasted potato tortilla with chocolate spread or tomato sauce. We played games and sang songs. We did the Hokey Cokey with the nursery class and Pat-a Cake with the reception class!! Lessons we joined in with included:
Playtime was at 11.45am again. This seems late to us. We played Sogatira (tug of war), frog and skittles. Lunch was again at 2.00pm. We had school dinners. It was unbelievable noisy!! We had rice with tomato sauce as a starter and meat and mushrooms as a main course. We had yoghurt for pudding. Some of us didn’t like it at all…., some of us liked some of it. We would not like school dinners like these at our school! Later in the afternoon we went by cars to Burgos Castle. The view from the castle was amazing, beautiful, and extravagant! There was an interesting compass on the ground. We then went to the Carthusian Monastery of Miraflores which is home to some monks who have taken a vow of silence and do not speak. We were keen to see monks – but we didn’t. It was a beautiful monastery and ornate and had amazing carvings covered in gold leaf. We saw the tombs of Juan II and Isabel of Portugal, parents of Isabel the Catholic. After the visit, we went back to the hotel to change and then were kindly taken to the bowling alley. We had a drink and divided into two teams. We had to have bowling shoes for which we had to give our continental sizes. This was tricky! We also had trouble with the computer because it was in Spanish! We had to get help. Mrs. Morris, Flora and Ben got a strike! It was getting very dark and we walked back to Al Campo and we went gift shopping. Things in the supermarket seemed a lot cheaper and we bought lots of chocolate! We went upstairs for tea. It was now 9.45pm – proper Spanish time to eat! We had hot dogs and panninis. There was a surprise for Charlotte – she had more presents and a pudding with candles on it. We sang “Happy Birthday” and then walked back to the hotel. It was now very late and we went straight to bed as we had a very early start! Thursday 1st March – The Return of the Year 4s Today we had to get up really early. We had to get up at 5.30am (4.30am English time!). But we slept passed 5.30 and Mrs. Palmer had to come in and wake us up. We went downstairs and waited for our coach, but this time it was a posh minibus! We still had two seats each! We were very quiet and some of us had a sleep. We had a packed breakfast – more sponge cakes and an orange and milk drink. We hit Madrid at rush hour – 9am. Madrid airport was not as big as Gatwick. We went through passport control and security. This time oddly the children were allowed to keep their drink, but adults had to throw theirs away! We did more shopping and we had our last glass of CHOCOLATE MILK!! We then boarded the plane and our flight number was EZY 5476. We sat together and we felt less nervous and more excited. We had our lunch, wrote our diaries and Charlotte got chewing gum in her hair! We hit some turbulence and Rachel and Charlotte thought we were going to crash. Mrs. Morris was looking a bit green! As we flew over England, we noticed it was green. The landing was very bumpy too. Flora banged her nose on the tray and it started to bleed! The pilot kindly invited us to look at the cockpit. We collected our luggage from the carousel and Mrs. Morris’s suitcase had lost its wheels!!! Alex’s mum met us at the airport and we set off for home. Some of us toured the airport before finding the exit!!! We felt happy to be home because we could see our families, but sad because we had left Spain and our Spanish friends behind and would not have any more Chocolate Milk!!! What have we learnt from this trip? Flora –“ I learnt a lot about similarities and differences between Spain and England, eg: cars drive on the other side of the road, but we both have the “green man” at the crossings.” Alex – “I learnt all about El Cid and what a hero he was.” Rachael –“ I learnt a lot about Spanish schools eg: their timetable is different.” Charlotte –“ Camelsdale and Burgos are very different, but they are different in good ways, eg: if Burgos and Camelsdale were the same it wouldn’t be very exciting to visit each other.” Keir – “I learnt about the culture of Spain. I increased my knowledge of speaking Spanish and how airports work.” Ben –“ I learnt that the school day is different and that they play similar games. There are slight differences in the games but all children like playing games. “ Overall, we feel we should definitely keep the link going. We liked the idea of putting signs up in Spanish and English around the school. We liked the recycled books they had made. We were pleased to be part of their very first assembly. We liked the games they taught us and all the things they made for us or gave us. We now want to invite our Burgos friends over to our school for a visit. It is good to have a real life link….it makes it all real. We want to show them Camelsdale and how lovely Sussex/England is. We want them to help us with our Spanish. We want to teach them all about English school life and to show them how we do things and the games we play. We want to make them feel welcome. They made us feel so welcome. It was a brilliant trip. Thank you. March 2007 Headteacher's report for the British Council Joint Curriculum Project Between Camelsdale
