ERASMUS- Spain 2024
At the end of September, I had a chance to take part in the Erasmus mobility program. I visited an English school in Spain together with other 7 students from our school. We were accompanied by our great teachers Jonathan and Abbie that made our trip safe and amusing. I would like to share with you a few thoughts and ideas from this experience.
Campus
The campus consisted of a cafeteria, a school building, dormitories, a kindergarten and a big field for P.E., where the students usually played soccer during free time. In the middle of the campus there was a big courtyard for students to hang out during breaks. There they always had to line up while waiting for their teachers to take them to their classes.
The dorms
We were assigned a smaller apartment with two bathrooms and four rooms with beds for eight students. We stayed in two-bedded rooms and two rooms always shared one bathroom. Inside the rooms there was usual refurbishment, quite a big wardrobe, a bunkbed and one bedside table. What was interesting, there was a curtain instead of a door, which we were not really happy about.
The cafeteria
We had breakfasts, lunches and dinners in the school cafeteria. The cafeteria was spacious, with quite many windows which made it light and cosy. During lunches the students also sat outside in front of the cafeteria and could enjoy the beautiful warm weather. The food was delicious and served in big portions, so we were never hungry. One of my favourite dishes was ham and cheese pizza, fries and lettuce. When we went for a day trip, we got a generous food package which included a sandwich, an apple, a chocolate bar and a bottle of water.
School
The lessons
At the beginning of each lesson, children had to line up along the wall in the corridor until the teacher allowed them to go inside the classroom. It surprised us because it looked like we were getting ready for an evacuation. The lessons reminded me of our lessons in the Czech Republic, but we were not invited to take too much part in them, which was a shame. The class was working with the teachers, and we had to just sit at the back of the classroom and watch them silently.
School subjects
They have almost the same school subjects as we do but they do not have music classes. Instead, they have drama classes once a week, where they learn how to act and be confident to stand and speak in front of a group of people. I think it is useful to learn this ability at school, but it felt a bit unusual because I have never experienced anything like this at school. The lessons I liked the most were History and ICT, because I found them the most fun and interesting.
The timetable
School starts at 9 am, the students must wait in front of the school building for their head teacher to do registration which takes 15 minutes. Then the classes start. They have 6 lessons every day, each lesson takes 55 minutes. After the registration there is a block of two lessons followed by 25-minute break. All the children have to stay in campus during the break. At the end of the break the teachers collect the children in the courtyard and take them to the classrooms again. Then there is another block of two lesson ending at 1:20 which is the beginning of a lunch break. The students have about 40 minutes to eat lunch they either buy at the cafeteria or bring from home in lunch boxes. Then the teachers take the children to their classrooms again and there is the last block of two lessons. School ends at 4 o’clock with the sixth period.
Dress code
All children must wear school uniforms which consist of a white polo T-shirt with a school logo, navy-blue skirt, pants or shorts, white socks and black or navy-blue shoes. In case of cold weather, the uniform includes a burgundy sweater. They are not allowed to wear hanging earrings, I think for safety reasons. There is also a uniform for P.E. classes which includes burgundy T-shirt, navy-blue shorts and black trainers. If there was a P.E. class on schedule that day the students had to wear the P.E. uniform the whole day and they did not change the clothes after the P.E. class. This was a bit strange and uncomfortable.
My opinion
I think that the aim of the trip was mainly to learn about the English school system and how children study in different countries. Both, the Czech and the English school systems, have their ups and downs, and I think it is difficult to choose which I like more. However, from the little experience I have with the English school I would say that I prefer the school system in the Czech Republic. The lessons in our school system are shorter, so it is not so difficult for me to focus the whole lesson. There are always breaks between each lesson so you can relax and gain energy and concentration for the next lesson. We can leave the campus during the lunch period which is also very nice. On the contrary, I liked that in the English school they had a very large sport area in the campus which included various types of fields for different sports and they could spend the breaks between the blocks of lessons there. I also quite liked the uniforms because it was much easier to dress up in morning – I did not have to make any choices. Finally, I enjoyed that the school started an hour later than in the Czech Republic and I did not have to wake up so early.
To sum up, I have to say I really enjoyed this trip, the school experience and also the free time activities Jonathan and Abbie organized for us. I would love to thank them for taking so good care of us and for being such a great support for us during the whole trip. I cannot be more grateful for getting a chance to be able to go there and get such an experience. If I got a chance to do so again, I would love to do it.
