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!
Our
hosts have planned a busy schedule for the Mon to Fri and we return to Madrid on the Friday for an overnight stop before
returning to the UK
on Sat 12 April 2008.
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