First School, West Sussex, England and Jueces de Castilla, Burgos,
Spain The aims of this project were “to enhance the partnership” established between these two schools, initially made back in 2004 at an International Seminar in Madrid and developed in Spring 2005 whereby two teachers from Jueces de Castilla visited Camelsdale. This trip certainly went a long way to enhancing the partnership especially as this time the trip involved taking pupils. This made it particularly successful. The impact across both school communities was immense – everyone was involved there was a real buzz of excitement and activity! Secondly the project aimed to “further the children’s understanding and knowledge of a country other than their own.” This is very evident in the attached pupils’ report of the trip and what they learned from it. Equally, the Spanish children learnt a lot about Camelsdale through eg. the Geography lessons we attended and the interviewing of us that took place! Our third aim was to share “traditional stories and story writing”. This focus in fact changed as the planning evolved. A shift was made towards the introduction of a school assembly to the school in Burgos, after the Spanish teachers’ visited Camelsdale and were very impressed with the whole idea of a daily assembly. We were delighted therefore to be witness to Jueces de Castilla’s first ever assembly (to which even the Chief Inspector of School in the area and his colleague had been invited!) and to take part in it. We are thrilled that this practice is to be adopted by the school and the school is keen to build upon its success. Our shared focus also shifted towards looking at the whole area of Recycling. This tied in well with our focus on working towards the prestigious Eco Schools Green Flag Award and Jueces’ focus on “Inventions and Inventing” and their work on celebrating the famous Spanish and Burgos hero El Cid. Camelsdale was able to learn all about El Cid and thus increase our knowledge and understanding of an international hero beyond England and to gain, from looking at the children’s work, some good ideas regarding recycling. Eg. How to make some stunning books out of recycled telephone directories! Through a power point presentation, we were able to share with Jueces many practical ideas and strategies for Eco-work in the school. We did touch base with traditional stories, but this came through more from the exchange of gifts. For example we brought a traditional big book of stories for Jueces pupils to read via the new library they are developing and we were given little homemade Spanish books to read and learn from. A further aim was strongly met “the ability for people to practice either their Spanish or English and to gain in knowledge/confidence”. Many of the classroom lessons involved language exchanges with pupils both teaching and learning from each other. We have returned with many good resources to use back in school to further the Spanish of the children as they work along side Nora Bandres our Comenius Language Assistant. The fact that the Burgos Pupil’s made the games makes it all so much more appealing. Overall, five hundred and seventy six pupils were involved in the project – six Year 4 pupils actually went on the trip from Camelsdale and were definitely representing the other one hundred and ninety four! In Jueces de Castilla (376 pupils) we visited most of the classes and had direct contact with all of the pupils in one way or another. Eg. Assembly, playtime and lunchtime. This project certainly reached a lot of pupils from 3 to 12 years of age. From Camelsdale, this involved ten SEN pupils, one looked after child and no free school meals pupils as we do not have any free school meals. The project had a lot of impact on the pupils. The pupils’ travelling increased their confidence to travel abroad, away from their home and parents and to represent their school and families. They also had to communicate all this information back to their peers. Their knowledge of Spanish School Life, Spain and Spanish Culture increased as well as their motivation to learn and to practice Spanish. The project has also increased awareness among both school communities – so many more pupils other than the six who actually travelled were touched/involved in the project! The project also impacted on both sets of staff – most directly on those obviously involved in planning the trips; this included good collaboration with colleagues. The project however involved all staff from both schools, for example, each English class prepared material to be taken to Spain and each Spanish class planned a lesson around us for when we visited. Teachers exchanged plenty of ideas from timetabling, to the introduction of assemblies, Spanish playground games, to Eco work in curriculum. Like all good teachers visiting schools, good ideas were “pinched”, for example bilingual signage around the school. The project impacted on the school in general and the wider community too to a large extent. Eg. The local Authority/Chief Inspector being present on our arrival at Jueces, to all the parents knowing and taking an interest in the trip (some parents made