Year 10 Trip to Salamanca (4th - 8th June 2024)

On the 4^th June 2024 thirty Y10 GCSE Spanish students and 3 teachers set off to the historic city of Salamanca in the north-west of Spain! After a long and tiring day of travel by tube, plane and coach, students arrived and were welcomed by the host families that each pair or small group would be staying with for the week. After settling in for the evening and speaking lots of Spanish over dinner, students got a good night's sleep ready for their first morning of lessons at DILE, our language school. 

After a couple of hours of classroom-based learning, the absolute highlight of each day's lessons was the final class, where students were taken out into the city in groups and given various tasks involving interacting with the Spanish public! One day they had to go to the market and ask people (usually friendly old ladies!) for their recipe for 'tortilla española', another day some students approached a policeman in the main square to see if he could help them answer trivia questions about the city, and another day they had to go to a clothes shop and design outfits for different occasions on different budgets! In the afternoons the group participated in a range of different activities including a walking tour, a salsa class, a trip up the bell tower of the cathedral, a 'tapas' tasting and a photography competition. 

One of the best things about the trip was seeing the students growing in confidence every day with speaking Spanish, something that can only really be achieved in such a short space of time by staying with a host family, and being immersed in the language not only in their lessons, but also over breakfast, lunch and dinner. Students had a great time, created some wonderful memories and learned a host of new skills. 

We're already looking forward to next year's Y10 Spanish trip!