Spanish Exchange students visit Seville

On 12th January, twenty six Year 10 and 12 students visited Spain as part of an exchange trip with students from Seville. The students also visited Cordoba during their visit, and the Royal Palace of Alcazar.

Please read about the students' experience on the exchange visit, provided by students Nicola and Olivia-Poppy:

'On the first day after our arrival we went to Córdoba, a city roughly 2 hours from Seville. Whilst in Córdoba we visited la Mezquita which was a very beautiful cathedral. We enjoyed free time after the visit to go shopping and buy souvenirs.

On the second day, we visited the ‘Real Alcazar’. We enjoyed walking around and taking photos of this palace. We then went on a boat ride down the river in Seville. This was one of the highlights of our trip as we learnt more about the history of Seville, and sang karaoke!

On Wednesday, we had an early start and a 4 hour coach trip to ‘Granada’. We visited ‘the Alhambra’ which is a stunning Arabian Palace with amazing views. On Thursday, we stayed in Seville. We spent the first 2 hours with our exchange students in their school, and then were given a tour by the older students. This was a fun trip and we took many photos at the final stop, which was the ‘La Plaza de España’. We spent our final day at the school. We not only experienced Spanish lessons, but were also involved in a science challenge which involved bubbles and code breakers. At break time, the school kindly took us out for churros in the city. They were delicious and it was nice to chat with our exchange students. On many of the evenings, everybody involved in the exchange would meet up in the centre of the city. We would then spend the night shopping and having fun with everyone. On Saturday morning we had to go to the airport to go home. This was very sad as we didn’t want to leave, as we had had such a good week. We look forward to seeing everyone again in June.'

'On Saturday 12th January, we flew from Gatwick airport to Seville where we spent the week on a Spanish Exchange. During the journey to Seville we were all very excited but nervous as we did not know what to expect. When we got to Seville we met our exchange students’ families. We then left the airport and went to our new home for the week. At the beginning, we found it very awkward and weren’t sure what to say to our hosts. However, by the end of the trip this had all changed. We spent the weekend with the families - many of us exploring Seville or visiting other cities in Spain. Within this time, we became aware of major differences between the UK and Spain: the eating and sleeping times. Unlike us, they eat lunch after school at around 3:30pm, and have dinner at 10:00pm. After this, they would stay up to watch evening TV.'