Doing anything special this Easter?

That was the question from our school's Staff Development Officer one Friday afternoon in mid February.

It appeared there was the opportunity to take part in a TIPD trip to Spain to look at how ICT is used in their schools.  Normally when you apply for TIPD trip it's destination unknown, however, it seemed that another authority had pulled out at the last minute and Gateshead took up the challenge of finding 10 individuals (1 leader and 9 teachers) who had nothing better to do in their Easter fortnight.

The full group is Liz Gleave (Leader and Secondary Inspector), Colin Carr (Gateshead Behaviour Support), David Skilbeck (White Mere Community Primary School), Susan Holmes (Harlow Green Community School), Katherine Calvert (St Aidan's C of E Primary School), Kelly Lewis (Kibblesworth Primary School), Rachel Heaney (Chopwell Primary School), Susan Turton (Whickham School), Lee Connor (The Drive Primary School) and Emma Pickering (Dryden School).

Our first meeting consisted of a frantic completion of application forms and worries that new passports were in the post and would they arrive in time for Ken Self to send off.  Needless to say - they did!

At this point, we were also told of our destination - Badajoz province in the autonomous community of Extremadura in southwest Spain.  The city of Badajoz is located close to the Portuguese border and has a population of over 143,000.  Its historical claim to fame is that the Duke of Wellington laid siege to the town in 1812 (there were 5000 French troops stationed at the fortress).  He successfully took the city after 21 days but there were 5000 casualties.

The city's only redeeming feature from some tourist guides is that it's the gateway to Portugal and there's little other reason to visit!

We are setting off at lunchtime on Sat 5 April 2008 to take the train up to Edinburgh.  From there we travel to the airport and fly EasyJet to Madrid.  After an overnight stop in Madrid, we have a 5-hour train journey to Badajoz city!

We're just hoping we get home in time to get the last train (19.00) from Edinburgh to Newcastle upon Tyne otherwise it's a night in the Scottish capital for us!

We're looking forward to passing on our experiences and if anyone knows anyone in Badajoz ....

 Susan Turton