Study trips are such an important part of studying a language, however, for the last 2 years, the Modern Foreign Languages Department have been unable to travel abroad. The trip to Salamanca is often the highlight of the Spanish studies in the Sixth Form. Our Upper Sixth Formers have astutely reminded us many times that they have missed out on this experience, so we had to act! After some research, Mrs Robinson contacted ISMLA (Independent Schools Modern Languages Association) who helped her to establish contact with the Spanish Embassy in London to see if the Upper Sixth could visit their Spanish School, Instituto Vicente Cañada Blanch on Portobello Road.
During the last week of the Easter holidays, Thursday 21 April, our pupils entered a ‘mini Spain’ and the immersion day began.
We are very excited to have established links with the school and on the same day to have had the opportunity to see a superb live performance of La Casa de Bernarda Alba, in Spanish with Spanish actors at the very atmospheric Theatre Cervantes. We are so pleased that our lovely Upper Sixth who have always shown such enthusiasm and commitment to Spanish will finish their studies with a day to remember having experienced a little bit of Spain and Spanish culture.
We are very grateful for the welcome we received from both the Spanish Embassy and El Instituto. Thank you also to Sra López and Sra Green for their support during the trip. Here’s to organising something similar next year! - Mrs Robinson
"Me and the rest of the Upper Sixth Spanish A-Level pupils embarked on a slightly intimidating but thrilling journey to London. After an early start at 7.30 at York train station, we arrived in London ready for a lesson at El Instituto Vicente Cañada Blanch on the Spanish Civil War, which was extremely helpful for our A-Level course. However, after the quick-fire questions from the history teacher many of us felt a little concerned and wondered whether trying to answer one of these questions was going to be more stressful than our Spanish oral exam in 2 weeks’ time! We were then led to an amazing mural on Portobello Road reminding us of the sacrifices and efforts of the Spanish people during the Spanish Civil War and the influence of Spain’s allies and The International Brigade. Afterward, we were slowly mixed into groups with some of the Spanish students to socialise and speak about different topics. At first, many of us found this a little embarrassing as we were speaking with native or fluent speakers but we gradually settled into it and found them very friendly. We chatted about interesting topics with the pupils, some even had some special connections. After a quick lunch and some sun kissed photos in Green Park, we took the tube to the theatre and narrowly missed ending up with two of the party stuck in the quick closing tube doors. At Theatre Cervantes, we found our seats and got ready to watch the play that we are studying ‘La casa de Bernarda Alba’ by García Lorca. Although the afternoon tiredness was starting to hit us the play’s antagonist, Bernarda and her infamous “¡Silencio!” soon woke us up. All of us really enjoyed the play and it was amazing to see a live-action performance of what we are studying. After a long day of using a tightly packed tube we called off at the British Library briefly and then went for a well-deserved pizza and chocolate cake which we all heavily enjoyed. On behalf of all the Upper Sixth Spanish A-Level pupils we would like to give a big thank you to Mrs Robinson, Mrs López and Mrs Green for organising and accompanying us on a trip that surprisingly felt like revision and a holiday at the same time." - Flora (Upper Sixth)
