Escola Pia Igualada has been in the Programa Auxiliars de Conversa for four years. This year they are hosting David, who comes from the United Kingdom. Here are his thoughts on the program. Thank you for writing to us!

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My name is David Bosanquet, I’m 23 and come from England. I am the youngest in my family and, like the rest of them, love to travel to different countries. I enjoy teaching and have previously taught in Buenos Aries, Argentina where I did my TEFL course and Manresa, Spain. Now I am living in Igualada – a town to the west of Barcelona. I have found the people in Catalonia to be very friendly and helpful with there own traditions and unique festivals.

I am currently working at Escola Pia Iguadala, teaching 1st ESO to 2nd Baxt. The school is very big having 3 classes of around 30 for every year. This means I get to teach a lot of different personalities and level giving me quite a challenge. There are also two other CAs from different programs so I started the year with two new friends with soon expanded as we met more CAs and Au Pairs from different parts of Igualada.

I have lived with two different host families while in Igualada and am very happy here now. My host family are great as we have lots of common interests and they tell me all the best things to do and see introducing me to local customs and cuisine.

The advantages of the CAPS program are that you start the year with a large pool of other CAs, if you find yourself in Barcelona then meeting people is easy. The first weekend in Spain we all met up with the program and tried to make as many new friends as possible many of whom I still keep in touch with even living further away. Furthermore, as I have very few expenses any money I make is mine to spend or save as I choose.

Daniel Hill comes from Bristol and is currently living in Igualada while he works as a Conversation Assistant in Escola Pia. He works with students from 1st of ESO to 2nd of Batxillerat. He’s having a good experience, and so is the school. We thank them for taking time to email us!

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I arrived at Escola Pia on the morning of the 3^rd October to a warm welcome from my tutor Maria. I was shown around the school, and given my timetable along with the other CAPS assistant.

From my timetable, I had learnt that I would be working with 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th ESO classes and both age groups of ´batxillerat´students.

I was a bit nervous in the first few classes with each age group, but soon settled in. The teachers at Escola Pia have been very welcoming and have assisted me whenever I have needed help. I have settled in well at school, and in Igualada itself. I have also made a few friends here, in the two months I have been living here.

With the ESO classes, we have been working mainly on role-playing activities – in which the teacher will provide a topic, discuss it with the class, introduce the vocabulary and then allocate the students time to come up with a role-play. During this time, the students are encouraged to ask me questions on the vocabulary and pronunciation. The students will then stand in front of the class and perform their role play, using as much of the new vocabulary as they can.

While the students perform, the teacher and I will analyse and then elicit to the students regarding any grammatical or pronunciation mistakes which are made.

The way the classes work with the batxillerat students, are different. The structure is more conversation based.

Normally I will choose a topic to discuss, and the teacher will send me 4-6 students so that I can listen to their levels of speaking and pronunciation. It is also a good way to show their understanding of the questions asked.

We do these discussions in a separate classroom.

Daniel during a presentation about his hometown, Bristol

After spending some time with the batxillerat students, I believe that they have become used to my presence, and this helps them to relax while doing the conversation classes.

I thoroughly enjoy all the classes I am involved in at Escola Pia. Each are rewarding in their own ways.

With the 2^nd ESO classes, we are currently working on a school song-contest – which will be entered into a competition in Barcelona next summer. These classes take a lot of organising and hard work.. The students need to choose a song, write their own lyrics (in English), create the choreography and film the whole thing (which also includes some ´Powerpoint´work too). They also need to decide where the video will be filmed and what they will wear. The teachers ask me for any input/ideas I have for the video, but the main focus is for me to assist the students in the use of English in their music video. This is important as the lyrics of the song and ´powerpoint´ presentation is completely in English. The teachers and I see this as a great challenge for the students, and Escola Pia as a whole.

I also do separate ´conversa´ classes with ESO and batxillerat students.

The ESO class is after school hours, and used for those students who wish to improve their English speaking and pronunciation. These classes are conversation based.

The structure is the same for the batxillerat students apart from the fact that many of the students are studying for their FCE (Cambridge First Certificate) and the level is a lot higher. In the majority of these lessons, I will ask the students to describe pictures to me from an FCE textbook.

I have adapted well in school, and I am looking forward to the coming months, to see how far the students have come!