Potato Tortillas for us), in fact, when we walked to school in the mornings, we attracted quite a following!! The hotel we stayed in were also very interested in the project, so much so that when they noticed how we wear fluorescent jackets when walking with the children, they presented us with six new ones (with Burgos written on the back!) on our departure…our first international business link. This link will continue to be promoted every week as they are worn for our “Walking Bus”. Governors also approved and were very interested in the trip and the trip enabled the school to execute its policy and procedure for its first foreign trip abroad. The amount of gifts, resources given to us by the school has enhanced our Spanish resources no-end, made even more special by the fact they are from our “friends in Burgos”. Jueces de Castilla began, through holding its first assembly, to make a quite significant change to its practice as well as being particularly interested in all our eco. work. Other teachers were very keen to practise their English on us…we felt quite the centre of attention!! The re-defined project work fitted into the curriculum well. We were able to look a the school for further eco-ideas and also how we could enrich the delivery of Spanish within our school. Bi-lingual signage was a definite good idea as well as the several home made games and books we brought back for our children to use. All the material produced on Burgos itself will also go a long way to enrich the children’s cultural knowledge and understanding of Spain and the Spanish way of life. In Jueces de Castilla, the project enhanced work in Geography lessons – comparing Burgos and Camelsdale; in English lessons – plenty of interviewing/opportunities to practice English; in History lessons – preparing the story of El Cid; and in Music lessons – singing English traditional nursery rhymes. The PSHCE curriculum was also enhanced through the teaching and learning of traditional Spanish playtime games and taking part in school dinners – good social interaction and in looking at sustainability within the curriculum. Eg. One Year 1 class had the very next day introduced paper/plastic recycling bins to their room – very impressive! Camelsdale pupils had their Geography work enhanced learning about Spain an Burgos; their history enhanced learning about El Cid and their Spanish skills developed. ICT was used within the project to e-mail each other frequently in the run up to the project. Digital photographs were used and exchanged and a lot of word processing and digital photographs were used in the materials prepared by classes to swap with each other. Eg. Year 6 in Jueces learnt how to use Power Point for the first time prior to making a power point presentation on Burgos for Camelsdale pupils; the school used its digital projector to enhance its first assembly – maps etc… Factors which influenced the progress of the project included the enthusiasm of both schools to want to make the partnership work; the funding from the British Council was a very important factor in enabling it all to happen and to bring it all alive; good preparation between staff was also important as was involving the whole school community from the start, for example asking the pupils who were not selected for the trip, what do you want us to find out on your behalf? Local support for the project came in good support from the Local Authority and in Burgos, good local support from the city itself in terms of generous amounts of tourist information. The project is being evaluated through discussion by those who have taken part and through the writing of such reports. The project is being disseminated to other pupils via a series of assemblies; to parents and governors – via presentations available at parent evenings, features on our website/Moodle; to the local community via press releases in the local newspaper; via other schools – discussion with headteachers at monthly network meetings; via the local authority – submission of reports etc... to International links officer. Materials produced during the project are to be displayed in school, used in Spanish lessons with Nora Bandres, our Comenius language assistant, bilingual signage is to be put up around the school, assemblies to be held relating to Burgos at least each half term and Burgos, Spain to be built into our Curriculum Learning Journey so pupils “touch base” with it on a regular basis (this will tie in nicely with the development of the new Modern Foreign languages framework scheduled for 2009). In future work includes us now very keen to secure funding to facilitate an exchange visit for spring 2008 in order that students from Jueces can visit us at Camelsdale and in Sussex. This will help to maintain momentum. We will need to demonstrate the impact of Jueces on Camelsdale and to plan together our next curriculum area to develop. Personally, I also think it would be good to look at an area of teaching and learning to jointly focus on, for example the learning environment et.al. Advice to other school planning to undertake a Joint Curriculum Project would include: -
