25-30 March 2019, Alcobendas, Spain

The students spent five days together with their peers and stayed at host families to get acquainted with Spanish culture and lifestyle. They attended lessons and experience the Spanish education system. They also participated in culture workshops, cooperated in project and team-building activities in mixed-nationality groups and took part in cultural events to learn about each other’s traditions establishing friendships, communicating in foreign language, learning each other’s mother tongue, gaining teamwork skills in an international environment. They visited places that are part of Unesco Heritage and took part in workshops carried out by the local partners of the Spanish school. They took part in multiple cross-curricular activities improving their creativity.

By the end of the mobility the students had improved their acting and argumentative skills through drama and debate activities.

All participants' intercultural, linguistic, social and digital skills were developed and all the activities as well as acquired knowledge and skills were documented in Europass Mobility documents

The main theme of the mobility in Spain was National and European Literature, drama and debate. Students and teachers took part in the normal activities of the Spanish school taking part in lessons and workshops.

Before the mobility, students interviewed local literary figures, did research about famous national literary figures and during the mobility they presented their findings in presentations. The partner countries formed pairs and wrote essays about their partners’ national literary figures after having carried out their research before the meeting. The knowledge was tested in the form of interactive quizzes.

All the activities planned for the meeting could be fully completed and there were some extra achievements as well such as a common play that was written by the Spanish partners and the medieval concert where students played music and danced together. All these activities had a strong team-building effect and contributed to the strong relationship between partners.

FORMATIVE ACTIVITIES:

Digital skills: creating digital presentations, creating online quizzes (Kahoot)

CLIL workshops for students on the topic of Literature (Romaticism), History (Guernica), Maths, Biology (Mediterranean diet), Latin and Music.

The Drama group “Action English” gave two workshops to students on Christmas Carol and Frankenstein

Live Debate 3: A formal debate on the topic of books and film adaptations. „Film adaptations can never replace the experience of reading a good book.” The students were prepared for the debate during workshops. Prior to the meeting they also brainstormed and exchanged ideas on the topic on a forum on Twinspace. The debate was recorded and shared.

Project meeting for teachers: the participating teachers discussed issues related to project implementation and planned the forthcoming activities. They also set the dates for the online debates and the forthcoming mobilities. Evaluation tools were also designed.

WORKSHOPS:

Students took part in interactive quizzes created by their peers on national literary figures

A creative short story writing competition was organised with the participation of local students.

A short play (Our Museum) written by the Spanish team and a medieval concert was presentated by students with the participation of all the participating students.

STUDENTS PRESENTATIONS on the topic of the meeting: Our local, national and international literary figures. Spanish students presented during the CLIL lessons.

EXHIBITION of the results and collaborative products: performance of Our Museum and the Medieval Concert.

CULTURAL VISITS.

During the sightseeing tours students acted as tour guides in order to practice their language and communication skills as well as strengthening their connection to their national heritage. The following cultural visits were organised:

- Visit to Prado museum with the help of an interactive quiz

- Visit to The Alcobendas town Hall: performance of the common play and the concert and dance.

- Visit to the Monastery of El Escorial, Madrid.

- Visit to Toledo accompanied with interactive tasks

- The participating teachers also took a trip to the Literary District in Madrid with a view to getting acquainted with the main figures of Spanish literature.

DISSEMINATION

The presence of foreign students and teachers was known by all school students, parents, and staff. Local authorities, representatives from the schools of the region as well as the media were invited to attend project activities and reported the project in the local newspaper and the local television. A meeting with the mayor was organised and the project was promoted.

EVALUATION

At the end of the mobility the participating students and teachers completed questionnaires with observations, assessment and comments. Their experience was analysed within project teams and their reflections were collected in the project blog in the form of a diary as well as different testimonials about the experience. A blog entry jointly edited by the partner countries was made for each day. In the third project newsletter (compiled by the Spanish team) a detailed description of the mobility is given accompanied by reviews written by all partners.

Students' feedback:

It was very useful for everybody that we could improve our English and to know new people.

Once in a lifetime experience

It was awesome!

Will never forget this AMAZING experience!

Activities were very interesting and people were very kind i love them❤️

I hope we will meet again!!!!

The best experience in my life

It was an interesting and fun experience which I enjoyed very much.

The best week in my life

Let me go there back again!

Special friends who I will never forget!

It was a great experience and i had such a great time

The best week in this year

I would like to repeat such a wonderful week