Joining up with a school in Spain wonderfully enriched the GCSE curriculum at Meadowhead School, says Jo Allen – and helped pupils’ personal development too

At Meadowhead School and Language College we have enriched our GCSE language curriculum through a project with a partner school in Spain. Not only have students become more motivated and raised their attainment, they’ve developed into mature young adults with a greater understanding of the wider world too.

Meadowhead is a Sheffield secondary school with 1,700 students, and we currently hold the DCSF International School Award. We applied to the British Council for funding from the DCSF Anglo–Spanish programme to carry out a project entitled La ciudad donde vivo: Pasado, presente y futuro – ‘The city where I live: Past, present and future’ – with our partner school, Fundación San Valero in Zaragoza, Spain.

The project fitted really well into the curriculum and Year 10 scheme of work at Meadowhead. Environment, including ‘The place where I live’, is one of the most important topics of the GCSE syllabus. GCSE Spanish students must complete three pieces of coursework, worth 25% of their final grade, and one of these is ‘Advertising my local area’ with references to its past and future. Although only nine students visited Spain, three classes of Year 10 students benefited from welcoming the Spanish partners in their lessons and learning about Zaragoza. This extended their language knowledge and improved their skills.

ICT and presentations build language skills

Part of the project involved students giving presentations about their home towns in both Spanish and English to an audience of students and teachers. The experience of finding out the information, processing it in their mother tongue and adapting it to suit the foreign language had a significant impact on the students’ skills. The presentations about Zaragoza and Sheffield were of a very high standard.

ICT was a vital tool and there was regular contact with the Spanish staff. Students exchanged e-mail addresses, which helped them form a bond with their partners and took pressure off their first face-to-face meeting. The free eTwinning platform (see ‘More info’ in the orange panel on the next page) has also been very useful, enabling us to share work and communicate in a safe online environment.

During our time in Zaragoza, the Meadowhead students worked with pupils from our partner’s feeder primary schools to encourage English language learning. This was a very rewarding experience and the students were commended for their excellent attitude and effort.

The impact on our pupils has been significant. They have been highly motivated, which has improved their attainment. They have also developed a better understanding of Spanish culture and the similarities and differences between Spain and the UK. Taking part in a foreign exchange can be a daunting experience, but all our students were fully involved. They gained confidence not only as linguists, but as responsible individuals and mature young adults.

English and Spanish parents alike have commented on how well their students got along, how their language skills have improved and how important the experience of living in a foreign country is to their language learning and inter-cultural understanding. The parents all enjoyed hosting exchange students and have themselves learned some language in the process! They all thoroughly recommend the experience and have invited their children’s exchange partners to visit again.

Students and parents were not the only ones to benefit. It was educational and inspiring for English and Spanish teachers to discuss good practice, share ideas and work collaboratively. It was also useful to compare the English and Spanish education systems.

Sharing the outcomes with other schools and pupils

To evaluate the project, we ensured regular contact with the families involved in the exchange and informally discussed their experiences at the farewell parties both in Sheffield and Zaragoza. Teachers, governors and the Local Authority Languages Adviser were also invited, and we provided feedback questionnaires to the students. To disseminate the outcomes, we are publishing an article written by students in the school newsletter and producing a brochure to distribute to Year 9 pupils, encouraging them to take up future opportunities of this kind. We will also send the brochure to other language colleges in the UK and secondary schools in Sheffield. In addition, we have prepared a slide show about our visit to Spain, which we displayed in a communal area at Meadowhead.

At the end of the project, we shared ideas for maintaining the link with our partner teachers. All agreed on the importance of cultural visits and the positive impact the project had on the students’ social, moral and personal development and language attainment. Discussion about next year’s exchange has already started, and some students are already planning their next independent visits to Zaragoza in the summer holidays!

Jo Allen is Language College Manager at Meadowhead School, Sheffield

More info If you have an existing partner school in France, Germany, Portugal or Spain, the British Council can help you access grants and free support from the DCSF’s funding programmes. Your project can be on any topic and cover any subject area, so long as it has a language element. Primary, secondary and special schools are all eligible to apply. For more information visit www.britishcouncil.org/schoolpartnerships You can find partner schools through the DCSF Global Gateway – see www.globalgateway.org The free eTwinning platform gives you a secure online space to share work and communicate with a European link school. It can also help you find a partner school if you don’t already have one. For more information, visit www.britishcouncil.org/etwinning Local authorities with links to counterparts in France, Germany and Spain can apply for funding to take groups of teachers to visit schools in their area to develop collaborative projects. For more information, contact world.links@britishcouncil.org