This year 27 (21 boys and 6 girls) L5 and M5 pupils left very early in the morning of Sunday 26th of March to spend 5 days in sunny beautiful Valencia. The pupils stayed in pairs or in threes with Spanish host families. Our meeting point every morning was the Taronja language school from where we did a tour through the historic centre, climbed the Torres de Serranos, visited the indoor market and went to the beach. We also paid the aquarium and Valencia’s famous arts and science park a visit and even played on the giant slides at the Gulliver park. On Wednesday they had a cooking lesson with the world famous chef Nando who made salchichas en salsa de tomate and tortilla de patatas which went down very well for lunch.
In the afternoons the pupils had fun interactive Spanish lessons at the language school for which they had to go out onto the streets to interview the shopping members of the public and had to find out timetables and ticket prices at the nearby modernist train station.
In the evenings, there was a film night, a paella party and a tapas tour which most pupils enjoyed apart from the fried aubergines.
On the last morning, the pupils did a graffiti tour in Spanish where they ended up using the sprays themselves as well to leave Norwich Schools’ artistic fingerprint on a wall in the old town of Valencia.
The pupils were accompanied by Ms Sharples, Mr Hopgood, Mr Ballard and Mrs Nagel. The teachers were delighted with the overall behaviour of the students and their willingness to try new food and speak Spanish. A very successful trip which hopefully has created a better understanding of Spanish culture and lasting memories for the pupils.