Valencia Year 10 language trip 2011

Language school lessons and cultural events

This has become a popular annual trip, in which pupils attend Spanish lessons at a language school and stay in pairs in host families for a week, while enjoying various cultural events outside lesson time.

This year the trip involved 37 Year 10 pupils, 5 Exeter School staff, 18 Spanish families, 3 Spanish teachers, 20 hours of lessons, 2 beach trips, 10 tram rides, 3 restaurant meals, innumerable cafés con leche for the staff and innumerable lemons picked off the trees outside the school by the pupils, 28 degrees of sunshine on 1 November, 64 flavours of ice cream (including one blue called ‘Smurf’) and one each of the following: a dolphin show, a guided tour of the city, an IMAX film, a bike ride, a massive climbing frame, a cut hand, a trip to the city’s leading purveyors of chocolate con churros, a slight volleyball injury, a lost and regained iPod, a large quantity of shopping, a furry bull (now in Mr Latimer’s classroom and appearing regularly in lessons), and a flu attack (cured by the zealous attentions of a Spanish mother).

Thanks go to the indefatigable staff team, and indeed to the pupils who were splendid ambassadors for the school; this in particular has paved the way for our return to the same language school and the same host families in 2012.