Day 1 in the Badajoz household

We were met by Antonio who took us to Badajoz's Teacher Resource Centre - on foot. 

The Centre is housed in an old school and next door to a primary school.  A secondary school is nearby.

After a brief tour of the CPR and introductions to the advisors we were given a brief introduction to the education system in the region we were taken to a local taverna for 'breakfast'.  We had the opportunity to try a number of local dishes and have a caffeine fix.  This seems to be the norm in Badajoz for all the advisory team (it's not like that in Dryden says Liz) and a considerable number of school children!

We were met by the media on our return to the TRC and LIz gave a brief (very) off the cuff interview for the press - the printed newspaper was in our hands within an hour!

When the photographer had finally finished, the advisors gave us an insight to the language curriculum in schools and their proposals for the future - including a possible return exchange to Gateshead.  It amazed us to learn that 95% of children begin learning English at the age of 3 and most continue up to the age of 18.  A recent initiative has a number of students learning at least one other language (mainly French) with others adding a third.  Very few take up Portuguese despite being 5km from the border.  This is mainly due to teacher expertise.  Student have at least 2 hours extracurricular lessons delivered in a language other than Spanish.  These tend to be in science or humanities. 

Teachers are in the process of developing an online course for all ages to  encourage further language learning  (including 18-30 group!)

Our final talk at the TRC was about the ICT structure and resources within the region.  They currently have 70,000 computers in school (1 per 2 pupils) with plans to extend this to one computer per child in the next two years.  To make more effective use of financial budget, all software used is open source. 

Staff are encouraged to develop their own resources and can be awarded grants of up to 18.000 euros to do so.  Every teacher is provided with a computer and they are planning to provide free home internet access for all teachers.  All schools have a IWB with plans to increase this further.

Our first school visit was to the primary school attached to the TRC.  They said this was a very old school - all of 50 years!

Visit 1 - CP Arias Montano (Emma Pickering)

A Whole School Approach to Support and Encourage Reading Using ICT

During our first Primary School visit we found out about a whole school project developed to promote reading for the pupils aged 3-12. 

The annual project which runs from Christmas to the end of April, begins with the selection of a book which is appropriate for the whole age range, is of interest to the pupils and has a film version which the school requests Santa Claus delivers to the pupils.  The book is studied at both school and home, books are bought for the school library based on the story theme and a carnival is held during which all pupils and staff dress as characters from the book. 

The project is supported throughout by the use of NeoBook, a presentation program from Linex.  The program is used to present texts, which may be unavailable, to support younger pupil and pupils with SEN, songs, activities,  poetry and is also used for the hugely anticipated a top secret final contest for all pupils aged 6-12 (with differentiated support) at the end of the project.  Mosca, the reading fly, presents questions which use the pupils' audio, visual and kinaesthetic skills, practised throughout the project. 

The pupils thoroughly enjoy the project and each receives a diploma for their hard work.

Lunch was provided by the TRC  in our hotel - certainly nothing like this at Dryden!  Not a sausage roll or spring roll in sight.  Three courses, beer by the jug, a few bottles of wine and four bottles of water later we retired for a siesta.  At this point the rain was tropical so no wandering off to a local taverna (again!).  If this was how things were looking foodwise, we'd need new clothes by the end of the trip.

Later that evening, Antonio gave us a guided tour of the old town of Badajoz.  It is only recently that the preservation of the old buildings has become important and there is certainly potential to exploit the history of the city both with its buildings and streets. It has bridges dating from Roman times and castles from the time of the moors.  No mention was made, however, of the seige in 1812!

The city gates to the right form the emblem for Badajoz and are known as the Puerto de Palmas and was built in the 16th century.

The Alcazaba (citadel) was built by the Arabs and is one of the best conserved walled castles in Spain.  A number of its towers are still intact.  The area now forms part of the university.

We finished our evening in a tapas bar near the centre of the old town.  Just to prove how far from the UK we were and that 'sports' other than football exist and are shown in bars, the plasma screen was showing a series of bullfights!  The walls of the bar were adorned with signed photos of matadors along with numerous tickets and posters advertising fights from days gone by.

Yet again, David is missing from the photographs - well... he was chief photographer!