This Anglo-Spanish project has undoubtedly increased our pupils’ and staffs’ knowledge of our partner school’s country and its culture to a very large extent…do read the pupil’s account of the trip and note particularly their quotes at the end. These summarise the staff’s view too with the addition of learning about how the Spanish Education system works. Finally we would like to say a huge thank you to the British Council for supporting us in this venture without whom this element of international links within our curriculum would not be so “hands on” and “enriched”. Camelsdale aims to make “the curriculum irresistible to pupils” and trips like this do just that. Thank you – your support in facilitating a “small step” for a small group of us visiting Jueces de Castilla has in fact meant a “giant leap” in our joint international work. Grathias! By Sarah Palmer ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Our own International Link - January 2005 Following our International Schools Award the area that Camelsdale School needed to focus on next was making a direct link to a school abroad. Camelsdale School has tried to make links with schools in France but without success. The school was offered the opportunity to take part in the British Council Bi-lingual Project and to send a representative to a contact seminar. This seminar took place in Spain at the end of October and Janet Glue attended for the school. At the seminar Janet met Nicola Woollard from Juesces de Castilla in Burgos, we our now in the process of establishing links with Nicola’s school. Our “International Link” with the Spanish school will be officially launched in January 2005.
Where is Burgos? In Spain, north of Madrid - click on this
map for more detail
Janet Glue (4th from the left, front row) with the other seminar attendees. Camelsdale has received the British Council International School Award 2004
Sarah Palmer and Rach Harvey receiving Camelsdale's award from Nicholas Witchell (BBC News Correspondent).
Miss Harvey spent two years working for the VSO in Ghana Below is an extract from an article which appeared on the General Teaching Council for England website, dated 29th April 2003. The article was titled "How a sabbatical can work for you" and looked at the work of the VSO. As the article featured Rach Harvey's experiences in Ghana during her two year sabbatical from Camelsdale, we felt it deserved a place on our website. The article can be read in full at
http://www.gtce.org.uk/news/featuresDetail.asp?ezineId=110 How a sabbatical worked for one teacher and her school Rach Harvey had been teaching at Camelsdale First School in Haslemere, West Sussex for two years when she was offered a VSO placement in Ghana. Rach approached her headteacher, Sarah Palmer, for leave of absence and after discussing it with the school governors Sarah agreed. Six months after Rach's return to Camelsdale, they give the teacher and school perspectives on the benefits of VSO. Sarah Palmer, Headteacher
"Throughout her time in Ghana, Rach kept in touch and when she was home on holiday halfway through her placement, she gave a presentation and showed artefacts and slides to the pupils, parents, colleagues and governors as part of our open day. "Since her return last September, Rach has been made International Links Officer and her experience and contacts are really helping the school develop this dimension of its learning. In just six months we have developed an international links display board, set international challenges for the pupils, met with our local education authority (LEA) links advisor, increased the number of multicultural assemblies, begun to think more deeply about an international dimension to our planning and are now about to apply for an International School Award. Rach's leave of absence has been a great success for Camelsdale, offering very real benefits, both during her placement and after her return. I would thoroughly recommend the exercise to any head currently considering granting a sabbatical." Rach Harvey, Teacher and VSO returned volunteer
"During my two years in Ghana I was a trainer at Tumu Teacher Training College, with the responsibility of teaching English methodology to the students, observing their teaching practice and supervising their projects. To be a teacher trainer in the UK I would have had to have much more experience so that in itself was a professional development opportunity. "Aside from this, I also benefited from seeing the 'bigger picture' of education and the obstacles developing countries face and I am even more open to different ways of doing things now. "Tumu TTC had a primary school attached to it and I also taught English there. Since my return, my pupils have been really interested in finding out more about their peers in Ghana, particularly when African countries are featured in things such as the Blue Peter appeal. This gave me a great opportunity to talk about how I got water to my house and the problems the Ghanaians have in getting clean water. "It's not just my pupils who have benefited since my return. Through my new role as International Links Officer I have planned assemblies, started writing a policy document, led staff meetings and am now writing the application for the International School Award."
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