Placement has begun. A big "Yay!" By Francesca.

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So it is official. A month ago from this date we moved here. And we have survived. YAY! Also we all got our course work results from last semester and we all passed all three of our essays. Another YAY!

So this week has been the week where we have finalised all of our classes and finally sorted placement! It took us all a long time to get everything finalised because our co-ordinator here is all over the place. She is the definition of being 'flaky'. However, we began on Tuesday and it has been one of our best weeks so far. We are finally beginning what we came here to do!

So it was an early morning on Tuesday which our bodies have not been used to. The alarm went off and we all crept out of bed tired but super excited to start. Surprisingly we all managed to get showered, ready and have breakfast on time which is surprising for a group of girls but it happened. We got on the free school bus which picks us up at the end of our road and took us to the school. All the children on the school bus were all whispering and looking at us wondering who we were and what we were doing on their bus. It felt like being at school all over again. We arrived at "Juan de Luanza colegio" which is a private school on the outskirts of Zaragoza and it is a nursery, primary school and secondary combined. A teacher guided us to Helena who we were told to meet. She is the head of Pedagogy at the school so we were expecting at Scary-Spanish-Unorganised teacher who wasn't expecting us as that was the impression our Co-ordinator Maria had given us. The opposite was waiting for us, this little, lovely smiley Spanish lady was there to greet us and welcome us with open arms-literally! She took us into her office and introduced us to Sofia an English teacher and another leader of staff who spoke perfect English. Helena doesn't speak much English so Sofia was translating everything and making sure we understood anything she was telling us. Helena had prepared individual timetables to make sure we were in an English classes at all times and gave us all a mixture of ages and experiences. It was perfect!

Helena and Sofia then gave us a tour of the whole school and introduced to all the members of staff who were all expecting us and greeted us so warmly. All four of us were surprised and taken back at how prepared, welcoming and excited the staff were to see us all. The children were all more than welcoming, friendly and confident to speak to us and ask us all questions. The tour took us all around the school and the grounds and Sofia and Helena listened to any queries or questions we had. After an hour and half of introductions and tours it was break and we managed to have a drink before we were put into our classrooms. Lets just say we were all so excited to start and we already didn't want to leave!

The classes within the school are split every day and the children have half of their lessons in Spanish and half in English. We are in the classrooms when the children are having their English lessons and these lessons are taken by specific English teachers also. During these lessons the children can only speak in English, this includes to the teacher and to each other. If the children do speak Spanish they are given in trouble or asked to repeat in English. The level of English which all the children have is extraordinary! They are confident enough to talk to you and ask you questions when they don't know us very well and it is their second language. It really does put Scotland and Britain to shame! The children kept asking "How many languages do you speak?" and the shock on their face when we only say "1." is embarrassing for us.

We all reflected at the end of our first day how positive the school feels. It is a light and airy school with lots of windows and a big playground. All the staff are spoken to by first name basis and a lot of the children go to the school from 3 years old till 18. Sofia told us all how the like to keep it more equal between pupils and staff and how they want to make sure the children can approach them at all times. They want it to feel like a big family. Even though many schools say this with being there for a few days it does seem the case. The children behave so well and listen and respect all members of staff. Walking down the hallway we are either waved at, the children say "Hello", our they shout our names and some of us are hugged. Not me. I am with the older ones. I am beginning to get jealous of Mitch(Laura) and Nadine working with the little ones 😞

As you can tell it has been a great first week of placement and as Mitch said today: "I am loving Spain even more now that we are going to this school." We are going to put some photos up later this week or next and keep you updated with the school.

Nadine is away to home tomorrow then to Vegas for the next wee while and the rest of us are away to Barcelona for the weekend to celebrate Laura's 21st. So we have lots planned. As I am writing this we are preparing Laura's Birthday meal/Passing our course work/ officially surviving a month and saying goodbye to Nadine for a week and a bit.

We are missing everyone at home and giving everyone at big hug! xx

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